Unsaid, Undone.

-THE MERGER-

Mihir was doing a lot of unexpected things lately. Okay, not a lot of them, just one. But he was beginning to do it often. And by that, he meant hanging out with a certain someone he never thought he would.

He sighed, turning to face the boy-ish man sitting next to him in the car. Aakash was studying something in his phone with rapt attention, as he absently sipped onto his virgin mojito.

"I'm telling you." He mumbled, "Chayos has the best virgin mojito."

Mihir let out an exasperated eye roll, "Really?"

Aakash looked up at that, sensing the sarcasm laced in that one word. "What man? I thought I was giving you some time to open up."

"Well, thank you. But now, tell me what to do."

He wanted to smash his own head into the steering wheel. Is this what his social life was like now? Was he seriously asking Aakash for relationship advice?

Man, this is pitiful.

"Let's go through our inferences so far." Aakash sighed seriously, his phone and his mojito forgotten. "She loves you. You love her..." he counted on his fingers, "The kid's not yours, or so she says. And she's definitely divorced but the adopted kid looks like a perfect blend of the two of you."

Mihir shrugged, "Maybe I'm imagining all of this. I mean, we were barely on talking terms four years ago. There are almost zero odds of her being my child."

"But you still have doubt. There is the slightest possibility?" said Aakash quizzically.

"I...I don't know. My memory's a little foggy right now."

Aakash stared, appalled. "I'm sorry, but are you the sleeping-around kind?"

Mihir looked offended. "No! Of course not!"

"Right. So exactly how tough is it to remember the women you've been involved with?"

He rolled his eyes dramatically at Aakash, his palms rolled into fists. "You're really very blunt, you know that?"

"What do you want me to do man? You keep throwing all this information at me but sound so vague about it all!"

Mihir looked away, his arms folding before his chest irritably. This was bad. This was really, really bad.

"Did she like the restaurant I suggested?" Aakash mumbled, having resumed to concentrate on his burger.

"Yeah." He paused, and then, "I even tried asking about Pritha, she just went ballistic on me."

Silence filled the car, as both men focussed on their meals. "You know...I think it would be nice to get Dev involved."

"Are you nuts?" exclaimed Mihir.

"What? He's literally the only well settled one in our lot! He's so good around Aditi, and trust me, it is tough to be that calm around her."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Urgh." Aakash rolled his eyes, "You won't get it. You've never been into her in the whole...romantic sense of it."

"Then why is Dev the suitable candidate for discussing this issue?"

"You know what?" Aakash let out with exasperation, "Just eat your burger, and let's pray to God that Adrija opens up about whatever is going in her head to you super soon."

Mihir shook his head irritably. "Thank you, Aakash. That was very helpful."

***

Seasons had changed, the location of the SENSES' Head Office had changed and so had Mihir and Adrija's dynamics, but one person who seemed to show no traces of any reforms, was Mr. Ashish Mukherjee. Donning one of his similarly expensive and suave suits, he sat at the prominent row of 'special guests' in the Annual Designing Conference of the year.