In Between Glances...by Miss Bidhuri

Chapter 1 : Unwelcome Company

Tanishka stirred her iced coffee for the fourth time, the clinking of the spoon louder than the murmur of the café around her. Her eyes flicked to the door every few seconds, but her phone had already delivered the message she didn’t want to read.

“Sorry, yaar. Can’t make it. Ritvik might still come though. Just talk to him for once?”
She had left the message on read.

“Talk to him,” she muttered under her breath, shaking her head. Of all people, why would she want to talk to Ritvik?

Her stomach churned as memories unspooled like film reels in her head. The first time she saw Ritvik yelling at her best friend for wearing “too much makeup.” The time he stormed out of a party, dragging her friend along just because she laughed too loud. The way he made backhanded comments—always smiling, always casual—but they stuck like poison. Tanishka had watched it all. She had said things, warned her friend, begged her to see sense.

But love, it seemed, made you blind. And alone.

The door chimed, and the hair on the back of her neck stood up. She didn’t even need to look to know it was him. She could feel the temperature of the room shift, like someone had just let in a gust of cold wind.

Ritvik.

He spotted her instantly and walked toward the table with maddening calm, like this had all been planned. Like she was the one he had come to see.

Tanishka straightened in her seat, heart racing, fury simmering beneath her carefully composed face. She opened her mouth to tell him to turn around and leave.

But then he looked at her.

Not with contempt. Not with indifference. Just… looked. And she looked back, against her will, against her better judgment.

For a moment, neither of them said a word.

And for the first time, Tanishka realized silence with Ritvik wasn’t empty—it was dangerous.

Tanishka’s fingers curled tightly around her glass, the condensation slipping down to her wrist like the tension rising in her chest. She should have stood up. She should have walked out. But something about the way Ritvik slid into the seat across from her—quiet, almost hesitant—froze her in place.

He didn’t say anything at first. Just looked around the café like it was unfamiliar territory, then back at her.

“Where is she?” he asked finally, his voice low and casual.

Tanishka arched an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t you know?”

He smirked, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Guess not.”

Silence fell again, thicker this time. Tanishka took a sip of her coffee just to do something with her hands. The last person she wanted to be alone with was Ritvik. And yet here they were, in this little corner booth with nothing but a shared connection to someone who was absent.

“You don’t like me,” Ritvik said suddenly, leaning back in his chair, eyes unreadable.

Tanishka laughed, bitter and sharp. “Wow. Took you this long to figure that out?”

“I know why,” he said. “You think I’m bad for her.”

She stared at him, stunned by the calmness in his voice, like he wasn’t the same person who once made her best friend cry on a call at 2 a.m.

“I don’t think you're bad for her,” she snapped. “I know you are.”

His jaw tightened, ever so slightly. “You’ve only ever seen one side of things.”

“The side where you treat her like she’s less than you? Yeah, I’ve seen that one really clearly.”

Ritvik’s gaze dropped to the table. He tapped his fingers against the edge, as if choosing whether to argue or retreat.

“She doesn’t see it that way,” he muttered.

“She’s in love with you. That’s not the same as being right.”

Their eyes met again. This time, it lingered.

Something flickered in his expression—regret? Frustration? Guilt? She couldn’t tell. And she hated that she even cared enough to wonder.

“You’re not what I expected,” he said quietly.

“Good,” she replied, pushing her chair back. “I’m not here to impress you.”

But as she stood up, she caught the briefest glimpse of something raw in his eyes—something almost human.

And that scared her more than his anger ever had.