Do Love Lasts?

chapter 10

"You would know all about the heart, wouldn't you?"

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Ananya's POV

I fought another yawn, as I went through the poorly written lab report. Every paper sounds similar with few adjustments in sentence structures. Did they all copy it from their seniors? This feels like déjà vu.

The vibration of my phone in my quiet office brought my mind back to reality from my sleepy state. Mindlessly, I answered the phone despite it being an unknown number. It could be one of my students.

"Hello"

"Hi." That voice immediately brought back the memories of last night along with a smile on my face. Wait, why am I smiling? Pull yourself together, Anu.

"Gautham?"

He laughed before replying, "That was quick. How did you know?"

Probably because I was kinda waiting for your call, and I literally don't know anyone with such a low and deep voice? "It was a guess. What's the call for?"

"Wanna, like- I mean, if you're not busy right now or later. We, uh, could get lunch? Or even coffee if you don't have-" He kept stuttering and hesitating, I couldn't control my widening smile. I had to stop him, before he went nuts.

"Lunch sounds great." I'm definitely free after this, only left with these dreading papers to grade. After all, I did voluntarily give my number to him- which is a very out of character behaviour for me- so, I should stick to my words.

"Cool. I will pick you up then." I almost gave in to his offer to pick me up. At this point he might join the others in calling me royal princess.

"I drove my car today, and since I'm done with my work, I'll meet you at..." I prolonged my sentence, waiting for him to finish it. If I were to pick up the location to eat, it would probably take an hour or two.

"The restaurant right across the hospital's main entrance?" It was more like a question, rather than an answer.

"I will be there in 40 minutes. Need to clean up my stuff first." I hung up the phone with a bye after that. The cleaning will take less than 10 minutes, but with my driving skills it will take pretty long to find that restaurant I have never been to.

At restaurant

It has been 30 minutes since we both arrived at the location. Based on the exchange from the phone, I thought he would be a nervous fit again, as he was during the encounter at the hospital's cafeteria. Contrary to my expectation, he was more fluent than last night. How is that possible?

"This is not a date." I pointed it out, in case he mistook our situation. It's just a getting to know each other stage between friends.

"Definitely not a date," he assured me. "Tell me about your family."

I feel like the focus has been too much on me since last night, so I briefly went through my family with him. I mean, no one has to know the dysfunctional family relations over a lunch, even if its with a long time childhood friend.

Without even me asking, Gautham jumped at the chance to talk about his home. I intervened his speech "Your dad has retired, yet gives seminar talks from time to time. And the amazing Dr. Urmilaa requires no introduction, still holds the dept head position at the Language Faculty at LSU." I said nonchalantly, whilst he stared at me dumfoundly. I continued further recollecting details about his brothers.

"And how do you know all these?" Gautham was slightly taken aback.

"I work with your mom, well kinda because we are in different dept but a colleague of mine is best friends with your mom. And my cousin, Dharan and your brother Aarav used to be close buddies since young." I explained to him.