It's Always Been You

Chapter 8 - The Glaring Differences

As they were leaving the restaurant, Rehaan pulled onto Akshara's hand and gently pulled her into him. Akshara's body went rigid at his touch. This was the first time Rehaan was initiating intimacy between the two of them.

Despite being together for 3 weeks, Akshara and Rehaan had only ever held hands or given each other side hugs. Akshara had know Rehaan would want intimacy some day —a kiss, a proper hug, gentle caresses of their hands —one day but now that it was turning into a reality, she suddenly felt nauseous. She wasn't ready. At least not yet.

"Rehaan..."

"I am sorry. I shouldn't have talked to you like that. I know I should have let you have the desert you wanted, but I just wanted you to try something new. Some decadent."

"It's okay. I quite enjoyed the tiramisu." Akshara replied, giving him a small smile.

"See, I knew you'd like it."

"Yes, you know me so well." She agreed. You don't know me at all, her brain screamed.

A part of her felt Rehaan was a very emotionally manipulative person. He wanted to mold Akshara into the person he thought she should be. But then he would come out, and apologize for hurting her, be nice to her, be kind, caring, considerate and she would think his imbalance in attitude was just s one time thing. That perhaps it was her who needed to be more open minded, try new things.

~*~

That night, as Akshara lay in bed, after texting Rehaan goodnight, she kept scrolling through her Instagram feed, liking and DMing pictures of deserts to Abhimanyu mindlessly. The time was well past 1am, but yet her cravings were not satisfied.

Abhimanyu's reply came back instantly to her constant DMs: Are you trying to tell me something?

She smiled, and typed back: Maybe ;)

Akshara's tummy was rumbling as she laid in bed, looking at the time tick by on her phone. It had been exactly 1 hour since she texted Abhimanyu about her cravings and she was yet to hear back.

As she tossed and turned in her bed, her tongue drooling at just the mere thought of getting her cravings satiated, she heard a rock being flung onto her window, scaring the living daylights out of her.

Confused, she did the dumbest thing she could. She went to see who was throwing rocks at her window at such an ungodly hour. She opened her window to see Abhimanyu waving at her.

"Abhi! What are you doing here?" She whispered over the ledge of the window.

"Drop it down! Now!" He whispered back.

Akshara rolled her eyes and did as she was told. She walked over to her closet, took out a premade rope made out out of bedsheet and wrapped it around an empty basket.

She then walked over to the window and dropped the bedsheet rope down to Abhimanyu. Abhimanyu tossed two brown bags into the basket and waved for her to hoist the rope back up. Just like the old times.

Just as she finished hoisting the rope up, Abhimanyu climbed through her window.

"What are you doing here? And what is this?" She asked, as if she didn't exactly know what the two brown paper bags contained.

"Oh, stop being dramatic. You know exactly what this is." Abhimanyu scolded her playfully, making her giggle.

With Abhimanyu, she felt free. Like she could finally be herself. The real her. The one who was childish. The one who enjoyed eating cotton candy. The one who loved chocolates. Loved sugar. The one who enjoyed eating paani puri from the roadside stalls.

Abhimanyu and Akshara walked over to her bed and settled into her bed together. Akshara opened the brown paper bags to see it was exactly what she had been craving.

A hot fudge brownie sundae.

"One for you, one for me. I tried to get here as fast as I could. So it should still be warm —ish." Abhimanyu explained.

Akshara looked towards her best friend with a strange kind of affection. "But how? At this time?"

"I had to make a few calls. More like, knock on doors. Disturb everyone and then barter until they relented to open the shop. Also, money talks." Abhimanyu replied, shrugging like it was no big deal.

"Why would you do that?" Akshara was floored by Abhimanyu's dedication and love for her. She had expected him to pull back from her once she got spoken for —but no. Abhimanyu was still the same.

"Because I know if your cravings don't get fulfilled, you would keep tossing and turning in your bed, unable to go to sleep. And when you don't get enough sleep, you become cranky, grumpy. And it's too soon for..." Abhimanyu took a deep breath. "...too soon for Rehaan to see that side of yours currently. We don't want to scare of him off." Abhimanyu joked, earning him a playfully smack on the shoulder.

"You know me so well." Akshara giggled, ignoring his quip about Rehaan. She didn't want to think of him. At least not yet.

"I've put up with you for 21 years. I am bound to know you. But don't worry, soon, all of this will be Rehaan's problem, not mine." And that thought —of handling over the responsibility of Akshara's happiness to Rehaan, it pricked his heart.

"Waiting to get rid of me, are you?" Akshara asked, the hurt in her voice unmistakable.

"Maybe?" Abhimanyu quipped.

"You can't even pretend to be sad over the fact that I am getting married, can you?" She shook her head in disbelief.

"You aren't married yet. We will see about that when the time comes." I hope it never comes.

"Yeah, yeah." Akshara rolled her eyes, taking a bite out of the hot fudge brownie sundae. Just as soon as the flavors hit her tongue, Akshara couldn't help but moan in happiness.

"How is it?" Abhimanyu asked, his eyes staying focused on Akshara as she enjoyed her desert. A smile appeared on his face, and he felt his heart soar watching a smile of utter satisfaction grace her face.

"Delicious." Akshara moaned, taking another bite

"Good." Abhimanyu replied, turning on the television to an action flick.

Akshara snatched the remote out of Abhimanyu's hand and changed the channel to play a romcom. One of her favorites. Jab We Met.

"Akshara please no, yaar. We have watched this many a times." Abhimanyu complained.

"We are watching this and that is final. No arguments!" Akshara commanded.

"No!"

"Yes!"

Akshara moved to remote far out of Abhimanyu's grasp. "We are watching this movie, Abhi!"

"Why?!" He argued, knowing well enough that he was going to lose.

"Because I said so." She huffed.

Knowing well enough that arguing with Akshara was futile, Abhimanyu gave in, like he always did. "Fine."

"Good." Akshara smiled pridefully at her success as she turned her head towards the movie.

They both watched the movie and ate their desert. Soon, they found themselves falling asleep on each other's shoulders. Before they knew it, both had fallen asleep on Akshara's bed, beside each other.

Akshara awoke out of her slumber and covered Abhimanyu and her with the blanket. She increased the air conditioning temperature, just the way Abhimanyu liked it. She removed the empty desert wrappers and containers from the bed and set them aside.

Before laying back down, she looked over at Abhimanyu affectionately. Her heart constricted as she watched him sleep, so peacefully. Being with Abhimanyu was easy. Effortless. He understood her. He never made her feel inferior. In fact, being with him, being around him, it gave her strength.

The next morning, Akshara woke up to find Abhimanyu gone —having left the exact same way he had entered —just before the crack of dawn. Like the old times. She missed those times. She wanted them back.