Before the GT team boarded Shubman's long-awaited flight to Mumbai, Sara sent her customary message asking when they could meet. Since the flight landed around evening, Shubman suggested the next afternoon.

His heart expanded and contracted when he thought of how he was finally going to meet Ishan, talk to him properly, after an age.

Surely he could send a text.

Shubman: Where are you guys staying?

Ishan: Same hotel where you're coming

Ishan: When do you land?

Shubman: Five thirty

Ishan sent an irrational combination of laughing and crying stickers.

Shubman: They don't make any sense

Ishan: Do your stickers ever make sense?

Shubman could simply not wait five hours to see him. He sent back a hundred dancing and jumping stickers.

Hardik leaned in. "You've got your Sara-messaged-me face on again, Shubi. What's she saying?"

"Just asking to meet," said Shubman.

"And there you go, hyperventilating." Hardik dug out his phone and waved it in Shubman's face. "I have an acquaintance you could meet today. She could help you not freak out too much tomorrow."

Most of Shubman's friends did not like this philosophy of hooking up with random girls before or after he met Sara, but Hardik bhai encouraged it. Shubman figured Hardik bhai was older than Ishan, Rishabh and Nisha, so he listened to him.

"Thanks," said Shubman. "How do you have single, available acquaintances in whichever state or country we go to, Hardik bhai?"

Hardik bhai puffed up his chest and winked.

***

When the Gujarat Titans team reached the hotel and went straight for tea, a lot of the opponent team were there.

"Shubi!"

Shubman was hailed by a familiar voice from the far end and found a hand waving at him above the heads of the others nearby. Shubman waved back and wove across the tables to reach where Ishan was sitting with Aditi.

Ishan beamed from ear to ear when Shubman finally met his eyes.

Shubman was suddenly breathless, like he'd sprinted a long distance instead of walked across a room.

The distance seemed to have done something unnatural to him.

His heart was thudding so hard, it felt like it was exploding from inside. His face felt warm.

"Finally the match we've been waiting for Shubi!" said Ishan cheerfully. "Which we, the table toppers, are going to win this time, obviously."

"You wish," said Shubman, on autopilot.

Ishan winked and ostentatiously offered him a hand to shake instead of hugging, like it was a secret the two of them shared. In his confused daze, Shubman couldn't return the wink. He only shook Ishan's hand, which made his heart explode more, so he let go quickly.

"Hi, Shubman," said Aditi.

"Hi," Shubman said, again on autopilot, but an ugly aversion rose inside him for her, though he had always been fond of her.

He wished he could will Aditi away, so he could have Ishan just to himself.

Why was Aditi here, when he was meeting Ishan after a month?

Why was anyone else here?

Feeling sick, Shubman tried to leave.

"Where are you going?" asked Ishan in surprise.

Shubman blurted out the first excuse. "I have to-I've got to, um, meet Rohit bhaiya."

"Oh, wait-I'll come with you."

Ishan started to stand up, but Shubman found himself saying, "No, it's fine, you don't have to."

"What happened to you?" Aditi asked, also sounding surprised. "Did you two fight again?" She looked from Ishan to Shubman.

"No," said Ishan quickly.

"No, nothing like that," repeated Shubman, turning away at the earliest he could. "See you both later."

Why did it have to be both?

Shubman did go and meet Rohit bhaiya, but he turned down the offer of joining him for tea. He felt too sick to even think of eating anything.

Jealousy actually made you sick.

Jealousy actually made you into a different person, who couldn't even be warm to their best friend when meeting them after a month.

He trudged up the stairs, breathing hard to keep himself calm.

That day, Shubman discovered why it was said that jealousy was the most destructive of human emotions.

***

Back in his room, suddenly, he didn't feel the least enthusiasm to bring over the girl Hardik bhai had got him talk to. He guessed he was being rude, but since even one night stands had to be consensual on both sides, he messaged her that he wouldn't be able to make it that day.

And to be very honest, he seemed to have lost the enthusiasm to meet Sara tomorrow either. He didn't want to meet anyone.

Of course, he did not cancel on Sara. He hadn't grown that rude yet, to cancel on a friend for no reason at all...

***

Shubman and Sara could, naturally, never meet in public. One picture of them together, and people went berserk. Neither of them wanted speculations around them everywhere they went.

When in Mumbai, they usually met either at Shubman's hotel or Sara's flat. That day, Shubman went over.

Sara seemed jittery from the start as they ordered lunch and caught up about the past few months. She finally brought up the topic almost when Shubman was leaving.

"I'm dating someone, Shubman," she said, nervously. Now that he came to think of it, she wasn't very good at hiding emotions either. "I thought I'd tell you myself, I didn't want you to find out from a third party."

"Oh," said Shubman, not sure what he felt. "Who is he?"

"He plays in the domestic circuit of Mumbai...Arjun knows him..."

Maybe it did irk him a little that Sara's boyfriend should be a cricketer. But very little.

So little that his grin wasn't forced when he asked, "So? You won't give me the details?"

Sara was so relieved, she laughed. "Right, what kind of details do you want?"

"Name, age, family background, the usual..."

"Family background? Seriously?"

"Yeah, we've got to check, haven't we?"

"My father can do that checking part," said Sara, and showed her phone to him. "Look, that's him."

The guy looked decent enough in cricket gear. But then, Shubman didn't find too many people in cricket gear indecent.

"He looks nice," he said.

"Yeah, he is nice. Why else do you think I'd be going out with him?"

Shubman glanced at the picture of Sara with her boyfriend again, and realized with stunning clarity that he was far less jealous of this guy than of Aditi.