"This is not a story. It is somebody's first-hand experience, and you should not know about it." Gavin sounded baffled and somehow unimaginably bitter.
"Gavin, I don't have any idea what you're talking about." Cece made an attempt to console Gavin and failed miserably.
"Exactly, you have no idea what I'm talking about," he hissed.
Cece remained quiet. His words, his tone, and the undisguised venom in his tone circled in her mind like a corpse-eating predator bird. It made her sick. She was not aware why, but she was feeling a crack in her heart.
She had many things in her mind about him, but she had never thought about what her possible reaction could be in such a time. She never thought of him being mad at her.
"I am coming to meet you."
"What?"
"You heard me. Share your location right now, Cece." Gavin shouted so loudly that her ears started ringing. "I have given you enough space. I won't anymore."
"I will not share anything with you. Why don't you cool down and then try —"
He stopped Cece midway with a snarl. "Don't think I cannot find you out myself. You may have thought that running away from me will be a cakewalk, but trust me, I know each of your moves. Even if you don't share your location with me I can drop in. Accept the privilege of the boundary I am giving you."
"Are you threatening me?" Cece kept her tone as impassive as possible, although she could hear the tremble in her voice.
"It's not a threat, Cece. if I threaten you, you'd know it. Are you sharing the location with me, or shall I just barge into your bubble of safety?"
Cece gulped. It was late. Her new landlord was not a prude, but if a man of his temper visited her this late, it wouldn't go smoothly between her and her landlord. She hesitated, her eyes fixated on the digital watch on the bedside table.
"Cece!"
This was not a threat, Cece thought. This was a warning of an upcoming storm. She was not certain whether resisting this would be a wise idea. She turned on the GPS of her outdated phone, and said in a low voice, "Check your phone."
Without any acknowledgment, Gavin disconnected the call.
Cece sat on her bed like a stone statue. Her mind was running a rerun of what had just happened. Once, twice, thrice… it went on until the next big question was posed in front of her—what was going to happen next? What was Gavin going to do to her?
She couldn't imagine how her life ended up being such a mess. How did she end up being entangled with Gavin?
Why is this Gavin so different from the one who kissed her that night in the corridor? He was sweet, caring, he admired her; this Gavin tolerated her.
She laid her eyes on her laptop, the document still open on her screen. She started reading it again. The love story she had written. It was loosely based on a true event, a one-night stand, and now she was going to have to explain that to Gavin.
The love story
Ruby was looking out of the window. She had started to lose interest in the same old drinks, silly games of revealing truths and performing dares, and strangers eyeing her with hungry eyes. She sighed wistfully. Everybody called her pretty, they all paid special attention to her, but it did not satiate her.
"Hey, do you have a lighter?"
Ruby fished out a lighter from the pocket of her oversized jacket and handed it over to the tall guy beside her. "Statutory warning, smoking kills," she said in a bored manner. Her eyes stayed on the window.
"Thanks for the concern," he said and took the lighter from her hand. He lit a cigarette and returned her the lighter. He extended the cigarette towards her and said, "Want to die together?"
"No, thank you. I have plans." Ruby cast him a sideways glance and said, "You look kind of familiar. Have we met before?"
"Okay, that is the most cliched line I have ever heard. Even guys don't use that anymore," he said.
"Hmm… you're right. It must be your idiocy that's rubbing off on me."
He laughed and nodded, making her wonder what was so funny. "I have to go, but stay here. I will be back in ten minutes." he left just like that, without waiting for any response, expecting her to stay unmoved for the next ten minutes.
"Idiot," Ruby muttered under her breath. She thought of leaving the party altogether. She looked around for her friends, who were partying hard. One of them was sucking another man's face, another one was stripping off his clothes. Ruby rolled her eyes. This was supposed to be a small get-together, not a crazy night. She found a solitary red umbrella standing beside a shelf.
"Perfect," she thought and grabbed the umbrella.
Once out of the party, she inhaled deeply. The smell of the rain made her giddy. She had always loved the rain, especially on nights like this. The whole world seemed to have fallen asleep. She started taking small steps savouring the feeling in her chest. A mild smile crept on her face.
Somebody was running towards her. She looked behind to find a tall, thin man running. He reminded her of one of those anime-inspired characters her best friend Ravi drew. She watched as the man came closer and smiled.
"You said you would stay there," he said, huffing. Instinctively, she raised the umbrella higher to allow him in.
"You said, I didn't agree." Ruby looked at his face. He was uncomfortably close, so close that she could feel his breath on her face. He smelled like cheap wine. Instantly she knew where she had seen him. He was the one who was drinking with Anne and her boyfriend in another room. Somehow they had found a stash of cheap alcohol, which in their words, was more intoxicating.
"You didn't say no either," he said.
"That was your second strike."
"What?" He looked confused.
"One, you are a smoker. Two, you don't understand consent. One more strike, and I am calling 911." Ruby looked directly at the road.
He held that confused look on his face for a while, and then it changed into understanding. "Really, I have been behaving like an asshole, haven't I?"
"Oh look, you have found your brain, finally," Ruby said, rolling her eyes.
"I deserve that. Listen, I don't smoke. That was just me being an idiot to prove my point. And about the consent part, you can curse me for that. I was an asshole, and I realise that now."
He sounded genuine. Ruby stopped walking and looked at his face directly. He was good-looking, with a hint of arrogance etched on his high cheekbones. His eyes were cute, she observed. Cute, but trouble. Ruby shook her head and started walking again.
"You don't want to ask me what point I was trying to prove?" he said incredulously and stood in the rain while Ruby walked away.
"Nope," she said loudly. Her voice sounded distorted in the rain.
"You might find it interesting," he suggested. He started walking behind her letting himself soak.
"Don't think so."
"Okay, I get it. I made a really bad first impression. What can I do to redeem myself?"
Ruby shrugged and continued walking. Her heart was beating a little faster than usual. She had men pursuing her before, but they were all nice guys. The good ones who wanted to woo her with flowers and kind words. This one was, well, different.
"Really, no second chances?"
Ruby shrugged again.
"What does that mean, now?"
Ruby suppressed a smirk and yelled, "Figure it out for yourself."
Gavin was fuming. "How do you know about this story?"
Cece took a step back. Only to find that she had the wall behind her, and nowhere else to run away. "It's just a story," she tried to say. The next moment a roar made her jump.
"It's not just a story. Where did you get this plot?"
He was coming towards her like a predator. His face showed menace. He was coming too close too fast.
"Look, it was just something I heard from a friend. Nothing more," Cece said in a low voice. She couldn't think of any other response. Her plan of telling the truth went out of the window the moment Gavin barged in through the door. It had not been more than ten minutes, yet she was trembling in fear. What had she done to earn this?
"Every word they said to each other, every moment of that half-baked story actually happened, Cece," he said in a low voice, dangerously low, that made her tremors more visible. "Who told you that story, Cece?"
"They all did. They all told me that—" Cece broke down. Her body shivered under his glower, her cheeks wet from the tears sneakily streaming down.
"What did they say?"
Cece sobbed, forgetting everything she had prepared in her mind. She had a whole speech ready on her rights, personal space, intellectual rights and properties, and whatnot. Everything was blurred now. Everything was a mess.
"They said that was how we met. We left a party together. Everybody saw us flirting with each other, and leaving together. That we had a one-night stand and after that we fell in love."
He stayed still, if he had not been breathing, he'd look like a stone statue.
"Look, I know it all sounds like bullshit, and that's what I told them. I don't remember any of these things happening, but they kept on saying that we were exes and that's how our love story started."
"That was how we met and our love story started, but it was not you. It was Ruby."