Obsessive Flames of Love

Sitting on the marble floor, empty bottles scattered in front of her. Held her head in a daze, Tanvi wondered, “Uf! I ordered alcohol again, but where was it?”

She fiddled with her hands for a while and muttered under her breath, “Ah! I need it. It feels like I’m dying without the sip of alcohol.” She sighed in frustration and tossed the bottles aside with her legs.

When she’s in a mess, the knock alerted her. “It might be my alcohol delivery.” Tanvi tried to run and grab the bottle quickly but her drunk body didn’t allow her to do so.

With stumbling steps, she opened the door, which made a creaking sound that annoyed her further. Held the door for support, Tanvi glanced at the man in bell-boy attire with knitted brows.

“Mam!! Here’s your order. Also, Mam, this is our special gift to you on behalf of our hotel.” The delivery boy said.

She frowned upon hearing that, “I don’t understand why you’re giving that to me.” She politely rejected it.

“Mam!! Since you made around 30, 000 rupee bills in the last three days only by alcohol, we’re giving you our signature dishes. This is a small consideration from our side, Mam.” He pleaded.

“But, I don’t want to eat,” Tanvi muttered stubbornly.

“You need to eat this and should give me feedback. Please, Mam. If you don’t accept it, then my job will be in trouble, mam.” He begged with narrowed eyes.

She kept on rejecting him, but he was not listening to her and is still requesting her to eat those dishes. Tanvi felt pity for that boy after seeing the begging expression on his face.

“Huh!!” She scratched her head while her eyes were roaming.

In the meanwhile, The aroma was coming out of the box and was spreading in every corner of her room. Her stomach started to growl with hunger.

“Fine. I’ll eat.” She took the box and decided to eat in his presence.

“Um. They’re tempting me.” She licked her lips and began digging in and he smiled secretly.

Soon. “Yummy,” Tanvi said and he was startled with a puzzled expression.

Staring at the puzzled look on the boy’s face, she added, “My feedback.”

“Uh! Okay, mam. Thank you.” Then he finally left the room.

…

November 8th

Curled up under the quilt, Tanvi rolled off the bed and slipped down. “Ouch! It hurts.” She brushed her palms across her temple and his eyes peeped across the wall clock.

“04:00 PM.” Picked up the water bottle beside her bed, she gulped it and satisfied her hoarse throat. “My burning throat was relieved now.” She mumbled.

“What date was today?” It stuck her. Rubbing her hands across her neck, she began searching for her mobile but didn’t find it.

“Where did I last keep it?” Her eyes scrutinized the room, “Ah! I found it.” Grabbed from inside the cupboard, she winced glancing at it.

“Huh!! I can’t continue like this. I need to start my office work tomorrow.” With that, she switched her mobile on after ten days.

Immediately her phone was filled with messages and calls from her parents, Ameera, Advik, and her colleagues as well.

“Oops!!!! I need to inform them about what happened.” She thought and made a call to her parents.

“Mom!”

“Tanvi.” Her mother growled.

” Where the hell were you? What happened? You just disappeared, and we were worried to death here.”

“Relax mom.”

“What’s with your voice? Tell me where were you, and come home right now.”

“Mom, I’m safe. I’ve no mood to come over there now. Please.” Tanvi said sternly.

“Huh?”

“Care to share the details of your absence?”

“Hm. Riaan tricked and fooled me. He’s an assh…” Tanvi stopped herself from blurting out.

“What?” Her mother’s eyes widened in shock.

“Yes!”

“Tell me in detail.”

“Now’s not the correct time, mom. Bye!” Tanvi hung up on her mother.

Stared at the window, “I’m not yet ready to discuss this with anyone.” She muttered in displeasure.

After that, she put Ameera and Advik on a conference call.

“You dumbass! Where the hell were you?”

“How can you not show up for your engagement?”

“Where did you vanish to?” They were shouting at her, and she felt helpless with them.

“I’ve been staying in a hotel for the last ten days.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you! Why were you staying there? Have you gone nuts, Tanvi?” They were yelling, and she was not uttering a single word.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“Why your engagement didn’t happen?” They questioned.

“Tanvi, are you there?? We need an answer from you. Speak up, man. Damn it!” They demanded.

“Uf! Riaan tricked and fooled me,” Tanvi admitted and bit her lips to control her emotions.

They were shaken and remained utterly speechless. “We need to catch up,” Ameera added.

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

…

05. 30 PM

Tanvi stepped out of the hotel after many days. The fresh and cool breeze was inviting her. Savoring the moment, she hugged her elbows when the chilly air gave goosebumps to her. Took a deep breath and hopped into a car with a sullen look on her face.

At the Park

The trio sat on a bench enclosed by green trees. The orange shade of sun mixed with the dense clouds gave an appealing look to the sky. It appeared crowded with children running around, lovers holding hands and flaunting their lovey-dovey style, a few old aged people were discussing things, and the leaves on the floor and the sounds of the fountain gave it a pleasant look.

Stared at Tanvi, Ameera and Advik gave a weird look. Though she knew the reason for that she just pretended that she didn’t.

After telling them her view about how things ended with Riaan, she felt some weight was lifted off from her heart.

At last, “I’m betrayed again,” said Tanvi when tears slipped down automatically from her eyes.

Seeing her like that, their hearts ached. A pang of pain pricked them. A depressing expression settled on their faces.

“Money isn’t a big deal. I can earn that, but my feelings were misused, which hurt me a lot and broke my trust. I lost complete faith in love.” She expressed her genuine feelings, and the agony in her was visible to them in each word she uttered.

“We know Tanvi, how much you’ve suffered in the past relationship with Dhruv, and for once we felt happy for you when you let go of him completely. But then Riaan came into the picture, we didn’t expect this kind of a scenario with him, and here you’re again suffering because of that fucking asshole!!!!” They felt depressed seeing her in this state.

“That mother fucker didn’t have the balls to appear in front of you and played that drama. Great!!! I’ll kick his ass off and will teach that bastard a lesson so he’ll not play with other’s feelings.” Ameera cussed.

“He needs to grow balls to face you, Tanvi. That son of a bitch didn’t even dare to face you. Don’t waste your time on him. He’s not worth your love and time.”

“Hmm!!!”

“That fucking asshole cheated on you. For god’s sake, don’t be like this for him!”

“I let go of him at the moment I found out his true colors,” Tanvi said.

“Then why disappear?”

“It hurt to be betrayed again. I don’t know. I guess it’s just that I didn’t dare to so much as think of love for six years. And yet now, when I finally do, when I’m finally ready to try again, it turns out like this! It’s made it so that I don’t think I can trust people anymore. Any faith I had is gone.”

“Everything will fall in the right place. Don’t worry babe!!! We’re always with you. We know how strong of a woman you are. Don’t let go of your shine. You can have much more than this. You deserve much better than those bastards. Give yourself some time to heal.”