Aarav's POV
-Flashback continues-
"I…" she hesitated again, took a deep breath, and finally looked at me, all serious, her gaze sharp, "I thought… You planned all this… Our meeting that day and later, ending up in the same office." Her tone was serious. She meant what she said. I went quiet. I just looked in her eyes for a moment and sighed. My gaze turned dark. I picked up the glass of water that was on her desk and drank a sip from it.
"How did you know that?" I inquired in a low and dangerous tone, almost in a whisper, my eyes never leaving hers. Her eyes widened in shock, and she flinched at my statement.
"Wh…what do yo…u mean?" her voice broke as the colour faded from her face. I stared at her intensely, searching for her eyes to meet mine, but she tried her best to avoid my gaze like a quivering deer trying to hide from a lion who has already booked her as his meal.
I couldn't keep the composer anymore, I burst into laughter. 'I know she is feeling that discomfort because of me, but God, she looks so cute like this, she is scared, but she is so ready to fight back with her palms curved in fists if I did something, such a feisty little cat.'
"Why… why are you laughing?" She looked at me, all confused, unsure of what she should be doing, whether to fight back or just laugh it off with me.
"Well, I don't know what I was expecting, but this surely was not the reason I was expecting for you to avoid me. Like, make it make sense," I stated as I calmed myself down from laughing. "This is neither some dark romance fiction nor do I have time for these things."
"Well, you can't blame me for thinking that way," she countered, clearly offended by the joke, and continued, "you didn't see it happening, or not experiencing it doesn't mean it doesn't exist." 'Well, it did make sense now.' But now I was more curious to know what had happened in her past that made her feel such fear. I wanted to talk about it, but in this state, it wasn't the right thing to do, though I just hope one day she talks about it with me.
"Okay, I get it. I am sorry for it earlier." I acknowledged my mistake in hopes of forgiveness, but she didn't respond and pretended to read the papers in some author report file.
"I swear I wasn't stalking you or anything. It takes too much time and resources, and just look at me. If I had any of it to such an extent, then I wouldn't be working here like this; instead, I would be the owner of my own publishing house by now." She finally looked up, somewhat agreeing to my idea, slowly getting comfortable.
"If I had been stalking you, I could have come to this company much sooner, or maybe appeared in your life from day one, so just relax, take a deep breath, and calm down," she nodded her head in agreement, finally believing my words.
-Back to Present-
After that, many things happened that led us to get closer to each other. We started spending more time together, and we found out how similar we were when it came to books and many ideologies. Soon, we became good friends, but for me? I just kept on falling for her more and more all over again every day. Every second she was with me, I was finding something new about her. I wanted to make her mine as soon as possible, but I knew she didn't like the rush, so I took the time I thought I had all the time in the world to invest and work through it and make her love me back slowly but surely.
I was so sure that no one would ever come to ruin it for me, but that was only until Anant appeared, yet I was still sure I had that time because she assured me she didn't have anything to do with Anant. 'Right, so I still have a chance.'
My phone pings with a notification. I checked the screen, and it was from Kanika— "I am sorry I couldn't text back sooner, I actually got busy with some stuff as soon as I got back home. Sorry again, good night, see you at the office." I just stared blankly at her text, my eyes focused on those words, 'busy with some stuff?'
"What stuff?" I typed but backspaced. I wanted to question her about Anant and why she was still talking to him while she just ignored my messages. I wanted to inquire about their full past, but I just couldn't. I kept my phone aside and rubbed my face with both hands with a deep sigh.
'I still have a chance, right?'
'Right?'