It was around six in the evening when he stepped in the elevator, ready to go home and change so he could go visit a club or something. Dhruv knew loud music would take his mind off things.
However when he stepped into the elevator he was speechless for a second. The same girl from this morning stood in front of him with her frown set on her phone screen. There were two large grocery bags in her arms and Dhruv sucked in a breath when she looked up.
She copied him.
The girl cleared her throat, shyly stepping aside and huddled against the side which had the buttons. Dhruv let the elevator close behind them and rubbed the back of his neck with the same awkwardness she had.
"Hey," he murmured and when he moved to push the button for the third floor, the girl straightened herself further against the wall of the elevator. "Sorry."
"It's okay," she sighed and Dhruv finally composed himself enough to notice her appearance. She was, once again, all dolled up but this time in pink and the color reflected off her cheeks nicely. The elevator made a slight sound and then slowly started moving up.
He stared at the two heavy bags, Without hesitation reaching out to hold onto the one nearest to him. She flinched with surprise and raised her brows but let him grab the handle from her fingers. "It looked really heavy so I thought I'd help."
The girl parted her lips to speak but ended up smiling instead. "It's really not but thank you."
"You're welcome. So, are you taking these to the lovely gentleman next door to me?", this time, he didn't bother concealing his sarcasm. The girl grunted, rolling her eyes in annoyance.
"Yes and his name is Rahul, thank you very much," Dhruv chuckled and at the same time, the door opened at the third floor. The floor they were supposed to get off at.
"What's your name?", he asked crossing arms and leaning against the side of his wall with an intrigued gaze placed on her. "Mine's Dhruv."
"I know who you are," she shrugged casually, tucking a piece of hair back. "It's Samayra."
"Samayra," he repeated under his breath, like it was something intimate. "You like him, don't you?", Samayra's cheeks blazed red but she nodded nonetheless.
"Is it that obvious?," she questioned but there was an underlying tone of exasperation that I could recognize very well. It was almost the same tone Dhruv used, to talk about me before I stopped existing.
He hummed, placing the groceries beside the pot that was aligned next to Rahul's door. "Does he know? He has to know with how clear you're being with it."
"I don't have the guts to tell him face to face just yet," Samayra rocked on her feet. "I have a deep fear of rejection."
"You don't have to say it for him to know," Dhruv suggested with a bored expression but he was invested as he crossed his arms and leaned closer to her. "Actions speak louder than words."
"What do you mean? I will have to confess some way or the other," she argued, futile.
"You're a pretty girl Samayra," he smirked and then leaned closer to whisper in her ear. "It's a shame he hasn't fallen without you having to try." She flushed red, stuttering in response to the compliment but tried to smile. It was less than confident but worked for Dhruv.
That was new. It was clear on his face that he wasn't intending to say something like that.
That was when the door to Rahul's apartment twisted open with two distinct noises and Samayra immediately straightened up at the sight. He pushed the door open with a yawn and made a surprised noise at the girl standing in front of him. "Sam? What are you doing here?"
Rahul sounded nervous to the very bone. Did he maybe like her too? It would be no surprise if he did, just like Dhruv had said, she was pretty enough.
"You asked me to drop off groceries for you, did you forget?", Rahul was yet to step out and notice the other person in the hallway but he only let out a loud 'oh'.
"Thank you, Sam," he sounded pleased, Dhruv thought. "I appreciate the thought. I would invite you in but I have guests over at my place right now. You can just leave the stuff out here."
And the door was shut in her face once again.
"And you say he's not an asshole," Dhruv commented with a click of his tongue.
"Shut up," Samayra growled, shooting a death glare at him through her glassed over eyes. His face contorted into a frown and the hand that laid limp at his side twitched pathetically.
"Sorry, I wasn't- I'm sorry," she nodded and turned towards the elevator but Dhruv called her name, this time stopped her from turning altogether. "Look, I can see you were planning to spend time with him today and I'm free too, we can hang out for a while if you have time."
"Why would you want to spend time with me?", she frowned and spluttered the words out like there was not a single reason why Dhruv would want that or her. It seemed like all three of us were going through the same confusion.
"I would like to know you so I can understand why you're trying to settle for that asshole."
Samayra seemed to think over things for a while, adjusting the straps of her dress as she did so but then eventually agreed with a nod. "You have to stop calling him that. He's a nice guy there were people over at his place that's why he didn't ask me to come in. You heard him."
Dhruv disagreed to a whole another level but kept his feelings to himself with a nod. "Sure, do you want to hang out at my place or yours or somewhere out?"
"I don't trust you enough to be in a closed space with you yet," she squinted suspiciously and folded her arms tighter over her chest. "We can go to a park or something."
"You want me to go to a park with you? What are we? High School kids on a date?", he scoffed but Samayra looked like she had no plans of backing down, her shoulders raised in ridicule of his question. "You can't be serious, I'm going to be mobbed if we go to a park at six in the evening."
"Fine, then you decide," she sighed, exhausted of his antics.
"Let's go to the rooftop, it's open and private both," Dhruv suggested and a pang of jealousy shot through me. I knew he liked rooftops but I didn't like sitting out a lot so we never did anything like that. Watching him from afar made me realise that I never really adjusted anywhere for and with him, he kept bending over backwards just for me to be there.
."