Indifferent

My Home

Varun's POV

"No yaar Aki, we are still stuck in this traffic.", Avir answered his phone, a clear pout on his face. Man child.

"Haa baba, and don't worry, Varun's driving. He's the safest driver I have ever been with."

Hmm, that's true. Neither would I risk my life nor someone else's out there just for the thrill of a fast drive, or the thrill of breaking laws which in fact should never happen in my case. I am a lawyer. That would be very ironical, and stupid, to say the least.

We were on a visit to Alibaug. There was a land dispute concerning the property that one of our regular corporate clients were faced with. As their legal advisor, Avir was supposed to be out there along with his juniors, but Acharya sir told me to accompany him since he was dead-set on transferring those shares and wanted me to be an integral part of the most important cases of the firm. More like to have all the key insights of them. So here was I for the first hand understanding. The rest would of course be led by Avir and his team.

"Aki, do one thing. I will give you a call once I reach home, and you can come over. Or you can directly go home from college, maa and papa would be there. As it is, these days they have started loving you more than me."

My lips twitched in confusion. Who even was this Aki? I mean, Avir's maa and papa were really sweet and loving, it was just because of my preference of being away from people in general that we do not interact all that often. But whenever I visit, they dote upon me as they do upon their own child.

But this idiot had never told me about any Aki.

"Sooo, Aki?"

He blushed. Avir literally blushed, and then we both winced when someone sounded their horn. That shrill noise was enough to pierce our eardrums, and I wondered the kind of audacity someone should need to sound their horn in a still traffic.

Imbeciles.

"Why are you blushing?", I asked as he was rubbing his left ear.

"Kucch nahi. Just because I felt the sudden chill of the AC."

(Kucch nahi - nothing)

"And Aki means Akhil, your wife's Bittu."

"You must be the only person to call him Akhil or Aki. We all call him Bittu."

"Well, he has a nice name."

I raised my eyebrow in question. Since when did Avir start finding someone's name nice? Something was there, something interesting in between these two. Even Deepika had noticed this when she spoke with Bittu.

"What? Don't look at me like that. Oh wow, look there, the lane's clearing."

"F*cking finally.", I muttered as I reignited the car.

Thankfully, the car which was wrecked because of the accident that caused this slow or rather stagnant traffic was taken away, and thankfully again, with no casualty.

"Varun, please stop near that cafe. I am really hungry and could use a snack."

I just stared at him.

"We would be reaching in an hour at the max."

"Haan, bhooka rakho mujhe, dusht insaan. Had there been Deepika here, khoodse car rok dete.", he stated in a sarcastic tone.

(Haan, bhooka rakho mujhe, dusht insaan - yes, let me be hungry, you evil man.
khoodse car rok dete - you would have halted the car on your own)

"Baat toh sahi hai. Anyways, stop being dramatic. Let's go.", I said as I parked the car nearby.