Chapter 16

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Eira's POV

"So, Neal. Where did you meet Eira?" Hardik asks, while stirring his drink.

We were at the Beer Cafe where Hardik and Ananya were sitting on one sofa whereas Neal and me were sitting on the other, Neal's hand over my shoulder. I did shrug off his hand once but he knocked his shoulder with mine and kept his hand again, making me shut my mouth. Let him do whatever he wants to.

"We're family friends, actually." Neal nodded. "Aren't we, baby?"

Baby? Was he on drugs?!

"Yea." I looked at him. "Can you excuse us for a minute, I need to talk to him for a bit?" I didn't give him a chance to answer, I just pulled him from his seat and took him to the washroom.

"Okay, what's your deal?" I asked, facing him.

"Look, this is me as a friend, helping you. You see how he frowned when he discovered I was there? This is your chance to find out whether he's got any feelings towards you?" He got very excited.

"He's got a bloody girlfriend!" I hissed. "Just make this as hassle free as possible." I moaned.

"Look, this is your chance. Give me one chance! If not, you can banish me from your side, I will not talk to you ever again." He pleaded.

"How the fuck does that benefit me? I'm trying not to be a loner!" I said, looking at him.

"Okay, fine! You can do whatever you want with me, I swear." He said. "Let me do this, I'm so excited!"

He's so dramatic. "Fine, okay." I muttered. "Do whatever you want, I give up."

We went back to the table where the couple were chatting among themselves. As we sat down, Neal put one of his hands around my shoulder and pulled me closer, Hardik's eyes furrowing at the action. Hm, maybe he did feel something?

What rubbish was I talking about? He had Ananya!

"What took so long?" Ananya asked as she kept her drink on the table.

"We actually had some other engagements so we were actually calling them to postpone it." Neal said. "We had to go and meet my mother, you see? But she's okay with us coming a little late." He smiled, pulling me closer.

"Aw, that's so cute!" Ananya said, cozying up to Hardik. "Isn't it?" She said, looking up to Hardik.

"Yea." He said, slowly. "So, Eira didn't mention you to me?" He asked Neal.

"Well, we're just at the start." He said, smiling at me. "I'm sure she didn't want to tell you before we'd been more acquitted with each other." I smiled back at him. I've got nothing to loose, anyway.

"Where do you work?" Hardik asked as the waiter kept the pizza on the table and nodded, then walked away.

"What's with the inquisition?" Ananya laughed. "Eira actually likes Neal!"

"I'm just making sure that Neal's a good guy." Hardik says.

"Rightfully said. Actually I'm also pretty protective about my sister's boyfriends. It's natural to get protective. I actually work at Advertising." He nodded.

"Oh really? That's nice!" Ananya said. "I didn't really peg you as an advertising guy, really." She said.

"Oh really?" He remarked.

"Yes, I pegged you as an business man, you know?" She said, sipping her drink.

We all laughed. Gosh, even my laugh sounded fake.

"So, you're a model, right?" I asked Ananya, eating a bite off of the slice of pizza.

"No, actually. I'm an actress, you must have seen me in Dear Zindagi?" She said, looking at me.

"I'm so sorry, I haven't really caught up on movies so much nowadays, Neal occupies most of my time, you know, boyfriend's." I laughed, earning a surprised look from both Hardik and Neal. Hey, might as well have some fun with this. After all, I'm all in anyways.

"Righht, anyways. Moving on." Hardik says, eating pizza.

"Oh my God we had such a lot of fun!" Ananya said, looking at us. "We definately have to do this again, yea?"

"Definately, of course!" Neal said. We had finished our evening up with some froyo from the dessert bar and now we were going to go home, me to mine to face the music and Neal was going to visit Sanya before he went home. We both felt so bad that Sanya hadn't been included in our outing.

"Sure!" I said, hugging Ananya.

"Wait, you are coming to the wedding, right?" Ananya pulled back from the hug, looking at me.

"Yes, of course!" I smiled, looking at her. "Neal's coming too."

"Great." Hardik said, much less enthusiastic than necessary. What was he so pissed about?

"Okay, bye."

As I reached home, I realised one thing. When we met Hardik and Ananya, it didn't feel weird at all! Sure, it did hurt when he kissed and cuddled her but it didn't feel suffocating at all, what I had actually expected to feel when I had met them. Neal had successfully distracted me from thinking too much and them from cuddling with his horrible but had to laugh because they were so horrible jokes.

He was a good friend, really.

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