#TheWritingProject

Genre -ROMANCE


Ahmedabad. I’m here, in an unknown and new city for starting a new life. I got a job before coming here which I would be starting from the day after tomorrow but I didn’t find a place to stay. I exit the platform and just started walking hoping to find a hotel where I can stay for the night and have dinner. As I was near the railway station so there were so many hotels, I went to total four hotels and asked the fare for one day and chose the cheapest one as I have to be careful spending money. I had dinner in my room and slept.

It's new day of my new life with no stress. I don’t have anything or anyone to be worried about. I ordered sandwich then got fresh and left for getting a place to stay. I met two to three real estate agents and finalized a place by the evening and the plus point was that it had a single bed that means I didn’t have to sleep on the floor because I couldn’t afford to buy a bed for at least three to four months. Then I went to buy some necessary stuff I needed for the house a fan, a gas stove, and kitchen utensils. I already have my soap, shampoo, lip balm, kajal etc. in my bag so I don’t actually need to buy it right now. Then I went back to the hotel check out and finally I’m at my own place. I ordered dinner online for today, I would go to the market tomorrow after work.

It’s morning again I woke up and got ready for my first day at job. I had breakfast on my way to work. I’m little nervous to be honest but I’m more excited. I mean everyone would be strangers, they would not have any idea about past me. I am appointed as Social Media Manager at an event management enterprise i.e., “MAKE IT HAPPEN EVENT ”. When I entered the office, my boss introduced me to my colleagues and showed me my desk and gave me my office id and password to login in the computer and explained my work. While I was starting my computer, I saw someone coming from the office entrance door.

Gorgeous. Hot. Handsome. These thoughts came into my mind when I saw him coming. He had grey eyes and he was wearing a light blue color T-shirt. Our eyes met. He caught me checking him out and he smiled and came to me.

He asked, “Hello, you must be Kavya Sharma, the new Social Media Manager ?”

I replied, “Yes.”

He said, “I’m Niketan Gupta. I’m the Event Manager here.”

I said, “Oh.” Seriously just oh, no hello, no saying nice to meet you.

He said, “Good, I’m looking forward to know you.” And then he went into his office with a big smile on his face. What does that mean? Looking forward to know me. Why would he want to know me? Did he said that because he saw me checking him out? Was he flirting? Oh my god, why am I overthinking? Maybe he just meant to say looking forward to work with me. Yes, this is what he wanted to say.

Peace. I finally have peace of mind now. I did a good job today at work. But I couldn’t stop thinking about Niketan. The way he talked to me at first and then at lunch too. No, I shouldn’t think about him. I made three rules for living here one was not to think about my past, the second was dating with no string attached in short not to fall for someone at least for some time which means break up before you fall for the guy and the third was no dating an office colleague because it would be obviously awkward.

It has been two months since I moved here. I have a cool job. All I have to do was upload photos of events on our enterprise’s social media account, answer the queries online, review the feedback from customers, also I attend the events personally to help them organize, click photos and all. I’m also going on dates with the guys through the help of tinder. Also, I’m still a pure virgin, I haven’t kissed any guy yet. I’m just friends with Nick, he told me to call him Nick now that we are friends, he flirts with me, we have also hung out together a few times. I have a huge crush on him and I have sensed that he has crush on me too but whenever I get a hint that now he will ask me out I just start ignoring him for few days by making an excuse of work because I didn’t want to fall for someone and I knew for sure if we start dating, I would definitely fall for him.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

21st October 2022. It’s my birthday and I’m out for dinner with my colleagues including Nick. I blow out the candles and cut the cake, Nick was standing beside me so I gave him the first bite of cake, every year it was dad but not this year. I miss him, my mom and my bestie. It has been three months they have no idea where I am.

The party was over now everyone said their bye’s and left, only nick was standing with me. I guess he purposely was waiting for others to go. No, I have to go right now.

I said, “OK then bye, see you tomorrow.” And I just started walking away from him with speed.

“Kavya, wait.” He shouted from behind. I turned to him while he came to me.

He asked, “Why are you running?”

I replied, “Well, I was not running I was just walking in speed.”

He asked again, “Okay then, why were you walking in speed?”

I replied, “Ah, because I am tired and I want to go home really quick and rest.” Of course, I lied.

He said, “I don’t think so.”

I said, “What do you mean?”

He said, “I think you are running away from me.” I was shocked. How does he know?

I said, “Why would I do that?”

He said, “Maybe because you like me but for some reason you don’t want to date me.”
I’m just standing in silence what I am supposed to say now.

I somehow replied, “No, it is not like that, I really just want to go home quickly.”

He said (in a loud voice), “Okay, just stop it already. Everyone in the office knows that I like you from the first very moment I saw you because I make it so obvious and I know you know it too. I have felt a spark between us, we have spent quality of time together while having coffee, lunch, watching movies and I have given you hints so many times. I also know that you just start ignoring me whenever you feel like I’m going to ask you out now. You are dating guys you don’t like but not the guy you like. So just stop pretending and tell me why don’t you want to be with me?” He knows everything. He was noticing everything from the start.

I said, “No, it’s not like that. I don’t know why you think this way. Maybe it’s because we have hung out together a few times but that doesn’t mean I like you. I think we should just stop seeing each other after work. I’m sorry but you got it all wrong.” It took me a lot of courage to say this without crying. I turned to walk away but he grabbed my arm and pulled me towards him. Our eyes meet. This eye contact was something which makes me want to lose control.

He said (in slow voice), “So, you don’t like me. Then just say it looking into my eyes.” I am just speechless now. I can say looking into his eyes that I don’t like him but not without tears.

He shouted, “Just tell me why are you holding yourself back?”

I shouted, “Because I don’t want to love someone again. Love only makes me suffer. I knew if I date you, I would fall for you.” I couldn’t hold back anymore. I love this person. He never asked me about my family and friends like others once I told him that I don’t want to talk about them and didn’t even ask why. I thought if I keep my distance everything would be alright but I fell for him more and more everyday as the time passed.

“How long were you planning to continue this, I mean not to love someone?” He said ( very calmly).

“I don’t know, maybe a year or two.” I replied. Suddenly he started laughing.

“Come here.” He said while opening his arms to hug me. We hugged each other but he was still laughing.

“Oh, my dear Kavya, you should have just told me this before, I would have happily waited until you were ready to love again. Okay so, this is what we will do. Forget what happened today. Go home and rest up. We can just be friends until you are ready to date me. I will wait for you.” He said resting his hands on my shoulders. I expected him to tell me that this was a silly reason and I am stupid or get angry or say something else but definitely not expected this.

“Are you really ready to wait?” I asked.

“Of course, I mean I like you but if you are not ready to have a serious relationship right now then I can wait. Well obviously, you are not allowed to date those tinder guys then.” He said with a smirk.

I said, “Okay, I should go home then. Good night.”

“Yeah, cool. Good night. See you tomorrow.” He said smiling. He was really letting me go and ready to wait for me. I turned to go but again turned back and came closer to him and gave a kiss on his lips. He was definitely shocked. And was waiting for me to say something.

I said, “I’m ready.”

“Are you sure?” He asked to confirm.

“Yes.” I replied. Then he pulled me towards him through my waist and kissed me again.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It has been six months dating Nick. I am not a virgin anymore. We are really happy together. We are kissing, hugging, going on dates, staying at each other’s place, cuddling in bed together and having a lot of sex. We are the power couple in our office. Everything is going well and we are so in love. He has also introduced me to his parents and his little sister. They liked me. And they didn’t ask me anything about my family. I guess Nick has told them not to ask. He still doesn’t know the truth about my family. He told me to tell him whenever I want. And I think it’s time to tell him the truth .

It's Sunday and we are at my place. We were just lying on bed watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S. on Netflix. I turned off the laptop and sat.

“What happened ?” He asked taking my hand in his.

I said, “I’m ready to tell you about my family .”

He said, “Okay, I am listening.”

“I actually ran away from home.” I started speaking taking deep breaths. He was just waiting for me to finish the whole story. He was still holding my hand. I continued, “I had a traumatic childhood. I have always seen them fighting as long as I can remember. It was not just the arguments and conflict that was hard but I don’t know what happens to my mom when they fight, she always becomes suicidal. I have seen her attempting suicide many times. My grandfather told my dad that she had this problem from her childhood that makes her go crazy like this. But neither my grandfather nor my dad took her to psychiatrist. I started to stay alert most nights even when they didn’t fight so that my mom doesn’t wake up and do something or go outside of the house. Only my body used to sleep but my mind was always active even when my mom takes turn in her sleep, I open my eyes and when she goes to washroom, I used to keep my eyes open until she comes back to bed. Whenever they fought, I used to stay up all night. I developed sleeping disorders due to that from the very early age. I tried to choke myself only one time when I was 11 or 12 but my dad stopped me. After that I never tried something like that, I was too strong to end my life. My mom literally survived this thing because me and my dad was always there to stop her. I always thought of running away but I cared too much for my parents to do that. But now I wanted to escape from all of this so I decided to be selfish for once in my life and started looking for a job here and when I completed MBA, I took some money kind of stole it from my dad’s locker and came here. I didn’t even tell my bestie about this. I changed my number, my e-mail id and logged out of all my social media accounts so that no one could find me. That’s why I don’t use social media. I wanted to stay away from them just for some time. I miss my parents and my best friend. I love them. I will contact them again but not now; I want to be happy right now. I have never been happy like this before. I haven’t been at peace like this. So that’s my whole story.”

I didn’t cry while telling all this. Nick didn’t sigh or anything instead he asked, “But you must have left a letter or some hint that you will be back, right?”

I replied, “Yes, I left a letter saying that I will be back for sure. That I just need a break. And told my dad to take my mom for therapy. I explained all of my feelings in that letter. I also told them strictly not to try finding me and focus on fixing their relationship but they must be missing me a lot because I was the centre of their lives.”

“Yeah obviously, you are now centre of my life too.” He said kissing my forehead. I smiled.

“Whenever you want to go back just let me know, okay. I mean we have to discuss about us you know. If you decide to go back, we will be in a long-distance relationship. Damn, I can’t even imagine a day without seeing you. But it will work out I know because it’s you and me. And we work out everything. We will have to be in long distance just until we are married. I can do definitely do that.” He said in a very cute voice. Wait, marriage. He thinks about our future t-o-g-e-t-h-e-r.

“Marriage?” I asked in a confusing voice.

“I mean I want to spend my life with you. I want you in my future. I’m sorry, was it too early say this? Did I freak you out? I’m sorry if I did. Just forget that I said this. I don’t want you to feel pressured.” He said in tensed voice.

I said, “No, it’s alright. I want to be with you too. And as for long distance, I’m not going back. I will stay here; I mean I am settled here very well. I will just contact my parents and Aditi and tell them that I am here in Ahmedabad.”

He said, “Thank God, I thought you will freak out hearing the word “married”.”
“So, where does your family live? Do you have any sibling? How many persons are waiting for you there?” he started asking me questions in excitement.

“Okay, okay relax. My parents live in Vadodara. I don’t have any sibling and my bestie Aditi and his boyfriend Varun who is like a brother to me they live there too. I really wanted to tell her where I am going but I knew my dad will get the truth out from her that’s why I didn’t tell her anything. So, mister, do you have any more questions?” I answered all of his questions and asked if he has more.

“Yes, only one question.” He said romantically coming closer to my face.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Can we move in together?” He asked. He was still close to my face.

“Yes.” I replied immediately without thinking anything. Because I want him. I want to be with him every day and night. He gave me a kiss on my lips and said “I love you, Kavya.”

“I love you, too.” I said and we kissed each other.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It’s July 2024. It has been exactly two years since I ran away from home. I am really happy here with my job, my routine, and Nick. We are living together very happily. He understands me. He knows me better than I know myself. I have found my happiness and peace in him. He proposed me for marriage and of course I said yes. Now I am ready to contact my parents and Aditi. I logged into all of my social media accounts again. I can’t talk to them so I typed a long message explaining everything about where I am, my job and Nick including that I have decided to marry him and send it to my dad’s, mom’s and Aditi’s number. Within a second Aditi saw my message. I hold Nick’s hand tightly. Now I am waiting her to read the message and call me. I know she would be mad at me.
My phone rang. I picked it up but didn’t say anything.

“You bitch, do you have any idea how much I missed you ?” She shouted in the phone. Well, there she was, my bestie.

“I am sorry.” I said in slow voice.

“Seriously.” She said raising her voice. I stayed silence.

“When are you coming to see us?” She asked. Now she was crying.

“I can visit next week. I am really sorry.” I replied. I started crying too.

She said, “I know how hard it was for you but you should have told me at least. I would have given you all the updates about your parents from here.” She was still crying. Yeah, my parents, they must have seen the message too.

“Are they okay?” I asked.

“Let me give you two-year recap. They are more than okay. Your mom is finally getting a therapy as it was your only wish. Everything is fine here. They are getting along with each other. I visit them on my week off and I call them daily. Also, I have informed them about you immediately after reading your message. They want to see you and your boyfriend or should I say fiancé. And I got married to V last month.” She replied.

“Wow, really my mom and dad getting along, I should have run away before. And congratulations to you and Varun.” I said filled with tears of joy in my eyes. I am now happier than ever hearing all that.

She said, “Your parents must have also read your message by now. You should call them and tell them yourself that you are coming next week. We will plan your wedding together when you come here. See you, my girl. Bye, love you.”

“Okay, bye love you too .” I said and we ended our call.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I visited next week with Nick and everyone was so happy. My parents are finally together and happy. Everyone was excited to plan my wedding. I got everything that I ever wanted. I had my parents, my best friend and the love of my life with me. Escaping changed my life completely. It would have been opposite of this but I don’t want to imagine that.


I found my happiness and peace finally.

^^^^^^^
THE END

#ROMANCE #Love #Selflove













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