The Caffeine Fix

CHAPTER 20

It had been a week since the "incident" and Tyla tried to distract herself from thinking about the kiss as much as she could. Yet she would sometimes find herself scrolling Patrick James's profile on Instagram and smiling to herself for no reason. After some time however, she would break free from her trance and return to whatever work she was doing. She hid her crush from her college mates and colleagues but could not hide it from her best friend and roommate Nancy. Nancy would observe Tyla simply scrolling Instagram and immediately figure out what she was upto but would never utter a word as she just wanted to let Tyla be and feel whatever she was feeling in complete earnestness.

On a late Sunday night, Tyla and Nancy were enjoying a pizza and scrolling on their respective phones when Nancy let out a quiet but worried 'oh no'.

Tyla looked at her to make sure she was okay.

"Um….," Nancy started but could not bring herself to complete the sentence.

"Are you okay?" Tyla asked.

"I…..gosh….no. I am sorry but….you need to read this."

Nancy gave her phone to Tyla and looked down, clearly upset. She did not want to see the expressions on Tyla's face as she read the article. Tyla kept the phone aside silently and sighed.

"It's okay," she said.

"No, it's not," Nancy replied, visibly frustrated.

"Oh come on Nancy…..what else could I expect?"

Tyla had a cool smile on her face but her hands were cold as ice. She felt a tingle in her stomach as the words 'Patrick James's new steamy romance? 'Beneath' Actor spotted kissing  'The Meadows' actress Paula Hart on a beach in Greece. The two are reportedly working together on the new movie…..'

"How could he?" Nancy was extremely angry.

"There was nothing between us."

"Nothing? So he just wanted to have a physical relationship with you?"

"We said nothing to each other. Things were never established between us."

"I know you are just trying to put on this calm face and you actually want to cry."

"Nancy, how can I expect anything? What use is crying? I had a crush on him and didn't tell him. I missed my chance," Tyla's voice broke indicating that she was about to cry.

"If he really liked you, he shouldn't have gone about kissing other women. It's only been a week!"

"Oh, nevermind. It's good. I would have loved to stay away from this anyway. It's just a crush and it's going to fade away soon. See, this is exactly what I was talking about that day."

"You know what? I am not going to sit calmly anymore. I am going to write about this dude. I just need some scoop on him. Give me something. Come on, I know you have things and you hid them from me."

"Are you serious? Please, just let him be. And let her be. Let them be happy."

"Oh, Tyla, celebrities deserve it. Trust me, they really do. They think they can get away with whatever nonsense they do, but it is us who bring it out to the world. We do a service to the people! By showing the reality of their favourite celebrities. Unless…..well, the "reality" actually turns out to be false rumours."

"Maybe…..maybe they do. But I don't care. If someone confided their secrets in me, I cannot reveal them to anyone…..and definitely not to the world."

"Aw Tyla……"

Nancy embraced Tyla warmly and Tyla broke down in her arms. Nancy tried to comfort Tyla and after sometime, they started watching a movie together and continued eating the pizza. Tyla fell asleep a couple of minutes into the movie.

Monday night in the cafe was not as busy as it usually would be and when not serving customers, Tyla would keep thinking about Patrick and Paula. Sadly for Tyla, even the hot topic of discussion in the cafe that night was the kiss picture. She did not take part in the conversation and simply listened from a slight distance.

"Oh, Paula Hart is hot. Did you see her photoshoot from last month?" Carla asked.

"Of course. But this was sudden," Alexa replied.

"Maybe they were dating all this while," Sarah added.

"Gosh, why do they care so much about who he dates and who he doesn't?"

Tyla had not noticed when Dan had come near her and started talking.

"Tyla," Dan nudged her gently and looked at him, surprised.

"Hey, everything okay with you?" He asked with a concerned face.

"Sure, sure."

"Look, if there's anything you wanna talk about, you can. You know that, right?"

"Of course Dan."

"Okay, you know what I have been thinking?" Michael suddenly spoke to catch the attention of the others.

"What?" Carla and Sarah asked in unison.

"A group trip. This Saturday? Everyone's gonna be free right?"

The girls looked at each other while Dan and Tyla exchanged looks. All of them nodded quietly.

"Come on guys, let's just do this trip. There's this really nice and lonely beach, a couple of hours distance from here. There is also a nice resort. Morning to evening. In the evening, we can just be back to the cafe."

"Um….okay. I am bringing Darren with me too though." Darren was the name of Carla's boyfriend.

"Oh yeah, sure. I was gonna bring Sapphire along anyway. I mean, each of you can bring your……partner, friends with benefits, anyone….."

Everyone seemed excited at the idea.

"Really? So it's gonna be a couples' trip anyway. I am opting out of this," Tyla said to Dan.

"What, hey, why?"

"Oh, you're gonna be with Alana anyway….."

"Hey, Alexa's single too. You girls can be with each other."

"What? No. What will we even do? We hardly talk here."

"Come on Tyla, let's just do this. It's not like the couples are gonna be in the rooms all the time."

"Fine," Tyla did not wish to argue and agreed.

"Great," Dan stroked Tyla's shoulder gently and got back to his work.