Swasan : Destiny (Episode 6)

~~Staring is Rude~~

~Sanskar’s POV

I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock 10:45 a.m. it showed. How much did I sleep ? The events of last night came flooded into my mind. The more I thought about her, the more I suffered. I was wise enough to know, I needed some peace of mind.

Deciding that I should go out, I got out of my bed to change.

I got changed to an old pair of jeans and a tee – my usual attire and drove to my favourite coffee shop. It was afternoon, which means it was lunch time so, I concluded there were going to be a good number of customers.

The wooden board outside read “Starbucks.” There was a time when this particular café used to be the most popular place in the whole of Mumbai. Swara had brought me here. Every Saturday of ours was spent here romantically. Even the owners knew about us. However her sudden disappearance had caused me to stop visiting this café.

“Good morning sir– oh my my. Sanskar is that you ?” The lady behind the counter gasped. Her hands cupped her mouth as she eyed me head to toe. “You were so lean before ? What happened ? Muscular body ? How much have you changed !”
I smiled at her, seeing the familiar coffee brown eyes and brunette curls. She was Anaika.

“Hello Anaika.” I greeted her. It was like she couldn’t believe her eyes. She came outside from behind the counter and engulfed me in a bone crushing hug. Yes, we were that close.

“Oh my. I can’t believe you actually came ? How are you, my love ?” She asked patting my back.

“I m good. How about you ? How is Kiara ?” I asked. Kiara was Anaika’s little girl. She was just two years old when I and Swara used to be the regular customers here. I wonder how she would have grown up by now.

“Kiara is fantastic. You stopped coming here she never stopped missing you. Tell me now what brings you here ?” She asked narrowing her eyes.

‘Memories.’ I thought. I wanted to relieve the old days . That’s the only reason I was here.
“Just thought of paying you and Kiara a visit. I missed you both.” I said.

“We missed you too, honey. We are really proud of you. And you have no idea how happy you have made me by coming here. And you know who else came here today — ?” Anaika asked handing me a cup of my favourite black coffee.
“Who?” I asked heading towards the table to take a seat.

“Swa–” she was cut off by a major ranting as I bumped right into someone making the coffee spill all over my t-shirt.

“Heck. Shit don’t you have eyes ?” I muttered, looking up. If I say, the familiar face didn’t surprise me, then, I would be lying. Because it did. It was Swara.

“I m so sorry.” She gasped. I rolled my eyes as Anaika interrupted us.

“Ah ! She is the one I was talking about. Do you want more of that tea, honey ?” Asked Anaika.

“Uh oh. I should get going.” Swara replied grabbing a handful of tissues from a box. She handed it to me. My t-shirt was partially soaked in coffee. How were those tissues going to help me anyway?

“Oh so you guys didn’t come together ?” Anaika asked.

“No.” I said wiping the stain off with the tissue.

Anaika swapped gazes between the two of us. Like we were some suspects of a major crime and she was the investigator. “Oh. I thought you two were together…. as in together.”

“No we are not.” This time Swara replied. Anaika looked at us surprised. Anyone who knew us back then would have given the same expression. We were too close to fall apart. It was an ideal relationship. But unfortunately all good thing don’t last forever….

“I m sorry. It’s just that you two were close by then. So I assumed you two must be married by now.” She said with a hint of disappointment in her voice.

Kiara, I also thought the same.
“Well. I should leave now. You want me to fix your shirt ?” Swara asked. How is she going to fix the stain ? “I mean I ll wash it. My house is just a few blocks away. You can come along. That’s only if you are comfortable.” She added.

Somehow I was stupid enough to agree immediately. “oh. Okay.” I said.

**
Her house was so familiar to me. It used to be like my second home. A place where Swara and I had spent most of our time together. It wasn’t too huge just a cute little row house since Swara didn’t have any any siblings and lived with her parents.

“Welcome!” She said opening the door leading me in. I looked around to see nothing had changed except the newly painted walls and a new couch. There were so many places attached to this place as well.

“Its exactly the same. Except that wall and I like it.” I said her as she kept the keys on the shoe rack.

“My choice.” She beamed.

“huh. No way. Can’t be. Your choice sucks. I’m sure, uncle must have chose this one.” I said. She giggled.

“well yeah. That’s dad’s choice. But my choice isn’t that bad as well.” She said. We walked upstairs where her room was.

“Glitters and stars and pink. That’s your choice and I don’t call it good, love.” I said as we entered her room. She opened her wardrobe and rummaged through the clothes and I noticed her room too was still the same.

An ugly pink wall. A bed with bunnies. A huge book shelf with lots of books. It looked as if she had not removed a thing from its place.

“Hear. wear this till I wash your shirt.” Swara said tossing me a shirt in my hands. It wasn’t another shirt. It was my shirt which which I think I had forgotten sometime.

“Why do you still have this ?” I asked.

“I uh didn’t remove any junk from here, that’s why, I think so. Anyways that’s the only thing that can fit you right now. So take off your shirt and wear it.” I nodded and pulled off my shirt. I could see Swara stealing a little glances at me from corner of her eyes. Ofcourse, my physique had changed drastically. I had a fitter, muscular body than before. Thanks to the gym and heavy work otherwise I was very lean before. Seeing her still staring, I smirked “Like what you see ?” I was still shirtless.
“Just hand me that stained shirt.” She ordered. I tossed my stained shirt to her. I was still shirtless in front of her. Of course ‘on purpose.’

“Are you even going to put that shirt on ?” She asked.
“I won’t if you don’t want me to.” I said.
She snickered, “Shut up and put on. I have had enough view of those new abs which you have developed recently.” She said and I followed her wearing my shirt.
We were in the kitchen. She asked me for coffee since I had spilled my coffee on my shirt. She made some coffee in the kitchen while I blankly stared at the newly painted blue wall.

“What are you staring at ?” Swara asked walking in with two mugs of coffee in her hands.

“Nothing. The color actually suits that place.” I said. She nodded and took a sip of coffee from the mug. That’s when I remembered, her utter hatred and dislike towards coffee. She used to lecture me whole day, like a doctor, on THE ILL EFFECTS OF COFFEE.

“since when are you a coffee lover ?” I asked.

“Ishaan made me try it out on, uh, our first date. Since then I started liking it.” She replied. Somehow Ishaan’s name coming in between our conversation didn’t appeal to me. Even though he was a friend I wanted him to be out of something that involved me and Swara.

“so. um. Where do you live now ?” I asked.

“London since two years. Right now, I’m specialising in Neurology. Almost done now. There I met Ishaan.” She replied. I hated how Ishaan managed to come in between our conversation even though he was not present here. But I couldn’t openly show my discontent so I nodded.

“then what brings you here ?” I asked.

“Ishaan.” She replied and again I cringed at that name. Why did everything in Swara’s life had to be related with Ishaan ? I wondered. “well I have vacations going around as well. So I thought about spending some time with ma and baba.” She added.
“so you are going to stick around here for a while, right ?” I questioned. I didn’t want her to leave. She nodded which made me smile.

“yes. Ishaan is staying for a while too. So we both might go back together. He wants me to stay.” She said. SCREW ISHAAN, REALLY.

“so you want to stay here just because Ishaan wants you to stay?” I asked slightly annoyed by how Ishaan was poking his nose in everything.

“No its just not him. I want to stay myself. And I wanted to see you as well.” She said probably noticing my discomfort on mentioning of Ishaan’s name. I smiled.

Half an hour passes by. We were chatting on how our lives were. I told her how my work had become my second life and she told me how excited she is about being a nero-surgeon and how it had been living in London. I had been to London a few times for my business meetings but, at that time I didnt have the faintest idea that Swara would also be there.
We were back in Swara’s room where she handed me my shirt back. It was all dry and stain was all gone.

“Yo do wash well.” I said.

“Its not me. Washing powder Nirma ka kamaal hai.” She beamed as I burst into laughter. Thankfully her sense of humour was one thing that hadn’t changed.

I took my shirt off and noticed her gaping at me again. I could only smirk as she couldn’t believe it was my body.

“Staring is rude Miss Roy.” I said.

She snapped out. “Oh god. Don’t ever change in front of me.” She said and walked out of the room with her hands waving in the air.

I laughed….

Next part : ~~A kiss I badly missed~~

Hope you liked this part. I tried to write longer but then I was really out of ideas and way more sleepy.
Drop your feedback and
about the reason of break up as many people have asked I only want to say. Trust me, its going to come when it has to. There’s a perfect time and I will reveal it soon . A lot of drama is paving up in the next few episodes.