Serious in Love ✔

5- "Our love hasn't gone- It has just lost it's way."

« AHANA »

We were officially, temporarily, single.

It took us two huge treats- A homemade lunch by Vansh that was done previously, a restaurant treat by me; a few rounds of breakup sex until we were satisfied, a short trip down to the graveyard and a fake dispute act to kill our relationship.

“From here on, I declare us two to be independent—”

“Oi, we were already independent.” Vansh interrupted.

“Don't cut my line, idiot!” I told him, clearing my throat and raised my hand at both of us. “From here on, I declare us two as independent, lawfully, temporarily, single man and woman.”

“Thank you, your honor. I'll do my best to stick to this prestigious title for the next nine months,” Vansh swore, slightly bowing his head to me.

“Same here.” I said, thinking about the striking resemblance of the duration of his project to the duration of a pregnancy. I cleared my throat again. “Ayushman bhav! (God bless you!)” I added, sharing a laugh in return.

We walked under the umbrella of the tall trees, shielding us from most of the scorching sunlight. I raised my head to the trees, the pores of sunlight falling down on me. “So what will you do, now that you're single?” I heard Vansh ask, diverting my attention to him.

I shrugged nonchalantly. “Let's see... I'll order a tee with a label of 'I'm single' on it, for every man around my age to see. But then they will look behind my tee and see a poster of a middle finger... Just kidding!”

“You hardly look like you're kidding,” Vansh said, shaking his head in amusement. He dug his hand in his hoodie pockets. “Well, you can start by ticking off your bucket list. You know the ones you couldn't do when you were committed to me. It's a golden chance for you.”

My brows shot up. “You still remember that shit?”

He snickered. “I remember every stupid shit you listed, babe. Especially that hot beach guy one,” he paused as his face contorted to a frown. “But if you happen to kiss him then do inform me so that I can personally do the honor of burning his mouth.”

I chuckled. “I better be careful then. Oh, by the way, you called me babe again.”

He glanced at me with realization. “Old habits die hard, babe. Oops, I mean, Ahana,” he winked. “I'll remember next time.”

I nodded out of compulsion. I was habitual of hearing him call me babe too but few things had to be compromised. It was all for the tomorrow we were aiming for. Though the idea seemed suitable under our circumstances, it did little to calm my mind. I was in a limbo where I was questioning everything about our decision. It came along with lots of what if's and but's which made the situation look more bleak. But then, there wasn't any other safe alternative left, was it? It was either to remain the way we were (which was suicide) or to break off completely and I wasn't fine with either of them.

There was something I wanted to know from him first. “I'm curious—” I paused. “Curious as to how you came to agree with my suggestion? It's odd, really. You clearly disagreed at first, being afraid of the outcome. You were so against it that I almost gave up convincing you but then you called me all of a sudden, saying that you agree. Was it all because of your faraway project? Because if it is, then, I'd say it's pretty pathetic. It means that you're still against it and that you're only using our distance as an excuse.”

He shook his head in a negative. “You are wrong about one thing. I never disagreed with your suggestion. I just didn't agree to go through it.” He drew out a sigh and stopped walking to face me. “I already knew it. It was the only thing we could possibly do to save our relationship. But as I say, thinking about it ideally and doing it are two different things. I stuck with my decision but then this opportunity came along and I was forced to re- think. With the way we were going, I highly doubted we could pull off long distance. We would have crashed much earlier if we had done that. That's when I knew I was left with no choice. It's like fate had chained me just so I could choose that path. Maybe, maybe this was meant to happen,” he explained, giving away a bitter smile. I looked down, not knowing what words to say to make it right. It wasn't like I was eager to take a break. I just did it for convenience.