**Winner 2024 Amby Awards**
Fiza has everything planned-medical school, a respectable future, and an engagement she never wanted. Determined to escape a loveless match, she creates a checklist to find the perfect husband her father will approve of.
...
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I revved my bike to the girls' hostel. I banged on her window, ignoring the shouted threats from the security guard waving his lathi.
I saw Fiza's wide, shocked eyes meeting mine through the pane. While I argued with the guard advanced, she hurried out. We walked in heavy silence to the parking lot. The security guard retreated, cursing under his breath and spitting out his paan.
"Fiza, you can't block me," I said, the hurt making my voice break.
"I was going to unblock you in a bit. I just couldn't deal right then," she replied in a flat tone.
"It's just so hard." The words burst from me. The push and pull, the back and forth. It was killing me.
She studied me, her eyes narrowed.
"You can't expect me to hold you through the night and then draw so many lines around it. I'm a guy, dammit," I said, frustration boiling over. The friends with benefits situation wasn't working for me either. I loved her. I wanted more.
"Then don't touch me again," she retorted, her eyes flashing.
I gazed at herl. The idea of never touching her again was a special kind of torture, but the thought of her vanishing from my life entirely was pure terror.
Before I could form a response, Jyothi and her friend, entered the parking lot. Jyothi's eyes locked onto me, ignoring Fiza completely.
"Shruthi is having a party at her house. It's going to be super fun. We'll play twister with a twist," she said, a wink punctuating her words. She leaned in, her whisper hot against my ear. "Talk to Fiza about our threesome yet?"
I laughed. It was so absurd, it was almost funny.
But then I saw Fiza's heart break right in front of me.
"Hey," Jyothi tugged at my arm and I locked eyes with her. Could her timing have been any worse? "Be there. There'll be booze." She and Shruthi laughed again.
When they left, I looked at Fiza again. All the fight had left her. She just looked defeated, drained. I made to pull her into my arms but she took several steps back.
"Don't. Touch. Me," she exclaimed, hurt and anger aimed towards me.
"I'm sorry," I whispered.
Just hours ago, I had been so sure of her feelings for me. Now, I was terrified that it was just me feeling all of this.
The weeks that followed were a strained. I clung to my promise—I will never leave you. I showed up. I was there. Unless she explicitly told me to go, I would stay.
But Fiza... Fiza was receding. The spark in her eyes had dimmed. Her laughter, the one that used to light up my world, was absent. She wasn't exactly sad. She was weary. Distant.
