R&D

Chapter 19

The phone, session, Dev and Roshi had never happened again as Roshi was too anxious of getting caught. So they stuck to regular video calls after that. The days then flew by and it had somehow become July, so Dev was on his way to D.C. for his internship. The time difference between them would now be 2 hours closer together but with Dev's work schedule it was going to be more difficult to stay in touch.

Roshi's dad went back to America as he only had 1 month of vacation from work. She, her mom, and brother were going back in mid August a week before school started. Things were slowing down a bit for Roshi as they weren't travelling as much or doing many family visits so she spent most of her time at her grandmother's house.

She spent her days reading fiction books and doing courses on the EDX website that Dev had told her about. It had been weeks since their last call since Dev was so busy. He finally said Sunday morning would work out best for him so they planned for that.

On Sunday her cousins came over and said they were going to a Hollywood movie that night. Roshi was excited to get out and do something, and also get a break from her brother, so she went out with them. Since her phone wasn't really a phone, since she couldn't make calls, she was in the habit of leaving it at home when she went out.

After the movie her cousins dropped her off and she immediately went to sleep. The next morning she did her usual routine of brushing her teeth and taking a shower. She then checked her phone, and saw all the missed calls from Dev. She completely forgot that she was supposed to have a call with him last night. Damn it, she said as she was looking through all the messages he sent.

Hey, are you there?

Everything okay? Maybe your hotspot isn't working... Send me a message when you're back online

Roshi wondered what she should tell him. She worried that if she told him she went to the movie with her cousins and forgot about their call it would sound as if she didn't care about him. Especially since it had been weeks since their last call.

She then stared at the 3rd message he sent her about the hotspot not working. That would have been perfectly reasonable if that had happened. He couldn't get mad at her for that. She didn't want to lie but at the same time felt this fell under the "white lie" category and wasn't really that big a deal.

The two of them fought so often Roshi wanted to avoid an argument if she could. And by telling Dev the hotspot didn't work he wouldn't ask any questions and they could just move on. The story was getting more and more tempting. She typed out a message.

Yeah, exactly, the hotspot wasn't working. Can we try for next Sunday?

She stared at the message and then just hit send. She immediately closed the app. Dev replied back as it was late evening for him and he was probably just at his dorm.

No problem, I figured it was Next Sunday works Miss you Rosh, love you

Roshi saw the notifications pop up on her phone but just swiped them away and didn't reopen the app to talk to him.

Next Sunday came and Roshi set up multiple alarms on her phone so she wouldn't forget this time. She waited until her parents went to sleep then went upstairs so they didn't notice. She was feeling a bit anxious about the call. It wasn't a big lie she told, but at the same time she'd never lied to Dev before and was feeling guilty about it. She told herself to calm down and the topic probably wouldn't even come up.

When she saw Dev come online she called him. Hey, you called me, he said surprised. Was I not supposed to, she asked. I always call, just surprised me, it's nice, he said. There was an awkward pause. How's every-- he started then she interrupted. How's the internship, she asked. Um, good, he said thrown off. He noticed Roshi's awkwardness, but just brushed it off.