Aparna's POV

As soon as I opened the door a strong fragrance of aftershave hit my nose and I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I was lost by the strong fragrance.

Every hair in my body stood straight and I got goosebumps. I opened my eyes in slow motion to see who it was. 

There he was Mr. K. He was looking at the garden waiting for us to open the door. As soon as I opened the door he turned and gave me a broad smile. My facial expression went from wow to Omg within a GIF of seconds.

Once again my belief came true. The dream was happening. Not exactly but slightly yes.

I hear Ashi scream from the dining room asking who it is which brings me back to reality.

'Hi again miss' Mr. K said in a flirtish manner. 

I stood like a statue and did not move. I was frozen.' Shit,' I mentally hit myself.

I wanted the earth to swallow me at that instinct.

I was embarrassed as hell.

I was out of my voice too.

I just kept looking at him and him at me.

I guess after ages Ashi came to see who it was. I turned towards her and told her 'My meeting will start now' and went inside to start my work. 

Why am I acting so weird and not greeting Mr.K?

What was wrong with me?  My head was filled with these thoughts.

All I wished for was this incident to be erased from my mind and that was exactly the opposite of what happened.

I could hear Ashi and Kishan laughing and talking.

After about 10 minutes Ashi came to me and gave me my boxes which I had given Kishan's mom yesterday.

She asked me why I came off. I did not respond. She knew when not to push me. She was about to ask me something when she got a call from office. She went to pick up the call.

I mentally thanked God and went to the kitchen to wash off the dishes.

After cleaning up I started my work.

It was about half an hour after we started our office work, Ashi got a call on her phone. She had left her phone on the dining table, and she was busy with her office meeting so I decided to pick up the call.

By the time I picked up the call, the call got disconnected.

I was about to keep her phone back when I saw a new message notification from the same dating app.

This got on my nerves. It also made me sad at the same time.

Why had Ashi kept this a secret I thought.

Because of all the mixed feelings I had, I did not want to open her phone or talk about any of this.

My mind was a mess at this point. Ashi and her dating app, the feelings I got when Kishan was in front of me, An unknown person stalking Ashi, my dad not completely well. All these thoughts exhausted me, so I decided to put on some music.

It was almost lunchtime when Ashi came out of her room finishing her meeting.

I was still pissed at her but stayed quiet.

'Ashi, tell me the reason for this work from home?' I asked her breaking the silence.

'Nothing Appu, I just wanted you to be by my side.' Ashi replied casually.

'seriously, you did not have anything in mind is it ?' I asked shocked.

'Ya Appu. I did have plans, but none of them make sense' she said with a puppy dog face.

'what is it, Ashi?' I asked sounding dramatic.

'I wanted to go out and see if I get flowers again' Ashi said half serious and half sarcastic.

It was a good idea, but scary too. I was up for the challenge.

'Then let's go, Ashi. Get ready' I said after thinking this through.

'I'm tired Appu, and no mood too' Ashi said while rubbing her eye.

'Just get ready year, leave the rest to me' I said excitedly.

I gave her that stern look, and she agreed.

I wanted to as her about the app and tell her everything that was running in my mind, but decided to wait for some more time.

We were both nervous and curious at the same time thinking about flowers etc, hence we decided to go to a nearby restobar.

We sat in the corner seat of a restobar and ordered some pizza.

I was seeing signs of something fishy, and so was Ashi.

Ashi got a call from someone and she got up and went out to talk to the person on call.

I was shocked. I did not know what to do. This was the first time Ashi went out to talk to someone.

It was never in two years this had happened, but I did not want to poke my nose.

Maybe it was the person from the dating app, but if Ashi was this secretive we cannot find the person behind this. I had no clue what to do. Should I give her space or should I take the initiative and ask her? I was clueless.

I did not want to think more about this so I plugged in my airpods and continued my work waiting for our order to be served.

After 15 min Ashi came back to our place and shook me hard. I got a bit angry cause I was too involved in doing my work. I turned and looked at her with a frown on my face.

She had the biggest shock expression. I got confused and asked her what happened.

Then she pointed her finger to the table beside us.

It was THE ROSES but This time it came with a note.

The Note said: Hope you know who it's from. You are forever an admirer. xoxo

Both looked at each other with a blank expression. Ashi's words had come true. She did get roses. Again, how did the person know where she was. It was not her routine place to be. this definitely meant she was being followed or stalked

At that moment I decided to take things into my own hands and ask Ashi about the dating app.

Before Ashi could speak I asked her ' What is with you and the dating App Ashi' with a stern voice.

She had a perplexed expression on her face.

'what dating app Appu' she asked me back.

I did not know how to reply to this.

So I decided to tell her what I saw. ' Last night while drinking water I saw your phone having a message from a dating app and also this morning too'

'What message Appu, I do not know what you're talking about' Ashi said kind of irritated and not knowing what I was talking about.

'Open your phone Ashi' I said blankly.

She opened her phone and I checked her phone for the app and showed her.

'Oh, this. Ok OK, One of my colleagues had installed it and created a new account to stalk her ex on this app, she was messaging and maybe she forgot to log out. I hadn't even noticed it Appu. Thanks for letting me know'  Ashi said in a calmer voice.

She then opened the account to show me and to be frank I was relieved. My head became a bit lighter and I told myself, good that I asked her or the thoughts about Ashi keeping something from me would have killed me. I decided to tell her what I had felt.

' I thought you kept it a secret that you were using the app and I had a doubt that someone from the app was sending you flowers Ashi' I said in a lighter tone. That being said I suddenly had other thoughts, if its not a guy from dating app, then who else?

Ashi laughed and nodded her head.

' Then with whom did you talk so much now' I asked her confused.

'It's one of my cousins who had called Appu. She told me she wanted to video call me so I went out so she would not know I was in a restobar' she said half smiling.

' Oh ok ok, I again had linked it to the dating app ' I said with a sheepish smile.

She laughed.

'Coming back to the flowers, did you see who kept it her Appu?' Ashi asked with a serious tone.

'No Ashi, I was too involved in my work and I had my air pods on so I did not hear or see who it was,' I said with a blank expression.

' I don't know what to say or do Appu, I'm blank. Can we please take home the order, on the way buy some drinks and can we go home as soon as possible please, all this is exhausting me' said Ashi with a sad face.

' Sure Ashi, we can go home. Stay here I'll do the rest. Don't worry. We will do something about this. Do take the note and the flowers' I said and went to the waiter and asked him to pack our order.

We left the place as soon as possible and on the way took some beer cans and came home.

It was almost evening by the time we reached home. We came home, got freshened up, and decided to have the packed lunch.

We both ate in silence. I turned on some music to which Ashi said she was not in the mood to listen to music. So I turned the music off and decided to go wash the plates. 

By the time I was back Ashi was working on her laptop so I decided to do the same.

We both sat and did our office work without uttering a word for the next two hours. I had my Air pods which was my way of concentrating on my work, but Ashi preferred to work without any music.

Around 8:30 pm Ashi said she was sleepy and went to her room to lie down.

I asked her if I had to accompany her to which she said no. So I nodded and went back to work.