~MATT~The next day I prepared myself for the office, but something was wrong. I ignored my health and went to the office.We started meeting for the next editorial project, and my head felt dizzy. I headed towards the restroom, and suddenly, I felt a sensation of throwing up.“What the?” I emptied the last piece of food from my stomach after one more stroke.I came out after cleaning myself and held the door ajar.“You are coming to see the doctor,” a voice dropped in my ear when a hand dragged me out of the office.“Neeral, I am fine. It’s ok,” I said.She drove me there, and we saw the doctor.“He is suffering from food poisoning. And he really needs rest and home food.” The doctor declared after observing my health.“Why are you eating outside? Don’t you cook at home? I thought you did.” Neeral asked. I backed myself into the chair.“Aren’t you angry with me?” I replied, annoyingly.She kept her mouth shut for a second.“Matt... it’s not about..,” she sighed as she composed hersel

~MATT~The next day we reached the office as we got busy with our work. Today we planned to go out for lunch. I walked towards her cabin, but she was not there, and called my colleague; she said she left the office a few minutes back.“What?”“Yeah, she went out for lunch, I guess.”“With Victor?” I tried to digest it.Why would she do it? She promised me, but then she left me hanging here. “Well, I guess I have to go alone,” I said.I came out of the office and thought to walk to the nearest food court. There, I saw her talking to Victor.It was more like a fight from her side while Victor tried to control his anger against her.“What’s going on?” I called her, and she looked at my phone and cut the call. I tried again.“Hello, Neeral. Where are you?”I could see she pulled her hair back to compose herself.“Hey, Matt. I am sorry, I have an urgent meeting with another publishing house. I am at their office.” She lied to me.“Ok, I will wait for you in the office.”“No..no... I may ta

~NEERAL~ Upset in my heart, my soul wants to howl my pain. But neither I was alone, nor I wanted to be. As I knew, I got adapted to my life. I accepted this pain as a part of my life. Taylor asked me one more time, but all I wanted was to run away from everyone. I went to my car and busted into tears once again. Before that, I used to cry at my home. I used to scream and scotched my mouth on the pillow, but now, Matt stays with me, so I had to find a spot where people couldn’t see me. “Why I can’t have true love in my life?” I whispered as I wiped my eyes with a wet napkin. Once I was done wiping my tears on that tissue to make it wetter, I came out of the car. My apartment lights were closed, and neither I saw Matt’s car. “He must be out,” I purred while trying to open the door with my jingling keys. As I opened the door, everybody jumped in front of me. “SURPRISEEEEEE...” Shocked, I dropped my bag and my phone. “What the fuc...” I uttered in shock. “Happy Birthday” they

~NEERAL~ It’s been two weeks since that horrible incident happened to me. A strange feeling took over my heart, a sense of suffocation deep inside. I thought it would be easy for me to survive with Matt being his friend, but the closer we get, the more I see myself drowning in pain. I couldn’t find myself as his friend. Whatever he was doing, he saw us as friends, but it was affecting me badly. My saturation came when he mentioned me as his close friend in front of his family. Yes, last weekend we went to meet his parents. They welcomed me with open arms, and it felt nice, as I missed my mom so much. He told them about Aoife and Xander. It surprised his parents by all those incidents. They were happy I stood by Matt’s side, but I cursed myself for creating so much pain for myself. I was stupid to allow him to enter my heart, but now it was enough. I moved on and made my profiles on dating apps. And seeing my bad luck, he saw mail popping up in my mailbox. “Hey, Neeral. Are you

~MATT~ Mending a broken heart is like making a sandcastle in a wet place. A wave will come and destroy everything you have built. How stupid was I to allow myself to attain in the same situation twice? At the time, I concede I had developed a special place for Neeral; she accepted Taylor’s ring. Falling in love again took effort, but I didn’t maintain it. Our story leaped to the climax before it began. The time Taylor proposed to her, I couldn’t understand how I should react. Should I be angry at him or angry at myself? I didn’t dare to tell her anything, and neither she waited for me. We shared a special bond, but I was confused; is this friendship or love? An unknown fear crawled under my skin. What if I tell her something, and she leaves me, like Aoife? What if I tell her to wait for me? Let me understand my feeling is love or an infatuation between us? I was confused as hell. The girl I thought I loved didn’t understand my feelings. She thought it was my friendship wi