"Here you go." Shivam says politely and hands me some aspirin. He places a steamy cup of coffee beside me on a table and holds one himself. I am relieved to see him act decently with me, what with last night, when he was being so rude.

Of course, he is going to be nice to me now, I was naked in front of him. I mean, I sort of break up with him again after he sorts of breaks with me again and then I end up sleeping with him? Yeah, yeah. No biggie here.  

I have such a terrible headache, I can't remember anything from last night. In a hurry, I put on one of Shivam's shirt and all my clothes are lying in different positions in his living room. Yay. 

"You got a new place?" I begin, trying to make conversation.

"Yeah, like I told you last night, I got promoted and well, this place is closer to work and the rent is half of the original price because of where I work in now."

"Oh." 

"Nehal, you..did not sleep with me last night, you can relax." He says.

"What?" Huh??

"Yeah, you did not sleep with me. I was not going to take advantage of your drunken state."

"But you still took some considering I had no clothes on just a few minutes ago!"

"Oh.. miss, don't blame me. You did that yourself."

"You are lying."

"No, I am not lying."

"I stripped? Why?"

"You know you better. I have had five years and I can't figure you out." He smirks.

Whoa. And he told me last night he got promoted? I only remember hearing from Arvind. I get up and gulp the coffee down and head towards the living room to get my bag. As soon as I find it lying somewhere between the dining table and the showpiece cabinet, I takemy cellphone out.No missed calls or messages from my friends. Only mom. 

"Well, this is weird." I say to myself but Shivam hears me as he comes out. "Yours friends were pretty gone themselves. Pregnancy got to Anidhi and she was vomiting her brains out and well..Sanya..." 

"Where are they?"

"I don't really know, I was busy babysitting you. You were hell bent on dancing on every table that the bar owned and the men were hell bent on taking you home!"

"I did no such thing!"

"Sure!" 

Suddenly my phone rings and I am relieved to see it is Anidhi. "Hey An, where are you?"

"Where am I? Where were you? We were looking for you last night well technically morning because it was around five a.m!"

"Wait, what? What the hell were  we doing there till five?"

"I don't know, I was so sick. And Arvind ended up calling Divyam who rushed to take me to the hospital and he wouldn't listen until I agreed. I kept telling him I was okay and it was normal but he wouldn't listen so then  I was in the emergency room and Arvind promised to drop Sanya off at her place. My stomach pain was too much so they gave me a painkiller which ended up putting me to sleep." 

Well, that is a lot of information to take early in the morning with a big hangover and with your ex boyfriend who's engagement you broke. 

"Well, I am at Shivam's....."

"What?"

"Yeah." I looked over at him, who already had all his attention towards me, "Hey Anidhi, so you are okay right?"

"Yeah, we are just going home..lets..see what happens!" 

"Great. Let me call you back." And I hung up. 

"Why were you being so rude to me?" I ask as soon as I hang up. 

"My wish." Great, he is back to being rude. 

"You know what? If you hate me so much then you did not have to take care of me!" 

He did not reply and grabs all my clothes and hands them to me. "The bathroom is to the left and I can make some breakfast if you want. Feel free to leave anytime you want but yeah leave. Last thing I need is you here in my shirt while my parents come over."

"Shivam!" He does not answer and heads off to the kitchen. I follow him and close the door of the refrigerator and snatch the egg tray from him. "If you do not answer then I will break each one of these eggs on your face!"

He opens the refrigerator and grabs a carton of milk. "And I will make sure I bathe you in milk." 

I lose it and grab the eggs and hit him on his chest with it. The egg breaks causing it to spread all over his Tee. He looks at his chest once before growing red with rage and grabs me by my waist and pours the milk all over me.

"You are so immature!" I shout at him wiping the milk off my face.

"Well and you are so mature right? Standing in my kitchen in my shirt, doing strip shows for me and dancing around in a club like a stupid chubby giraffe! Yeah, you are the queen of elegance and intelligence!"

"Giraffes are not chubby!" Wow, great argument Nehal.

"But you are!"

"Why are you being so rude to me?"

"I am not! I am just being honest!" 

I  take another egg and crack it open on his head. His hair gets covered in egg yolk. "Great." He says and grabs a napkin to clean his face which is now dripping with egg.

"You know what, I won't leave until you tell me what it is that is causing you to hate me so much!"

"You really shouldn't be drunk so much! You end up telling the truth or you end up lying, I dont' know which!"

"What?"

"You told me you loved me last night! I told you I did not believe you and you  insisted that getting naked will prove it because yeah, you are so smart!"

And then it started to come back to me. 

Oh. 

My.

God.

"And when you were in Goa! You called me completely drunk telling me you went to a lesbian club and all and then you told me you miss me and you love me! I took few days off from work because you told me you and Sanya were planning to stay for a month! But I went there, whoosh you were gone!"

What????

Hold up??

"Why didn't you tell me? You could have called?"

"I knew you were drunk talking and I was scared if I spoke to the always confused sober you I would probably get rejected again. Which, miss, you proved yesterday. By rejecting me. Again." 

"I..Shivam....."

"You know what, shut up Nehal. I have had enough of it."

"I do!" I shout after him before he starts to leave.

"Do what?"

"I love you. So much!"

"Nehal...I.."

"I guess I was just scared! It was a scary idea to think I have finally the man I can give my everything too! It was the same five years ago and it is the same now. I was scared of how terrible I will feel if you ever, ever hurt me! And trust me, it would be awful because I love you so so much! I did not want to let you go so I let you be my best friend! You are the only one I can be completely myself with, I can crack eggs with you, I can have food fights with you, I can have random arguments with you, I can treat you like a friend, best friend, brother, boyfriend..husband! You are the one, always have been and I just got scared. I am so, so sorry." I finished finally, feeling like a huge burden getting off me and also felt tears welling up my eyes. To my surprise,  Shivam hugged me. 

"Cut the brother out, and then we are good!" He said and I laughed. "I love you too Nehal. You have no idea how happy you make me!"

And then the door bell rang. Shivam immediately rushed to see through  the peep hole. "Fuck, its my parents!"

"What the.."

"Okay, we have five minutes to get decent. Rush to the bathroom now!" He orders and I do as he says. 

And I plan to listen to him for a very, very long time now.

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