No Strings Attached

three

"i'd love to see them." dhruv nodded.

ananya pushed through the crowd, leading dhruv to the bar. 

how did he know the right thing to say?

"this place is packed." dhruv remarked, following ananya through the crowd.

"pretty calm on the weekdays though. i like to come here to rewind if my shift gets too tough." ananya replied.

"oh yeah, the ambience is pretty cool." dhruv agreed.

great. they were talking about the fucking ambience! honestly, there should be a crash course on 'how to talk to your ex-classmates after you run into them almost seven years later'.

and thinking back, she didn't think she'd really talked much with dhruv yadav in school. he was one of those boys who always ate alone at lunch, or avoided playing with the others guys in their year during PE classes and sat alone with his sketchpad in the classroom. she remembered the teachers being impressed with his sketches, and they used to push him to take part in drawing competitions. and she had talked to him a few times, when they had to partner up a handful of times in chemistry class.

in short, she didn't really know what he liked or how to engage in conversation with him.

she led him to the bar, where isha was sitting with her martini.

"that's isha. she's my friend. we're co-workers too." she gestured at her friend, who just turned to her side to wave at ananya.

"ish, meet dhruv. we went to highschool together." ananya introduced.

"hey, dhruv." isha smiled. her tone was pretty neutral, because isha wasn't sure if he was gonna be one of ananya's 'flings' . . . and truth be told, she didn't know either.

"hey, isha. it's nice to meet you." dhruv smiled.

isha shared a fleeting look with ananya.

gosh, he's such a gentleman!

"what'll you guys have?" isha asked, as ananya sat down on one of the barstools.

dhruv did the same, "whatever you guys are having."

oh my god. 

dhruv varma was on a mission to make ananya fall for his 'nice guy' persona, huh?

"uh, tequila?" ananya asked.

"sure." dhruv agreed.

"we'll do shots, then." isha offered.

"shot it is." ananya said, "excuse me?" she called to the bartender.

"i'll take care of that. you guys need to catch up." isha told them.

now, isha was the perfect wing woman. but ananya didn't really let her get involved much unless she absolutely needed it . . . and it was embarrassing to admit that she kinda needed it with dhruv.

(because he was so damn fine!)

isha called the bartender towards her, and ananya turned to dhruv.

dhruv gave her a smile, "so, how're you doing?" he asked.

"oh, really good. i love this place." ananya answered, "mostly because it's so lively. there's something about the city."

dhruv nodded, "i'm still getting used to it." he said, "and the homesickness is terrible." he added with a laugh.

it was very rare to hear a guy admit that he was feeling 'homesick', because most of them wanted to keep the 'macho' image intact.

wait, was she simping too much on this guy?