Pocket Full of Lies

35- The Old and New Rehaan

Love! I fell in love.

Despite not wanting to, despite trying so hard to not fall for it, my feelings did what they wanted to.

Something that didn't happen in seven years, happened in the matter of a few days.

But it's not like we had an actual, real conversation in all those years.

The Rehaan I knew now was a lot different than the Rehaan, who was my boss. Or that's what I thought until...

"What are you searching for?" I asked, seeing him running around in circles, desperately trying to search for something.

"My mobile," he replied, before requesting in a hesitant tone, "Can you dial my number?"

"There's no use," I replied with an eye-roll.

"What do you...mean?" He titled his head a bit, looking at me with confused eyes.

"It will be on silent mode. So there's no use of dialing the number."

"How do you even know that?" He huffed.

"Seven years. I have worked for you for seven years, Rehaan. The amount of times you have lost the phone and screamed at me to find it is unbeatable.

"And let me tell you, it is always on silent. Every. Freaking. Time." I gritted my teeth in annoyance.

At least that man had the decency to look sheepish. He stood there looking guilty, scratching the back of his head.

"Any idea where I can find it? Any common places the phone has been found in all these years?"

"Anywhere and everywhere," I threw my hands up in the air, before muttering curses and starting the search.

"You don't have to do it. I will search for it myself."

And the prideful man was back.

"It will take up your whole night if you try searching for it alone. There have been many rare and questionable places where I have found your mobile before. So it is better if we divide the workload.

"A guest can help at least this much. I think this much is allowed."

He winced, as I threw back his taunt at him.

I hadn't forgotten our earlier conversation yet. Neither this one and nor the one where he admitted to not being able to see me as his house help.

As much as his words had warmed my heart, they also let me know that this night was our last night. I was never his friend and now I couldn't be his house help either. And professing my love was out of the question right now. It would just seem like another lie to him. I had shattered his trust. My love right now would just act like a band-aid on a wound that requires surgery.

So here I was, trying to be as normal as I could be, until it was my time to leave.

Which I won't until he throws me out of the house. Not literally, just with his words.

"Sooo, shall we?"

"Huh?" I came out of my thoughts, only to realize that I had skipped on his reply.

"You didn't listen to anything?" He said in a questioning tone, shaking his head at me. "Always lost in her daydreams."

I rolled my eyes at his familiar dialogue.

Wait a minute!

"This dialogue...," I trailed off, excitedly running towards him. Clasping his hands, I asked with my eyes wide, "Did you remember it?"

His eyebrows furrowed at my excitement. "Umm...," he awkwardly eyes our hands, making me remove my hold instantly.

Totally forgot that my lie was exposed and I was not his girlfriend anymore.

It wasn't like I ever held his hands in pretense though. It just happened naturally.

Clearing his throat, he changed the topic to get rid of awkwardness, "What were you asking? What did I remember?"

"Oh yeah! I was asking about that dialogue you said earlier, 'Always lost in her daydreams.' You never said this to me but I often heard you muttering this under your breath, whenever I clumsily hit my toes with some furniture or fell. Did you...remember?" I asked hopefully at last.

He shook his head slowly, looking at me remorsefully. "The dialogue just came to my mind. There's no memory attached to it."

"Oh!"

"Yeah...." He looked sad, more for ruining my excitement than for himself.

"It was probably just instinctive just like how you found the bedroom," I said.

"Probably." He agreed.

These were probably the things he did or said too many times that it came to him without even remembering it.

"Perhaps losing my mobile was instinctive too," he joked, before moving to search for his mobile again.

It was right then when it hit me.

Despite me feeling that this Rehaan was completely different from the previous one, his actions, reactions and expressions were predictable most of the time.

Was he really different? Or I just didn't know the previous Rehaan that well?

Although everyone claimed I knew everything about him, the fact was I knew only what he allowed me to. That was only limited to his daily routine and habits. Not what he was feeling or rather hiding.

Previously Rehaan had no choice but to become closed off and mature in his childhood. It was difficult to survive in this harsh world alone if you showed off even a single glimpse of your weakness.

If the old Rehaan was given the chance to open up, if he had the opportunity to show his true self, would he have been gentle, childish and caring like this from the start?

Was the new Rehaan actually the real Rehaan that was buried under the mask of seriousness for all these years?