After All This Time by Nikita Singh Read Free Book Online Page A

now. We know everything. We’ve all moved on. Can’t we just forget about it already?’
    Shourya shook his head slowly, repeatedly, his cell phone stuck to his cheek. He was amazed at how neatly Deepti had summed up the situation, as if there wasn’t a storm rising inside of him every time he remembered that she belonged to someone else. All he did was shake his head. He did not trust himself to speak. He would simply remind her of all she had put him through, and he knew how pitiable it would sound. For once, inflicting pain on her to make himself feel better held no appeal.
    He really did miss her.
    So he let her speak, and just listened as she tried, and failed, to make him feel better, as she broke down several times, trying to explain, to justify everything. At one point, he almost bought into it; he almost felt as if she had been the helpless, clueless victim in the situation, that she still loved him and cared for him as much as she had before. Just not more than she loved and cared for Avik, of course not. The way she put it, it felt as if she really did not understand his point of view. Listening to her side of the story, Shourya felt like she was talking about somebody else, so different had the experience been for each of them.
    For the next hour, she spoke mostly and he listened. He thought he felt better than he had before he had called her; that’s how he justified the phone call to himself. He was not going to deny himself that relief just because reaching out to the person who ripped you apart to help put you back together was a pitiable thing to do.
    But just when he thought he was arriving at a better place, he heard Avik’s voice in the background.
    ‘Why are you crying? What’s wrong?’ Avik was asking.
    Shourya heard Deepti mumble, ‘I’m okay, it’s nothing,’ before Avik took the phone from her.
    ‘Hello? Who’s this?’
    ‘It’s Shourya. Hey.’ It was twisted. It was complicated. But it was how it was, how it was going to remain. Avik really was not to blame for any of this anyway. Maybe Shourya was finally ready to let go and move on.
    ‘Shourya! I knew it. I knew it was you. Why do you keep calling her? This has been going on too long. Why won’t you just leave us alone? Look at her—she’s crying. Stop torturing her, man!’ Avik barked.
    ‘I did not do anything.’ Shourya ground his teeth together, suddenly furious too.
    ‘It doesn’t seem like it. She’s mine, okay? She decided that months ago. I take care of her now. You need to get the hell out of our lives and get one of your own.’
    ‘Avik!’ Shourya heard Deepti cry out.
    ‘She can decide whether she wants to talk to me or not. You don’t
own
her,’ Shourya snapped.
    ‘But I do have a say in what she does and doesn’t do. And I’m telling you—stop bothering my girl. She has been through enough al—’
    ‘Shourya,’ Deepti shouted, ‘don’t listen to Avik. He’s just upset because I was crying—’
    ‘Damn right I am. Why do you have to talk to him—?’
    ‘He’s my best friend—’
    ‘No, he isn’t. He
was
your best friend,
and
your boyfriend, once upon a time, but isn’t any more. Or have you forgotten that?’
    ‘I didn’t mean—’
    ‘Of course you didn’t mean it! You do nothing; things just happen around you.’
    ‘Avik, please—’ Shourya heard Deepti plead.
    ‘Tell me, Deepti, do you still love him?’
    ‘No, I don’t! I’ve told you a million times—’
    ‘You made your choice. You swore to me that you don’t love him any more—’ Avik said angrily.
    ‘And I don’t! I don’t love him. I told you, I fell out of love with him a long time ago, I was just . . . I was stuck with him. I didn’t know how to tell him . . . we’d been together for such a long time . . . I didn’t want to hurt him.’
    ‘But you did. It had to happen, and it happened. It was a long time ago. Then why are we still here—talking about this?’
    ‘It’s not that easy. There’s so much