Chapter 8 : It's hard not to like him

"Hey Trish, Good morning," I greet my oldest girl friend on the phone.

"Dia! Not everyone wakes up at 8 am on a saturday!" Whines my dear friend. I can even hear Gautam's faint grunt of annoyance from the other side.

"Hey, it's a beautiful day out there, get your sleepy head up, I'm going to the cloth market today, I just called to ask if you wanted to join me, you can invite Shradda along too, though I am guessing she'll be terribly hungover by now. Anyway, it will be like a girls day out. What do you say?" I ask my sleepy and grumpy friend. When there is only silence for a few beats, I begin to wonder if she dozed off on me.

Then, I hear a sigh,"Okay, let's do this, but on one condition, if I like some fabric or design, you are making me a dress. Oh and also I have work at 2 pm, so I'll leave you two at 1:30," she says.

"Great! For a moment, I thought you weren't going to come," I say, excited. Shopping together is always more fun.

"After the events of last night, there is no way I'm passing up the opportunity to 'talk' ", she says and lets out a mischievous laugh.

Uh oh! Now it is my turn to grunt. I have no idea what she is talking about, but it sounds like trouble for me, "Yeah, ok, whatever, I'll see you in an hour," I say and hang up.

Last night, on our traditional friday routine, Abhay tagged along with me. This week's location was a multi cuisine rooftop bar and restaurant. As expected, everyone immediately welcomed him. My friends all engaged him in different conversations, all curious about his field of work, family, and many other things, and Abhay himself seemed curious about the different fields of works my friends were in. You see, all of us are on the artistic side of career spectrum, except for Shradda, but she never talks about work, so my friends eagerly ate up all the information Abhay was sharing, and vice versa. Even I found out a lot more about him. He too didn't drink, which wasn't all that surprising to me. He also is a vegetarian, by culture. Though my family members eat eggs occasionally for nutritional purposes, I am a complete vegetarian. I just have never liked it's taste.

Everything was going well, and Abhay had completely relaxed by then, when the guys and Shradda decided to hit the bar. By Deepak's fourth drink, he began to act weird towards Abhay, giving back handed insults and challenging him at stupid unnecessary things. By Shradda's third drink, she became her regular tipsy flirty self, but yesterday, instead of flirting with the men she met at the bar, she started flirting with Abhay. Me and Trisha tried to subdue her, but she was pretty unstoppable last night. And to add to this, Gautam, the happy, jolly drunk, began teasing me and Abhay, insinuating something that was lost on both of us. As for poor Abhay, he looked ready to bolt.

It was going so well, everyone was getting along, Abhay seemed to be enjoying himself. I was one happy chick, until my friends decided to get wasted and ruin my night! Ugh! Now, I'm pretty sure Abhay would never come to one of these hangouts ever again. Well, I'll just have to call him later and apologize.

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"Does this look good?" Trisha asks, holding up a pink chiffon fabric with grey flowers on it, against her chest.

"No!" I immediately reject, "here, try this," I toss her a bundle of abstract print satin fabric. It is a mixture of reds and greys and blacks. I'm sure she'll love it.

"Oh My God! This is perfect!" Trisha cries out.

"Not so loud Trish!" Shradda groans from where she is sat on a stool in a corner of the wholesale fabric shop we are at. Poor girl is still nursing her hangover as well as the embarrassment from last night.

"Okay, okay, sorry," Trisha tosses her friend an apologetic smile before turning towards me, "Dia, this is perfect! What do you suggest I do with it? A summer dress?" she asks, almost jumping in excitement.

"You could do that, but it would be better if you make it a flowy skirt, pair with a black shirt, for a chic professional look, or a loose blouse or T shirt for a more casual look. You can even wear it with grey or white," I give her my two cents of fashion.

"Oh God! That sounds exactly like what I need. It's settled then, I'm buying it, and you are making it," she says, holding the fabric close to her chest. I smile at the sight. This is what I love about these girl's day outs, I get to see the rare sight of happy, excited and carefree Trisha, instead of the always worrying girl.

"You got it," I promise my friend. We pay for the fabric and move on to the next store.

Half an hour and 4 different shops later, at a fabric embellishments and details store, as I am browsing through some rhinestones and beads, Trish slowly begins, "so, Dia, Abhay seems nice," she tells me, trying to sound nonchalant but failing.

"Ugh! Don't remind me! I'm outta here, meet me at the chat shop in an hour," Shradda walks out of the store sulking, not ready to hear about the guy she embarrassed herself in front of.

"Yeah, he is," I don't elaborate, already suspicious of her motives behind this conversation.

"So, do you like him?" she asks. By her tone I understand that she isn't talking about normal like, she is asking if I have a crush on him.

Instead of answering I ask a question of my own,"What makes you ask that?" genuinely curious to know why my dear friend feels that way.

"Well for starters, you kept reprimanding Deepak everytime he made a remark about Abhay, and next you were going way out of your way to stop Shradda from flirting with him," she replies smugly, as if that explained it all.

"Obviously I'd do those things, he was my guest and it was up to me to make him feel welcome," I state the obvious.

"Oh ok, you don't have any feelings towards him then?" she asks, examining a bundle of colorful lace.

"Well, he's a great guy and a good friend. I agree he is cute, and also that he'll make someone very happy one day, but I don't think that someone is going to be me," I tell her my honest opinion.

"Oh well then you wouldn't mind if Shradda asked him out. She did say he was pretty cute," she says with an unreadable twinkle in her eyes.

I know as soon as she asks that question, that it is a test. That she is testing to see if I would get jealous and react, but I can't help the reply I give her, "well, first of all, it would be weird if they went out, and I don't think he is into the whole dating thing, I'm pretty sure he is the arranged marriage type," I say, unable to bring myself to agree to that suggestion no matter what. It just seems wrong.

"Why would it be weird?" she asks genuinely confused.

"Well she is my friend, he is my friend, it would feel weird to see them together," I say, not liking the mental picture of them together. Maybe it was a bad idea to bring Abhay to friday night after all.

"Well, Gautam and I were your friends, you didn't think that was weird, in fact, I'm pretty sure you were playing cupid between us. Just admit that you like him already!" she exasperates not satisfied with my answers.

"Okay, fine! That thought did cross my mind once or twice. You know, that guy waited for me once for more than twenty minutes, he brings me blueberry muffins and pastries, he is so kind and smart and mature and funny. It's hard not to like him," I say, surprised with myself for admitting that out loud.

It's true though. That thought has crossed my mind a few times, but I immediately shake it away. I didn't want to admit it to myself or let myself think about it till now, but there have been signs all along.

My first encounter with him on the elevator, made me realise that he is a simple man, who sometimes gets awkward just like everyone else. On the day he offered to give me a ride to Rajiv's restaurant, I was grateful for his kindness. On the day he waited at Ms. Rahane's house for me, I was surprised by how considerate he was, and when I asked him to help me write an article, it was subconscious decision, and it was as much about the article as it was about me wanting to know and spend time with the kind and smart man. At that point, it was all to get to know a good man and make a great friend, but the more I spent time with him, the more texts we exchanged, the more first 'good morning' messages I received from him, the more I admired him and thought about him.

The first time the thought of something more between us crossed my mind was when Ms. Rahane called to tell that she loved the dress and wanted me to design her wedding dresses. I was so happy and the first person I wanted to share my happiness was with Abhay. It felt natural to pick up the phone and give him a call, though it was the first time I ever called him. After talking for more than half an hour, I hung up with a huge smile on my face. I realised I was more happy after the call, than I was after hearing about Ms. Rahane. That's when I understood that I might have a tiny crush on him, because I share my happy news with my friends and family all the time, but it has never made me blush like a tomato or grin like a maniac.

The second time I felt something more than friendship for Dr. Abhay Sharma was when he brought me blueberry muffins. It's not about the food though, it's the fact that he paid attention to what I shared and cared enough to get it for me. That was the day I believed that, whoever gets to be that man's partner, would live a happy life. My beliefs proved to be right, when I heard him talk about his childhood friend. How much he cared about her. How much he emotionally invests in a person, in a friendship is remarkable.

When he told me that he was going to be my neighbour, I had serious flutters of excitement in my stomach. More time with the wonderful guy? yes please. I really wanted to believe that he was a permanent, or at least, a long time and regular fixture in my life, so I invited him to our friday hangout. Whether he'll be just a friend or more, I couldn't just let go of such a good person.

One more endearing quality about him is the love he has for his family, which means he'll always put their happiness first, and which Indian parents would be happy about their son dating? None. There is also the fact that he doesn't see me like that. So, not wanting to get my hopes up, and also not wanting to jeopardize my new found friendship with him, I've brushed aside these tiny bursts of affections I get towards him, and moved on.

So, I add, to my probing friend, "But, I don't want to like him Trish. Like I said, he doesn't seem like the dating or love marriage type of guy, and most importantly, he doesn't think of me like that." Though it feels freeing to finally admit my affections towards Abhay aloud, it isn't going to change anything between us, and I'm okay with it, for now at least.

"What are you taking about, that guy is so into you. Have you seen the way he looks at you?" Trisha says confidentially, surprising me.

My heart speeds up immediately, hope bubbling in my stomach unwittingly, "what are you talking about, he doesn't look at me differently!" I say, but internally, I was jumping. Okay Dia! Enough! Don't get your hopes up yet!

"He does! It's so clear! Even Gautam noticed it yesterday, he was like, 'our Dia is all grown up now, she is falling in love, soon she'll be getting married'," she chuckles at herself for the poor impersonation of her fiance she did, and I join her in laughing, "He's a big drama queen, but he noticed the connection between you two even drunk. Trust me, that guy is totally into you," my friend assures me, going back to inspecting dress embellishments.

I let what my oldest friend just told me sink in. She and Gautam both think that Abhay likes me? Does he? My mind goes silent for just a second before a million thoughts come flooding in.

Oh my God! Is that true? What if it is? What if it isn't? Now that I've realised and admitted to myself that I like him, will it be awkward around him? If he likes me, like my friends believe him to, will he ask me out? Will I say yes? What if, he doesn't ask me? What if my parents start looking for matches for me? They did say that they would at last family dinner. Oh God Dia, why are you thinking about marriage now! Do I think that something with Abhay will lead to marriage? He will make a good husband though! Oh shut it! You have known the guy only for two weeks.

So many what ifs, so many doubts, so many questions and so many hopes. My simple life got a lot complicated in just a span of two weeks, all because of a charming and kind professor.