“Why, Adhvik, why?”

“I'm wondering the same.”

“You could have done this before. We could have met so easily. Ugh, this is torture.”

“Sorry.”

Pallavi stopped moving his shoulders and stood shaking her head in dismay. Currently they were in a market place that belonged to a society.

The society where Adhvik was going to live from now on.

It was a decent looking society having buildings on eleven floors. Adhvik had rented a 1- BHK apartment so that he and his wife could live there together.

“I visit the salon here every month, Adhi. If you keep going straight through this road from the exit and cross two circles,” Pallavi pointed out to the road, “You'll reach my society in five minutes. Get it? In. five. minutes.”

“Shit, that near huh? We could have met each other and had sex every week.”

“Exactly! What's more, I wouldn't have to give excuses to my parents either. I could have just taken an evening walk, hailed an auto and come to your house straight away. Had one round or just roam with you and come back without anyone ever knowing anything. Fuck, we missed such a golden chance.”

“Well, if you want we can create that golden chance again. We just need to go into my apartment.”

“Shut up Adhvik, don't joke like this. It's painful,” Pallavi replied, slapping his shoulder.

“Fine, atleast see my apartment once.”

“But...” Pallavi trailed off, worrying what might happen if they get in a room together. This was the third time he was requesting her.

He placed an assured hand on her shoulder. “Nothing will happen, okay. The apartment hasn't been set up anyway. Trust me.”

“Okay.”

And nothing happened guys. Pallavi and Adhvik visited his apartment, looked around, talked and went outside. It was indeed an evolution from his previous dwelling that had everything in one room (excluding the washroom which was outside). This apartment held a separate living room, a separate kitchen, and a separate bedroom with balcony and bathroom.

They sat down the chair and talked about the rishtas Pallavi was getting, including the recent marriage meet she had. Yes, our dear protagonist was finally meeting potential grooms. She was meeting them before Adhvik's wedding too, but I hadn't mentioned. That section would be left for the sequel.

Pallavi had a hard time understanding her feelings towards these grooms. When her parents asked how she felt about the man, she had no words to say. How could she make a lifetime decision based on a guy she just met? Or even in two meetings.

“Just say yes. If your parents find him good. If his family looks fine then go for it. That's what I did.” Adhvik advised.

“Sorry, but I can't go your way. I want to throughly know the man and atleast feel drawn towards him before I make that decision. We can have different life goals but atleast some of our core thoughts should align so we can establish a connection.”

“Aree itna kya sochna yaar. Aise toh dund liya ladka...” Adhvik said. “But if you wish to do so then just keep chatting with him. Ask him what his life goals are, his preferences, religion, things that carve a faint picture of his overall personality.”

“I'm doing exactly that. I've been chatting for the past ten days but I...” Pallavi trailed off, trying to put into words. “I don't feel anything. I don't feel like I want to know more about him. He doesn't intrigue me, doesn't incite my interest. He's not bad, he's just too plain.”

They then changed the topic to other things. Like when she told about her relationship with her mother. Naturally, Adhvik was shocked and amused by hearing this.

“Your family doesn't know about me in that way, right?”

“Not the fact that you were my girlfriend... But everyone in my family knows about you, especially Ma. She knows we are close friends.”

“Hmm,” Pallavi replied, forlorn. They were walking outside the apartment now. She stared at the ground until she asked, “Adhvik, what if we had tried for marriage? Would your parents have accepted me?”

“They would have had their reservations at first with our physical appearance being mismatched and all but eventually they would have agreed. 'Cause in the end, my mother would have wanted to see me happy.” He gave her a small smile. “What about yours?”

The ground was starting to blur before her vision. “Deepali asked my mother one day-- If Pallavi had revealed about her relationship with Adhvik to you before, would you have given your consent to let them marry?... Ma said no right away. Neither he has looks, neither sufficient finance, nor a strong family background.”

“Well, that is understandable on their part. If only I had one of those things, man. If only my family were sustainably rich...” He glanced at Pallavi, letting out a chuckle. “Aree, you are crying.”

“Ignore, I just start tearing up like that,” She croaked, sniffing.

They walked the rest of the way, their hearts thick with emotion yet their mouths silent.

However their moods elevated when Adhvik offered her noodles from a nearby restaurant in the marketplace. He would often tease her on how he finally became a society wala like Pallavi while she would smile proudly in return. They had a gala time burning their tongues over the spicy noodles while promising never to have the same dish again.

“You know there's something else I really miss...” Adhvik mentioned in the midst.

“Whaa?” She gulped another swig of water while panting with her tongue. To that, he let his gaze slide down while she followed his trail, both staring at the same place. She frowned, “My boobs?”

“Yes! Your massive boobs. God, I miss them!” He cried dramatically.

“Oh, come on! We Indian women possess good amount of boobs. A slight difference in size hardly matters.”

“Slight? No, it's a huge difference. Her boobs are small enough to fit my hand while yours—” He poked her chest.

“Okay, I get the memo, stop!” She  raised her hand, her nose crinkled. He talked as if it was a blessing to have a bigger chest, not knowing it's cons.

Pallavi set out to leave a little while later. Good thing she didn't have to tell anybody she was meeting Adhvik because she visited the beauty salon first. Soon they parted for the night. Pallavi was grateful. Atleast this meet was more merrier than the last one. Perhaps they could continue being friends.

* * *

“I just found something peculiar about you, Pal,” said Deepali as she accessed her sister's birth chart. Yeah, birth chart. Apparently, Mrs Khuranna has been sharing some of her astrology knowledge to her younger daughter for months after she showed ample interest in the subject. Deepali was able to read anyone's kundali to know the placement of the planets in the houses, though she could only derive the basic meaning of it. Pallavi used that little knowledge to find out things about Adhvik in the past. However today, Deepali was simply practicing.

“Your fifth house is directly looking at the tenth house. Venus and Rahu are in there.” Deepali continued though Pallavi understood nothing. When she probed, Deepali added, with a sigh. “It means your love and sexual affairs will be associated with someone in your office.”

“Like Adhvik?” Pallavi's eyes went wide with realization.

“Like Adhvik, yes. But not just him. You've always harboured crushes with someone in the office. Remember Shiv from your first office.”

“That was just a fleeting crush. Though I was happy when he admitted he had a crush on me too and was hoping for more that time. Doesn't matter since he's married now. Everyone is married.” Pallavi ranted more to herself.

Deepali raised a brow, “Well, what about Karan Grover? You seem to have a crush on him, too.”

“Heh, noo!” Pallavi frowned. “I- I don't have a crush on him. It's just a bit of admiration.”

“Uh- huh, and now you're blushing.”

“I'm not!” said Pallavi blushing even more.

“Anyway I'm just stating things from your kundali, that's all.”

Did that mean Pallavi would meet her husband in an office setting? Although Deepali clarified that affairs were different from marriage, there was a slim possibility of an affair turning into marriage.

* * *

Pallavi woke up to a weird dream. A dream of being on a date with someone. Strangely, it wasn't Adhvik this time. Were her dreams aware of her breakup, too?

She went to her office as usual. It was a sunny Tuesday morning. Sunlight entered through the windows giving the office a dim morning glow. In that office, sat her manager sorting through some printed papers. His long eyelashes were visible as he trained his gaze on the papers. His dense hair and trim bearded face seemed to illuminate differently under the sunlight today as if he was fresh out of bath. Moreover, he was wearing a purple shirt. Pallavi took one bland glance before turning away to a shocking conclusion.

What the fuck? Karan was looking especially cute today.

Pallavi couldn't make eye contact with him as he started discussing work. Not when she could feel herself blushing at times. Why did her manager have to be good looking? And why did she have to dream about him? Damn you Deepali!

After lunch.

“Can I ask something?” Pallavi started after contemplating on the same for the last ten minutes. This was something that was irking her for a while when she was lunching with the group. A running joke that she never understood. “You keep teasing Arushi about living in Oyo room. Do- does she live there?”

Karan laughed. “No, no, actually the PG apartment Arushi rented used to provide Oyo room service earlier.” He smiled, amused. “Why? Are you searching for an Oyo room?”

She deadpanned, “No, of course not. I've never been to Oyo.”

His eyes lit up. “Not even with your ex?”

“Nope.”

“Oh, so he came to your home to meet?”

A tint of red formed her cheeks as she continued with a frown. “No. He was a coward. There were chances but he was too scared to visit my home with the fear of being caught despite my parents being outside. Atleast he should have seen it once.”

“So you went to his apartment instead.”

“Heh, what, no—”

“So you did go to his house. How many times?”

“I don't know. Not telling!” She crossed her arms, blushing harder. Gosh, how could he ask such bold questions? That was like asking how many times you had sex with your ex.

“But you're not denying either... Ah, young bachelorhood.”

“What about you?” She diverted the topic from herself in a hurry. “Did you go to Oyo?”

His lips crept to a smirk as he looked above. “Many times. Some good old exciting days.”

“Fine, fine, I don't want to hear more.” She said when she caught onto the naughty look in his eyes that definitely implied he was thinking about his glorious past. Oh how she wished she went to Oyo with Adhvik and stayed the night atleast once. It would have been a different experience.

* * *

Over the months of her employment, Pallavi had learnt a lot and it wasn't just limited to graphic designing. She didn't know how it happened but she got involved in other tasks too. It probably had to do with Karan's ‘let me show you something new today’. That way he showed her how to use Zoho social— a software that enabled one post be posted in all social media handles. At first, he only taught her because he needed someone else to take care of the social media posts of the company while he was on leave. He also taught her how to write captions.

Surprisingly Pallavi performed well in both fronts. Her English was decent so she was able to write good captions. She was able to filter the pictures and resize them to put on Instagram and others. While she made social media graphics for meetings, collaborations, festivals and others. Before she knew it, she was posting regularly while Karan focused more on digital marketing. She could also derive monthly statistics of social media sites. What was this company churning her into? Not like she was complaining.

Her personal life on the other hand was more or less the same. Her parents were seeing matches through matrimonial sites and consultants but no luck. The ones she found on sites and the ones her father found for her were too plain and uninteresting. Perhaps a little close minded too, like her father. She recalled talking to a guy from Singapore who only talked about his beloved Singapore and his beloved self. Damn, she thought she only found these cliches in movies.

Just what type of man do I want anyway?

Hours passed until it rolled to evening. Karan talked about a funny incidence over tea and snacks. Pallavi couldn't help but laugh out loud at the way he enacted animatedly with his hands and expression. He wasn't overreacting but not silent either. If you replaced the person with Adhvik, the scene would nearly be the same. Her mind was in two places at the same time. She gazed at Karan with the same eyes she saw Adhvik with, full of admiration.

Dear God, if you're here somewhere, I hope you listen to me. I hope that the man I meet and marry turns out to be somewhat like them. I'd love him enough to last a lifetime.

The Adhvik she fell in love with; the present Karan she witnessed before her eyes; Saumya's brother-in-law she briefly met in her wedding-- they all had those things in common. Their goofiness. Their mischievousness in their eyes. Their ability to light up the room.

And most importantly- their ability to make her laugh.

* * *

Pallavi went for a stroll after dinner as usual when she received a message on Instagram. It was Umang who asked how she was doing. She continued chatting after returning home. She had nothing noteworthy to do anyway. Somehow their chat lengthened when they started talking about TV shows, especially a psychological thriller series called You.

“Oh my gosh, would
you look at the time?
It's 1am. 😳.”

“It is, though I
didn't realize. ☠️”

“Me neither. You put
that emoji a lot btw 😅”

“Well, it represents
many things and the
skull is my favorite.”

“☠️☠️”

“💀☠️💀☠️💀”

“💀☠️💀☠️💀☠️
💀☠️☠️💀”
“Alright 😂, I gotta
sleep otherwise I'll
be late for office.
Goodnight. 🥱”

“Goodnight Pallavi 💤”

That night Pallavi slept with a small smile on her face.

Needless to say, their chats became a little more frequent from then on. It was a little assuring to have someone's virtual company while she sat alone in her cabin. It was the middle April 2022 and many things were happening in her office. Ever since Yash had given his resignation, all the graphic designing work had fallen into Pallavi's hands.

Not to mention how this past week
she and Karan weren't in good terms. They weren't fighting or anything, Pallavi simply didn't like how he was being strict— not to mention odd with her. It escalated when he sent another official mail stating her to do the tasks on time, lest he would take it to the HR for complaint. The mail shocked her to the point where she broke down in front of Yash in an ugly fashion (she still regretted it to this day). She hated how she became a crying machine because of her breakup. However, Yash (he was on his notice period) calmed her down and told her to have an honest talk with Karan.

Pallavi did exactly that. She called Karan on phone who was in building 2 and complained about how he was being mean to her lately when she was already drowned in work. Of course her tear glands were failing her, too. He asked her to discuss her problems so that he could lessen her workload if possible while also probing her not to take it personally. That he was just doing his job as a manager since he had the upper management to answer to. Also that he was aiming to promote her to a social media executive— someone who could design digital graphics and manage social media sites of the branch she was at. It certainly came as a shocking surprise.

But that wasn't the end of it. A week later, just after Pallavi was getting along well with Karan, she received an official mail stating that Karan Grover got transferred to branch 2. By that time, Yash had already left the company. The marketing team she came to know had ceased to exist. It made her break down once again. Atleast there was no one around anymore to watch it.

Pallavi worked her ass off all alone most of the time. The only time she could socialize was during lunch when everyone gathered, including Karan. Atleast she could see him then. She asked if he knew about his transfer but like her, he was surprised as well.

“Atleast you wouldn't be crying because of me anymore,” He stated once, albeit nonchalantly, startling Pallavi.

* * *

One day she asked Umang whether he felt lonely being single to which he replied in an affirmative. They talked about their loneliness and their monotonous life. While Pallavi was doing her job in her company, Umang studied at home, taking care of his somewhat ailing mother. He also picked up on a few part time jobs though he wouldn't tell her what. They both shared a few things in common which they often complained about— lack of social life, being single, boredom and more boredom. With time, Pallavi shared her pain of her recent heartbreak without revealing his name.

‘Btw there's a high chance
I'll arrive in Faridabad
this month.... I was
wondering if we could
meet... If u don't mind.’

‘For sure, I won't mind.
I'll meet you. 😄 Atleast
there will be Something
happening’

‘Haha you got that
right.’

A few days later, Umang and Pallavi were chatting, passing their time over midnight. Pallavi was reciting a funny incident in the office and they were laughing about it. Needless to say, she was quite in a chirpy mood.

‘Hey, I was wondering...’

‘Yeah?’

For some reason, Pallavi's heart was racing. It was as if her heart knew what was coming next, although her brain didn't.

‘Um, how do I put this?’

‘You can put it
anyway you like.’

‘Then let me... I was
wondering since we
are both very single
& very bored in our
lives then why not turn
this interesting for us?
Let's turn our meet into
a date. What say?

‘Sure. Why not?

Let me repeat myself
again- Pallavi Khuranna,
will you go on a date
with me? ☺

We'll have all the cheat
meals. 🍔🍻

Here Umang was waiting for her answer while Pallavi was rolling on her bed, grinning like a laughing buddha. Deep down, she anticipated something like this but to see it actually happen was another thing altogether. Was this happening? Was she dreaming? A date after six  months of dryness in her love life. Sure, this wasn't remotely close to love. Hell she didn't even see any future with him but for now, it was something. That too with someone she was kinda starting to fancy. It would definitely bring some spark to her otherwise monotonous life.

Sure, I'd love to go on
a date with you. ☺
I'm kinda excited now.
I can't wait to meet you.

Me too. I haven't
been on a date for
the past 3 years.

Omg, 3 years! 😱
Lol you need this
date more than I do.

Soon they started discussing what all they would do and which places they would go to. Pallavi was imagining all scenarios in her head-- dining in a restaurant, travelling, drinking, and surprisingly even making out. Well a woman can imagine, couldn't she?

But the strangest thing of all was the dream she had of Umang when she first interacted with him this year. Could some of her dreams really predict her future? Unbelievable.

* * * * * *

Ooh something's happening in Pallavi's life. Again it's nothing close to love or the relationship she shared with Adhvik but just someone to go out with for a day. Would you recommend her to go for it or just wait for her to move on from Adhvik completely? Hope you liked this lighthearted chapter. What do you think of Adhvik and Pallavi now? Share your thoughts 💭

Only a few more chapters left to this book. Thank you for reading.