How long? How
many hours, how many days more was this turmoil going to last?
I snap out
of my reverie when my phone pings with another message. There it was, proof
that my dilemma was never going to end, a message from Manav.
Manav always
drove me crazy. One day, he will be the sweetest person I had ever seen and the
next day, he will be back being the grouchy snob who never failed to irritate
me.
We go back a
long way- Manav and me. We had joined this company on the same day five years
ago. Being on the same daily- grind brought us closer and we gloriously bitched
about our common enemies over cups of coffee during weekends.
I do not
know when but soon his presence had become an addiction I could not rid of.
Each passing day deepened my infatuation. I eagerly awaited to see the smile on his face
when we met accidentally or over coffee.
That weekend
when I rushed to our usual café with an eager heart racing at an abnormal pace,
I had decided to open up about how I really felt.
“Reshmi, I
have a surprise for you,” Manav had said immediately after we sat down for
coffee. The surprise had turned out to be an arranged marriage that he had
agreed to. The photo of the pretty girl on his phone taunted me. I laughed
merrily teasing him about his impending marriage even as my heart broke
silently into a thousand pieces.
My only
solace was that my secret had remained.
Soon after
his marriage, a project in New York for which he was selected had relieved me
from the pain of beholding him every day.
Three years
and a disastrous marriage later, Manav have come back to me again, but at the
most inappropriate time.
I am engaged
to Kishore, who is heads over heels in love with me. Kishore had made me fall
in love with him by his ardent devotion. His parents too made me feel like one
of their own.
A week ago,
Manav declared that he loved me, had always loved me but had succumbed to
parental pressure and agreed to a marriage of their liking. I had confessed to
him then about my engagement with Kishore.
Ever since
that day, my inbox is flooded
with his sob stories, requests and from yesterday threats that he will end his
life.
Manav was my
first love, but now he has come back to me with an emotional baggage he refuses
to dispose. Every now and then, he became moody and started comparing me with
Sneha his ex-wife. But first loves were hard to be forgotten.
Do I need
this? How am I going to deal with this?
My phone
buzzed again with an incoming mail. It was a newsletter that I had
subscribed to from a relationship website. It had a quote that gave an answer
to my queries.
I knew it
was time to think straight.
This story is a part of Blogging from A-Z April Challenge.
The Blogging from A to Z April Challenge was first held in 2010. The challenge is that we have to post every day of April, except on the four Sundays. April 1st is a theme with letter A, 2nd with letter B and so on till April 30th which will be Z themed. My theme is #Learning Everyday, I post about new random things every day.
