Part-Time Devdaas... by Rugved Mondkar

way Raghu introduced her, I was sure he’d break up with her in the lift on his way down.
    “I’ll drop her and be back in a bit. Please order something edible for me,” he said grumpily and left.
    I gathered the pizza boxes and dumped it in the kitchen. Hrida flipped a few channels on the TV before switching it off. I came back to the couch and sat a feet away from her. I stretched my head on the couch and stared at the ceiling. There was a long silence in the room. I slowly slid my hand on the couch and cupped Hrida’s hand. I turned my head to look at her and she was looking at me with a mild smile, her eyes trying to read my mind. I smiled at her and hesitantly pulled her towards me with slight force. She shifted towards me and I put my left arm around to hug her. Her smell intoxicated me and my heart began to beat so fast that I could hear my heartbeats. I let her go and stared at her. Then after waiting for a second, I kissed her on her cheek. She closed her eyes. I slowly moved sideways and placed my lips on hers. I kissed her still lips for a couple of seconds before she reciprocated, her hands holding my face and her fingers gently whirling through my hair.
    “I love you!” I said taking a moment from kissing her.
    “Thank you,” she smiled and bit my lower lip. Shivers ran down my body. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t kissed anyone before, but all those carnal pleasures didn’t match up to the way Hrida made me feel.
    “I have to tell you something,” she whispered in my ear still hugging me.
    “Oh no, what now?” I said with closed eyes.
    “I won’t be meeting you for a month,” she said quietly.
    “What?” I said looking at her. “Why?”
    “I’ve got my finals coming up in fifteen days.”
    “But I can drop and pick you up during the papers, right?”
    “Yes, you can, but one smile from you can toss all the data out of my brain,” she jutted her lower lip. “You don’t want me to flunk, do you?”
    I didn’t say anything. “Do you? Do you?” she pushed making faces till I smiled.
    “No,” I muttered under my breath putting my arm around her shoulders.
    “And by the way, who gave you the right to kiss me?” she said with a straight face.
    “What do you mean?” I asked in a worried tone, in spite of knowing that she was messing around with me.
    “You still aren’t officially my boyfriend,” she continued staring at me.
    “I… I am sorry.” By now my mind had given these words lifetime membership on planet tongue. I began to remove my hand resting on her shoulder. She could not keep a straight face any longer and burst into laughter.
    “You haven’t proposed to me yet,” she said as she stretched up a bit and kissed my right cheek. The remaining hours of that afternoon were spent smiling, kissing, and cuddling.

    “Dev, guess what?” I screamed into the phone.
    “You are in love?” Devika replied.
    “You know already?”
    “I’ve had my share of such calls from you. Shoot the details,” she said.
    “Hmm… her name is Hrida. She is Neha’s friend...”
    “Who’s Neha?”
    “Shashank’s new girlfriend.”
    “Oh! Sachdev’s hooked again. Man, I’m missing out on a lot of stuff.”
    “ Abey listen yaar .”
    “Sorry, continue.”
    “So ya, I met her four months back.”
    “It took you four months to tell me? She’s been keeping you that busy?” 
    “Aww, someone’s jealous!”
    “Ya right!”
    “But seriously, this time it’s different than always.”
    “Looks like it, just don’t waste time. Tell her how you feel.”
    “I have, actually... there’s more...”
    “There’s more? I have really missed out on too many things. I’m coming there right now,” she said sounding really annoyed.
    Incoming message from Hrida buzzed my cell phone.
    “Dev baby, I’ll call you back. Bye, bye… bye.” I hung up.
    “Yippie, vacations” her message read. I desperately dialled her number, she cancelled the call, and messaged back – “still in college,