The Mismatched Love

23rd Jan 2024

"30£ sir!"
Sumit flashes his card.

"You are at the wrong counter, sir. On this one, we accept only cash."

Sumit looking here and there, tries to request the counter lady to manage to get the transaction done. She grabs the card and stomps her feet to the adjacent counter to swipe it. Sumit is still looking here and there as if he is trying to hide himself from someone. The transaction is done, he picks up his bag of souvenirs and walks towards the exit of the mall. On the door, he finds a pair of eyes with the same sparkle as he found them during his college days. The unmissable charming smile and a beauty spot on the left side just below the lower lip! He was set to fall in love once again! Before he could gather his senses to remind himself of not falling prey to all of it, his left hand was held and pulled outside and greeted with a warm hug. "What are you doing here?" Asked Neha, his ex-girlfriend. The two were madly in love with each other, a decade and a half later, the scene was no different. Sumit was shocked, and surprised but above all felt butterflies once again!


"Hi, Neha. How are you? And what are you doing here?" asked Sumit in a very polite tone, still looking around to make sure nobody catches them. "We are in a different country Sumit, still you are scared?" Neha asked him in a playful tone, "Remember, now you are married and have a family. We are in our 40's! Please stop behaving like we are still in college!" "I am not scared. It's just that I am surprised to see you" Sumit tries to cover up.



"Oh please! Look at your face! You are sweating in London! And you still can't lie. Ok. Come let's have coffee" suggests Neha. "Coffee? No" responds Sumit in a fearful tone. "What? Ok. Let us sit on the bench for 5 minutes and talk. We have so much to catch up yaar! Come!" Saying that Neha drags him to the bench. They both sit next to each other, Sumit still trying to rest assured no one sees them! "Sumit, relax. Please for God's sake stop looking around and, for once, look at me! Please!" Neha requests. "How is Amruta? And Ira?" After listening to this Sumit calms down and responds, "They both are good. How do you know about them?" He asks surprisingly. Neha laughs and responds, "I keep stalking your profile on social media! Anish and Aarav both know about you." "Oh. That's nice. Anish must be your husband and Aarav. Your son? How old is he? Where does Anish work?" Sumit enquires. "Aarav is 14. Anish was a doctor. We lost him in COVID." Neha replies. "I am really sorry for your loss. I did not know. So what do you do now? And how are you here?" Sumit asks. Neha smiles and says, "It's okay, life happens. Anish encouraged me to start a travel agency in 2017. I have a team of 13 people working with me. Aarav sent me on a solo trip. After Anish's demise, I was too involved in safeguarding his investments, looking at Aarav's studies and my business. He thought I needed this break. So he made all the bookings with the help of one of my team members." Says Neha, "Now may I know what are you doing here?" She asks playfully. "My company sent me, it's a project-based visit. I am returning tomorrow." Sumit says, "Neha, I never got an opportunity. But I really want to apologize today. What happened during our college days, I was not mature enough. I did not know how to handle that situation. The rumors made me feel embarrassed. You were so bold and dashing, that I always felt inferior. I did not dare to talk to you." Neha listens to him quietly. "We are so different. I never thought things could work between us." "Oh Wow! Wait. Have you ever thought this? I felt like I did not exist for you at all after that day. I felt miserable, I was favoring you in front of the whole department and you just surrendered, without it being your fault. That somehow assured me that we were not made for each other, rather we were a perfect mismatch. So, one question I ever wanted to ask you was, did you ever love me? Or was it just an attraction?" Neha asks him in a straightforward tone. Sumit who is embarrassed and tries to hide his face with his palm, says, "It wasn't an attraction. And I did not want to end it like that. I am sorry. I know saying it after 15 years makes no sense. But I at least have the courage to speak now."

Tera Hone laga hoon.... Khone laga hu, jabse mila hoon....

They both laugh! "Hindi song in London?" Says Sumit. "You remember? We were traveling to our respective hometowns for Diwali on the same train. It was very crowded and you were so scared, you came to my berth and just spent that night talking to each other! We were so close to making our first kiss that night, remember?!" "You have a sharp memory, Neha. I regret I should have kissed you that night!" "You bet! It was the same song playing that night, right?" asks Neha. "YUP. And you were saying "Why aren't they playing Prem Ki Naiyya Hain Ram ke Bharose from the same movie?" trying to pull my leg to propose to you, right?" Sumit chuckles. "You understood that? I thought you were dumb!"Neha laughs out loud! I wish I wasn't dumb then, the story would be different now!" Neha smiles. She gets a call from the rest of her crew, they bid adieu with a hug that suffices them forever, and Sumit kisses Neha on her forehead.

This post is a part of RememberingLoveBlogHop hosted by Sukaina Majeed and Manali Desai .