FF:First Love~LAST PART~ page 81 12/9/11 - Page 4

Thank you all wonderful people for all the lovely comments. I loved them all, I wish I had the time to thank each one of you individually, but today has just been on of those days, so please accept my apologies.🤗🤗

Here is the next part.

Part 3

Ahem pulled up into his driveway bit wryly, he hadn't slept much in the past three days. He had gone to Ahemdabad to reassure one of the clients, who would not be satisfied unless one of the Modi's came and straightened out the problems with one of their sites.

He frowned, thinking about the problem at the site as he waited for someone to open the door, he realized he needed to start an internal investigation into his company; it was obvious someone was trying to cause problems for the Modi Constructions. He needed to find out soon before the company is in shambles again like it was three years ago.

When he had come back from US after completing his MBA and took over the company, he couldn't believe what he saw, his Kaka had run the company into ground, they had lost so many clients because his Kaka's staff was still trying to run the company old school way. Then there had been the Company's financial status, it had been obvious their staff had been taking advantage of their financial status for long time, the accounts had been a mess, and there had been no accountability for anything.

It had taken two years through his hard work and sweat to bring the company back on top again. And now new problems were cropping up, with cheap materials being used for constructions of their buildings and too many accidents on the sites in last few months, not to mention, once again, someone was stealing from the company.

He was still standing there contemplating his next step not realizing his mom was standing there waiting for him to go inside the house, "Ahem dikra, Are you coming in or are you planning to stay there all night?"

He looked up at his mom, "Sorry mom, I was thinking about work. He went in the house, looked around and turned towards his mom, "Why are you up so late? Where is everyone?"

Koki turned to him, "By everyone, if you mean Gopi vahu, I sent her up to bed early, she wasn't feeling well earlier."

Ahem frowned thinking, and that's another thing, his personal life is in just as much mess as his work life, and it was his own damn fault, for being stuck in the past, instead of moving forward.

He knows his mom was making excuse for Gopi, these days his wife avoided him like a plague, and he couldn't even blame her. He bid his mom goodnight and went up the stairs.

When he walked into their room, he saw that his wife, as usual, was sleeping on the edge of the bed, curled up like a baby, keeping as much space as possible from the other side of the bed.

He sighed and loosened his tie, as he walked towards the table to put his bag down, he then went to his closet took out the necessary nightclothes and went into the bathroom to change.

When he came out the bathroom, once again glanced at his wife and saw that she was still laying in the same position, that means she might be actually sleeping instead of pretending, he went and laid on his side of the bed, and closed his eyes, but was unable to relax.

He turned towards her and stared at back of her head as if trying to read her mind while she was sleeping, he turned on his back again, and stared at the ceiling, he was so tired but it seems he is not going to be able to sleep, he got up and went to the lone window in the room and opened it to feel the fresh air.

He crossed his arms and leaned his head against the window, and thought about his time in college after he had met Gopi for the first time.

He remembered her as a shy, introverted girl, who became very nervous in the crowd. Whenever he had seen her on campus, she always had her eyes lowered, as if she was avoiding people. While some people had found her to be stuck up, not him, he had recognized her as someone who just wasn't comfortable in the crowd.

It had taken her a long while to talk to him, after their second meeting in the library, whenever he was in the library, he had always looked for her.

She was different from all the girls he had known, she hadn't tried to impress him, or looked at him with stars in her eyes when ever they were together, in fact she had hardly even talked about herself, but she had listened to him when he talked.

He had told her all about his family, but not once had she told him about her family, when ever he had brought up her family, she always changed the subject to distract him or made a quick excuse to leave to avoid the subject altogether.

He had instinctly known she was trying to hide something, but he didn't force her to tell him anything, he didn't want to upset her to the point where she would stop talking to him, so he let it go, but now as he is standing there thinking about the past, he realized he should have pushed her to talk.

In the end she had been a better friend to him then he had been to her, and now she was a better wife then, he a good husband.

He had let her down in college by not believing her and continued to feed his hatred towards her, even after they were married and she proved herself over and over that she was just as sweet and honest now as she was when he first met her. His first instincts had been right all along.

And then after five months of marriage to her he had let her down again, by not believing her, by not believing that once again she was being set up by his so called friends.

Ahem sighed and laid back down in bed with his arms behind his head and stared at the ceiling once again.

Ahem was unaware that Gopi had been awake, and trying to stay still as possible so he wouldn't notice her. Gopi was staring straight ahead her own thought in turmoil.

***Flashback***

Almost 6 yrs. before.

Two months into school, Gopi was rushing to class, she had been running late that day, when she smacked in to a solid wall, and all her books and papers went flying all over.

When she looked up she saw a that she hadn't run in to a wall but someone, and that someone was one of Ahem's friend, she didn't know him but he made her feel uncomfortable.

She mumbled a sorry and bent down to pick up her books, when she gathered as much as she can she stood up to see the guy still standing there holding out one her books to her.

"Here you go; your name is Gopi right? Ahem's friend."

Gopi watched him wryly and didn't reply and started walking towards her classroom.

He fell in step with her, "Hey, what's wrong? I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, I just wanted to introduce myself, I am Ahem's best friend."

Gopi didn't reply and continued walking towards her class.

An hour later when she came out of the class, he was standing against the wall; when he saw her he, once again, fell in step with her.

"Look, I am sorry if I did something wrong I was just trying to help, by the way my name is Nick, I just wanted to welcome you and say sorry for the way you were treated the first day, and now that your Ahem's friend you are our friend too, I just want to reassure you, that from now on no one will dare bother you."

Gopi frowned, had she got it wrong, may be she had imagined that Ahem's friends didn't like her, it was just her feelings, none of them had done anything to her. Should she give them a chance?

Gopi turned towards Nick. "It was nice meeting you and thanks for helping with my books, sorry I ran into you, I was in a rush."

Nick smiled "It was my pleasure." He then walked her to her hostel. Gopi was unaware that she was being followed, and someone was taking pictures of her with Nick.

****

Two weeks later Ahem was running up the library steps, he couldn't wait to see Gopi, he missed her these past two week, he had to make a quick visit to home, and he had forgotten to get her cell number from her, first thing he was going to ask for once he catches up with her.

He wasn't paying attention to his surrounding and ran right smack in to Anita.

Ahem rolled his eyes, "huh...Anita, what are you doing here? I thought you hated the library."

Anita gave him a coy look, "Why do you say that Ahem, you know I love hanging out with you, no matter where."

Ahem mentally rolled his eyes again, I have to get rid of this chipku, Gopi will hate it if she tags along.

Ahem was thinking of how to get rid of Anita when he spotted Gopi coming out of the library, he started to call out her name, but stopped when he spotted his friend Nick walk out behind her.

Ahem frowned thinking when did Gopi became friends with Nick? He always thought Nick made Gopi uncomfortable, that's why he had never brought his friend along with him whenever he went to meet her at the library.

And if he was honest with himself, he would admit, that he really didn't want Nick to be friends with Gopi, Nick had a reputation among the girls, that Ahem didn't care for.

Anita distracted him once more, "So, Ahem, where have you been for the past two weeks?"

Ahem answered her absently, still watching Gopi and Nick, "I went to visit my family."

Anita followed his gaze, "Don't they make a cute couple? They have been hanging out together for past two weeks, I think Nick really likes her." Watching Ahem to see how he would react.

Present...

At the time Ahem had not reacted at all to Anita's taunt. That had been the start of end of his and Gopi's friendship. At the time Ahem had refused to acknowledge even to himself that he had feelings for Gopi and it was jealousy that had made him act the way he did.

He purposely made it look like he had a relationship with Anita just to get back at Gopi, and that had made it easier for his friends to break up their friendship. They had deliberately lead Ahem to believe that Gopi had loose character.

In fact it was Nick who had set her up to fall in Ahem's eyes. Nick was the one who told him that Gopi had just started seeing him to make Ahem jealous, and when he tried to get close to her and tell her he really cared for her Gopi had rejected him and humiliated him by saying what made him think she would ever care for a looser like him.

Then Nick had produced some pictures of Gopi with different guys to prove that Gopi wasn't what she is portraying herself to be. Ahem had been angry looking at those pictures. He couldn't believe he could be so wrong about a person.

If Ahem was fed bunch of lies by his so called friend, Gopi hadn't been spared either. Somehow Nick had guessed at Gopi's true feelings for Ahem, and had encouraged her to express her feelings.

Gopi refused to at first claiming he didn't want anything with her but friendship, but Nick badgered her until she caved in. At the time Gopi had thought Nick genuinely wanted to be her friend.

When she told him there was no way she can express her feelings to Ahem, he encouraged her to practice with some of his friends, unaware that the whole time he was having her picture taken with different guy as she practiced having conversations with them or practiced flirting with them.

Then on the day she was supposed to declare her feelings, Ahem humiliated Gopi in front of everyone.

Neither Gopi, nor Ahem had been aware of the games being played behind their back to break up their friendship. All because Anita had loved Ahem and she wanted to be sure she took Gopi out of her way.

As for Nick, she hadn't realized at the time, that Nick was a distant relative of her Mamiji, it wasn't until she had left college and went home, she realized why her Mami had talked her dad into sending her away to college.

In the end no pleading on her side had swayed Ahem from thinking she was nothing but a girl with loose character, who only wanted to see how many hearts she could break. He had told her only reason he had been friends with her was because he had felt sorry for her, he thought she had needed his protection, not realizing it was he who needed protection from her. He had humiliated her in front of all her classmates and his friends, by throwing all the photographs in her face, and all she had been able to do was stand there in shame, unable to defend herself.

And then in the days that followed she had been further humiliated by all the catcalls and suggestive remarks by the boys on campus. Someone had gave out her cell phone number, and boys would call all night propositioning her, in the end she had been unable to survive college life and called her brother to take her away, and he had kept his promise and took her home after two weeks.

As for Ahem, he had completely thrown himself in his studies, avoiding all the places where he could run in to Gopi. After that he had not trusted any girls and decided he was better off not getting involved with any girls. It was months before he had realized Gopi had left college never to return.

Now that he thought back on it, he realized the reason he believed his friends so easily back then was because his feelings for Gopi had scared him to death. He had wanted to create a distance from her to save himself from heartbreak, but had he really saved himself from heartbreak?

He had convinced her to marry him when they met again, because he had realized he had lingering feelings for her, so why then once again he had believed a stranger over her? It seems he had still not been ready to admit that Gopi held a special place in his heart and his life. And now that he has realized this, she no longer wants anything to do with him.

***

IT was amazing... great..