Page 32 of That Same Old Love

Mahi couldn’t return back to her house after seeing the devastated expression on Ananya’s face. She crossed the street and rang Samrat’s bell.

“Why can’t I have a drama free time for a while?” she muttered out.

Samrat opened the door and looked down at her with a straight face. “Yes? How can I help you?”

They heard Ananya running down the stairs hurriedly.

“Who is it? Is it Sidhu?” Ananya asked hopefully.

Samrat stared casually at Mahi, who was still waiting outside the door impatiently.

“No Anu, it’s not Sidhu. Someone else,” he replied loudly and then, “Just some crazy neighbor talking to herself again,” he said softly.

Ananya sighed, “Oh” and went into the guest room downstairs.

Samrat still stood blocking the doorway. “So you haven’t answered me yet. How can I help you? Are you here for anything specific?” he challenged Mahi.

“I’m here to talk to Ananya… to clear a misunderstanding.”

“And?” he prompted.

“What do you mean and ? Just that. So if you’ll move aside.” Mahi was getting irritated by his silly behavior.

Samrat watched her tapping her foot impatiently. “And what about the fact that we are together and Anu doesn’t know it yet? Do you plan on telling her that or should I do it now?”

“No… I told you already we should wait. We have a lot of time—” she broke off with narrowed eyes. “ Say hi to Samrat when you see him . You made Sidhu pull that trick a while ago, to force me to meet Ananya, and to get the dialogue started. You… you… ,” Mahi was fuming.

Samrat smirked. “So all those mystery and thriller movies that I made you watch with me have finally paid off.”

Mahi wasn’t amused. “You think this is funny? Ananya already hates me and now she will have more reason to loathe me. What you did was juvenile and the plot was more in terms of a bad television soap opera rather than a mystery.”

He pulled her inside the house and closed the door. Cornering her on the wall, he trapped her by placing his hands on either side of her.

“Are you crazy? Your sister will see us,” she hissed trying to escape from under his arms.

But he moved closer, much closer, almost touching her everywhere from her shoulders to legs.

“ You drove me to that bad television soap opera scheme. And Anu needed a reality check on how she would feel if her husband actually contemplated cheating on her. Sidhu and I were hoping that she would confront him. She is refusing to talk to him or meet with him from the past three weeks,” he growled.

She placed her hands on his chest to keep him at bay, just in case his sister came out from the guest room.

He didn’t budge.

He glared at her. “And you. You have been stalling for a while, and I’m sick of keeping our relationship a secret from my family like I’m ashamed of it. They will find out eventually from some source of gossip, but I would like to be the one to inform them first.”

She looked guilty and uncertain.

His face softened. “And I miss having you in my house, to hold you, to kiss you and then to—” he broke off when Mahi placed her fingers on his lips.

He licked her finger with his tongue, making her giggle at the ticklish feeling.

“I miss my messy house, now that you aren’t here… I have too much time left in my hands because I’m not cleaning up after you,” he said and grinned when she whacked him.

She took a deep breath through her mouth. “Okay. I’m going to talk to Ananya now. Call her out, and let her know that I’m here to talk about something important,” she said nervously.

Samrat lifted her off her feet and leaned down towards her neck to kiss her.

“Stop! You maniac! I know you love going all vampire on me, but I don’t want to be caught with freshly made bruises on my neck when I’m speaking with your sister.”

He hugged her. “Relax, my sister doesn’t bite,” he soothed and then, “whereas I do, but then you love my vampire bites. You moan and ask me to—” he broke off laughing when she punched him on his arm.

“Go and get her,” she hissed as he lowered her to the ground.

“Okay, okay, I am. And those kick boxing classes at the work gym must be really good.” he said rubbing his arm while walking towards the guest bedroom.

Mahi couldn’t hear the conversation going on inside.

She hadn’t exactly plan a speech, since she didn’t think the day when she would have to give out her deep felt apology would be anywhere close by.

Maybe it was a good thing that Samrat had forced her hand even though she would never admit that to him.

Soon Samrat come out from the bedroom followed by a mutinous looking Ananya.

Samrat looked at Mahi and winked at her saying, “Okay, I’m going to leave you both downstairs since I have some work to take care of. Try not to kill each other meantime.”

Mahi felt awkward being left alone with Ananya. She tried to break the ice by starting with an apology. “Ananya, I just want to say that I’m sorry for how I behaved with you during our college days. I was really mea—”

“Mahi, you have already gone through this spiel at Srishti’s party. I don’t understand why my brother dragged me out from my room to listen to the same thing. I’m rather busy now. So if you’ll excuse me… ” Ananya was about to leave.

Mahi didn’t know how to stop her. “No wait. Please let me explain to you why I did it in the first place.”

Ananya briefly glanced at her but didn’t look interested. “I really don’t care why.”

Mahi panicked slightly when she saw Ananya leaving and she blurted out, “I was jealous of you and I wanted to make you miserable.”

Ananya stopped and turned, looking puzzled. “What? You were jealous of me ? Do you think anyone would believe that story?” she asked, scoffing.

Mahi shook her head. “Believe me Ananya. I wasn’t just jealous, but wildly resentful of you too. Of your perfect life.”

“What perfect life?” asked Ananya, still looking at Mahi in disbelief.

“You had a loving father, mother and brother. I didn’t.

I would sometimes look at your family’s interactions with you and think, ‘they actually like their daughter or sister!’ I would be amazed that they really wanted to spend time with you and know what was happening with you or even genuinely want to help you. ”

Ananya was listening to her keenly.

“My mother’s constant comparisons didn’t help. I wanted your life, but couldn’t have it. So I made part of yours hell instead,” said Mahi softly.

“But you had Sidhu,” Ananya stated.

“Yes, Sidhu was in my life during those four years of college. He tried to keep me sane, but I was too messed up and destructive to ever listen to his reasoning. Each time I saw you, it reminded me of what I was missing. I don’t feel like that anymore, even though I know you still have a perfect family. ”

“I don’t have a perfect family Mahi. Not anymore,” said Ananya looking forlorn.

Mahi took that as a cue to explain Sidhu’s presence and Samrat’s harebrained idea to make Ananya jealous enough to talk or meet her husband.

“Ananya, what you saw in front of my house a few minutes ago—”

Ananya raised her hand indicating her to stop. “Mahi, I have started to forgive you for your college stunts a while ago. I cannot forget what you did, but I have nothing against you now and I know you are not in love with Sidhu anymore. Whereas Sidhu… he… ”

Mahi was both overjoyed that Ananya was forgiving her, and frustrated that she still thought Sidhu had feelings towards Mahi. “I spoke to Sidhu a while ago. He told me how much he loves you. I believe him and so should you.”

Ananya shook her head. “Please, while I appreciate your concern, I would prefer it if you didn’t get involved in this matter.”

“Ana—” Mahi broke off when she saw Samrat coming down the stairs to join them.

To Mahi’s horror, he slid his arm around her waist and stood next to her smiling at Ananya.

Ananya’s naturally big eyes grew bigger and wider in shock.

Samrat smiled at his sister. “So Anu. What do you think? Will our parents be okay with the arrangement? I know they will, but I might need your help to convince them just in case they are not too happy.”

“I didn’t get a chance to tell Ananya about us Samrat!” Mahi whisper yelled.

Samrat didn’t look too bothered about it. “That’s okay. We’ll do it now. Anu, Mahi and I are together. We have been seeing each other from the past seven months and have decided to live together as a long term couple. So you’ll end up seeing Mahi at my house whenever you visit me.”

Ananya didn’t quite react like how Samrat thought she would. She glared at both Mahi and Samrat and went into her room to slam the door shut.

Samrat sighed. “She’ll get over it. So anyway, good news is we can spend the night together,” he said huskily.

Mahi was agitated. “Oh my god! She just said she had started to forgive me, and then you come strutting down here to drop another bombshell! She hates me again!”

“No, she doesn’t. And why do you care so much? You were never the kind to care about what anyone thinks of you,” he said, trying to steal a kiss.

She glared at him. “I don’t care what everyone else thinks of me. But I do care what your family thinks of me.”

He broke into a wide grin. “I’m glad you feel that way, even though it’s a little misguided. Don’t worry, my parents will love you and Anu will get over it soon.”

And this time when he pulled her closer, she went to him, and hugged him anxiously, while he stroked her hair gently.

“I really hope so.” she said and sighed. Then looking up at his face, “Thank you for what you did with Sidhu,” she said softly.

Samrat didn’t pretend to not understand. “I knew how much Sidhu’s forgiveness meant to you,” he replied gruffly.

Later that night Samrat told his parents about his relationship with Mahi.

They were surprised, but happy that he had opened his heart again to let someone into his life.

They did make some comments about marriage and grandchildren, for which he promptly replied that he was still trying to woo Mahi.

He told his mother briefly about her abusive husband and also about how she lost a son when he was four years old. His mother sympathized with Mahi and asked him to not push her too much if she wasn’t willing.