Tortuous Love

Chapter 13

Looking at him a little too long, I realized he had caught me staring. Averting my gaze, I began walking away from him, feeling like a stupid teenage girl, all over again. I headed towards the truck, which was surrounded by people waiting for their orders, so I decided to line us as well, to place our order. Rohit walked past me and entered into the truck, obviously he would know the owner, for all you know he could be the owner. Rolling my eyes at this, I stepped out of line and waited for him to comeback. While I stood there, this  gnawing feeling  again, like someone was watching me, so I quickly turned, searching. As always, I found no one looking, but that feeling stayed . My restless mind was playing games with me again! Taking in calming breaths I turned back waiting for Rohit, and in a matter of minutes he emerged outside, two cups of coffee in hand, followed by an old man, laughing at what Rohit had said. Smiling, I approached them grabbing a cup out of his hands.
"Pop, meet Ananya. She's been working with me for a while now."
"Hello there pretty lady! Hope this bugger isn't slogging you too much, huh ? " he questioned.
"Oh... no ... no. Once you get used to his moods, it's all good." I said.
Rolling his eyes at my reply, Rohit said" See, I told you, she has smart mouth."
Laughing it off, Pop lead us to a table that was vacant.
"Hope you like our coffee and croissants Ananya."
Nodding, I took a bite and it melted in my mouth.
Looking sheepishly at Rohit I asked ," Can we order another one ?"
Looking at me with amusement he signaled, to get another one.
"Pop is my nanny's husband. She passed away years ago, but he's like a father figure to me. "
I nodded, understanding why he was so attached to this place.
As I sipped my coffee, I looked at the view, the bridge visible at a distance. It was a cloudy day, with a slight chill, it was beautiful day to walk around.
As I turned back to devour the remainder of my croissant, I felt his eyes on me.
"Do you want to walk around for sometime ?" He asked.
"Yes. It's a beautiful day. " I said.
Grabbing his coffee in one hand and the croissant in another, he got up and looked at me expectantly.
Quickly grabbing my bag and coffee, I joined him. It was almost dusk, most people scurrying to go back home, go back to their families.
"You were here for 6 months, when you worked for Abhimanyu?" Rohit asked , walking beside me.
I looked at him, scared to let him in , to answer what we wanted to hear.
" Yes, I was. It was an internship opportunity I got. Though was almost three years ago, I feel I was here yesterday. This city seems to grow on you." I said tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear. Talking about my past wasn't easy, especially my time here, it reminded me of him.
"What about you? You've lived here before ?" I asked, wanting to know more about him.
" Yes, most of my childhood I was in London, my parents would be in the States. So I would stay with my grandfather."
"My sister used to date Abhimanyu, when they were in university. So that's why Abhimanyu calls me Nanya. I always thought they would end up together. But things happened and it didn't work out." I explained.
"And that's how you know Arnav?" he asked nonchalantly.
I didn't want to talk about him, the wounds still hadn't healed.
"He..... I met him through Tanya, when Abhimanyu had got him along. And then I met him again at the company, he had been working as an intern as well. I thought it was pretty useless to work as nothing but an intern when he practically owned the company, but his father wanted to learn everything, even the menial work. So we became close friends, I was new and he was friendly, and we got along. And then .... " before I could complete my sentence, it started pouring. Rohit, on instinct m, grabbed my hand and pulled me to the nearest shop. We were already drenched, and looking at the dark clouds it seemed it would rain forever.
Rohit still held my hand, and as I tried to take it away, he tightened his hold.
Looking up at him questioningly, I was shocked to see him look at me, his eyes seemed angry.
" We should  have grabbed an umbrella from the car." I said trying to figure out why he was angry.
"Do you still love him?" he asked in a low voice.
"He was my best friend Rohit." I said.
"That's not an answer to my question Ananya," he said walking towards me.
"Do you love him?"
I could smell his cologne, his proximity was messing with my head.
"No. I loved him, like how one would love a friend," I said. " He's dead Rohit, I saw him die in front of my eyes." I said as tears escaped my eyes.
I rested my head against his shoulder, I couldn't stop replaying the scene in my head. His bloody face, and ragged breaths still resonating in my ears.
Rohit, caressed my cheek and wiped away my tears.
" I'm sorry, the wounds haven't healed yet." I said moving my head, as I looked up at him. My eyes went to his lips, and before I could look back at him, he crashed his lips onto mine.
I was shocked, but his lips felt so soft, his stubble grazing against my cheek, as he grabbed the back of my head and deepened the kiss.
We stayed in the doorway of the shop, kissing like teenagers for god knows how long. This was wrong, I was making the same mistake again. I was mixing business with pleasure, but it was too damn addicting.