15:30

Updated Story So far

Yeah, I know this story is a rantfest. It's  a lot to keep up with. So if you've made it so far, thanks  for sticking  around! It's  appreciated.  I just really like pouring my emotions into this , what can I say? I'm complicated like that.

So here's a gist of whatever has happened in this story .

The story runs in two parallels, with the protagonist  Jay. One is set in the  year 2028 , and it begins with a disappointed, almost thirty Jay who hates that he didn't  get the promotion he'd worked for. He is the Head of Strategic Finance at a multinational called UniTech, and he over works himself. After someone else gets promoted over him, his boss gives him two weeks off. He meets Tara at a salon, in a chance encounter. He is instantly  attracted to her, but is shy. Tara also reminds him of Verita, a girl he used to like when he was fifteen. Jay also seemed to remind Tara of someone from  fifteen years ago, but she doesn't  take any effort to follow up.

Jay asks Tara out the  next day, and they go on their first date. The next morning, Jay finds a poem written by Verita, in one of his boxes. That night,  he meets  Tara at the club. They celebrate his thirtieth birthday on a rooftop, where  Tara gets over  her fear of heights. They end up kissing  at the  crack of dawn. Later that evening they go out to dinner again and when they  go back to his apartment, it turns out  that his secretary, who also had a crush on him, had planned him a surprise birthday. His parents  had flown in from Rhode Island to be with him. Jay's dad, who constantly disapproved of everything  he did, also didn't  give  a green signal to Tara. He wanted Jay to date a Bridget Hoffman, so that Bridget's father  would make  an investment  in Jay's father's business empire. Jay's father was the  ex CEO , who passed the torch to his younger  brother  Sidney, whom he believed to be a better fit. That was how Jay got stuck with the title of the 'lesser known Scott'. When he got passed over for the CEO ship, he moved to New York, immediately after graduating  from Yale and bagged a job. Due to his hardwork and skills, he made it to the top in six years and was handling four departments,  even though  he the head of just one. It is also revealed that he had only  two serious relationships in the past. He had worked all his life to get a seal of approval  from his father,  but never  got it. Jay decides to go on a trip on his two week break. When he returns, Tara realizes she actually missed him. They have sex and the relationship  begins to blossom. Tara is on good terms with all his friends,  including  George, who takes her advice before proposing to his girlfriend  Amelia. On the eve  of Tara's birthday, Jay tells her that he loves her and she reciprocates.

Tara is a Harvard Law grad turned hairstylist. She tells Jay that she lost  her job because her bosses couldn't a good female on the team. She used to work  in Boston at a big law firm, before she was kicked out. Although,  when Tracy tries to dig up dirt on Tara, she finds  out that Tara was actually fired because she assaulted her  boss. She threw a desk lamp at him and due to this incident, Tara didn't  get a job  anywhere in the legal field. Tara befriended a lesbian couple Heather and Olivia, who helped her restart  her life. Tara hid this from Jay. She also hid the fact that she was engaged to a guy named Chris, who was in the army and was Missing In Action for four years, who could  possibly be dead. Tara still got flashes of him, but being with Jay helped her move on. Tara also had Chris' baby, a daughter named Miracle,  the  existence of whom was completely  hidden from Jay. Heather kept pestering  Tara to tell him, but Tara just couldn't  get herself to do it. Until the night of her birthday, when after dinner  he dropped her home, and found this daughter waiting for her mother. Tara ended all contact with her parents and her sister too was dead and had zero connections with her past life. To move on from Chris, Tara would go from man to man, but would  freak out when any one of them told her they  loved her. But with Jay , she finally realized she had grown out of the  false hope of Chris' return and was ready to embrace Jay fully. Only, he was infuriated that Tara hid some massive  things from her and wondered if he could ever trust her and was on the  verge of breaking  up with  her.

Fifteen years  ago, Jay goes to India to live with his step grandmother for a couple  of years. Owing  to his parents' never having  time, Jay and his brother  Sidney spent  a lot of time traveling around the world, from grandparent  to grandparent. This infused Jay with a love for travel. He later reveals to Tara how he always wanted to become a travel writer. Jay has a rift  with a girl named Verita at the airport. He begins to hate her, and later, it turned out that Verita's mother was his orthodontist. Even later, they  end up going  to the same Advanced Geography tutor with six other kids. Initially they hate each other, but Verita peacefully  settles the disputes and they  begin to hang out before class, every thursday at three thirty, while the  rest of the kids hung  out at a nearby coffee shop. Jay begins to grow comfortable with Verita, who is strong,  intimidating and always ready to stand up. She was extremely intelligent  too, and revealed that she had a boyfriend who was five years older. Among their other friends were Riya, who was Verita's best friend and her boyfriend  Larry. Then there was Avi Jha, who was both of their's closest friend and who Jay initially hated because he got better grades than him, but eventually the  three  of them began to hang out together. Then there  was Dev who was kind of the fuckboy. Tianna, another  student,  had a crush on him , while he had a thing for Ari , the  last student . He stuck around her because  she brought  the  booze and the brownies. Verita, Riya , Ari and Tianna were in the same school and so were Avi, Jay and Larry. Dev went to another  private school.  Verita hated her name, and openly declared how she couldn't  wait to change  it once she turned  eighteen. Her parents  had divorced and she moved around with her mom, while her sister lived with their father. Verita was a strong  girl, who didn't  believe  in emotions. When both  her and Jay had to take care of a baby once, she openly expressed her  aversion  towards babies but Jay knew from the way she handled that situation, that she would  make a good mom.  Verita was also a prefect at her school.

When Jay met Tara for  the  first  time,  she had the  same eyes as Verita. She had her dimples. Later on,  he found out  that  she loved Mississippi  Mud and the  Spice Girls, just like Verita. Jay was convinced  that  Verita had once again walked  into her life, with a changed name ofcourse. Maybe she didn't  recognize  him because  they had seen each other  a very long time ago, but Jay remembered  her and knew that she had come back for good. He knew he couldn't  let her go again, but it was problematic because of all the things  she hid from him and he wasn't  sure if he could trust her.