Chapter 3 Veer's love at first sight

Veer walked in with a stoic face, but the lines on his forehead were clearly indicating that he was worried. When he came in and our eyes met, his lips twitched into a small apologetic smile. There he smiles again, looking cute with those dimples and making my resentment against him to start melting. Veer then cleared his throat before starting to talk.

"Hi." He said, looking around.

I hummed in response, not even wanting to give him a smile. Again, he pulled out the same chair and settled on it.

"Um..I don't know how to start...I mean I'm sorry about...you know whatever happened." He stammered, rubbing the back of his neck. I got it, apologizing wasn't something he was well versed with. Since, he looked like he was sincerely admitting his fault, I thought, I should be sincere too.

"Its okay, I'm sorry too. I just was very much disturbed and desperate to know about myself."

I ended up chuckling on my choice of words. He nodded saying that he understood. He said that at that moment he was very much in stress about the deal. He told me that he was a businessman, handling their family business.

"Guess what I found out, we both have anger issues." I chirped which made him laugh.

"I also found out this on our first meet" He exclaimed absent-mindedly.

Our first meet? Because of our sometime back snappiness, I even forgot that he was my fiancé, or so he said. That means, I could ask him about our relationship and try to know myself in that way. Still, how could I believe that he wasn't fooling me. If so, the why was he doing that with me would be an another question. The list of my questions seemed to have no end.

"How was our first meet?" I put my next question in front of him.

"You really can't stop questioning, can you Aadhya?" He asked with a knowing smile playing on his lips.

"I don't think so..I mean I..I'm so sorry...I just.." I didn't know what to say, but I know I wasn't doing anything wrong by asking him questions.

"Hey, its okay. I was just pulling your leg. I'll tell you. Our first meet, I believe was one of the best thing happened to me." Veer said being zoned out as if he was more into thinking about our first meet. Now, I felt that the admiring smile he had on his face should be permanently there.

"Miss D.A, we first time...." He started with full enthusiasm but was stopped by me.

Him calling me D.A stupified me. This was what someone called me in my dream. I looked at him with wide eyes, for a moment thinking if he was one of those people standing in that room from my dream. When my heart refused to believe it, I internally sighed. My heart was really siding with him all time.

When I asked him why he called me D.A, he said that it was me who asked him to call me with this name when we met for the second time. He said that I even asked never ever to call me 'Aadhya' in public. So, now and then, he used to call me D.A.

The new piece took me aback. It wasn't something I expected. But then, I didn't even had an idea of what to expect. Veer got a call and he excused himself. After few mins, he returned with his smile disappeared.

"Sorry D.A, but I'll have to leave now. I promise to tell you how we met later when I'll be back. Keep your next questions ready." He asserted.

His last line made me chuckle, and I jokingly warned him to be ready with answers other wise I will not let him stay in peace. Veer said nothing, but made his way to the door.

"And Mr.Mehrotra, can you just not call me D.A? Aadhya is fine." I told him.

That word D.A made me feel uncomfortable. I felt like that title was something against which, I had carried deep seated dislike. But, the Aadhya I saw in my second dream seemed to like it. Even her appearance made it clear how much control she liked to keep on things and situations.

I lied down on the bed, my eyes focused on the plain white ceiling, while my thoughts gathering around the two points.

Point 1: Those people called me D.A.

Point 2: I asked Veer to call me D.A. in public.

My thoughts were completely disoriented. I was pretty sure that my real name was Aadhya. Even in that dream, that women in late twenties, the doppelganger of me, or may be that past me was internally referring herself as Aadhya. Then, was I living with dual identity, out of which I don't even recall one?

I asked Veer to call me Aadhya and not DA, cause I, for once felt that those four men were behind a women with an identity DA, and not Aadhya.

'Oh Aadhya! You are just confusing yourself. Stop thinking and go to sleep' my subconscious mind told me.

I just did what I my subconscious mind said. Closing my eyes I started counting from one to infinity, until sleep embraced me.

*_*_*

Few hours later

I got up hearing some people arguing besides me. My blurred vision didn't let me see who they were, but I could clearly recognize one voice to be of Veer's. Now, don't ask me how I could instantly recognize that man's deep voice. My hands made their ways to my eyes and I rubbed them to get a clear vision. My mind wasn't still in a state of processing everything I was hearing.

"I told you what to do...." I heard Veer roar.

Cutting him off in between an another teeth gritted man spoke. "Do you think that I'll just do what you say cause you own this place? No way Veer. I won't help you to cover your mistakes."

"I did nothing and I've made my statement crystal clear."

"Don't fool me."

Their high pitch voices were arising my headache again. I felt like someone was constantly hitting my head with a hammer, so without thinking, I screamed on the top of my voice, asking them to stop. That was the moment they realized that I was awake, better woken by their yelling.

"Why is my head hurting and spinning? Ahh." I cried holding my head. I tried standing up straight but stumbled. I only could guess someone making their way towards me with the footsteps.

"Are you okay, Aadhya?" Veer's concerned and strained voice rang in my ears.

He was holding me by my shoulders, forcing me to sit on the bed. Sparkles erupted under my skin where his hands rested. But I ignored it and wriggled out of his grip.

"What do you think? Am I a fool shouting here? For God's sake I'm crying out loud, stop yelling. you two." I screamed at the top of my voice and eventually regretted when it caused my headache to increase.

"Have this!" An unknown man, with his shoulder length hair pulled up in a pony tail extended his hand some white colour pill over his palm. My eyebrows joined in confusion and I locked my eyes with Veer who he nodded telling me to go ahead.

Gulping down the pill, I looked at the man standing besides Veer, smirking. He was a tall man with nerdy yet handsome looks, in doctor's coat, a year or two elder than me.

"Trusting him so much, huh?" His strong voice clearly said that he didn't liked this idea.

Slowly, my headache started fading away.

In a small voice, my subconscious mind also asked the same question. But the point was that I was lacking answers. I stared into those bluish green orbs which which were silently begging to me to trust them, they needed me to trust them, or this is what I able was able to read in them.

"Aadhya, this is Kabir, the chief of this hospital, a cardiologist." Veer introduced the tall man, who narrowed his eyes on Veer. Just with on glance at both of their faces, I could say that Veer wasn't saying the complete truth.

"Hi!" This was all I remembered saying before Kabir left.

"Mr.Mehrotra, can you just check if doctor Ishika is free. I had asked her to get something for me." I quietly asked him. This time, I made sure that my voice was polite enough.

"Call me Veer, Aadhya. And Ishika had asked me to tell you that she'll be coming soon to have a check on you." He replied

I nodded at his answer. For some time, both of us said nothing, but stayed in complete silence. Then, the silence dispersed in the room started annoying me. So I decided to ask questions again.

"Veer, you never told how we met!" I exclaimed, catching his attention.

"You really wanna know?" His eyebrow quired.

"Yeah, hundred percent."

He cleared his throat before starting.

*_*_*

FLASHBACK

Aadhya was constantly tapping her leg on the floor showing her impatience.

"I just hate to wait!" She muttered before getting up only to see that the was waiter bringing her coffee.

"Just one more coffee." She convinced herself.

As the waiter was placing her coffee on the table, an angry man pushed the waiter hard saying get out of my way. In no minutes, the waiter was all over the table and the edge of the table poked inside his stomach.

"Sorry." apologized to Aadhya in a meek voice, holding his stomach and hissing in pain. But ruining her favourite pale blue denim jacket wasn't an appreciating thing. She instantly got up and pushed the waiter to her seat, making him sit comfortably.

Waiter's mouth left open when he saw Aadhya holding the man's collar who pushed him. Without waiting for a second, he left the place, running back to the kitchen.

"Do you know who's collar have you held little girl? I'm one of the famous industrialist in Mumbai." That man in his early forties growled loudly.

"Even then you need to let me know who you are? You aren't that famous then! I have no interest in knowing about you. Just apologize for pushing that waiter. Because of you, my favourite jacket is rui..."

"Oh, so this is your problem! Money, right. I know those cheap tricks of down market people like you'll." That man spat with the known displeasure in his voice.

"Aye, how dare you call me down market?" Saying this, she poured the rest of her coffee over his head standing on her toes. He was one of those six point two kind of model. Leaving his collar, she glanced everywhere to spot the waiter.

Suddenly her eyes caught a man on the corner table. She noticed the amused smile flickering on his lips and his intense bluish green eyes, which watched her as if she was the only woman in this world. His smile turned into smirk when he noticed her being affected by his gaze.

"How dare you idiot.." The voice of the man in front of her disturbed her.

"What? You are still standing here after your being insulted."

Aadhya was just making him more furious. The universe knew that irritating such people was something she enjoyed. Such people, who hurt the weaker ones. When she saw his palm striding towards her cheeks, she instantly caught it and yanked away.

"Don't every think of it. Or you will be on the front page of very newspaper with the captions favoring me. I'll make sure of it. So just keep your hand to yourself and if some shame is left in you, then leave."

Saying this she proceeded towards the washroom to clean her jacket. That grumpy man kicked the chair away before leaving. While moving, through the corner of her eyes, Aadhya saw that unknown colorful eyed man's eyes not leaving her for moment until she walked inside the restroom.

When she came out, police were present there, shocking her. No, she thought, she can't go in front of them and decided to step back and run inside the restroom and jump out through the small window there But it was too late as one of the constable gestured her to step forward.

Nervousness was all over her face. As she reached them, the first question asked to her was, who was she, too much if her displeasure.

Suddenly, a hand sneaked through her waist pulling her against the warm body. Gasp left Aadhya's lips when her skin came in contact with Veer's cold hand. He certainly had some effect on her.

"She is with me." Just those four words and the constable nodded, answering the inspector that they got a wrong lead and the girl they were searching for wasn't there. Her jaws dropped but she soon covered the expression.

Soon, the police left.

What was staying was Veer's arm around Aadhya's waist.