Drugged Love (On Hold)

Chapter Eight

Elena looked out of the window of her room. Ishan had arrived downstairs, ten minutes earlier than she'd told him to come. She got up from her bed, and put some makeup on and rushed downstairs. She passed her mom in the hallway, "Mom I'm going to have coffee with Aarushi".

She decided not to tell her mom about Ishan, not because she herself didn't know much about him but because her mom would get excited and pester her with all sorts of questions. After all, she knew her mom wanted her not to always be engrossed in books and get a little social life.

Her mom nodded, all her attention fixed on some tv show. Elena saw Ishan wearing a black t-shirt, he looked handsome, she ran to him and hugged him. She could feel that he was checking her out, his eyes running over her body. She found it cute that sometimes he did it so discretely, being careful not to make her uncomfortable.

"You look good," he said with a wide grin

"Thanks, you too, "she returned the compliment and gestured them to move.

They reached the so-called café in ten minutes, passing through a subway and a market place. The coffee house had an ostentatious entrance, with a seating area both inside and outside. The weather was too humid to sit outside, so they went in and a strong aroma of coffee hit them.

Ishan suspected that the place had too many tables and if the place would ever be filled to its capacity. The walls had bricks emerging out of them and covered with all sorts of paintings. A Coldplay song which strangely suited the place played away.

They sat down at one of the corner tables facing each other. He glanced at Elena across the table and knew why she came here. The solitude and calm of the place was enticing, and he was glad that she wanted to share this place and her time with him.

"I'm glad that we're here" he blurted out instantly.

Elena laughed so hard, Ishan almost dropped the menu card out of his hand.

He tried to read the prices, and felt his throat go dry, the prices were exorbitant. He thought who pays this much for a cup of coffee? Elena had to be crazily rich if she came to this place regularly. Even the waiter eyed him like he was going to be looted.

After much contemplation, they decided to order two cappucinos, a chicken sandwich and a chocolate truffle cake. They chatted while the food arrived, Elena told him about her life in the US, her family moving to India, her dance class, and her friend Aarushi.

The food arrived in large proportions, Ishan had never had food so delicious, and coffee so fine. He thought that their quality rightly justified their price.

"How often do you come here?" Ishan asked sipping his coffee.

"Quite often, mostly with Aarushi. I had to come with Karan today, but he cancelled", she said looking away then looked at Ishan and smiled, "So here we are"

Alarm bells were suddenly ringing in Ishan's head, Karan, who is Karan? Just another friend, a cousin maybe, he told himself to calm down for God's sake.

"Who's Karan? You never told me about him. "he said placing an elbow on the table and pretending like he didn't care.

Ohhh he's umm..." she paused "he's my mom's best friend's son. We've known each other for quite long. He's a year elder to me, studying in college"

So that was why Elena wanted Ishan to come. Because someone else had cancelled.

Ishan's hopes sank, the excitement that he had earlier was all but subdued. He wanted to get out of here. He was not sure if Elena could notice the sudden change in his way of talking, and he didn't care. Elena was talking about something and he was barely managing to nod his head. His mind was too clouded to listen to her. Whoever this Karan was, he was much more important to her and much closer to her. The thought of someone else with Elena was itself hard to bear.