They enter the ice cream parlour and Misha straightaway heads to the counter without a word, she needs some seconds to digest, her hands are dampening again, and she is not even wearing a glove.
She doesn't expect him to follow.
Aakash does.
The ice cream parlour is almost empty with two employees in a green sweater at the pink and yellow counter with name tags clasped onto their sweaters and heads tilted towards each other, in a silent conversation, a couple is sitting at the far corner of their right and stuffing their face against each other, with their chocolate ice cream half melted between them.
Misha decidedly looks away from them and slaps her hand on the counter to get the employees attention.
A guy named Rishabh looks up and winks at her. "Hello, Welcome to Rainbow Candies Ice Cream Parlour[ro1] , what would you like to have? You can check the menu above highlighted on the display."
The girl with the name tag Smriti sighs a deep long appreciative sigh towards the right of Misha, and Misha finds the direction of sigh to head straight towards Aakash, who was too busy in checking out the ice cream menu above the counter to notice the girl eyeing at him.
"Mint chocolate," Misha and Aakash say at the same time and the guy at the counter winks again, starting to tap something on the display of monitor.
Misha meet Aakash's eyes and he was looking at her in that confused way again.
"Large, Medium or small?" the guy asks.
"Large." Misha said impetuously, and blushed to a crimson red when Aakash raised his brows.
"118 rupees including tax, thank you, you will get your order on your table in five minutes." The guy says tearing the bill from the billing machine and placing it on the counter.
Misha starts to take out the money from the pocket of her sweatpants, but Aakash beats her to it, keeping a 200 rupees note on the counter, and quips, "Keep the change."
The guy nods at Aakash appreciatively.
Aakash and Misha make their way to the chairs and tables near the glass wall that gave them a clear view of the road outside[ro2] , and the black chords of clouds that kept hanging on from the skies making way for orange and purple.
And Misha sits at the blue plastic seat and turns to Aakash sitting on her opposite, a matching blue table between them, and she knows she can't delay it anymore, she keeps both of her hand on the table for support and asks him, "Why did you ask me how do I know your name?"
Aakash looks at her, his black and gold eyes poke hole into hers, she feels them touching the back of her head like a ghost, goosebumps make way on her arms and neck. "Well," he tilts his head to a side, in that way of his, his curls bounce and falls on his eyes, his voice, measured, he says, "I didn't know you, so I had to ask you how you would know my name, wouldn't I?"
Misha's heart curls in her chest, "Aakash," she says in a low hoarse voice, barely hearable, "I know I have hurt you." She gulps, and closes her eyes; she has to do this right way, "I have hurt you," she whispers, her eyes tight clenched, "but I didn't mean to, I know you probably don't want to do anything with me, but when we met at DPS I really didn't-"
"Wait, wait, wait," Aakash's voice interrupts Misha before she can say the words which had been pulling inside her for such a long time. She opens her eyes slowly, as if anything else fast would interrupt this dream she thinks is finally coming true. It was supposed to be this way, she was going to say these words, tell him how sorry and pathetic she felt, he was going to listen to them, then he was going to forgive her and tell her it was okay because he remembered, and then he was going to tell her stories all about their childhood, he was going to give back the images and paintings and love Misha had somehow lost and never remembered having, and they both were going to make every effort to bring them back.
It wasn't supposed to be this almost petrified way he was looking at her, as if, "What are you talking about?" he says, scraping his chair away from her, "What DPS, what hurt? I don't even know you." He says standing up, "listen, I thought you were funny," he is looking at her strangely, "but you're taking me for someone else, so I should get going." He says and starts to turn away from her.
The girl and the guy at the counter turn their head towards them, smelling drama; Misha ignores them and stands herself, "Aakash," her voice is meek, broken.
Aakash stops in his track and turns to her with a frown, something unrecognizable passes in his black gold eyes.
"Aakash please," her hands don't know where to go, "Don't do this, I know..."
"Listen," he interrupts his hands up in surrender, "I. Don't. Even. Know. What. You. Are. Talking. About." He says each word in deliberate slow tone, as if that would make Misha believe that he is not lying, that he is...
"If this is about getting back to me," she says as fast as she can manage without breathing, "I want you to know that I really didn't-"
"I don't know what you are talking about." He says again, there's a frustrated edge to his voice.
She looks into his eyes, and searches for any recognition of a lie, her eyes swipe him from head to toe, she can't be wrong about him, she has seen this face in her dreams, she has a picture of that younger face, Sammy has, her brain sizzles, "48 Himalda street, house no.21" she blurbs out the first thing that comes into her mind.
Aakash freezes in the spot, she sees his whole demeanour changing, his pupils enlarge and his eyes scrutinize her, "How do you know about my house?"
"Your previous house," she says daintily, her chin up, instead of her heartbeat erratic, "You have a locket, a wooden locket in a silver chain."
His gaze is incorrigible, it soaks up nerves inside her, "My locket is a public knowledge," he says considering, watching, "I have been asked about it numerous times by the media, you can easily read about it on my Wikipedia page."
Misha didn't know that, she swears at herself for not searching his name on Google, she doesn't know if he is testing her, or actually fucking don't know her. The latter makes her think of several expletives for universe, at the same time it sends sharp shards of blade inside her, how can he also forget about them? Her hands shake when she reaches inside her sweater and pulls out a silver chained wooden locket and lets it fall above her pink sweater. God please let him remember let him remember.
His eyes fall to the locket; Misha feels a burn on that exact point at her chest as if his eyes were scraping through her skin. His eyes when he meets hers is prehensile, the gold seems to burn through black, she feels a thousand things in one second. "They also have pictures of my locket on the internet."
Misha's breath comes short; she knows the next thing she is going to say is going to change everything. "Turn your locket upside down; the cat has a pattern on the locket."
He looks at her as if he is going to say no, but then he starts to remove his overcoat and Misha's eyes falls onto his bulge of chest pressing through his black sweater, she gulps and forces her eyes up to his face.
His hands go to the back of his neck and he pulls out an identical silver chain underneath his sweater with wary eyes pointed at her. Very carefully, he takes the wooden cat in his hand, which Misha is sure, is Mitzi, and he turns it upside down and sees the pattern.
She grabs her own, turning it upside down with him, "What do you see?"
"A heartbeat" he answers, his voice a tad bit throaty.
"Watch it carefully, M, A, M, A, M, A." She whispers.