Reckless Dare: An Indian college romance

Chapter 42

Two weeks later...

It had been an eventful two weeks. After Ava officially filed a complaint against Neeraj, he was not only removed from the university, but also arrested. Neeraj's father tried to use his influence to get his son out of the jail, but the Simha's squashed the attempt.

Ava wasn't traumatized by the incident. Abhi stayed by her side throughout. And they even put their minds on other things that brought them joy.

"How did you learn to do this?" Ava asked, keeping her eyes on the pan.

They were at the beach house. Ava held the pan at an angle in hopes of landing the perfect flip of the omelet. It's something she had been working on for a long time and Abhi finally showed her a trick.

"Focus." He kept his eyes on her even as he smiled.

She let out a squeal when she managed to flip the omelet. She placed the pan back on the stove and flew into his open arms, kissing his neck. "I can't believe I did it."

He chuckled. "Let's eat."

He started to set the breakfast table as she filled their glasses with freshly squeezed orange juice. "Abhi, you didn't tell me who taught you the trick?"

He smiled. "My aunt."

Ava was glad that he no longer had a look of sadness when he thought of his aunt. He now only thought of her fondly.

"This is quite good," he said, tasting the omelet.

Her cheeks heated at the compliment. "It's the only thing I know how to cook. So, I'll make this for everyone when we go on the family vacation our dads are planning."

She smiled happily recalling how their parents met each other already. Abhi and she would be meeting them all during the upcoming university break.

"Abhi?" she asked as she thought of something.

"Hmm?"

"I want to invite the rest of papa's and your dad's friends too. Can we look them up?"

He paused for a moment. "Sure. But I don't think you can invite them all."

"Why not?"

He didn't say anything. But suddenly, he got up and went into one of the bedrooms.

She was about to follow him when he came back a moment later, holding what looked like a picture.

He placed the piece of paper of a group of young people having a picnic on the beach. They all wore their Simha uniforms.

She looked at the picture for a long moment before she let out a squeal spotting her dad in the group. "Oh, and there is your dad."

He pointed to one of the young women in the picture and said, "That is my aunt and..." He moved his finger to the other woman. "That's—"

"Neela, ma'am," she interjected, unable to contain her excitement. "You know I saw a picture of your aunt with Neela ma'am in her office the first few weeks I was here and thought they were sisters."

Abhi nodded with a small smile on his face. "They were close friends despite of the few years' age gap. My aunt skipped classes and became my dad and Neela madam's classmate. Your dad's too."

"Oh yes, papa told me recently. That's why until recently, I never thought Vaishnavi Simha could be your aunt. I always thought of her as the young girl in the picture at the memorial."

Abhi smiled. "That was my grandma's favorite picture of her and they chose that for the memorial and no one at the campus knows about her being our aunt. Plus there are so many who attended the university from the Simha family, I wouldn't have expected you to know."