FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN

Finding Neel

Manjari sat down on the kitchen table and looked at the note again. She should be happy but all she felt was worry. She refused to sift through reasons for her worry. It was COVID, she told herself. So many people were dying, and she didn't want him to die, no matter how much she disliked him. Plus what would she say to Prof. Dawson if he rang her up?

Making up her mind, Manjari ran up to her room and grabbed her mobile phone. She quickly played the security camera recordings for the last night to find out when exactly did Neel leave. It was with great relief that she found out that he had left some 15 minutes before. Since no car had come to pick him up, Manjari assumed that he was walking to the nearest subway station which was at least a walk of 20 minutes in this cold weather at least half an hour. But by car, it would only take her ten minutes. She checked the clock and jumped into action. She ran to Amaira's room and left her a quick note. She then slipped on a pair of denim, a chunky sweater, socks, and boots. Grabbing her car keys, she was out of the house in five minutes. She had to find that idiot. Stupid, moron, who was hell-bent on dying. But not on her watch. She had promised Prof. Dawson that she would take care of him and she would do exactly that. She pressed the phone to her ears as she started her car, dialling his number. No response. She was not surprised. She was so focused on finding him, that she did not give her urgency and her panic a moment's thought. In the car, she turned on the heater to the maximum. Its warmth quickly warmed her frozen body.

Manjari had been driving for the past fifteen minutes, keeping a lookout for him. He had not been at the bus station or the subway station. Had he gotten a ride to the station? Or had she miscalculated the distance? She checked the time. She should make her way back, she thought. Amaira would be waking up any second now and she did not want to leave her alone for a long time. Manjari rubbed her face with her hands and dialled his number one last time. Still no response. Absently she looked out of the window. Where was he? Where had he gone? She was still thinking about what to do next when she stopped her car with a jerk. Seating outside Starbucks was Neel. His luggage was resting beside him. She parked her car and made her way to him.

"What the hell were you thinking, leaving like this?", she said without any preamble, shivering in the cold. Numbness and piercing chill was creeping to her toes and her body and she shivered.

Neel had been so lost in his thoughts that he never noticed Manjari approach him. He was busy planning his next move! After last night, he knew that he could not live under the same roof as Manjari. So, he spent the night packing his luggage again and cleaning the space. After making sure that everything was the way it should be, he left quietly. For the past half an hour, he had been thinking of alternative places to stay and had come up with none. He had come to Toronto with the sole aim of finding Manjari and he had not made any friends- the price of which he was paying now, he rued.

He was jerked out of his thoughts by Manjari who was standing in front of him looking furious. He stared at her, taking in her tousled air, the body-fitting jeans, and the thick sweater. She had come looking for him. Why? he thought. Her words from the argument last night still rang in his ears. Neel blinked when he saw her body shivering from near-freezing temperature and glowered.

"Where is your jacket? What were you thinking? Stepping out of the house like this", he almost screamed at her, as he took off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. Thank god, his jacket had double layers.

Manjari's eyes narrowed at his gesture but she willed herself to relax. She was freezing and the jacket was warm. She had been so worried sick about him leaving like this, in times like this that she had forgotten to grab her jacket. 

"Get in the car", she ordered. "Anything you have to say can be said later."

He looked at her as if she had sprouted horns. She wanted him to come along with her. Why?