Closer Than Before | 𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙙 ✅

Chapter 15: Any Plans?

Radhika's POV:

After finishing breakfast, I found myself lingering at the dining table, watching Samar as he washed the dishes.

The morning light filtering through the window casts a soft glow on his face, accentuating the lines of his jaw and the curve of his lips was strange, the way we’d settled into this routine—something so simple and domestic, yet it felt like a thread connecting us in a way I wasn’t sure I was ready for.

Once the dishes were done, Samar turned to me, drying his hands on a towel. “So, any plans for today?” he asked casually, but there was something in his voice, a hint of expectation.

I hesitated. After everything that had happened between us, yesterday had felt like a turning point. We’d both opened up wounds that had barely begun to heal. And now, I wasn’t sure where we stood.

Was he expecting us to pretend everything was fine, or were we supposed to address the elephant in the room? But before I could respond, Samar spoke again.

“I was thinking…maybe we could just take it easy today. Watch a movie or something?” He said it with a small, hopeful smile, the kind that tugged at the corners of his mouth like he was trying to keep things light, to not pressure me into anything.

It was tempting—so tempting to just fall into the comfort of the familiar, to forget the tension that had built between us over the years.

And yet, I couldn’t help but wonder if avoiding the conversation was the right thing to do.

But as I looked at him, with that hopeful expression and the way he was trying so hard to make things normal, I felt my resolve weaken. Maybe, for today, it was okay to just be. To not worry about what was coming next.

“Yeah,” I agreed, my voice softer than I intended. “A movie sounds nice.”

He grinned, and it was like a weight lifted off his shoulders. “Great! You pick the movie, and I’ll make some popcorn.”

As he busied himself in the kitchen, I wandered over to the living room, flipping through the options on the TV. My mind wasn’t really in the movies, though.

It kept drifting back to yesterday, to the way he had held me as I cried, his words echoing in my ears.

I’m sorry, Radhika… I never meant to hurt you.

Samar hadn’t intentionally hurt me. But the pain was still there, raw and aching, and I didn’t know how to reconcile that with the way he was now.

The Samar who made me dosa, who wanted to watch movies with me on a lazy Sunday.

Could we really go back to being the way we were before? Or was this something new entirely, something that could only grow out of the ashes of what we’d had?

I finally settled on a light-hearted rom-com, something that didn’t require too much emotional investment. Samar returned with a bowl of popcorn, settling onto the couch beside me.

I noticed that he sat close, but not too close—leaving just enough space between us that I could still feel the warmth of his body, but not so much that it felt overwhelming.

As the movie played, I tried to focus on the screen, but my mind kept wandering back to the little moments between us.

The way his fingers had brushed mine when he handed me the plate of dosa. The way his eyes softened when he looked at me. The way he had whispered my name in the darkness, as if it was a prayer.