CHAPTER 5

6^th August

Ayush seems to have unblocked me from his socials. It was more out of spite than moving on, I think. I say this because I saw his stories, ‘close friend’ stories included. He had seemingly gone to an ice-cream parlor with one of his new ‘friends’. It said, “with better company even an ice-cream tastes better!”.

…………..

Ayush was really happy that day. It was a Friday night. He came over, looking all cute, but still in his office attire.

“Hey” he said. I simply looked at him and smiled. “Congratulations hubby” softly chuckling I teased him. He moved towards me almost picking me up in an embrace and kissing me. I kissed back. My roommates weren’t home today. We spent a long time on my bed, I was barely able to get up. Good thing I had already made us his favorite shahi paneer. We took a shower; he restrained his urges while helping me clean up. He had a spare pair of clothes kept at my place. We both got dressed. He warmed the food and brought it over. It was in one thali and he fed me each bite with his own hands. Each morsel he’d softly blow and then feed it to me. We looked in each other’s eyes as if we had never seen them before.

“Thankyou for the meal. I didn’t know you could make things taste sooo good; all puns itended” he chuckled mischievously.

I just softly blushed. “Do you… um… wanna go on a walk maybe?”

I was anticipating him to say no, but surprisingly he said yes and we went out for a stroll. I mean it’s not like two straight men don’t go on an evening walk together, right?

As we were strolling down the street, we walk by LoversBell IceCream. We used to order from them at times, Ayush knew how much I loved them. It’s just that the parlor itself was a romantic spot of the town where mostly couples gathered, so we never thought of actually going there.

“Wanna go in?”. He took me by the hand even before I could answer the surprising question and went inside the dimly lit parlor. It was, indeed, a good spot for romance. The air was dense with the aroma of freshly baked ice cream cones. He sat me down in a corner.

“Mango?”. I nodded. He came over with two mango ice-creams in his hand and we both smiled at each other. It was our first date as a couple among other heterosexual couples. I had only ever fantasized about it since Ayush was discreet. We enjoyed the ice cream and went home holding hands.

The next day I went to college, and he went back to his place. Jina had gone to her boyfriend’s. Sims stared at my neck and laughed.

“Ahem, Ayush seems to have enjoyed eating ‘strawberries’ yesterday” she chuckles. Love bites were referred to as strawberries among us friends.

I show her the story of the mango ice-cream that Ayush posted in his ‘close friends’ which read, “With the right company, Mango ice-creams taste just right”.

………..

I pressed the ‘like’ button to his stories.