Opposites attract

Chapter 12(Neil)

I want to apologize to Ashu, but I don't know how to. She is not looking at me and she hasn't said a single word to me since the conversation we had about my plan of fake dating.
She didn't tell me about the problem back at her flat. She told it to my father, but not me. She didn't even say a goodbye to me when she decided to leave. She just waved at me and moved toward the door.
But thank God papa came home at just the right time, so now I have 2 days. Not to convince her but to at least apologise to her. I have known Ashu long enough to know that if she doesn't like an idea at the first time, ten she is not going to like it ever. No one, especially not me can convince her then.
We reach her apartment building and move towards the elevator just to find that the lift is not working because of the shot circuit. Ashu lives in the third floor, so it is not that difficult to use the stairs, also we have no other option.
On the foot of the staircase, I point my hand to her indicating her to go first. She gets the point and starts climbing the stairs. I am just behind her.
When I asked her to go first, the only thing in my mind was to act as a gentleman, but it turns out that my plan has backfired. Because now as she is just a few inches away from me, wearing the beautiful dress of my sister, I can't help look at her.
The dress fits her better that it has ever fitted Yakshi. She looks really good in this dress. Better than she has ever looked in those office oriented trouser sets of hers. She is walking in front of me, her waist perfectly set at my eye level.
Her hips sway perfectly while climbing the stairs, strands of hair start falling one by one from her cute bun. Small drops of sweat form over the back of her neck. Her palms that were at her side are now forming into balls and her breathing is getting heavier as we reach her flat.
She stops at the top of the stairs, takes 2 deep breaths and then walks to her apartment at the right-hand corner. Her palms are so sweaty and shaky that she isn't even able to hold her key straight.
I wait for a few seconds while she tries to unlock her door twice. I thought she will accept her defeat and me for favour after 2 tries, but she doesn't. She is too stubborn to ask me for help, I get that now.
Which is the reason why I take the key from her grip and unlock the door for her. Once the door opens, she steps inside her house, but I am not sure what I should do so I say, "You go ahead and get ready, I will just wait here."
"It's okay, you can come, take a seat at the couch."
"Okay, if you say so.", I enter her darkened house where there are only a few rays of sun from the ventilators and sit on the couch silently.
She turns the flashlight of her phone on and moves to bedroom, without saying a single word to me.
I sit there for around ten minutes before I hear a loud crash from her room. I turn on my one flashlight immediately and rush to her room to find her standing on a stool.
There is a pile of clothes kept on her bed and a leather bag has fell on the ground, next to her phone with the flashlight still .
"What are you trying to do up there?", I ask with a voice full of concern.
"Nothing that concerns you.", She steps down from the stool and picks her phone which has more cracks on the screen than I can count.
One look at the bag and I understood all that could have happened.
"If you couldn't reach the bag, you could have asked me for help.", I said with the thought of helping her, but my words had the exact opposite impact on her.
"I have done this plenty of time without your or anyone else's help.", she said in an angry tone.
Any smart person would back off at this point, but I never back off from any quarrel, especially when it comes to Ashu, which is shy I say, "how many of those times the only source of light in the room was from your phone?"
At this I get the deadliest glare of my life."I want to make one thing clear Neil; you are not my problem and I that's the reason I don't ask you for any solutions to my problems."
"Now I get it. This isn't about the bag, is it? It's about the fake date thing."
This is the perfect time for apologizing. After a few seconds pause I say, "I am really sorry Ashika, I shouldn't have said all that. It's just that I was really desperate to get out of my problem. To make my father stop talking about this marriage stuff. I still am and I thought that was the 0nly solution. I made a big mistake; I get it and I very deeply sorry."
She stares at me for what seems like forever but is actually just a few minutes before saying, "it's okay, I guess I overreacted. I should have called you, to help me with the bag, it's just I am not feeling good.... since the moment we have left your house, I am feeling very irritated and-"
"You are hungry." I cut her off.
"What?" she looked at me with confused expressions.
"You become angry and irritated when you are hungry. I remember that from high school. You didn't have your sandwich. I told you about my idea before you could have it, and then you were so surprised that you left without eating."
"Now when you put it that way, it makes sense."
"Good. So now let me hold that flash so that you can finish you packing and then before heading home, we can have something."
She lets out a heavy sigh and then looks at me with doe like eyes, it's quite an uncommon sight. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The whole packing took around 15 minutes, after which she locked her house and then visited one of her neighbours. All this time I stood by the stair case holding the bag.
When she returned, she tried to take the bag from my hand but I refused. Currently we are at a cafe having pasta for brunch, and I was right she really was hungry. I, not so much.
She looked from her plat at me and said, "Is there something on my face?"
"No, it's just that you look cute while eating.", I said to her.
Last night and this morning were so different from our present and so similar to our past. I thought we were becoming friends again but her next few words proved me wrong.
"Cut that shit, I know you hate me. You don't have to say lies and give fake compliments. I am not angry.", does she really think I am giving her fake compliment.
I have never done that. All the compliments I ever gave her were true, even today. I open my mouth to tell that to her but decide against it. She will never understand it. Her grumpy brain will never get it and I know that so why even try.
We finished our food in silence and when she went to pay for the food, I didn't stop her. I was too hurt to. She had hurt me. I thought she didn't have that kind of control over me anymore. But I guess I was wrong.

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