When You LOVED Me...

43.

*Unedited*

Mia couldn't believe that she totally missed the tattoo on Aaron's back when she had first saw him half naked.

It was beautiful ivy designs which unfolded as birds wings on his left shoulder. She fell in love with it. A ghost smile threatened to spread on her lips remembering their time in the lake. She was still embarrassed about it and the fact that her panic has lead to a bold heated make-out session.

She shook her head to bring her out of this giddy feelings. She sat across the fire, it was almost evening after a very adventures day. They had swam around the lake -or rather Aaron teaching her how to move her arms and legs inside the water. She hadn't gotten very far with that but she managed to get over her initial panic, which is a success. Aaron wasn't so bad of a teacher and with all that momentarily distractions he provide, liking kissing her, mumbling reassurances at her while his hands roam around the places-

God! Mia just out of it now!

Yeah, so. It was when they heard the sound of Arav and Manvi footsteps, coming back, they thought that they had swam enough for the day. They changed and had breakfast, before joining on the treaking/ hiking with Manvi and Arav.

Turned out, that they are playing a game in which they have to solve the riddles to reach the final destination. Whoever comes first gets the reward. And it was Arnav who had placed the chits to avoid any cheating.

Well, the pairing was switched. So, Mia was with Arav and the other team was Manvi and Aaron. It was a relief for Mia considering she was still very embarrassed after what happened and she would just make it very obvious around Aaron.

They won, despite very ridiculous guesses and nearly dying from laughter due to Arav's awful sense of humour. But that still made her day.Later, they hiked the mountain top to face another gorgeous view of the valley of flowers. And after spending their afternoon eating, chatting, napping on the top, they returned back to their camps.

"You have my brother wrapped around your fingers, don't you?" She got startled and noticed Arnav sitting in a front of her on the other side of fire. She wasn't sure, if he was talking to her because he hadn't conversed with her before but finally what he said settled into her and for a moment she left stunned.

"I don't know what you are talking about." She replied with a tight-lipped smile. Before turning away from him. Aaron had gone to grab some blankets from the car and Manvi and Arav was on the swing they settled on a tree but neither of them are in hearing distance. So, she was alone in this, whatever this is.

"Gold diggers like you always understand what I am talking about. Tell me the amount of money you have taken for this acting and I will pay you twice to leave the life of my brother." She gaped at the malice in his voice. Her mind couldn't comprehend that why he was talking like this to her.

"Excuse me, Is this your try to humour me? Because it is seriously working." She replied sarcastically.

"I am not the one on your back and call. I don't know what my brothers saw in you but I can see all through your act, so watch it." He snapped in a clipped tone before stomping out of the arena. She wanted to ask if he has any evidence to his false accusations but concluded that it doesn't matter. Her feelings dampened to a great extent bit she couldn't make anything of it.

She sat there, her mind going blank and just admired the scenary, the scent of the flowers,waterfall. She breathed in the scent but it didn't tingled her senses. She thoughts was that she had landed face first in a parallel universe, where everything was same but her feeling were not. In this moment, every thing had lost its magic.

The spell was broken, again.

She sat there until everyone came back and they had the dinner with little chit-chat. After dinner we sat around the bonfire with on the folding chair.

Mia noticed the difference that Arnav try to act more docile towards her when others are present but gave his stern glare eyes when their eyes met or when he thinks no one is watching. She was really damn constipated by his bipolar behaviour. But she didn't want to call him out in front of everyone. She was ignorant to not notice it before and she don't know how to handle this situation or how to difuse it.

She was zoning in and out of the conversation, until Aaron called her. Luckily Aaron seemed to know that she wasn't listening and repeated himself.

"Manvi and Arav are planning to leave the day after." That caught her attention and she frowned and looked towards Manvi and Arav and asked perplexed, "You are leaving?"

"Me too." Arnav chided in between.

"Oh yeah," Arav started while rubbing his neck, "We don't want to, but work came up." He frowned cutely as if he didn't like the idea itself before brightening and added, "But we will be back in no time to trouble you Bhabhi." He looked cute with all the faces he is making.

"And maybe you can visit us to London while add it, and we can enjoy the fashion there." Manvi winked at me. Mia blushed, she hadn't forget the last shopping spree we had and thanks to Manvi her wardrobe had changed to more modern attires and gowns and a mix of everything.

"It feels too soon." Mia replied.

"Aww, I will miss you too girl." Manvi sent her a gleeful smile and she smiled back.

She didn't like the idea of them leaving so soon and was finally start to enjoy herself, even Arnav didn't welcome her with open arms. They had started to feel like a family.

This trip left her with mixed feelings.

*****