The chirping of the birds outside and the vibrations on her phone woke her up. Her eyelids fluttering, she licked her lips, groaned as pain shot through the back of her head, and snapped her eyes open. Her phone was incessantly ringing somewhere in her home, but she wasn't sure where it was. Neither did she have enough energy left in her to make the effort, get up, and search for it. She was disconcerted too. The expanse of white on the ceiling and the brown fabric covering the cushiony surface adjacent to her conveyed that she had fallen asleep on her couch. Additionally, the sharp headache weighing her down told her that she had gone overboard with the intake of alcohol last night.

With another groan emanating from her mouth, she sat up as her palms went to hold her head and tug at the base of her hair. Frustration rattled her senses as the pain refused to subside, and she shut her eyes to recollect the events leading up to the moment when she had fallen asleep.

A moment later, like a movie reel, the events continued to flit across her mind. She was drinking too much despite his warnings. They danced together. They argued. She threw her drink on his face. He ruined her apartment. They nearly kissed. And then... blank.

A small smile appeared on her lips along with a blush on her cheeks when she reminisced how glorious the drumroll had been, how ecstatic she had felt when his lips were only a breath away from her. Hiding her face behind her palms, she giggled to herself, repenting the drumroll when she should have actually kissed him, and censured her body for falling asleep at the most crucial juncture of her life.

She let her arms slide to her sides, the silly grin not leaving her face despite the throbbing in her head, and she gathered her loose hair into a bun before hauling the blanket off her and casting a glimpse at the still-vibrating phone on the center table. It was already 11:30 am, and her father was constantly ringing her with over fifteen missed calls and thirty-five messages waiting for her.

Letting out a sigh, she was about to pick up the phone after leaning towards the glass-top table, but her attention went towards the broad and naked back of a man on the other couch. Her eyes widened, and a shriek escaped her mouth. Throwing the blanket off her, she hurriedly slid down from the couch and flailed her arms and legs.

"Oh my God! There is an intruder in my house," she screamed.

He stirred and rolled over on his back, groaning. "Ugh! Not so loud."

Her shouts halted when she discerned that it was no one other than the Devil sleeping in her house, and she let out a breath of relief. "Oh, it's you."

He squinted his eyes open and sat upright, ruffling his tousled hair and letting out a somnolent yawn.

Heat crept up her cheeks when she saw him shirtless in front of her. His well-defined body with toned muscles looked back at her, and she promptly veered. "Put on a shirt, you brute! Why did you take it off?"

He huffed, snatching his crumpled shirt from the floor. "Your AC doesn't work, Baby Elephant. It was getting too hot at night."

She bit her tongue. "I think the temperature was a bit too high. I... I get cold. So..."

He buttoned the shirt up. "Right! My head hurts real bad. I should just go home and rest for the day."

She spun around, readying herself to tell him to stay until breakfast so that she could get coffee for both of them, given she was having a terrible hangover too, but then she finally noticed the mess all around her apartment, and her OCD kicked in. With another raucous shriek tearing through the morning air, she swiveled at her spot, absorbing the horrific state her house was in. Towels and blankets draping the floor in a haphazard fashion, liquid dripping from the soaked fabric, mounds of cotton littering all over, all empty bottles of alcohol rolling around over the wood. Her eyes widened in horror, and her lips drooped until the stark recollection of the night before hit her. "You did this."

He groaned, holding her head. "Can you please not shout? It feels like someone pierced my skull with a thousand pins."

She rounded towards him and sent an accusatory glare his way before pointing a finger at him. "But you did this," she yelled.

He peered around and his countenance appeared to be of someone really bored with the discourse. Shrugging, he said, "So?"

"I threw vodka on your face, and you threw tequila all over my blankets and cushions and..." Her eyes watered. "You didn't spare my towels and sheets too."

Watching the way her lips drooped further and fat teardrops leaked out of her eyes, he cleared his throat. "Uh... If it bothers you so much," he scratched the back of his neck, "I can help clean up."

She glowered at him. "You better!"

Rolling his eyes, he got up from the couch, using the armrest as the support since he was still feeling slightly tipsy. "Such a lightweight you are. I definitely had more than you, and look at me!" He spread his arms out. "All fit and fine." He had only taken a step forward when his knees buckled, and he collapsed back on the couch with a thud.

She cast a distasteful glance at him, grimacing at the way he had reddened in mortification. "Yeah, right! We can see who is a lightweight among us."

Huffing, he got up from his place, and the duo began arranging the apartment while the bickering returned to the fore. The mess had spread from the living room to the kitchen and even to the corridor of the bedroom, and she went ballistic over the situation at hand.

She gasped when she saw how her pretty pink cushions had their fabric torn to shreds and the pillow inserts lolling from one side of the floor to the other because he had been insensitive enough to 'accidentally' kick them. "My pretty pink cushions!" she shrieked. Sniffling, she rounded on her heels and glowered at him. "My pink cushions."

He eyed her with distaste. "They were hideous, Baby Elephant. You should give a pat on my back for getting rid of them."

More tears spilled out of her eyes. "Why are you so mean, Mr. Devil?" She tugged at her hair. "My pink cushions!"

He scoffed at her overreaction. "I was not willing to point out how unsightly they were because you get so touchy over the subject. But you forced me. You coerced me into spilling tequila over your stuff, remember?"

She flashed her eyes at him. "Why bring my towels and my sheets into our quarrel?"

He groaned and rubbed his palms over his face. "Those are mere inanimate objects. You had the audacity to throw a drink at my face. At the living, breathing, legendary Aditya Roy."

She growled at him. "Legendary Aditya Roy?" She huffed. "Moron Aditya Roy!"

He was quick to yank at her forearms and glare at her. "Come again."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Moron Aditya Roy!"

Grimacing, he left her arms and rolled his eyes.

She placed her hands on her hips. "And how am I supposed to get the stains off?"

He picked a white bedsheet with purple floral prints on it, scrunching his nose up at her taste. "I was under the assumption you are a Science student."

"I am a Science student," she snapped.

He gaped at her in askance. "It's tequila—a tannin. It will go away if you wash it with vinegar in hot water. Didn't they teach you in your Science class?"

Her cheeks were on fire due to the embarrassment she was experiencing, and she deftly glimpsed away. "Shut the fuck up! You are responsible for all this mess." She snatched the sheet out of his hand and stowed it in the laundry basket placed atop the center table. "I have to do the laundry too, thanks to the Devil."

He pursed his lips and took the pack of dry mini towels from her hands, using them to soak the extra liquid from the floor. "I have to do the laundry now," he muttered, mimicking her with his nose crinkling.

She gasped when she heard him. "Oh, I hate you so much, Aditya Roy."

"I hate you too, Nandini Basu."

She went ahead and jabbed a finger in his chest. "I hate you the most in the world."

He held her wrist and narrowed his eyes at her. "I hate you more than you can ever hate me."

Continuing to grimace at each other for a while, she was the first one to look away since her eyes had watered. "Eternal jerk! An imbecile! A nincompoop! An asshat!"

With another bored expression thrown at her, he swatted her fingers away and scowled at her. "You take too much liberty with me, Baby Elephant. I would've never allowed anyone else to talk to me like that."

She flashed her eyes at him. "Fix my house and get out, you stubborn jerk."

Smirking, he picked the bottle of water from the dining table and took a swig from it, his eyes not leaving her puzzled face for even a moment. When she was least expecting it, he slopped the water over the floor once again and strode out of the apartment without bidding goodbye while she was left to gasp and scream profanities at the top of her voice.

"Never come back," she bellowed at his retreating back as he advanced towards the elevator at the end of the corridor.

He turned around and saw her standing by her door, breathing rashly with a massive frown adorning her cute and plump face. Grinning, he tipped his head. "I will be back sooner than you can imagine."

***

It took her the entire day to clean everything up, do the laundry, wipe the floors, wash the dishes, and restore the house to its original state of glory. She had heeded his advice and was able to get rid of the stains from almost all her stuff, but the cushions were effectively ruined, and she had to dump the cover as well as the inserts in the trashcan with her heart breaking at the state they were in.

Her mood had turned sour despite scoring a job of her preference, and though she knew she hated Aditya from the bottom of her heart, she would never change anything about the previous night. They had come so close to kissing each other that a blush crept up her cheeks every time she reminisced about the moment. But then she was glad the kiss didn't really happen since she wished to be in her senses for the glorious moment.

A giggle escaped her throat at the thought, and she continued folding the dried laundry with a new skip in her step.

***

Even a week later, he couldn't misremember how majestic and ecstatic the moment leading up to the kiss was. He couldn't forget how beautiful she appeared up close—radiant, adorable, quintessential. If only their lips could meet!

But then he was glad they hadn't really kissed. He wanted both of them to be in their senses when they would actually have their first kiss.

With that thought in his mind, he went out of his apartment after freshening up post the long Friday he had. The evening traffic was somewhat worse because everybody was in a rush to head to a party to end the week, and he was able to reach her favorite farmer's market on the other end of the city only when it was past 8 pm. A wide grin came upon his features when he spotted white lilies and red roses that an old lady was selling outside a Shawarma store. Without waiting for a moment, he bought a bouquet for her, and off he went towards her apartment for the second time in as many weeks.

***

She had only just taken a shower after an excruciatingly long day of work, and she was famished beyond measure. With half her mind on the chicken lasagna sitting in the fridge that she had cooked two nights ago, she quickly lit up the holy lamp in front of the little idols she had positioned over the small plinth where she worshipped daily. She was about to go inside the kitchen with her damp tresses sticking to her forehead and her hair still not combed when her phone rang with a call from the main entrance below, and she was slightly puzzled.

Picking it up nonetheless with her brows furrowed, she said, "Hello? Who is this?"

A sharp intake of breath on the other side echoed in her ears before he spoke up. "I am back much before you had anticipated, I guess."

Though fury bubbled inside her, the heartbeats picked up pace too, and she found herself melting and letting him inside the building despite the insouciance and nonchalance he had displayed only a month ago. Her feet tapped the wooden floor in impatience, and all thoughts of food and hunger flew out of the window. She kept checking her phone every now and then, unable to comprehend why it was taking him forever to ascend the stairs or take the elevator to the fourth floor of the building. But then she didn't have to wait much longer when a knock reverberated against her door.

Rushing to it, taking a moment to calm her racing heart, gulping and wiping the sheen of sweat from her upper lips, she swung the door open and quirked her brows at the man in front of her. Adorned in a white shirt and blue jeans—his casual wear and seemingly his favorite—he was flashing her a vibrant smile with his arms forwarded towards her, holding a bouquet of red roses and white lilies. Her heart fluttered at the thought of finally accepting the flowers he would be gifting her without major drama, but she kept her expressions neutral. "What now, Mr. Devil? Have you come here to ruin the apartment further?"

His smile widened, and he shook his head. "I have come to tell you that I like eating parathas."

Her brows knitted. "Okay... I am guessing you loved the paratha the other night. Do you want me to whip it up for you?"

He giggled. "No, I meant..." He licked his lips and scratched the back of his head. "I like eating parathas, Nandini. And I like you. I would like to keep eating parathas for the rest of my life. With you. Because you are my cute, little paratha."

She was unable to make sense of his statement, for he was himself too flustered with his words jumbled up and a blush creeping up his neck. Tittering, she said, "What is that supposed to mean?"

He took a deep breath. "Do you want to get that dinner with me tonight? The one we talked about the other day?"

She gulped and searched for any kind of insincerity in his eyes. She found none. She smiled wide as the butterflies in her stomach returned. "Uh... dinner... sounds... good..."

A grin cracked on his face, and he nearly jumped at his spot. "Great! Thanks! I would love to take you on a nice date at a place you will admire. Something fancy. Perhaps not as fancy as Shubham Agarwal can afford," he rolled his eyes, "but something nice like... like Italian? You love Italian, don't you? And then a drive..."

And at the mention of her ex, her head ducked down as she recalled her traumatic past, the reason behind her wedding getting called off, her parent's disappointment in her, the promise she had given to Shubham. Her smile dwindled, and she looked away. "Let it be, Aditya."

He was so involved in planning the perfect date that he nearly missed the low mutter from her. But when he actually made sense of what she said, his brows furrowed. "... I don't know if the long drive sounds good o... Wh...Wh-what?"

She donned a weak smile. "Let's not get that dinner. You and I are never meant to be. It's..." She sniffled. "They are not with us anymore, but the promises we had made to them still stand valid."

His lips parted. "Wh... I don't understand."

She cleared her throat. "We are not going to get dinner because us coming together will hurt them irrespective of their relationship status. And let's not forget, we did love them. We still do."

He blinked a couple of times. "I really am not getting your point."

She rolled her lips inward and peeked at a point above his hair. "If they get to know we are together," she whispered, "after everything we did to break them, they are going to be so heartbroken. Had the weddings not gotten called off, we would've been married now. There was a promise we made to them. This chapter of our lives was supposed to be shut and never opened ever again."

He frowned. "What are you insinuating, Nandini Basu? The weddings got called off. They are happy in their space. They despise us, by the way. So, how is any of this," he wagged a finger between the two of them, "going to affect a happily married couple with a child on the way? They have moved on eons ago."

She huffed. "Do we know for sure that they have indeed moved on? And even if they did, what are the chances this is not going to hurt them." She let out an exasperated sigh. "I am done wounding that wonderful gem of a man. If... if us being apart helps those two be at peace with one another," she shrugged, "so be it. I don't..." She sucked in the air. "I don't want to get that dinner with you."

He gaped at his shoes, soaking in her words. Reconciliation was a futile attempt. It was a mistake. "I... I guess you are right."

"Additionally," she blinked back her tears, mustering as much acerbity as possible in her inflection, "I... I can't trust you, Aditya. After what you did to Piyali... practically cheating on her... I don't think I would want to take that... that risk."

His heart shattered hearing her say such a cruel thing to him when it was her he fell in love with and deceived one and all. "Oh, I see." He chuckled. "I didn't know you considered me to be a cheater just like the rest of them. But thanks for clearing out the misconception I had of you."

Even though she comprehended the sarcasm, she chose not to comment on it. "I cheated too, didn't I? We will always have trust issues with one another, Aditya. Believe it or not."

He shrugged. "I won't. Distrust stems either when the other person is really in the wrong or when you don't love someone enough." His bloodshot eyes stared at her moistened ones. "I don't think I need to elucidate or expound over how much I... I love you."

She licked her lips and glanced away. "I am not flawless like those beautiful women you prefer."

He scoffed. "You think flaws exist only in the outer appearance, don't you? Well, let me tell you, Miss Basu. I am more flawed than you can ever be."

She gaped at the floor, her hold tightening over the handle of the door. "I don't think flaws exist only in outer appearance. I have never thought so. You, on the other hand, have always placed looks above all. I can never be up to your expectations."

He took a deep breath and crushed a few blossoms in the bouquet. "That's... okay. Perhaps you are right. There are promises to keep, trust issues to cater to, insane levels of expectations to match. I get it. You... you have a good life."

He swerved, striding down the corridor and dumping the flowers in the trash can yet again. Perhaps they were indeed not meant to reach Nandini Basu.

She shut the door, keenly listening to his receding footsteps over the carpeted floor, and once she was certain Aditya Roy had gone away, she let the dam of tears break.

***

Author's Note:

Now, I am crying buckets again 🤧😭💔

Thoughts?