Chapter 6 — She Fails to Understand

Sanaya stood inside the gated premises, with the cab driver behind her waiting for his payment. She looked at him and then looked at the way Aryan had driven past. What had happened now? She hadn't even done anything.

She paid the cab driver and bit her lip. Was she supposed to walk back to her room or to her office? She decided on the office.

Walking there took around 10 minutes, as she had her Pink Candy Skull earplugs on, music blasting through it. She softly blew her nose in the hanky in her hand, sighing afterwards. Her cold had gotten to her. The fever was repeating itself every now and then, mostly during nights. Sanyukta had sensed that she'd not been doing well and forced her to take medicines.

As Sanaya opened her office cabin, she walked in to see Randhir and Sanyukta whispering to each other while softly smiling at each other. Her heart warmed at the scene. She had once hoped to have a love like theirs. Love wasn't simple, she had known. Hers had been a fairytale. But fairytales didn't last forever, and hers had ended up being a nightmare.

She had no wish to visit 'love the nightmare' again in her life. Looking at Randhir and Sanyukta, she hoped that some people were fated to be together in their lives no matter how many obstacles came their way.

"Lovebirds, the mistress is back. Get back to work. Go, go." Sanaya said dramatically, with authority in her tone while the couple looked at her and let out a gentle laugh at her arrival.

"We have been waiting for you since forever. So we thought, why not check out your cabin? But no, madam was out getting an important guest." Randhir snorted as Sanyukta squatted his arm.

"Oh, come on Randhir, don't tease her." Sanyukta rolled her eyes, "Just came to check out on you...and well, get some news about you-know-who."

"Sanyukta, he isn't Voldemort. You can take his name," Sanaya winked and took her seat, "And I've been fine. Just a small cold. About that weird guy, he's that. Arrogant, rude and brood."

"Has he been well?" Sanyukta asked softly, and Randhir squeezed her hand.

He wouldn't go possessive about her just because she was asking for the welfare of an old friend. It didn't matter that Aryan didn't want the friendship anymore, that he wanted something more. She had always had him as a support and a good friend. Randhir had grown above being petty and jealous about everything.

"He doesn't necessarily have dark circles around his eyes, and he seems like whatever he had always been. Tall, lanky, enough muscles, snarky face, his gelled hair, the usual Aryan that he had been. Maybe he has become more nagging and arrogant. Like the way, people become when they are becoming old. Maybe he is sixty and is hiding his age. Or maybe he was had been born with a crack in his head. God knows. I fail to understand him." Sanaya blew her heavy nose and sniffed. The top of her nose had become red, and her voice sounded deeper than usual.

Randhir and Sanyukta both laughed at her illustration.

"I guess that means he is well." Randhir tapped the top of Sanaya's head and placed a strip of paracetamol on her table.

"I guess so," Sanyukta grinned, "Now we have to go back to work. Hope your week goes well, else he is leaving."

"Oh no, he is not." Sanaya grinned mischievously, "I worked hard to get him back here, and I'm not letting him go in a week."

"That seems typical of you, Sanaya," Randhir smirked, "Best of luck."

"Thanks, Brute."

"Sanaya, you better take care of yourself. And come today for dinner. No need to cook." Sanyukta ordered at her while Sanaya nodded enthusiastically as an answer.

She was like a young child during Christmas break, always excited for little things in life. Sanyukta's invitation meant that she didn't have to cook or order food. That also meant more rest and more reading for the personal research project she had been doing during her free time. She bade her friends a quick goodbye as they exited from her cabin.

She wasn't really working on the project for RCIBMT. It was more of self-studies and research than for her work. At the centre, they'd been working on plant mechanisms. The personal project she had now taken up had been on a tiny research citation on the major project at work. It had piqued her interest.

Her whole life had revolved about trying to make people understand who she actually was. She had been working hard to succeed to show her father, her parents, her classmates that she deserved it. Outgoing and extroverted didn't always have to mean that she was useless.

Yet none had ever seen her as worthy. Other than Abhay, their mentor here in RCIBMT. He was an amazing man. Both he and his co-partner. Both mentors helped them; she was one of Abhay's favourite coworkers. Sanaya was grateful that finally, somebody had seen her potential by themselves. Others saw it, but they failed to accept her the way she was.

There was a lingering prejudice that all scholars, geniuses and all knowledgeable people were introverts. That couldn't be true. Randhir and Sanyukta were pretty outgoing but not as much as her. She hissed silently under her breath. Aryan was brooding and serious. Well, totally opposite.

But she was not good for nothing!

She knew she had worked hard. Never showed it to people and had hidden the poignant self under her happy-go-lucky and enthusiastic personality.

She failed to understand why people thought extroverts couldn't be scholars? Where was this steady fast rule written, anyway? What was wrong with being outgoing or friendly?

Her own father never once thought positively of it. In fact, her father wanted her to be a puppet. He loved her, maybe. He was happy when she had got the job at RCIBMT. That was only because she had finally done something that he wanted of her.

Had he ever thought about what she wanted? She was happy. Right then, she was happier than she'd ever been.

Sanaya couldn't ask for more from life - there were Randhir, Sanyukta, Juan and other friends. The mentors were pretty amazing. She thought her parents were happy.

She was doing her own research; as a bonus, she earned well for herself. Some people judged her for being friendly. Usually, she ignored them.

But for how long could she suppress that feeling of being judged? Always?

"Who cares!" She spoke out and looked at the book in front of hers.

Sanaya didn't go back to Aryan. She knew he found her nagging and overbearing, but she was just doing her job. Somehow she had to tag along with him because she didn't want anything to go wrong next week.

She was called in for a meeting with the executives, where she informed about Aryan coming back.

It was just around 12 noon then, just before Aryan was supposed to join back. She knew nothing of the IT division of the office. IT and she never had a good bonding. In fact, she wasn't even a tech-savvy person. The hardest paper she'd taken in University had been a programming paper.

"Sir, can I take a half-day?" She croaked out as her fever started coming back. There was a nagging feeling of a sore throat. The cold was worse than she had thought.

Abhay looked up from his desk and nodded. He was a man in his early to mid-thirties and was one of Sanaya's mentors, "Sure. Take care, Sanaya. And call in Joy before you leave, will you?"

"Sure, Sir." She nodded.

She called Joy, who was a fellow colleague. Then went back to her apartment building. Block B was for 2BHK apartments.

Sniffing, Sanaya walked over to her apartment room. No. 702 was the most bright, open and airy room on the floor. Everyone who went up the elevator would notice the apartment with numerous plant pots at its door. The door was painted in a vibrant ochre and brown colour.

Sanaya peeked; it seemed that the last apartment on the corridor, No. 706 had been unlocked.

Had someone come in to steal? Or was someone trespassing?

She peeked in and knocked on the door. No answer.

Then she tried the doorbell and kept ringing it.

"What is your..." The man's yell was very familiar. It drowned away as soon as he saw her. His jaw ticked in anger.

"What?!" He asked, his jaw ticking.

"I..." Her voice choked because of the cold, her nose was red, her cheeks flushed as she looked down and breathed feebly. No one knew about it, but she usually had symptoms of mild asthma, "Just checking."

Sanaya walked away quickly, as her insides became stuffy and it became hard to breathe.

Damn! If Randhir or Sanyukta got to know, they would kill her. They lived in Block A, just a few metres away and had 3BHK rooms. She wrapped herself in the quilt, kept her shawl on the bedside table, then gulped down the medicine Randhir had given her. Her inhaler was on the nightstand, and she quickly took a dose.

What were the odds? She would have never guessed Aryan would be given the same Block and floor as hers. She couldn't understand how uncanny the coincidence was. She had zero interest in him. Okay, maybe a little curiosity but she wasn't giving her curiosity a chance this time. This was a very odd coincidence, something she wished hadn't happened.

One reason was, she failed to understand the man completely.

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Love,
Dee ❤