Yes, I was drunk. But I hadn't lost all my senses yet.

"What in the world–" I sprang away from him, stunned. But it was too late. I had felt it. His lips on mine. My heart started throbbing painfully. Oh my God.

I had the sudden urge to rush to the bathroom and rinse my mouth.

Andrew seemed to have frozen in place. I was confounded. We stared at each other and the moments stretched out before he jumped back and started apologising profoundly. I held up a hand after he had apologised for the length of a Shakespearean play. He was surely a lot more drunk than what I had anticipated.

"It's okay, it's cool–" I said; it was just a kiss. "–you're just drunk. It's fine."

Andrew raised an eyebrow. "Really? It's fine?"

I nodded at him and gave him a thumbs up.

To my chagrin, he leaned in once more.

"Andrew, what the hell!" I threw myself from the sofa and glared down at him, my mind racing. What the heck was happening?

"Oh, fuck. Keighlah I'm–I don't know what–guess I'm just really drunk?"

"Yeah, I can clearly see that!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to–"

"Just–" I raised my hand at him, closing my eyes in irritation. "Save it. This is becoming too weird. I'm going to bed."

"Keighlah! I, uh oh–okay. Uh, well, g-goodnight?" He stammered. I stormed off to my room and slammed the door shut.

What is going on?

I quickly went inside my attached bathroom and brushed my teeth and rinsed my face thoroughly, removing every little Andrew from my lips. Then I dove into my covers, not even bothering to change into my pyjamas, knowing very well that I won't get much sleep tonight.

What the hell is wrong with him?

Morning came, and just as I had predicted, I slipped in and out of consciousness the entire night. At the break of dawn, I got up and started moving around in my room. After a while, I finally took a shower. But I couldn't go out of my room, knowing very well that going out would mean interacting with Andrew.

I sighed.

When my stomach started growling about an hour later, I decided that I had to go down. The other option would be starving to death.

And lo! He was right there in the kitchen. I tsked and walked in.

"Hey, good morning," Andrew said the moment he noticed me.

"What? Oh, yeah," I replied absentmindedly, not meeting his eyes.

Did he remember it? Is he going to talk about it?

"Tea?" He asked. I took a second to reply.

"Uh, yeah. Sure."

He smiled and started making tea. I watched him as he made it, I watched the movement of his hands, or his mouth as he smiled at me.

This was getting too much.

"I, uh, I gotta run," I said abruptly, already moving backwards out of the kitchen. He turned my way and raised an eyebrow. "I mean I gotta, I uh, need to go for a run. Yeah! Morning workout. Okay, bye." I rushed out of the house, his surprised expression revolving behind my eyes.

Maybe I was overreacting. But these kind of things freaked me out. I had buried these feelings somewhere deep inside me and had forced myself to forget about them. I had even made that stupid rule!

I couldn't let Andrew screw this up for the both of us.

I started running behind the house. There was a grassy track there I hadn't noticed before. I ran through the trees with speed, the leaves crunching and crumbling under my feet.

We were too new in this industry. We still needed to find our ground. We can't be distracted from our only goal.

I stopped running and put my hands on my knees, huffing. There was a lake in front of me. The trees had ended and I was standing in a clearing.

It was just a kiss, Keighlah.

But it wasn't just a kiss for me!

My phone started ringing suddenly. I flinched, thinking it was Andrew. I pulled it out of my pocket and sighed when I saw it was my mother.

I picked it up. "Hey, Ma."

"Hi, honey. Why are you huffing?"

"Oh, I just, uh, went for a–a run."

"A run?" My mother asked surprised. "Since when did you start running? You hate running."

"Well, I don't anymore," I snapped at her. "Look, is there anything that you need to tell me?"

"No, I was just calling. Why, I can't call my daughter without needing something?" Her voice was defensive.

"No, mom–" I burst out and broke off, suddenly realising I'm taking out my frustration on her for no reason. "Sorry, I'm not really in a good mood at the moment."

"I can understand," she said in the most motherly voice. "Tell what's going on whenever you feel like, okay?"

I sighed. "Yes, Ma."

"I need to go to bed now. Goodnight, my Koko. Love you."

I smiled. Time zones. "Goodnight, love you. Bye."

I cut the call and a second later another call started coming in. It was Angela. I picked it up. "Hey, Angela."

"Are you on the road yet?"

"It's nice to hear from you too."

I could imagine her rolling her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Now are you out on the road yet or not?"

"Uh . . ." I gave out a shaky laugh. "Not really?"

"Keighlah! You're supposed to be here in half an hour, what the hell are you doing?"

"Sorry, sorry," I spluttered. "We'll be there right away!"

"Make it fast!" She abruptly cut off the call.

Jeez.

I rushed back to the house. When I opened the door and walked in, Andrew sprang up from the sofa.

"Keighlah, where–"

"Interview! Need to get ready." I was already rushing away into my room when he caught at my wrist and whirled me around. I was about to slap him away, but stopped when I looked at his face.

Andrew was looking at me worriedly. "Is this about last night?" He asked.

"Er," I nervously laughed. "What do you mean?"

He gave me a deadpan expression. "You know what I mean."

I looked at him sheepishly and he released my hand. He sighed, massaged his eyebrows with his fingers, then looked at me.

"I'm sorry, Keighlah. I truly am. I was drunk and doing random things on impulse. But I can't bear it if you keep running away from me this way."

I remained quiet.

"And," he added, "I know how much you . . . basically worship that list you made, and how much you try to abide by it. And I try too. So, don't worry. I won't do anything like that."

I searched his eyes, then gave out a deep sigh. "Yeah, you're right," maybe I really was overreacting. "It was a mistake. Let's just forgive and forget." I shrugged.

"Yes," relief flooded over his face. "Thank God. Now, let's get back to how we were, okay?"

I walked into my room to get ready.

Yep. Forgive and forget. Easy peasy.

• • •

Next chapter - next Wednesday at 10pm IST.