LET THERE BE DRAGONS (COMPLETED)

Chapter Sixty-Four: Cheating Time

"But you told me earlier these memory lapses never lasted too long!"

"It didn't. Your memory was absent, say, for fifteen minutes or something like that?"

"And it just took you fifteen minutes to kiss another girl?" Aparajita's tone conveyed her disbelief. "Wow," she added.

"Look, Aparajita. There's no point arguing over this. Not right now. It wasn't my fault..." Shivam said. But he didn't sound confident at all.

"That's...I don't know. I'm going back home. Talk to you later." Aparajita turned, and trotted away from Shivam.

The cold wind rose again.

***

A few days passed; and as they did, Shivam and Aparajita felt themselves growing more and more distant. They talked over their phones and chatted on the internet, but avoided meeting prospects.

One evening, as Shivam was lying down on his bed and looking at a fly caught in a cobweb on the ceiling, his phone rang. Without looking at the screen, he answered: "Hello, Aparajita."

"We need to talk," Aparajita said across a distance that satellite networks merged. Yet the merging was an illusion, and the distance seemed to be very real to both of them.

"I am listening," Shivam said. Where was the spider, he wondered. The fly had stopped struggling to escape from the trap.

"Not like this...I want to meet you," Aparajita said.

"Where and when?"

"Tomorrow? At our cafe?"

"Okay, then. Let's meet tomorrow," Shivam said.

The spider refused to come to take his fly.

***

Shivam sat in front of Aparajita across a cafe table, looking at her eyes. She seemed uncertain about how to begin: of course, they both knew that they couldn't just jump into the problem; so each began with small talk.

"You decided which subject you do your Honours in?" Shivam asked, just as Aparajita said, "Terrible weather, isn't it?"

It had been raining for the past two days. The alleys and streets were all muddied and waterlogged. Goo floated from the open drains across the streets, and people splashing through them pretended not to notice.

Or maybe it wasn't a pretension. Maybe they really didn't notice.

"I'm going for Theology," Aparajita said.

"Theology!" Shivam's surprise was evident. The subject certainly had limited career prospects.

"Yeah...something wrong with it?"

"No...but...why?"

"I'm going to look for clues about these parallel worlds and Seamstresses and stuff in ancient books. You know? There's gotta be some clues. I need to find evidence before we can go public on this," Aparajita said, excitement oozing from her tone.

"Aparajita, we'll never say a word about what happened to us in public. You seriously want to tell everyone you were a dragon?"

"Why the hell not? If we can find some evidence..." But she quietened as Shivam looked at her, contemptuous.

"Things have changed, haven't they," Shivam said.

Aparajita remained silent for a while, and it seemed to Shivam she regretted being there...or regretted the abrupt change of topic. But they had to discuss it, had to sort it out. Sooner better than later.

"I cannot forget it," Aparajita said, looking at the hard wall of rain outside the cafe window. "You kissed someone else behind my back. I can't forget it, Shivam."

Shivam continued looking at her, eyes narrowed, unblinking. "It wasn't my fault."

"How could you allow her to fall in love with you? You must have..."

"Hang on. How do I control who fall in love with..."

"You must have flirted, Shivam. I've seen you. You're rather smooth with girls..."

"Flirted! I had never..." But could he be sure? Hadn't he cracked a joke about marrying Tiyasha, once or twice? What kind of efdect such joking might have had on a woman who had just lost her family?

"You know why I fell in love with you, Shivam? Not because you can be charming, but because I thought you can reserve, the best of your charms, only for me."

"I murdered a king for you. Isn't it enough?"

Aparajita turned her head, bringing her eyes from the downpour to Shivam. "It should be, I know. But it isn't. Something has changed between us, Shivam. Ever since you told me about the kiss. I no longer feel anything when I look at you."

Shivam remained stunned in silence. Was this really happening? He looked for tears in her eyes, but there wasn't. But her eyes had a reddish tinge to them. She had cried herself dry. He knew it instinctively.

"I hope we can still be friends," Aparajita said, getting up from her seat. Then she walked away, walked out. The cafe door closed gently behind her.