Rekindled | ✓

Chapter 6. Boyfriend

🎶 Love of My Life - Harry Styles

Published on 03.10.2022

❝ baby, you were the love of my life;
maybe, you don't know what's lost
till you find it. ❞

🥀

Inaaya was successful to avoid Ayansh the rest of the day. She kept her head down and eyes solely on her work. She blocked out every other voice and focussed on the papers lying in front of her and the MacBook opened as if nothing else existed. And when it was time to go, she left without bothering to check if she missed anything or had any other commitments to fulfill. She hadn't given herself time to sit and introspect her state of mind, her deranged emotions and she feared if she would be able to do it without not breaking into a sob.

It was raining heavily and as fate would have it, Inaaya had opted to walk to her workplace instead of driving in the morning. She didn't want to call and wait for the cab, neither wanted one of her coworker to drop her off so, she simply decided to walk with the umbrella over her head. She despised rains with a passion. They always reminded her of him. And it had been a few hours since he had arrived and she already found his presence directly or indirectly eminent in her life. She wanted to scream, let her frustrations out, shout her complaints in the void.

Inaaya rang the doorbell furiously when she reached home. As soon as Maya opened the door, she entered, removing her pumps and haphazardly hanging her umbrella and blazer and slamming her bag on the couch.

"You're literally drenched." Maya utters as she hands her the towel.

"I fucking hate rains!" Inaaya fumes, pulling the towel and dabbing it over her body and hair. "Annoying, pain in the ass. Can't let me live in peace. Always following me as if I've some debt to pay. So- "

"Are you alright?" Akira interrupts her, gazing at her with worry.

"Ofcourse not!" Inaaya snaps. "Can't you see I'm drenched completely. What's the purpose of having an umbrella when it can't even protect you from the rain? I mean, why should we even bother to carry it when in the end, we're anyways bound to be soaking wet. Can't they come with a warning? I would've taken a sick leave or something- "

"They had already predicted the rains." Maya mutters in a small voice and Inaaya clenches her jaw, her irritation rising and patience wearing out.

"You met him, didn't you?"

Her eyes slowly drift towards Akira, her heart slamming against her ribcage, begging to let it weep. "How did- ?" She shakes her head, unable to comprehend a proper question, her eyes pricking as tears glaze her vision, her throat going dry.

Akira steps towards her. "I was trying to call you to warn you about the same. Found about him through the internet." She let's out a small sigh.

Inaaya flutters her eyelashes to contain those stupid, hypersensitive tears. "I- I never- never told you." Her voice wavers as she tries to speak.

"I figured out." She mumbled in a small voice, untangling Inaaya's interlaced fingers when she noticed how her knuckles had turned white and holding her hand in hers. "Remember you were reading a magazine and then you saw his name and face and dropped it and ran to your room. I just... ," She shrugs and brushes her thumb over her knuckles. "It's okay." She coaxes gently and it was all it took for Inaaya to throw her arms around Akira and let herself break down for the first time in the day.

Akira was bad at comforting people. Showing sympathy, empathizing with people? She could do it to a certain extent. But consoling and comforting them wasn't her strongest point. She awkwardly brings her hand around Inaaya and pats her back. Inaaya just hugs her tighter, silently sobbing whilst hiding her face in the crook of her neck. Maya comes near them and caresses the back of Inaaya's head.