HER SAFE PLACE

Trip

"He is gay," I blurted out unknowingly. As soon as I said it, everyone was shocked. Rocky looked at me as if he'd seen a ghost, and both he and Rudra shouted, "What?!"

I tried to explain, even though I didn’t know why I had said that. "I-I," I stammered, trying to come up with something when Rudra said, "He is not gay."

I shot him a sharp look, narrowing my eyes. "How do you know? Did you investigate?" Rocky gave me an "Are you crazy?" look, and I realized what I had just said. Internally, I cried, "What is wrong with me?"

Rudra continued, "I know he’s not gay because we studied together in college."

"So you know him, but you didn’t tell me that day?" I asked. "We were friends then. He used to like a girl in college who liked me and proposed to me. Since then, Rudra hated me and looked for chances to accuse me. But I never thought he would stoop so low as to blame his own fiancée to accuse me," Rocky said with disgust.

Rudra was about to speak when I interrupted, "Really, Rudra? I never thought you’d be so cheap to blame my character for revenge. I never expected this from you," I said dramatically, pretending to be hurt. I acted as if I was crying and went towards my parents.

"See, Dad? Is this the kind of guy you wanted your daughter to marry, who would question her character for revenge? Really, Papa?" I said, hugging my mom and fake crying.

My dad approached Rudra, grabbed him, and said, "You bastard! How dare you question my daughter’s character? I’m breaking this engagement right away. Leave before I do something worse." He pushed Rudra out and slammed the door. Then he came to me and said, "I’m sorry, sweetheart. Forgive me. I thought he was a good guy, but I was wrong."

"No, Dad, don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault. You didn’t know he’d be like this. And what about your job?"

"Don’t worry, dear. His father is no longer the owner of the company. Someone else bought all the shares, so now both my job and you are safe," he said, patting my head. I wiped my fake tears and saw Rocky coming towards my dad. He folded his hands in front of my dad and said, "I’m sorry, Uncle. Because of me, you and Shivangi had to go through so much. I didn’t know Rudra would stoop so low. Please forgive me."

"No, son, it wasn’t your fault. Don’t apologize," my dad said.

Rocky nodded, then turned to me and said, "I’m sorry."

I shook my head. "No, please don’t be sorry. You couldn’t have known this would happen. It’s not your fault."

He nodded and said, "Okay, I’ll leave now."

I stopped him and told my dad, "I’ll see him out." My dad nodded, and Rocky and I left. We went to the elevator and got in. No one said anything, but Rocky kept glaring at me. I finally looked at him and said, "Don’t look at me like that. It slipped out by mistake."

He replied, "Out of everything you could have said, you made me gay? How do I look gay to you?" he asked, stepping closer.

"Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I said it by mistake," I said, giving him puppy eyes. It worked. The elevator opened, and we got out.

"Thank you so much, Rocky," I said.

He frowned. "For what?"

"For everything you did for me. I can’t thank you enough. I’ll always remember this."

"Then don’t thank me. Just say yes," he said, confusing me.

"Yes to what?"

"The Manali trip," he said casually.