Tell me you love me

Part 29

AN: Present-day is in italics. It is from Zoya's pov. Flashback is in normal font.

Sitting alone by the sea at Nariman point, Zoya lets her mind wander on its own. It was her favourite pass time to come here every now and then and spend some time alone by the sea, with a chai tapri wali chai and her thoughts for company. life in Mumbai is always chaotic. It is always busy... her decision to join family business has been the best one so far. She was constantly on the move, busy planning the sales and taking orders. She even learned to the accounts for the shop. As everything is far off in Bombay, she has to travel a lot every now and then. But Zoya loved it, she loved the Mumbai life. She had always wanted it, she had actually wanted to live independently in this city but so far that idea didn't work out...

Even though she is contended with her current life, a part of her misses her former life. She misses the feel of working in the lab. She misses her academic life. Whenever the nostalgia is too strong to handle, she comes here, to let her emotions flow. Nobody knows her here, except the sea. She can finally cry, laugh, curse and accept. She sits in a secluded spot, so she is hidden from the world, no one is here to judge her, she can finally let out the sigh she had been holding all this while and receive the calmness that follows acceptance.

Often when she misses her science career, one man's whose name flashes immediately in her mind is Aditya! So many memories come flooding to her and she can't stop but feel empty and be filled with a yearning to see him again.

Today, as she is sitting there, she sees a couple a few feet away from her. Zoya had this strange talent of being able to guess other couples' feelings; she could never gauge her feelings, or of those around her on time, but when it comes to strangers, she could tell in a blink what was going on.

As she watches them, she could tell that the couple was not yet a couple, they were still "good" friends, and perhaps this was their first time out alone and together. She smiled whole-heartedly when she saw the girl blush when her hand accidentally touches the boy's hand. As she watches them, a memory of her own comes back to her:

It is psychology paper today, the first paper of the final exams for 3rd sem. The exams are scheduled right after Diwali vacation. Zoya just had one day to prepare for the exams, as she had been back at home for Diwali celebrations. Right now, she is cursing MCE, for not giving them more time to prepare. But then again, if they had longer vacations, she would have spent those at home, chilling as well. True Engineers never start studying before the last minute! :p

She hadn't covered the syllabus properly and was hell scared, she was even blaming herself for taking up this subject; because at this moment, she was a psycho giving an exam on psychology. If someone looked at Zoya right now, she would look like a beggar with 105 degrees fever. She was frantically reading her notes, trying to cram in as much as she could. By now she was well habituated with campus and so she could literally sleepwalk and that's what she was doing. She didn't see where she was walking as her eyes were glued to her notebook.

Suddenly, she crashes into something, or rather someone. Before she falls down hard on her butt and hurt herself, she is held by a pair of strong arms. The notebook in her hand slams on the person's face, while her hands grabbed on to the shoulder of the guy.

When the notebook slides down to reveal the face of this irritating person, or let's say her apparent saviour, Zoya is petrified. It is none other than Aditya. Her dashing professor, who she has a huge crush on. Adi was her favourite professor, she adored him like anything, she would not stop talking about him. She had spent the whole vacation thinking about him...

So, one can imagine, what it would feel like to be in the arms of your crush? The tension of exams coupled with this extraordinary encounter, impairs her ability to speak (P.S: Zoya is a chatterbox in general) and she just stares at him like a zombie; her whole world has paused then and there.

Adi has been watching her expressions and is amused by her state. He had seen her coming down the hall before and was purposely walking on her path from the opposite direction. He wanted to talk to her, he didn't understand why, but right now he just wanted to hold her, even he had not been able to stop thinking about her during the vacation period. He remembers when it was their last lesson for the semester, and she was leaving for home just after the class, he had wanted to stop her, and drop her to the station herself. It felt so weird, he was scared as to what was happening to him. He had literally run away from there, without waiting to wish the students Diwali or anything. He could not stop wondering why she came to attend his lecture when she had a train to catch; Afterall he wasn't going to teach anything new that day, and Zoya had 98% attendance in his class, so there were no attendance issues.

Back to today: she looks so cute dressed in her tracksuit pyjamas and hair tied up in a loose ponytail. There is no hint of makeup, not even lip gloss, yet she looks so fresh and beautiful. Her lips are so soft and pink.

Aditya looked directly into her soft brown eyes, even without kohl or mascara, her eyes were so expressive and make you drown in them. still holding her by the waist, he softly asked her if she was okay.

Zoya is unable to say anything, she just stares on; even Aditya didn't expect her to reply, so he continues... he tells her to be careful, not to take so much stress and how he believes she will do really well in the exams, blah, blah, blah...

Zoya is not able to comprehend anything he is saying; her entire focus is on his face. She is no longer falling down, still, his hands are around her and he is practically hugging her. as she stares back into his eyes, she admires for the first time how beautiful they are, brown with a tinge of green on the edges, and long eyelashes and thick eyebrows, clear face with strong features Goodness! He is so sexy up close!!! He doesn't have bad breath and his voice is so deep and manly.

Gently Aditya releases her and wishes her good luck. Zoya is still in a daze... she somehow gathers herself and walks to her class; she walks like a robot on an auto pilot. she can't believe what just happened....Even Aditya doesn't believe that Zoya was capable of walking safely to the class on her own, given his way he would have picked her up and carried her all the way to the class. So, he just follows her on the stairs up to first-floor landing. He doesn't say anything, he is just there, in case she faints and falls down the staircase.

Zoya doesn't know when she reached the classroom when she turns around, he isn't there; the whole thing makes her blush redder than a tomato and she knew she was going nuts.

The exam turned out to be really tough, more for the fact that Zoya couldn't concentrate on the paper. She doesn't know when the paper got over or when she reached back to the hostel, all she could think of was about her very own Bollywood moment.

(P.S: this was the Bollywood moment Ashu had been talking about earlier)

Even after all these years that incidence makes her blush, every time she thinks about it. Zoya just loved the feeling that came with it. She fell in love with those eyes that morning. And that embrace was the safest she had ever felt. Unknown to her a teardrop has made its way down her cheek as with the memory also comes the afterthought that this was past and it's all over...