Chapter 16

AADHI

After he had gone to work, I was bored to death. How many things can a girl do when she is all alone? I was never into binge-watching movies or series.

I tried reading a book but I finished it after reading continuously for four hours. I needed to buy more books.

All of my books are at my mom's house. I just bought this one book when I came back from there.

When I finished reading, it was already evening. I went to prepare dinner. After that, I decided to wait for him.

After all, he said he would come for dinner, right? And I didn't want to eat alone. While waiting for him I decided to watch television.

I realized I had fallen asleep while watching TV when he woke me up. I slowly opened my eyes and asked, "What is the time?"

"It's almost midnight," he answered.

"You just came?" I asked him.

"Yeah," he said, nodding.

"Have you finished your dinner?" I asked. He nodded his head yes. I could see he was feeling guilty.

I was a little disappointed, but thank God, I wasn't in the mood to serve him or hungry anymore. I was feeling so sleepy, and I didn't want to get up.

"Okay then, go and sleep. Good night," I said and slumped on the couch again. I didn't even want to walk to the bed.

I was about to go into a deep sleep when he woke me up again. I opened my eyes slightly, a little annoyed.

He was sitting on his knees beside me with a plate in his hands. I looked at him questioningly.

"You didn't have your dinner," he said firmly.

For a second, I thought he was going to make me sit and force me to eat the food.

"No. I am not hungry. Please let me sleep," I begged.

He smiled and grabbed my arm to help me sit. I fake-cried, more like moaned in annoyance. But I realized there was no going back now.

I held out my hands to get the plate without opening my eyes.

Let's just get it over with.

But to my surprise, the plate was not handed to me. I opened my eyes to see what was happening. He brought his hands near my mouth with the food to feed me.

I was a little surprised, but I was too tired and sleepy to tell him otherwise. I just ate half of it and said I was full.

Thankfully he didn't force me to eat all the food. I drank some water, slumped on the couch again, and dozed off to sleep.

When I woke up in the morning, I found myself covered with a blanket. Then I remembered everything that happened last night.

It was a little bit hazy since I was half-sleeping all the time, but I still remembered how he fed me. It made me smile thinking how he cared for me.

I wouldn't dare to wake a person who was sleeping. I wouldn't have thought about whether they had dinner or not.

I didn't even say that I hadn't eaten. He must have gone to the kitchen to check whether I had dinner or not. I was smiling wide, processing all of it.

Don't smile. Don't fall for it. You keep doing this. All he needs to do is to show a little bit of care, and you are already falling for him.My mind warned me.

Nope. I am not falling for him. I am not making the same mistake ever again.I shook my head to clear my mind.

I decided to freshen up before starting the day. I went to our room, where he was sleeping peacefully in our bed.

Even though I didn't sleep there, he stayed on his side of the bed.

It almost looks like he was thinking that I was there...sleeping right beside him...with him...

I was lost in my train of thought.What the hell was I even thinking?

After finishing my morning duties, I went to prepare breakfast for him. After some time, I decided to make coffee and wake him up.

I was about to go to our room with his coffee, but he was already awake and sitting in the living room watching TV.

I gave him the coffee and asked him if he wanted to have breakfast now or later.

He said it was okay to bring the food now, so I served the two of us and brought our plates to the living room. I joined him for breakfast, but he was quite involved in watching the TV.

I noticed that he was watching basketball again. I glared at him, but he was too busy to notice me.

I sighed in defeat, thinking to let it go. Typical boys. I finished my breakfast and went to the kitchen to do some chores.

After thirty minutes or so I came back to check on him. He was still watching the game without even eating. Now I was officially upset.

I went near him and punched him in the shoulder.

"Oww..." He rubbed his shoulder and turned to look at me.

"Are you gonna eat or not?" I asked him, pointing at the food.

"Yeah," he said and turned to watch the TV, ignoring me all over again.

Highly annoyed by his action, I snatched the remote from his hands and turned it off. He turned to look at me, pissed, but I glared back at him.

He must have realized what he was doing. His gaze became softer and he said, "Just this once, Aadhi, please?"

I couldn't say no to him after that, so I just thoughtwhateverand gave him back the remote. I sat beside him to read my book...again.

But after a minute or so, I didn't want to read anymore. It just wasn't that good. I closed my book and looked at him.

I was curious as to why was he so involved in basketball. Was it so interesting that he would watch a basketball game without even eating the food in front of him?

I tried to watch it, but since it had already started, I didn't know who was who, or which team was winning.

So I asked him, "Who is winning?"

"Chicago Bulls."

"Huh?"

"The guys in red."

"Oh. Then who is the one in green?"

"Celtics."

"Okay. Who is your favourite?

"Can you please just stop?"

"What?"

"You are annoying. Let me watch the game. I will tell you everything you want afterwards. Okay?"

I just nodded yes pouting and folding my hands across my chest. For a quick second his eyes went to my lips and then he turned to continue watching TV with a smirk.

Why is he smirking? Maybe I am imagining things.

Since I had nothing to do and no one to talk to, I decided to watch it with him. But then something interesting happened. A guy on the red team took off his shirt.

He had a six-pack and some fascinating tattoos. I mean I have never seen a lot of guys with that many tattoos.

I always disliked tattoos. But this guy, the tattoos made him look so much...sexier?

So I started to observe him. I watched his every graceful move.

Oh God, he is so good!

I think I just blurted it out loud. I could feel his head turning toward me. For a second, I felt guilty, but then I got an idea. Thankfully, that guy scored a point.

"Wow, look at him! He is so good, right?" I exclaimed and turned to look at him.

He looked at me a little confused.

"I mean, I am talking about how he is playing," I stressed the obvious part a little more.

And then he understood and glared at me.

"Please don't change the channel. I want to watch him until the game is over." I stressed thewatch himpart a little more.

He looked—more like glared —at me intently, and...success! He turned off the TV and stormed off to our room.

I did a victory dance inside my head and turned on the TV again to watch other channels. Someone was jealous and it was so funny.

After that, the day went by normally. I was doing boring household chores. He stayed in our room with his laptop doing God knows what.

I was watching a movie when he came out of the room and sat beside me when it was almost time for dinner. I ignored him and continued to watch the movie.

"I was thinking...," he started to say something. I turned to hear what it was.

"I was thinking, I should make it up to you." I knew what he was talking about, but ignorance is bliss, right?

"For what?"

"Um... For this morning?" he said it more like a question.

Still, I didn't budge. I kept looking at him with narrowed eyes.

He sighed in defeat and started to explain.

"I told you it won't happen again, but then I did it again this morning, and even after that, I left you alone, but that was because I had some work to finish.

But anyway, I should've at least told you that. What I am trying to say is, I left you all alone and I didn't think of how you feel, so I wanted to make it up to you."

I didn't even try to hide my amusement. "So, how are you going to do it?" I asked him.

"I...will make dinner," he said in a doubtful tone. I don't know if it was toward me or himself.

"Okay," I said with an amused smile. I wanted to enjoy this. After all, this was a rare occasion. He looked happy and stood up to go to the kitchen.

"I will help you." I tried to go with him.

"No. You are not allowed in there until I finish everything."

"Okay, but what will I do until then? Can I use your laptop? I want to check my Facebook account."

He said okay and then went to the kitchen. I took the laptop from the room and made myself comfortable on the couch. I opened it, but it was locked with a password.

"What is your password?" I yelled.

He came back from the kitchen to type the password. Was I that untrustworthy?

"You know I wouldn't have touched your laptop even if I knew your password," I said in a disappointed tone.

"It's not that I don't believe you. It's just that—never mind." He gave me the laptop and went back to the kitchen.

It's been so long since I logged into Facebook. Lots of messages and notifications. I went to one profile and checked out all the posts. She looked so happy in all the pictures.

I missed her, and I wanted to talk to her, but I didn't know how she would react after so long without contact.

It was purely my mistake. I didn't dare to message her. Too many memories. I immediately logged off.

I decided to go through some of the files on his laptop. I went to the pictures folder and saw lots of sub-folders.

I selected the folder with the pictures of us when we went to the falls with his friends. It was a good memory. Everything and everyone in those pictures seemed happy.

I clicked every picture and relived every moment. I was so absorbed in these memories that I didn't see him coming from the kitchen.

"Aadhi?" he called me, baffled. That brought me to this world.

"I think you need to come over here," he said in a bewildered tone.

Oh God, what now?