Page 1 of That Same Old Love

“Oh God! No! No. No. No. No!”

Mahi stared into her messy purse. She had gone through it plenty of times to know that the house key was definitely missing. And also enough to know that she would have to go to the neighbor’s house and ask them for the emergency spare key.

She was tired and hungry after a long journey, which was made even longer due to a missed flight connection. She was really looking forward to crashing in her childhood home the moment she entered inside. And now, she had to find a way to get inside the damn house first.

“Great. Just great. And it’s not even six in the morning,” she muttered, looking towards the neighboring houses.

Almost all of the homes had been renovated in some way or the other over the years. Although not as much as the opposite house.

The opposite house was currently occupied since the lights were turned on the top floor. And she thought she even saw someone’s shadow move.

But wow! It wasn’t anything like the modest two-leveled structure from before.

“You need to focus!” she muttered to herself as she peeled her eyes away from the house. She had plenty of time to gawk at the odd-looking house from her balcony if she could get inside first.

“Okay then…” she said tiredly and walked across the street.

She rang the neighbor’s doorbell a few times and waited impatiently. “Oh, come on. Hurry up and open already,” she muttered.

On the fourth or maybe the fifth ring, she heard footsteps inside, and then the door was finally opened.

Mahi looked at the man standing at the doorway with a grim look. She stared at his face, especially at the thin eyebrow scar and was shell-shocked.

* * *

Samrat continued to stonily stare with narrowed eyes.

The woman in front of him was really something.

He remembered how she used to have a huge ego. She used to think that everyone wanted her.

He didn’t.

In fact he had no idea why he would intimidate her like a villain from a bad movie. But when she looked so impatient and brushed off what she did to him as something insignificant, he simply lost it.

He definitely didn’t think that her hurried apology from before would ever begin to compensate the trauma he had gone through, when she accused him of cheating during their finals. And she was behaving as though he was the one being extremely unreasonable and immature by not letting their past go.

Samrat had felt like an idiot indulging or even listening to the gossip about Mahi’s past, and then repeating it to her. But he really needed to let her know that everyone was aware of her circumstances and also that whatever malicious games she might have planned would be ineffective due to her reputation.

Mahi smiled flirtatiously. “While I’m really looking forward to your punishment, maybe we can get back to it soon some other time when I’m a little more aware and not about to collapse in exhaustion.”

At that smile, he immediately stepped away from her like she had a contagious disease.

She followed after him and pulled out the key from his fingers. “Later. Nice… uh… catching up with you, Samrat,” she said, waving at him before turning to leave.

After the door closed, Samrat stared at it for a while.

What the hell just happened? Did I just really try to scare a woman?

Samrat felt off balance, as he always did when he saw her or was around her.

It was something that he hadn’t ever acknowledged to himself, because he refused to waste even a second thinking about her back then. But now, he knew what it was.

He was attracted to her.

He realized that fact in horror and disgust. Even after so many years, Mahi still had that raw charisma about her that the travel worn clothes and a tired face could not hide.

He cursed viciously, even though he didn’t usually swear. Not because he thought it was bad, but because he didn’t allow his emotions to get to the point where using bad words was necessary.

This is going to be a complete disaster.