1 | Say You Love Me

23 : Meeting the Roommate

Rhea

I open my eyes and I can see Raj standing there, staring at me. I rub my eyes and he just stands there, smiling.

"Good morning, Rhea." He says.

I smile before I begin to wonder where I am.

"Where am I?" I ask him, sitting up on my bed. Wait, this isn't my bed. I look at Raj and then a guy appears from behind him.

"Hey, you must be Rhea." The guy speaks.

I look and see I am still wearing my clothes from last night. I look at Raj, and he helps me up from the bed.

"Rhea, this is Jay, my roommate. Jay, this is Rhea, my best friend."

Rahul waves and expands his hand. I expand mine and we shake hands. I smile, "Hello. Umm....what am I doing here?" I look at Raj then Jay and back at Raj.

"Last night, you fell asleep in my car so I brought you here instead of taking you to your house." Raj speaks.

"He would've gotten you to your house but you didn't tell him where you live." Jay finishes for Raj.

"Oh, yeah. I remember." I go to the bathroom and fix myself in the mirror before stepping out.

"Well, I don't want to be a burden on you both so I think I will just call a cab to take me home." I say, grabbing the phone from the nightstand.

Raj takes it out of my hands, "No, you're not going anywhere."

"Why not?" I seem confused and scared for a brief moment.

"Because we think you should live here with us." Raj and Jay smile at me.

"Here?" They nod.

"With the both of you?" They nod again.

"Won't that be weird?" They shake their heads.

"No, you should cook for us in exchange for this room." Jay clarifies.

"Umm, I'm not sure I'm comfortablewith that." I tell them. I don't want people to get the wrong idea. "You and I - we've only just met so-"

"Please!! We'll even let you decorate the room in any way you want," Raj grabs both my hands and covers them with his.

"Please Rhea. We need you..we don't know how to cook." I can't help but laugh at his begging.

"Fine, I'll move in with you guys." I tell them. Soon, both guys hugged me before Raj pulled me to his car.

"Give me the directions to your old house so we can get your stuff." He says, moving onto the street.

"Raj, are you sure you're okay with this? I don't want to upset your 'boys' hang out' time." I ask. I silently begin to regret saying yes.

"Rhea," he grabs my hand. "I would love for you to live with us. Somebody has to keep us in check." I laugh at his poor attempt of a joke.

"Ok, I'll tell Sonia." I speak.

I hear him sigh as I look out the window.

Rahul

I walked outside in time to see Raj and Rhea drive up to the house.

"Welcome, new roomie." I say, pretending to bow. I can hear her laughing. "Oh, I want you to meet someone." I step aside to reveal beautiful fiance, Simran.

"Simran, this is Raj's girl-friend Rhea." I look over at her and think about the time I first met her.

"Hi, it's nice to finally meet you, Rhea."

Rhea

Her voice is soft as she speaks.

"It's nice to meet you, Simran." I give her a friendly smile before we all walk inside.

"So how did you two meet?" I ask them as we sit down on the couch as Christmas music plays in the background. Simran looks over at Jay before smiling.

I wish I can be like that with...

"Rhea, are you alright?" Raj bumps my arm. Great timing. "I'm fine. Just thinking." I give him a smile before watching him lean back against the sofa.

"Well, our love story isn't exactly normal." Simran speaks, meeting our eyes. She looks over at Jay, who begins to tell us the story.

"I didn't believe in love stories. She did. But I would never think that I would have been in one." He says, kissing his future wife's forehead.

"We hated each other at first but then it grew into something more. Something he didn't understand. He was a player when I met him." Simran says, a hint of sadness in her words. "I used to call him Dingra to annoy him because he was always late to help on the set.

"Dingra?" I ask, trying not to laugh.

"My name - Rahul Jay Dingra." Jay revealed.

"I began to fall for him as we hung out more while working on a movie together. I had told him about my true feelings, but he didn't return them." I can see the pain from the rejection set in both of their eyes.

"He then told me he loved me but I was to be married at the time, so I had rejected him. The day of my wedding, Jay didn't show but I was glad he didn't." Leanne looks at Rahul, who rubs her back.

"I wouldn't be able to see the women I fell for be given to someone else." Rahul holds her hands and kisses the ring one her finger.

"I told my fiancé that I didn't love him. In return, he let me go to be with Jay. When we saw each other at the movies, we told each other how we felt. Now we're here."

"And happy." They both lean against each other.

I looked at Raj, and he smiles. "I hope my love story with Sonia goes...kind of the same way."

"Well, she did hate you in the beginning." I say, laughing. In this moment, I realize we have become better friends. Even if he doesn't return my love, I would rather have this moment.

"So Rhea, who's Sonia? Raj mentions her alot whenever I'm here." Simran says, eyeing a blushing Raj.

"She's my best friend. Well, his lover as well. She started to go for him when he came back." I say. My eyes widened as Raj stares at me.

"No, we fell in love through the letters. She was just playing hard to get." Raj 'corrects' me.

"Exactly, I guess their meant to be."

I can feel Raj stare at me, but I don't look back.

"Well, how about we all go out for dinner tomorrow night since tonight is Annabelle's preformance."

We all got up and said goodbye to the happy couple. Raj and I then went to our rooms and began to get ready after realizing what time it was.