Gabriel and Gyan were college sweethearts, and they thought they had found the love of their lives. Then Gabriel got an opportunity in Australia, and he left behind a heartbroken Gyan.
It's been more than five years, and Gabriel finds hims...
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When Alisha called me that day, I picked up. "Alisha?" Surprise coated my voice. "Hey, kid. What's up?"
"Hey, Gyan," she said. "I just wanted to check up on you."
I wanted to ask "why," but I opted for, "Oh, that's nice. I'm good. You?"
"I'm okay."
As always. Never "good."
"Are you sure?" I asked her.
"I should ask you the same thing," she countered. "You have a lot on your plate, Gyan. The marriage. Working at the company. I thought working at this gas station was bad, but you've been doing this for years. Now, you're doing something worse. This gas station is a piece of cake compared to working at Appeto."
I hated it. Waking up early. Sometimes staying late. Boring meetings. Everyone was so needy. Everything could go wrong. There was so much stress. No wonder my father lost his hair. I palmed mine out of paranoia.
"It's a lot," I admitted. "But you know, Papa. Can't let him down."
"What about yourself?" she asked. "Are you going to let yourself down because of him?"
"What makes you think I don't want this?"
It couldn't be obvious. I couldn't let my father know how I really felt. It could ruin everything.
She didn't say much for some time. "I get a vibe from you that you're unhappy."
I scoffed. "Look who's talking."
The last person who should have been talking to me about being unhappy was Alisha. Even her smiles were fake. I couldn't believe this shit.
She sighed. "I know. The girl who was released from a psych ward is talking about your mental state."
"Yeah."
"But maybe that makes me even more credible," she said. "Gyan, you can be happy. There's no reason for you to be any other way."
"I can say the same about you."
Alisha had everything. She was beautiful. Intelligent. Well-liked. Came from a good family. She had friends and family. There was no indicator that she wanted to take her own life.
"I know," Alisha said. "I want it to go away. I want to be happy. I want to be the girl I'm supposed to be. But you can do something, Gyan. You don't have to continue living this way. You don't have to marry Anushka. You don't have to take over Appeto. You don't have to do anything that makes you unhappy."
Everyone was acting like this shit was a walk through the park. Technically, I could do those things. I could break off my engagement to Anushka. I could tell my father to go fuck himself. I could run to Gabriel right now and confess my desires to him. I could do all those things.
