Swiped Right

chapter 1

Heya!

So finally quarantine made me get started on Swiped Right. I am trying something different with this book. I am nervous about it. Do let me know if you liked this. Stay safe and stay indoor you guys.

*Happy Reading*

I was scrolling through all the pictures and posts on Instagram. This hour at night, after all the hustle at work, convening meetings one after the other, getting through the day after a good night's dinner, is the only time I have to myself. Else, my hands are full for most part of the day. I'm either working, running errands or cooking, and wait, let's not forget the rare visits to the gym.

I was randomly double tapping on every picture on my feed, exactly then a picture caught my attention. The post read,

'What is the first question you ask your date?

Me: Does anyone think you're in a relationship with them?'

I related to it on a different level. I gave the picture a heart and sent it to Ananya. This was kind of true, it was one of the main reasons I didn't want to invest time in dating. I love my work. I did not have the time and patience to invest in a person only to find out he just wanted to screw me or even worse, he was cheating on his girlfriend with me. Even if he was going to be loyal and committed, my passion towards my work wouldn't have let me do justice to the relationship. Both of us would just end up being emotionally hurt and heart broken. If there ever came a time when I had to choose between my career or my relationship, hands down, I would choose my work any day over anyone. My parents splashed out a lot of their hard work, time and money on me to get me to where I was now. I can't even begin to imagine all what they had to go through just to get me into a decent college. I can't afford to forget all of that. I had to honor their hard work. I am pretty sure I am not capable enough to pull off a relationship and succeed in my career. That was way beyond what I can handle, and I was scared. I didn't want anything coming in the way of my work. Right now, I'm the team lead of the world's leading investment banking company. It took me a good five years to reach this point. I made sure my family was able to move out of the rented house and afford to live in a house they could call their own. They bought themselves a car. Now they could afford all the luxuries that I always wanted to see them use. I wanted to see them happy. It was a dream come true for me when I got this job. I was not taking it lightly come what may. I don't really know how a relationship would have changed the dynamics of my life. I didn't want to take the chance. I was scared, yes, go ahead, and call me a coward.

But, there are times when I just want to come home to my person and ramble about everything that happened that day. Listen to his stories, laugh about it over dinner. But all I get to come to is an empty house. Sometimes Ananya does come over. We spend the weekend together. Have all the fun. I get to talk to Papa and Mumma. Sometimes I do catch up with my brother, Aditya. We are three years apart. He just got his first job and that has kept him busy. I can't really blame him. That's what it does to you when you're passionate about work. And fun fact about him- he loves being called 'the techie' of the family.

Though there are many people with whom I could talk to, there are times when I want to talk to them and they are not available. I do feel the void sometimes. But it's for a very brief second and it passes away quickly.

I kept tapping forward on the stories absent mindedly. Promptly then I received a message. I opened my inbox.

Talk about the devil.

Ananya's message flashed over my screen, 'So trueee!' she replied for the post that I had sent.

'Haha. I know right. When are you coming over next?'