The case of unrequited love

10 - Real talk

Stacking all the case materials and forensic reports on the table, she was ready to have the so-called 'Real talk' with him. Karthik borrowed a chair and sat beside her while Aditya was sitting opposite to her.

When Anu bent down to reach the last draw for taking out her diary to jot down important points, "I am sorry," Aditya said in low tone. Listening to that, she rose up slowly without taking the book.

She noticed tears welled up his eyes which were hesitating to roll down. His apology was clear but the reason for that apology was unknown. Composing herself again, she reminded herself of the place she was in.

"If it is because of morning – "

"Everything!" He said, looking at the floor, not having courage to look into her eyes. "I never wanted to hurt you, Anu," he further said.

"So, is this what the real talk was?" She thought, looking at his frowned forehead.

"Aditya – "

"No, let me talk," he interrupted, lifting his head and somehow managed to look at her. His tears were not obeying him anymore.

"I - I just - I've never loved you just because I never fell in love with you, Anu," he said, wiping those tears that rolled down his cheeks. Getting rejected again and listening to those words she didn't want to, triggered her tears. In the case of Anu, the control she has over her tears was insane. She blinked her eyes a couple of times to let them go back.

"It ain't my fault for not being able to love you, Anu." he said looking straight into her eyes. Facts… always hurt.

Anu, who was trying to act all strong, placed the tissues in front of him. Aditya took them to wipe his running nose.

"Adi… " she took a long pause. "I don't know what to say," she said.

Listening to their emotional conversation, Karthik teared up too. Noticing Karthik cry, she offered him a few tissues.

After a moment of silence, Aditya said, "You fell in love with the wrong guy and I – "

"Enough! I get it, it's my mistake. I agree. Happy?" she didn't let him go any further. She was irritated by the sound of stuffy noses. "Now will you guys stop crying?" She yelled, referring to both of them. She gave them enough time to compose themselves.

Pulling out a red colored permanent marker from the pen holder, she drew a medium sized circle on the center of the table.

Asking Aditya to look at it, she said, "This red circle is your case. I am only accountable to what's inside this. Every little thing outside this circle and on the circle is none of my business," she tapped inside the circle twice with the pen.

"I promise, I won't cross this line even if it's necessary and I expect the same from you too," she made her point clear. Aditya was listening to her with utmost attention. "Now that we came to an agreement, let's respect each other's private life," she said to which Aditya agreed.

"Now, let's get to the real talk… like the real one," she opened her diary.

"Uh, it is mentioned that you were not in India when that incident happened. Is it true?" she moved on to the first question.

He nodded.

"You went to Singapore on February 23rd, came back on February 28th and found the burnt bo - I mean, the crime when you opened the door. That's it?" She read the timeline out loud.

All that Aditya did was, nodding his head. The sudden change of atmosphere and topic was hard for the intern to cope up with. He was still unable to change from the 'Emotional genre' to the 'Crime genre'.