The GIRLFRIEND Deal

CHAPTER 39

One Month Later

Shivaay hadn’t intended to come here. Not really.

He had told himself—convinced himself, even—that life had returned to normal. That things were as they were meant to be. Yet, in the quiet moments, his mind betrayed him.

And that was how he found himself standing outside Anika’s rented house. Khanna was sceptical when Shivaay asked for her address but he wouldn't dare to defy his boss.

He knocked on the door, expecting her annoyed voice telling him to stop acting like he owned every place he stepped into.

Instead, a man in his fifties opened it.

“Aap kaun?” The older man looked at him questioningly.

Shivaay’s brows furrowed. “Anika?”

The man didn't hesistae before replying, “Mai aapko Anika jaisa dikhraha hu? Bataiye kaun hai aap?"

Had it been 2 months back, Shivaay would have snapped at him but he is calmer now.

"I am her friend" he replied calmly

"She left weeks ago. Vacated the place. Didn’t say much, just that she was moving out of the city. Surprised she didn't tell her friend”

Shivaay had always been good at compartmentalizing his emotions. He handled crises with a calm, calculated mind, never letting anything or anyone shake him. But standing outside Anika’s now-vacant apartment, he felt something he couldn’t quite define

Disbelief.

How had she left without saying a word? Without informing him? Without even a goodbye?

They weren’t just two people who had entered a deal and walked away. At least, that’s what he had thought. They had shared moments beyond the contract, moments that weren’t forced or scripted. He thought they had become… friends.

Apparently, he had been wrong.

His jaw clenched as he turned away, the emptiness of the place unsettling him. His mind raced through the past few weeks, trying to pinpoint a moment when he could have sensed this coming. But nothing. He had been so caught up in work, so busy convincing himself that her absence didn’t bother him, that he never realized she had completely disappeared.

By the time he reached home that evening, his mind went back to a month back when he gave a response to his family regarding her—one that would keep their questions at bay.

“She’s gone for NGO work,” he had told them a week post Anika's call to his dadi, “Some remote village. She won’t be available for six months.”

It was a lie, but it was easier than explaining why they broke up.

His family had accepted it without much doubt. Dadi had nodded approvingly, saying Anika always had a heart for such things. Pinky and Jhanvi had sighed about how selfless Anika was. Even Tej and Shakti who usually didn’t miss a chance to tease him, had said nothing except that they are proud of her

And Shivaay had gone back to pretending it didn’t matter.

At night, when the world quieted down, it did.

Lying on his bed, he found himself staring at the ceiling, his mind running in circles. The thought of her packing up, making all those arrangements, and leaving the city without a single word to him—it unsettled him in ways he didn’t want to admit.

Had she really moved on that easily? Had she meant it when she said he would forget her, or had she been talking about herself?

Days passed, and he didn’t reach out.

He told himself it was because it didn’t matter. That it wasn’t his place to ask. But the unanswered questions nagged at him, restless and unrelenting.

And then, one evening, he couldn’t take it anymore.

Sitting in his car after a long day, he finally gave in, pulling out his phone. He stared at the screen for a long time before finally typing out a message.

Shivaay: Where are you?

He stared at it for a second before hitting send.

A minute later, his phone buzzed.

Anika: Ahmedabad. Why?

Shivaay exhaled sharply, his grip tightening on the phone.

Ahmedabad

Far. But not too far.
He can easily reach. He wants to.

Shivaay: Nothing much. Went to your house to meet you but you weren't there. Why Ahemdabad though?

This time, her reply was almost immediate.

Anika: Got into design school. Here. Didn’t see a reason to stay in that city.

Didn’t see a reason to stay.

Shivaay’s jaw clenched.

He was waiting for her to reply back on his message of wanting to meet her. But nothing came. As if she deliberately was acting cold. As if she wants nothing to do with him. She had walked away without looking back

His fingers hovered over the screen. He could ask more. He could demand answers. He could remind her that she had left without even telling him.

But what would be the point?

He quickly typed a Congratulations and then proceeded to lock his phone and drove off, the uneasiness still lingering in his chest.

Maybe she was right. Maybe she had never expected him to remember her.

But the irony was—she was all he had been thinking about.