Thomas could not believe that he spoke with Shahma without feeling himself like a clown. He had done it just two days back but it felt like it had been two centuries since he talked to her. He wondered when they could spend time with each other again.

A smile spread on his face as he thought about that day, he sat and ate with the girl of his dreams. He could not even establish proper eye contact with her till that day. He felt a wave of confidence surge through him as he thought of her. Her smile, her eyes and all the stuff that men in love think about.

He could not go to college on the day next to their 'unofficial date with Sushi as third wheel' and he missed that smile so much that his heart just responded to the thought of seeing her again.

"Why the goofy smile?" Anna, Thomas' aunt, asked as she adjusted her round spectacles. Her perfectly straight long black hair moved from one side to the other as she flipped it. She looked royal as she descended the stairs in her black golden bordered saree. Her manicured hands trailed on the handrail as the noise of her clicking heels echoed throughout the room.

"Nothing special," He said before filling his stomach with Dosa and Chatni. A drop of chatni fell on his pants as he absent-mindedly brought a piece of Dosa to his mouth but neither did he know it nor did his smile falter.

Do not blame this author when she says that ,at times, love is pure stupidity.

"So did she say yes?" She raised an eyebrow as she sat beside Thomas.

"Not yet..." he raised his eyes from his plate to meet his aunt's playful eyes. He gulped the piece of Dosa in his mouth without chewing " uh...I mean which girl?"

"Thomas, I am your aunt. I can understand when there is a 'her' in your life, spill it"

Curse her detective skills.

His aunt was a writer so she was a pro in observing body language and detecting emotions. She used to write detective novels and romance novels. Many people said that the two genres were polar opposites and that she is a genius to be writing both of them but Anna kept telling that there were no other two genres that were as similar as them.

His eyes darted towards everywhere in the room before it settled on the clock. It was the only thing that could save him from the awkward conversation that he thought he would never have with his aunt.

"Oh my god! It is already 8'o clock, I have to leave now," He said as he stood up from his seat and rushed towards the wash basin before gulping the hot tea and letting out a mental scream.

"You ate just one Dosa, eat one more," His aunt said as she pointed at his plate.

"Shahma. No. Time." Snap mode on. He had to go out of there before one of his parents woke up and heard the conversation. His parents would not hesitate to hold a barbeque party with his meat if they knew about the rhythm of his heart,Shahma .

Anna started giggling profusely. She covered her plump lips while laughing and her eyebrows were knit together. She tucked the hair curls that fell on her face behind her eyes and looked at her nephew before sighing into a smile.

"What?"

"My name is Anna , not Shahma"

" I ... um ... have to leave"

Mission Failed Thomas, Mission failed

"Thomas, wait up" she motioned him to sit in front of her "I have something very serious to discuss with you"

His shoulders dropped as he moved to the chair. He could not deny it when his 23-year-old Aunt wore an 'I am seriously in trouble, please listen to me' face.

"You know, Thomas" she bit her lip and massaged her forehead "the life of a writer is filled with ups and downs. There would be times with abundant of money as well as days with none, you know"

He nodded as she told him about the difficulty of a writer " Its been long since I went for a trip..."

His Aunt had a dangerous case of wanderlust. She suffered from it from a very young age and she had gone missing for an year after her college graduation. She was later found by her brother, Thomas father, visited his mother's apartment for their first date. Turned out, his aunt and mother were roommates cum best friends.

"Where is this conversation going to?" Thomas asked as he frowned at his aunt who was talking about luxury as a basic need.

"Ok, in simple words, I have a shortage of five thousand rupees for my Manali trip and when will you give the money?"

"what? Why?"

"Shahma" She started screaming his sunshine's name and he hushed her.

"Shahma will be a secret if you give me the money" Anna whisper shouted as she kept her open palm on the table.

"Can't you ask your husband?"

"Its no fun and your parents will hear about Shahma, I do no service without payment" She air quotes her words and batted her eyelashes, a little too fastly.

"Are you blackmailing?" His grip on the bag's strap tightened as he stood up from the chair.

"yep"

"then it is a deal, I trust you" His grip loosened as he shrugged and walked towards the door.

"Oh and Thomas" He stopped abruptly and listened to her without turning "say my hi to Shahma"

Thomas smiled at his aunt and nodded while Anna acted like she was zipping her mouth. She threw the imaginary key towards him which he caught and swallowed.

"Who is Shahma?" Thomas's mother asked as she descended the stairs.

"Not me of course," Anna said and resumed her giggling.

Thomas did not wait to hear another dialogue as he dashed out of the house while hanging his bag on his shoulder. He loved his aunt a lot and shared almost everything with her. He loved the way she used to disclose all of her secrets to him including all the stupid things she did during student days. She even shared her story of falling in love with Joseph, her husband. She pretended like she was in love with him during her master degree days since she wanted to write her first romance novel and she did not know much about the body language of a guy who was in love. She could have observed it from movies or others around her but she said that her novel would be just raw if she did that. She wanted it to be spicy. Few months of acting and she was head over heels for him.

He kick-started his bike and drove to the place where his dreams came true.

Once he reached the college, he was greeted by a lot of people, his friends and not. He did not even know the name of many of them but he never let the secret out and he never suffered.

Thank god for Facebook and mutual friends.

His eyes darted through the crowd to see the face that his heart yearned for. His eyes could not spot her until it left the crowd and saw the girl at the gate. She hugged her books close to her chest and walked forward with her friend beside her. Both the friends wore the same dress that day, chocolate brown shirts with sky blue colored long skirts. Shahma tried a different hijab style that day.

His legs started carrying him towards her. However, his steps halted when a bullet bike whooshed its way between them. Thomas noticed that Professor Salahuddin was driving faster than usual that day. His mind wondered what occupied the mind of the biker.

Shahma's eyes lingered more than usual on her professor's bike. She was not a lover of those bikes. It was something that Sushi Pushi was way too fond off but for some reason, she smiled at the bike...or was it at the person on the bike?

Thomas walked towards Shahma as she ran towards Professor Salahuddin.

"Sir, I need to talk to you,"Shahma said in between her panting.

"Um... Okay?!" He said as he removed his helmet and looked at the girl who reminded him of his sister.

There goes 'avoid Shahma as much as possible'. Did she know about the proposal that I had no part in?. Is she going to ask me to withdraw the proposal? does she not like me? wait...do I like her? can I see my student as my wife in the future?

Author's note: Thank you a lot for reading this . do you see a star icon in the top right corner. Click it and it will become golden. This really works ;)