Page 42 of That Same Old Love

Soon, they had lunch delivered from outside and caught up on what each of their classmates were doing. Soon it was almost evening time and Mahi suggested that they go to the upstairs balcony for some fresh air.

Mahi filled up some plates with snacks, and Jhanvi opened a wine bottle and served it into some steel glasses since Mahi didn’t have any wine glasses yet.

“To our everlasting friendship. Now make eye contact,” Jhanvi toasted.

They clinked their glasses together and sipped as they saw someone on the opposite balcony. It was Samrat and he was talking on his cell phone in a sleeveless workout shirt and shorts.

Mahi couldn’t take her eyes off him.

“Red hot dude and eye candy alert,” Ashwini announced dramatically.

“Wait. Isn’t that Tarzan? Oh my god. Why is he still living in his old house when he’s a billionaire?” asked Jhanvi.

Mahi was still staring at him. “I asked him the same thing on the first day and he almost bit my head off saying it was none of my business,” she said absently.

Samrat looked towards Mahi’s house and saw the group of women watching him keenly. He scanned everyone but stopped and stared at Mahi for several grim seconds before he turned away to get back inside his house.

Everyone was extremely quiet for a few seconds.

“Holy fudge! That was really hot and he totally checked you out Mahi,” said Jhanvi.

“What? No. That’s a glower. He probably wants me dead and gone from here,” said Mahi.

“Oh puhleez,” said Ashwini. “One of the times my hubbygloweredat me like that, I gave birth to our second daughter nine months later.”

Everyone giggled at that information.

“Naah. He’s bummed at me. He pretty much thinks I have ulterior motives and am scheming to ruin his family. He thinks I’m a loose woman who is out to seduce all the hapless men,” said Mahi with a frown.

“I don’t think so Mahi. It looked like he wanted to eat you up. And that’s the same look he used to give you in college too and you were oblivious to it. You were with Sidhu at that time,” said Parvathi.

Mahi was stunned. “Oh please. Samrat hated me back then. Remember what I did to his sister and then to him? I was a mean bitch back then,” she said cringing.

“We all were. But we’ve come a long way. All of us have changed,” said Smitha

“Yeah. It started out as simple ragging, but it got out of control. We were ragged by our seniors too, but we went too far with Ananya,” said Parvathi.

“Sidhu married her and they have a ten year old daughter,” Mahi said softly.

Everyone was quiet and they didn’t appear shocked.

“You girls knew that already, didn’t you?” Mahi asked.

All of them nodded silently.

“Sidhu was so heartbroken, Mahi. We even thought he would kill himself. And later, all of a sudden after a couple of months he announced his marriage to Ananya who just completed her third year. Obviously by now you must have done the math and found out why theyhadto get married,” said Jhanvi softly.

“Sidhu slowly lost in touch with all of us too. Maybe he found it too painful to associate with us because we must have reminded him of you,” said Smitha.

Mahi told them about how she met Sidhu’s and Ananya’s daughter Srishti. Then the incidents during the birthday party.

Jhanvi was outraged. “How dare they speak to you like that!”

“I think they were being protective of Ananya and felt threatened thinking that I was trying to steal back Sidhu. And they are right about me being the most unlikely bride. Samrat and I would definitely make a match made in hell,” said Mahi smiling.

“Don’t support them Mahi! They can crow women empowerment from rooftops and write and watch about powerful modern women every day, but when they actually meet a woman who didn’t lead their idea of perfect life, they begin casting whore accusations or worse. They need a swift kick in their asses,” said Ashwini.

Mahi smiled. “True. But I still think they wanted to protect Ananya and warn me off Sidhu.”

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