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Shriya was thinking about her baby and how he or she was supposed to be the size of a strawberry by now, she would need to remember to take her vitamins when she got back to Chennai in the morning. As much as she was trying not to, she was also thinking about the man sitting in the driver’s seat next to her, and the seemingly magical night they’d been having up until he’d ruined it with his stupid, stupid mouth! She’d seriously felt like she was in a romcom, she had never gelled with someone the way she had with Siddharth in just a few hours. Even his friends and his father made her feel like she could fit seamlessly into his world. Or she could have just had a fling with him and called it a day. Instead she was enduring the longest most awkward drive of her life!
Sidd looked nervously over at Shriya as he drove them to Kempegowda International, “Hey, I’m really sorry about earlier, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
Shriya squirmed in her seat silently cursing him for not just calling her a cab like she’d asked. She didn’t want to have this conversation, she didn’t want to have to look at him, she didn’t want to think about the insane chemistry she had been feeling all night or the almost-kiss, and she especially didn’t want to talk about his why-do-we-even-need-children rant. Gosh, men ruin everything!
Sidd continued, “I thought we were having a moment, I shouldn’t have presumed, um, I’m sorry.”
Shriya shut her eyes and hoped for a sinkhole, minor fender bender, asteroid, anything to make it stop… but she could hear the remorse in Sidd’s voice and her need to put him out of his misery won out.
“We were,” she said after what felt like ages to Sidd.
“What?”, Sidd turned and looked at her quizzically before sensing she would rather he didn’t, and he turned his eyes back to the road.
Shriya let out a sigh, “We were, having a moment, I mean.”
“Okaay, then I don’t really understand…”
Shriya squirmed again, there was no escaping it and as many times as she’d seen a perfectly executed tuck-and-roll-from-a-moving-car scene in action movies, she didn’t think having to explain her injuries to Chiti would be worth it. She sighed again, frigging Aerojet, this is all their fault! “It’s just, um, your speech about not wanting children really threw me.”
“Oh?”
“Yeeah.”
“You want children?”
“I do… More than anything,” she fought the urge to cradle her little strawberry.
“Oh.”
They sat in silence for a while. Siddharth found himself unable to form a sentence, he opened his mouth several times but nothing came out and Shriya continued to wish for a series of non-fatal natural disasters to befall her.
“Well… I’m sorry about the speech, I guess it was a lot. I was probably reliving arguments I’ve had with my ex,” he visibly cringed and shook his head wearily, “I suppose my issue is commitment in general, not just kids. My Appa has always been the only real permanent thing in my life,” he shrugged.
“Right.”
“And thanks for telling me that by the way. I would have been wondering how I fucked that up for at least a couple of months.”
“Months?!” Shriya laughed, “so you’re a commitment phobe and an overthinker?!”
“I know right? What a catch!”
They both laughed and Shriya said a silent prayer of thanks for the lighter, less awkward tone the conversation was taking. “Well, I’m making you drive me to the airport four hours early for a one-hour domestic flight, I’d say we’re as bad as each other.”
Sidd let out a chuckle and looked over at her again, “Do you really want to sit at the airport that long? We could go to a pub or something, I can wait with you?”
Shriya wasn’t quite ready for this not-fling to end, “Okay.”