Chapter 23
Viren stared at the job application in front of him blindly; he'd been sitting at the dining table for almost an hour and had barely filled any of it out apart from his basic details. He just wanted to see Nivi; whatever he did, the thought was always in the back of his mind and it was driving him crazy! It had been exactly 4 days since he'd last seen her as he'd walked out of the Sharma house but it felt like weeks to him and time seemed to have slowed down; how did people in love concentrate on anything?!
He sighed and looked at the questions on the form in front of him, trying to focus; he'd already decided that he would keep his feelings to himself for now till he figured out how Nivi felt about him so there was no point in keep thinking about it. He'd thought about it long and hard these past few days and he realised whatever happened, he didn't want to lose Nivi's friendship and he didn't want to ruin it by telling her how he felt and then making things awkward between them if she didn't feel the same way. It killed him but the more he thought about it, the more he doubted that Nivi felt anything other than friendship for him but he had to find out for sure somehow.
Till then he needed to act as normal as he could so he was trying to keep some distance...although he was sure he would have gone to see her or called her by now if it was normal..?! He felt like he didn't know anything anymore, he reached for his phone thinking he could just call her and say hi at least but then put it back down on the table; she hadn't called him either so maybe he should leave it... He sighed again and rested his head on his arms; he closed his eyes and tried to ignore Nivi's smiling face in his head.
Nivi hung up the phone and stood in shock for a few minutes; the first thought that came into her mind was to find Viren and tell him that she'd just been offered the job. Then she realised it was evening; she couldn't just rush over to his house...she'd call him! She was just dialling when Dadi called her so she stopped half way and decided she would tell Viren the good news a little later. As she went to see what Dadi wanted she wondered if everything was ok with Viren; she hadn't seen or heard from him in a few days and it felt strange and she missed him.
She'd thought a lot about that night and had spoken to Divya about some of it too. Viren hadn't seemed himself and he hadn't looked at her properly in the morning and she hadn't heard from him since. She wondered if he was upset with her; normally she would have had a call or text message from him by now asking if she was still alive or something equally random... She sighed and tried not to think about it as she got to the Dadi's room.
'Spying Viren?!' Viren jumped at the sound of Sid's voice close to his ear. 'Siddarth you scared me to half to death!' Viren whispered as he turned around. He was standing just outside Dadaji's room; he'd done as much of the application as he could and then given up and had come to see if Dadaji had any words of wisdom for him when he'd heard the family talking inside and stopped to listen, unable to help himself.
'Kya ho raha hai? What's so interesting?!' Sid was looking at Viren curiously and Viren shook his head 'If I was you bhai, I'd run now; they're talking about your marriage in there!!' Sid smiled at the look on Viren's face and said 'Toh kya hua Viren? It's not that odd. Pata hai...I've even heard them talking about your marriage...!' He burst out laughing at the look of horror on Viren's face, 'Kya?!!' Viren had actually gone white at the thought; Sid rolled his eyes, 'Calm down, I was just kidding; nice to see how you feel about it though!' He put an arm around Viren's shoulders, 'Soch lo, if this is your reaction...imagine that poor girl's face who lands up with you?!'
Viren gave a relieved laughed but then looked serious again, 'You're really not bothered? They can't just pick any girl for you...what about love?!' Sid looked at Viren and wondered if he was feeling ok, 'Yeh tum keh rahe ho Viren?! Since when did you become so concerned about love?' Sid raised an eyebrow and watched, feeling even more curious now as Viren avoided the question. 'This isn't about me Siddarth; you're really ok with marrying someone you don't really know?!' Sid thought about it for a second and shrugged; he hadn't given it much thought till now if he was honest, he was too busy to meet anyone outside of work so it had never been an issue.
He told Viren this but he still looked worried and Sid felt a rush of love for his little brother and at his concern for him. 'They're just talking Viren, ladki bhi nahi dhoonda hoga. It's not like I'm getting married tomorrow!' Viren still looked unconvinced and Sid patted him on the shoulder. 'Don't worry yourself about it; do you want some help with your job app?' He looked at the papers in Viren's hand but Viren shook his head and said, 'Nahi bhai, I'll be fine with it' so Sid said goodnight and left, still smiling thinking about Viren's worried face.
Viren watched Sid go and then walked to his room slowly, thinking about something other than Nivi fully for the first time since he'd last seen her. He didn't know how Sid was so calm about the whole thing; if it was him, he'd be in there right now telling them that there was no way he'd marry someone without even getting to know them first. Not that that was really an option for him now anyway...he pushed that thought away as he got to his room; he'd rather focus on Sid's problems than his own right now. He left the application papers on the table and got ready for bed, still thinking. As he got into bed, his phone rang and with a shock he saw it was Nivi. His heart started pounding and he stared at her name flashing on the screen for a few seconds before answering it.
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