Cupid's Karma | ONC 2024 ✔

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Preety had been shocked to see Eros and even more surprised when Ayra said he was just a class fellow. It clearly didn't seem so and she was a hundred percent sure that she had walked in on something very significant.

If it hadn't been for her announcement that she had come home, Eros could have confessed something that he wouldn't tell Ayra otherwise.

Plus, Preety knew Ayra was lying the moment she said he was there for notes. They were supposed to be on a semester break so the handsome boy couldn't have been taking any classes for him to miss.

However, all that pointed in only one direction; there was something between her and Eros that Ayra was trying to keep a secret.

"So how is your bhabhi?" Ayra asked, diverting the topic to the marriage Preety had just come back from and asked her about the bride.

"Jassi is an angel," she replied, dragging her suitcase in the corner, "I still can't believe she agreed to marry my idiotic brother."

"Your brother isn't as bad as you make him seem," she remarked, helping her unpack as she took out the folded clothes from the smaller bag.

"He's not that interesting either for us to talk about him," Preety waved her remark off, "What is interesting though is the boy I walked in on today. You never told me anything about an Eros in your class."

Ayra paused, knowing there was no way out, "Uh... Must have slipped my mind."

"And what classes are you two taking in the semester break?" Her brown eyes twinkled as she interrogated her roommate, who got flustered all over again.

"It's not like that. I just... We just..."

"Save all the explanations for later, I already have an excellent guess and I don't want your indecisiveness to ruin it," Preety remarked, dropping down on the bed beside her, "Although I did come in at the wrong time. It looked like the poor guy was about to confess his undying love for you."

Her features drew together in a frown, "Come on, Pri, it was nothing like that."

"Really? Because, to me, it very much seemed something like that."

Her words made Ayra pause and reconsider what she thought Eros wanted to tell her. Perhaps her friend was right and he was about to say something she had intentionally shut out.

But it only made everything twice more complicated than earlier and she couldn't possibly explain it to Preety who would think she was high if she told her that she had been spending the past few days with Cupid, the god of love.

She would laugh her head off so Ayra kept silent, letting her believe whatever she wanted to.

"Anyway, you are still not telling me anything about the mystery guy," Preety nudged her elbow, "who is he? Where did he come from? Why I haven't seen him before? And before you object, these are all very reasonable questions, and I suggest you answer if you want me to come up with an excuse to refuse the proposal Aunty Safina sent for you."

"Wait what?" Her eyes widened in shock, "Proposal?"

"Yup, apparently your Mom got in touch with mine and asked her to look for a suitable guy for her lovely daughter. And of course, my Mom agreed and talked to her matchmaker bestie, she says she specializes in cross-country marriages."

Ayra would have laughed at that remark if the situation was any different. But now there was added trouble to the whole Eros and Apollo situation in the form of Aunty Safina and her marriage proposals.

"Your Mom could have simply refused," Ayra remarked.

She shrugged, "Nah, she was bored and found the perfect scapegoat."

"Hey!"

"Speaking of which, she sent a whole suitcase for you, she didn't even let me check what's inside," she pointed to the other suitcase she had bought with her, "but she also asked me to tell you that she's very disappointed that you didn't come to attend the wedding. She had even prepared the dresses for you which I think are what that suitcase contains."

Ayra's brow furrowed as she opened the suitcase and true enough, it was full to the brim with embroidered dresses fit to wear at a wedding, tailored to her size. Preety's mother had even sent sealed boxes of her favorite sweetmeats.

"She's too sweet, now I feel terrible for not attending," she mumbled, putting the things back inside.

"All things aside, if you don't tell me what the deal is with Eros, your marriage will get arranged to some other bloke and you won't be able to do anything about it," Preety warned, "so be honest and if things are really what I assume, I will talk to Mom and handle everything."

She was stuck in a catch-22 situation. She didn't want their mothers to arrange her wedding just like that and as for Eros, she couldn't explain the situation truthfully. However, she could use him as a temporary excuse to delay her Mom's expediting efforts toward marriage.

It took some time but Ayra finally decided to tell Preety a believable version of the story.

"Eros is a transfer student from Greece and he wasn't with us in the previous semesters so that's why you didn't see him earlier," she began, deep down feeling awful that she was lying to Preety for the first time, "so I had been helping him catch up on the subjects he missed in the previous semester."

"Okay, fair enough, but why did it seem like he was about to confess something to you right when I walked in?"

She shook her head, "I don't know. We have been spending a lot of time together. And... And well, he's sweet but I don't think I should... You know... Get into another relationship."

An understanding look flickered in Preety's eyes, "I see. If that's the case then I will handle our Moms and Aunty Safina for you, don't worry about that. But you have to promise me one thing."

She instantly felt that promise would be something that would further complicate things but didn't object just yet, "What promise?"

"Don't be too hard on yourself just because of what happened with Spencer," her voice was soft and she gently clasped her hands in a reassuring grip, "Promise me that if things ever get serious with Eros and if you feel like he deserves to be given a chance, you won't shut him out."

She couldn't be with him. Making that promise was futile because, in her opinion, they were as far apart as the different poles of the world. He was a god and she was a mortal, how could she even think of something like that? And neither should he.

Her life was already a mess, complicating it further with Eros wouldn't be a good idea.

"Ayra, why are you not saying anything?"

"Let it be, Pri. Eros is just a friend, and we will never be anything more," her voice felt cruel even to herself, and little did she know that it felt even more piercing to the winged immortal outside her window.

Eros had never left that apartment, he was listening in on their conversation and had realized that it was a terrible idea to eavesdrop right then. Those words stabbed through his heart like a lead arrow but it didn't avert his feelings toward Ayra that had somehow strengthened in all the time he spent with her.

Instead, it left a bittersweet ache; an irreversible knowledge that no matter how he felt, he would never be the one for her. Their fates might be intertwined but their shade was darker than any he had seen.

He should have cut that string the first time he saw it because not doing so had become a source of pain and regret for him.

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