Do Love Lasts?

chapter 16

“All these shit are confusing!”

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Author’s POV

Previously…

“There is something I have to tell you.”

Ananya parked the car by his house. After overcoming the brief crisis in her head, she mustered up a smile to face Gautham. “Shoot. What is it?”

…

…

Deep breaths. In. Out.

Gautham controlled his breathing, trying to pace himself. He’s never been much of a public speaker, hence the nerves are firing up all over his body. Plus, the sweet smile on the girl sitting beside him is not helping him to calm him down. Despite being a cardiothoracic expert, he’s lowkey afraid that Ananya would hear his loud heart beat. 

“I have something to tell you and I need you to listen to all of it which means no interruption. I know it’s too early to be saying this to you. But I’m scared, terrified even. So, I’m taking a leap-”

Ananya’s mouth barely opened to say, “What-”

He quickly interjected before he lost his flow. “Ah, no interruption, remember!” he summoned up a smile before continuing. “It’s been you, it’s always been you. I wasn’t so sure before, but I know better now. Maybe it was a childish thought before, to think my feelings were real. But after these past few weeks, I can’t hide the fact I am not falling for you. I’m not saying that I think of you constantly, but I can’t deny the fact that each time my mind wanders, it always finds some way back to you.”

His eyes started to glisten as they stared at each other. She’s unable to look away despite wanting to, and Gautham took that as a sign and continued further, “I walk into a place, and my eyes immediately look out for you. You have this insurmountable hold on my heart, that I can’t even begin to explain. It’s simply the way you are and all of it engulfs me. There is something about the way we…– You must have seen it too, how great we are together.”

A minute of silence fell over them. Ananya moved her body away facing the steering wheel and cleared her throat, trying to say something. He looked expectantly at her, anticipating a positive reply.

“You done? Good, then get out of my car.” she said solemnly.

His eyebrows furrowed. “What?” he asked, hoping that he heard wrongly.

“I said, get out of the car. I will forget about anything that you said, and we can just go about as we always did just like before, as friends.” She looked far away, eyes focusing hard on the road, trees and whatever outside there. 

“Ananya, I just poured my heart out to you and you are calling us friends? My feelings are not something to be disregarded like that.” Gautham scoffed, as he was unable to believe the words that came out of her mouth. 

“Fine, then have it your way. Don’t call me, or text me and definitely don’t you dare come see me again. Or even try to contact me via Sam,” she paused to take a deep breath to muster up courage. “I- I like you. I really do, but just as a friend. Platonically. And we have this good thing going on here. I agree, we… are great together. As friends.”

Gautham opened his mouth to reply, unfortunately Ananya beat him to it. She raised her voice high out of frustration, “It’s just… not right.” Her hands clenched harder on the steering wheel as she looked ahead at the empty road. “You don’t know me, you know nothing. And we barely been friends for a month, what makes you think-”