Pride & Prej with a twist - Page 50

There was no way she could ever be indifferent to him... after this meeting ❤️

He wanted to assume he had an effect on her

Uff! Must be so difficult to own up to your feelings for someone who doesn't care for, heck, even notice you?!!?? 🥺

Viveka's reaction was so like her... a bit clueless but so graceful and thoughtful! 😊

I think Raanav shot an arrow straight into our hearts and killed us. ❤️❤️❤️

I changed my mind, let Abhishek hover around Viveka. It will be fun to watch how our panther will shred his prey and claim his love.

I'm officially on Team Raanav.

How do you do this Nisha. I thought I will take long time to start liking Raanav. But it took only couple of updates and I am fida on him now.

Confession was totally unexpected ❤️

Hope now raanav stops taunting her regarding naina and inder.

Caution

She went home canceling office hours unusually confused and shaken. Though she thought so confidently about not “inviting” a romantic proposal, she tried to dig up her brain cells to wonder if she had indeed acted inappropriately

Nope!

She was meeting Abhishek for a Hindi movie at PVR (yeah in the author’s world there is no Covid I am sure we can all get behind that idea)

“Do you promise to cover for me if I go on a day trip and get slightly late?” Naina’s text popped in

“Dude… it better be a joke”

“No its not” crying emoji

“I wont”

“You are MEAN”

“You are not even supposed to be seeing him”

“I am not… I don’t think Ma Papa even know I am seeing him”

“Tum pagal ho?”

“Don’t you get that heady feeling sometime? Just the thought alone sends your insides into a spinning centrifuge?”

Unwittingly the first person that came to Viveka’s mind was the man leaning on the brick column, politely bent over like a student wanting that extra credit for answering the last challenge question on a test.

“Umm.. wow!! Scientific” Viveka mocked

Not being able to come up with anything else, almost running into a bicyclist dodging to avoid a neelgai as she tried to cross a inner lane in her walk out of the campus to get the Metro

“Veeve… don’t you get what I am saying yaar… that elated excited rush?”

“I wont support you. I love my life. I want to go do myPhD we might actually get funding for the NGO soon from a large corporation” she paused midway on the street to text

“OH I CAN ASK INDER TO TALK TO HIS UNCLE” “I AM SURE INDERCAN SPEED IT UP”

“Mad woman… I don’t need Inder… If Mr Parashar declines I will find another donor… I am not relying solely on him”

“They are insanely rich”

“Could be” she shrugged

“How was your day Veev?”

“Really?”

“Please?” Naina kissed up

“Nothing… I taught two classes, began working on lesson plan for Ms Gulati’s class I am filling in for 3 weeks”

“veeve tell me something spicy”

“I haven’t had lunch so nothing”

Viveka found herself being cautious all of a sudden

“Oh yeah the Parashar kid showed up outside my class and told me he hopelessly in love with me” she typed it and stared at it and laughed

A car honked behind her

“Sorry” she waved jumping off the dirt path

It was 50C, blazing hot, And she was jaywalking across campus

Veev?”

“I wont support you I know you are bored listening to my day” she smiled erasing everything she wrote earlier

“I am not… but wont it be cute if you date his cousin?”

“Umm.. NO”

“He is not a nerd like you… he is unbelievably handsome and a lawyer”

With that insult I am off to take the Metro”

“No seriously Veev…. Have you seen him”

“I have you nut”

“Oh yeah yeah… wohi wohi”

“Naina I cant type and walk yaar”

“Just say “maybe” I will stop

Viveka did not respond

She went home showered, tortured the twins, and ate some Bua’s home leftovers popped a pill for the headache and cramps

“7 baje ka show chalega tujhe?” Abhishek texted when she was cranking up the AC

“Hey Naina drove me insane with texting.. I was standing in the middle of the campus aaj garmi mein arguing with her”

“Kya yaar”

“Sorry.. ba (backspace backspace)

She began talking about some interesting thing she had stumbled upon while looking up Ms Gulati’s subject matter

Abhishek kept going back to what she was wearing and how long her shower was

She made her point and asked him if he would be part of a judging panel at JNU for the upcoming student seminar on Opportunities and Threats to Capitalism

He asked her if he would get to sit by her!!!

She gave up

“Chal tu abhi so ja… I will come pick you up for the 9:20waala tere Rohini mein dekh lenge”

“NO Dadi Dada hain…”

“So?”

“I want us to hang out” she felt she had hurt him, he was a great guy she had no idea why she felt so conflicted and confused

“Secretly?” he questioned

“No… I mean my parents know” her head was pounding with all the stress

“They love me”

She sent him a smile and a “THEY DO” she agreed with unnecessary extra energy

A slithering thought crept into her mind… that she was pitying him

She shook it off.

“I have to work on a proposal that will get my NGO some money”

“You know this right, if I was rich I would write you a BIG check” sends a giant check emoji

“Oh… BTW its your Baba’s company, their philanthropy department”

“They are a bunch of crooks”

“Whoa?”

“Beta lawyer hai they must be shredding the books man… I would be wary of taking their money. Money laundering mein pakdenge usko….charsi”

“Oh.. “

She had no idea how to react to that, but… umm.. he was a corporate attorney… a profession that required very little morality or introspection

“9 baje phir?”

“I am going to take a nap quick” she said and threw her phone away

She went online and checked the financial statements of Power Systems Engg the next 30 minutes as her headache waned

Calculated the EPS and EBITDA and other additional ratios with pencil and paper

Looked for anomalies and abnormalities that conspicuously jumped out at her… there were none

She cursed herself for not doing HW

She was stretched thin, between helping Papa run the house in Ma’s absence, pining over that prelim screening phone call that was not coming from Kharagpur, filling in for Faculty, being Naina’s secret keeper, and Abhishek’s lover… umm.. love interest… yeah that’s more like it… and fund raise for Nipun (the self employment NGO she was pulling together) trying to claim some heroic place in society. She laughed out loud at the last part.

Did he break up with my Macro student? Umm… Kalyani ? he was hanging with at Kamla Nagar? Was the first thought that popped into her mind as she closed her eyes

The way abhishek talk is somewhat different.... Like unnecessarily and consiously trying to fill the gap.... He also might be feeling viveka is a lil reluctant in their relation....

Class & ethics

Viveka really cares about her ethics. Raanav crashed the discussion I felt. Why did he feel the need to be there?

Very thoughtful observation Nouf. YES

He senses interest

she has not broken off. But wont commit fully either, she finds herself frequently questioning the intensity of her own feelings in the matter

She knows there should be more

One day she thinks he is not longer engaging in nerdy talk about poverty and wealth, another day she finds his rant against wealthy people a bit much.

She is passive at best to his s----l advances. She knows that gap exists

Hoping to die

So Raanav thinks she loves Abhishek who appears to be like her. But he doesn't think he really is. He thinks Abhishek is a fake.

@Coderlady

You are right, he likes her, he wants to make it known to her. He knows something about Abhishek. Instead of coming out with it, he chose to talk about his attraction instead

Plus unlike her he has been so wrapped up in his superiority, falling in love has been an epiphany