Talks and Tries

A try

Dayawanti had been sent to judicial custody due to all the cases that had been filed on her. Avni felt quite safe, and happy, only except the time when Ashish decided to visit her when he came to know she had been found.

"Let's go and celebrate?" Ali suggested, when Dayawanti had been sentenced for 5 years in a potential bank fraud case, one of the cases that had been filed on her. "Where?" Avni asked. "My cafe of course!" Ali said and the other two agreed.

While they were in Akash's car, Ali told Avni to call Neil and invite him over as well, which she did without problems.

Neil picked up the call without wasting any time. "Hi." She said, politely. "Are you okay?" Neil asked politely too, his heart picking up pace. "I don't just call you when I'm in trouble." She said, chuckling at her own remark.

"Of course I know that, sometimes you call me to let me know I look like a guava." Neil said and smiled when he heard her laugh.

He wanted to talk sensibly to her, just like Akash did but if she smiled when he talked rubbish...was it worth being like Akash?

"We are going to Ali's Cafe. Would you join us?" She asked and naturally he agreed.

Neil regretted having agreed when he reached there because he saw them sitting together, talking. He walked upto them and occupied a seat opposite to them, faking a smile at her.

Ali brought some freshly baked muffins for them and sat beside Neil, offering him a chocolate mint one. Avni got her favorite red velvet muffin and munched on it happily.

They smiled seeing her but Neil's smile almost faded when Akash wiped off crumbles of the muffin off Avni's cheeks with his hand.

Akash got an urgent call from the hospital so he got up to leave at once. When Ali got up to make something else for them, Neil asked, "Do you love him?"

Avni, frowning, asked, "Who?"
"Akash." Replied Neil. "In what way?" Avni asked, her voice no longer sweet. "What way?" Neil repeated, shrugging.

"What made you suggest that?" She asked, sighing deeply. "I don't know...he cares for you. You care for him because you asked him to stay there..." Neil continued.

"I asked Ali to stay there as well. Does that mean I love him in that way too?" She asked, shaking her head. Neil said nothing.

"I just...we have been caring for each other since we were kids. They helped me fight my own blood relations and were my strength. With Ali, yes, the care is different because I treat him like a brother. With Akash it's different too...because I treat him as a friend...Love has meaning right? Something more than just care? If my care for Akash sounds like love to you then yes I love him...but it is not the same love that exists between a husband and a wife." She clarified.

"Avni love has meaning, yes. Bonding socially, utility, child rearing-"

"It's something beyond that Neil. When my mum was about to conceive Aman the doctors told her they might not save her then. She agreed to leave this mortal world for him...isn't that love? Didn't it cross worlds? I love my mom, still, she's dead. What is the utility in it for me?

"My care for Akash is just because we've been supporting each other from so many years. We're obligated to care for each other...If I decide to fall in love now, that will be the one you're talking about, yet something much more than that. Because we don't invent it. It just happens. It's not an obligation, it is a choice."

They sat in silence, Neil feeling oddly at peace. Avni's perception of love was different...She had seen it transcending the mortal world and the one in which her dead loved ones were so it meant something more to her. She loved Akash but not in the way he thought.

"And me?" Neil asked, making her look at him. "What about you?" She repeated, arching her eyebrows. "I...uh...am single right now." He said stupidly.

"You sure you want to try that?" Avni asked, a small smile on her lips. "I fear losing you." He told her seriously this time, looking down. "And I think that's love. That love. It just makes me feel so much of things when you're in danger, when you're not with me...and I have no explanation for it." He confessed.

"I just want to know if you could give us a try. Even if you don't, it's okay..." He added, sighing.

"In that case it's a battle for us Khanna. I've never loved anyone that way you see? So you might have to put in a little more effort."

"If I'm able to?" He asked, smiling.

"Then I'll make sure you don't think of loving someone else." She said, shaking her head when Ali arrived and said he tried making a pizza but at the end moment he realized that the oven wasn't working.

As they were leaving the cafe, Neil called out to her.

"Hey Ayesha?"
"Yeah?" Avni asked, turning around.
"You've got something on your cheeks." He replied.
"What is it Khanna?"
"I guess it's a blush."

Avni looked at him, laughed sweetly and then dragged Ali to a taxi whose eyes were oscillating between Avni and Neil in disbelief.

Avni was unaware that from now on, she would be subjected to safe rides on Neil's bike back to her home after she decided to find a job. Unaware that all of Neil's efforts would actually make her fall in love with him in the future.