Loving You

Chapter 23 - Abhimanyu - Date Night

"So shall we order?" I asked Reet, trying to be as pleasant as I could be.

Reet looked around skeptically before nodding her head. She looked unsettled, jumpy. "Yes."

"Are you feeling okay? We can go home if you'd like?"

Yes, please. He wasn't even sure how he even ended up in this situation. Oh right. Because you were trying to get a rise out of Akshara. In hindsight it had been so stupid of him to do that. But it was too late to back out now.

"No, no. I'm okay." But something told him she wasn't. Her entire body was tensed and her hands were shaking as she took a gulp of a glass of water.

Why?! What in the world made him think that she'd stop him from going out with Reet? Akshara didn't seem the least bit jealous or irked by the thought of him and Reet possibly dating. Now he just looked stupid.

"Actually, no I'm not okay." Reet finally confessed, looking down, avoiding eye contact and instead rummaging through the napkin cloth on the table.

Shit. Did he make his disinterest so obvious? I mean granted we didn't speak on the the entire way to the restaurant and even once seated, we couldn't move past small talk regarding work and weather but, it couldn't have been that bad that Reet was almost on the verge of tears.

"I don't like you. I don't have feelings for you." Reet confessed.

"You don't?" Oh thank god. I couldn't hide the sigh of relief in my voice.

She shook her head. "I have feelings for Armaan. I love him. And I was just using you to make him jealous."

"Armaan? Your friend, Armaan? From bowling?"

Reet sniffled, "Yes. Him. I thought he likes me too so I just wanted to make him feel just a bit jealous you know. So he'd act on his feelings."

You and me both sister. You and me both. Except I didn't get a rats ass about Armaan.

"So I made this whole big deal fawning over you at bowling hoping he'd notice." She further confessed.

"Oh trust me Reet, he noticed." I stated, getting a clearer picture of what the hell actually happened at bowling.

The anger, the dislike, the glares that I received from Armaan on bowling day wasn't because of Akshara. No. It has been because of Reet. It all made sense now. God. We really all were idiots. God's greatest creations were all idiots.

"What?! How can you be sure that he noticed? Because the next day, I left my phone in plain sight hoping he'd get curious and read my messages to Akshara about you. About the date? Nope. Nothing." Reet complained.

"Oh trust me Reet. The man I met at bowling wanted to rip my head out for getting close to you. And you know, men are thick headed idiots sometimes. They don't get subtle hints. So it's best to be direct. Just call him up and and tell him straight up that you are in love with him."

"What if he rejects me?"

"Trust me. As a guy, I can tell you with 100% guarantee that the man is also head over heels in love with you too but he is it doesn't realize it." I affirmed.

Reet began to get up from her seat to probably make a phone call to Armaan but sat back down nervously. "Maybe after?! I...I feel bad for leaving you alone."

I chucked. "No, no, don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Go call him and put him and you out of both your miseries. He's probably driving himself insane thinking about our date." Just like I'd hoped Akshara was. One could hope, couldn't they?

A smile broke through Reet's lips. "Thank you, thank you, that you. You're the best." She bit her lip in happiness and got up to leave before turning around to face me. "I hope everything works out between you and Akshara."