Page 44 of A Lab Rat’s Guide to Fated Love

Twenty Seven

Stupid First Love

A few weeks ago: Calgary, Canada

Nori

N ori had appeared at Ryan’s door the next morning, fully expecting him to slam it in her face. But he invited her in and made her some chai instead.

“Why aren’t you mad at me?” she asked, before eyeing her cup with mock suspicion. “You didn’t poison this, did you?”

“No, not mad,” Ryan replied, stirring a spoonful of sugar into his. “I’d figured you might respond like that. Well, not exactly like that, but… you know.”

“What do you mean?”

He offered her a small smile. “You don’t remember. But you’ve already rejected me in the past.”

“What? When did I—” Nori frowned, attempting to draw memories from the blank nothingness that was her lost years. She got nothing.

“I’ve had feelings for you for a long time, Nor.” Ryan shrugged. “When I first confessed, you were so shocked, you told me we were like siblings, and asked what was wrong with me. I got so embarrassed, I ran away to Delhi without telling you, and we didn’t speak for months afterwards.”

She stared at him in stunned silence. “ That was the reason you’d moved to Delhi? Not because of your mom?”

“I mean, mom had been asking me to come over, and then the courses offered there were really good, too… but, yeah. Sort of.”

“You disappeared… because I said we were like siblings?”

“You’d looked pretty mad, too. At one point, I thought you were going to spit on me.”

“Ryan… please… in all the years we’ve been friends, have I ever spat on you?”

“No, but you could’ve. Anyway, the second time I—”

“There was a second time?”

“Yeah. Minutes before your accident, in fact. Four years ago. I’ll not go into the details, but I was a bit of an asshole, and we had a big fight. And then I drove like a maniac and crashed my car into yours.” He winced through the last sentence.

“You promised you’d stop blaming yourself for that.”

“If something had happened to you—”

“But it didn’t, did it? I’m totally fine.”

“Still, it was my—”

“It was not your fault. Just stop. I won’t ask again. I’ll just chuck something at you the next time. You don’t want that chair in your face, do you?”

With a snort, Ryan tilted his cheek towards her. “Go on. Throw the table, too, if you can lift it.”

She rolled her eyes at him.

“I’m sorry for last evening,” she said after a moment. “That… wasn’t very mature of me.”

“Apology accepted.”

“Are you sure you don’t hate me?”

“No. Of course, not.” He chuckled.

“We’re good?”

“We’re good.”

“Okay, I’m ordering pizza then. ”

They talked some more while stuffing themselves with pizza till they were both too full to move.

“Earlier,” Ryan said with one hand on his belly while the other reached for the last remaining slice, “you told me to stop waiting for you, and to let you go.” He bit into it and leaned back with a sigh. “I’m letting you go.”

“You deserve better.”

“I know.”

Nori gave him a quiet nod.

“Take it,” he said after a while. “The teaching offer in Shoja that’s been sitting at your desk since last month.”

“You saw that? I’ve been thinking about it. It’s just one semester, and I’ve been meaning to visit the place, but… I don’t know.”

“Take it,” he nudged again. “Don’t ask why. You’ll know once you get there.”

“I’ll know what?” She winced.

“Don’t force it, Nor. I don’t want you to get another one of those headaches.”

He was right. She could feel one stirring in her temples.

“And I mean it. This is it for us—romantically.” He shrugged. “Don’t come begging for my hand in marriage once you’re a single, fifty-year-old aunty with or without cats.”

“Sure.” Nori shook her head. “And it’s with cats, always.”

“But my best friend, I’m not giving her up,” Ryan added softly. “No matter what you find there, I want her back. So, don’t disappear on me. Go teach some kids, and then come back. Okay?”

“What exactly do you think I’m going to find there? A portal to Narnia?” She laughed. “I’ll be back. But don’t you dare cut me off. I might not remember the last time, but if you disappear on me again, I will find you, wherever you are and—”

“—throw a sofa-set at me? Got it. I won’t.”

Ryan smirked while his jaw worked in the subtle way that told Nori he was holding back tears. Any other day, she would’ve persuaded him to stop with the tough boy act, and let it out .

And any other day, he would’ve let it out, sniffling and blubbering like a kid as she rubbed his back. All while simultaneously plotting the very painful demise of every single person who was responsible for making her best friend cry.

But not today.

Something told her to let him hold on to the facade. Just this once.

Present Day, January 2023: Shoja, Himachal Pradesh

Vir

N ori groaned into her hands as she finished her story, and Vir pursed his lips, trying hard not to laugh at the poor guy’s misery. But the pufferfish inside his chest was already bouncing around, happily bloated to its seams.

“Is that funny to you?” A swirl of irritation colored her existing layer of guilt.

“No. I mean… a little.”

“Tsk.” Nori shook her head, and as their eyes met, her lips quivered. “Well, we did laugh about it afterwards.” She chuckled once, and then it morphed into the most magical stream of laughter.

Vir’s breath caught as he stared at her. He’d missed that. He’d missed her.

“Are you okay?” Nori tapped her cheek with her index finger.

He touched his own and found it wet again.

“Sorry.” He cleared his throat, reaching for tissues at the vacant table nearby.

“Allergies?”

He shrugged, not trusting his voice.

It was dark outside by the time they made their way to the parking lot.

“Do you live on campus?” Nori asked, looking around for her car.

“No, I rent an apartment nearby. Didn’t they offer you one?”

“They did. But I have my own place about fifteen-minutes away.”

So, she was back at the cottage .

A knot tightened in Vir’s chest as he watched her get in her car. What if she changed her mind about joining the university and flew back overnight? He’d never be able to see her again. Or worse, what if he woke up tomorrow and found today to be nothing but a dream?

He couldn’t decide which was worse.

“Vir?” Nori interrupted his spiraling thoughts. “I’ll drop you. Get in.”

Vir didn’t need to be asked twice.

Covering the distance in a few quick strides, he hopped into the passenger seat with the widest grin plastered across his face.

Nori

V ir navigated the way as Nori drove the short distance to his place. She parked her car beside a large front yard where a plump old man was talking animatedly to a goat with a bell collar. It appeared to be listening intently before bleating in response to each sentence.

The exchange reminded Nori of her own interactions with Goober, and she laughed.

“You live on the upper floor?” she guessed, turning towards Vir, only to find him staring intently at her again.

“Yes,” he said, before quickly adding, “Would you like to come up for some more chai? Or dinner maybe?”

Despite it being wildly uncharacteristic for her, for some reason, she wanted to accept the invitation.

But even if they’d been good friends once upon a time, she didn’t know him anymore.

Not really. And what if he was just being polite because she’d dropped him home and didn’t really mean it?

Would it be weird if she went up to his place after having met him only hours ago? Why did she want to say yes so badly?

“Nori?” Vir waved a hand in front of her. “Did I say something wrong?”

“What?” she snapped before catching her angry reflection in the rear-view mirror. Composing her features, she took in Vir’s concerned gaze, and it made her laugh again. “Sorry. I was thinking if it was appropriate. We only met hours ago. ”

“Sorry, I didn’t—maybe another day.”

Right as Nori offered him a polite smile, in her peripheral vision, something white swished through the window of his apartment. She turned to witness a gorgeous snowy cat jump up on the windowsill to sit and stare directly towards her with the most displeased, judgmental gaze she’d ever seen.

“Magnificent,” she whispered, knowing fully well she’d barge in anywhere, break down doors if she had to, only to squish this fat cat once. Who needed an invite anyway? “Yes, please! I’d love some dinner. And your cat.”

There was a pause. And then Vir barked out a laugh just as it started drizzling outside. “Right,” he said. “I should’ve led with the cat. Her name’s Billie.”

Billie, the fat white cat, came running towards them as they stepped inside Vir’s apartment.

She immediately began swatting at his knee till he picked her up to cradle her in his arms like a baby.

He kissed her forehead—twice—before moving onto chin-scratches, and all the while she purred like a motorboat.

As Nori watched the scene before her in complete awe, her heart began wobbling inside her chest like a blob of freshly set jelly. Judging from Vir’s and her own relative heights, she noticed how the top of her head perfectly aligned with the placement of his mouth. She wouldn’t mind if he—

She shook her head at the vivid imagery her brain had just conjured—Vir kissing her forehead as he’d kissed the cat’s. Twice.

He released Billie and turned to look at her with a puzzled expression.

Nori gave him another polite smile, hoping the sheer absurdity of her thoughts hadn’t seeped out onto her face.

Evidently not, because he said, “Technically, Billie is Sam’s cat, not mine. But she practically lives here at this point.”

Now that Billie had received Vir’s attention, she wanted Nori’s, too, who knelt down to pet her while Vir put his things away before padding off to the kitchen.

“Please make yourself at home,” he said, taking out a box of mushrooms from the refrigerator and rinsing them at the sink. “There are treats in that jar by the couch. She’ll probably try to get you to feed her some.”