Chapter Nineteen
Chapter
Nineteen
“Maybe you could be my emotional support human.”
—Sam Gardner, Atypical
For someone who had only met Veer minutes ago, Sasha sure had taken an instant liking to him. The café was packed during Sunstag’s anniversary sale, so the only chance Harsha got to introduce them was during Veer’s twenty-minute break later that night.
Veer sat across from them, wearing a jacket over his uniform and listening as Sasha gushed about his coffee while Harsha tried to contain her grin. “This is the best pour-over I’ve had in my life,” Sasha said and took a big sniff of her drink. “And that’s saying something, because I brew my own coffee. You’re good.”
“Takes one to know one,” Veer shot back with a smile. He dipped his sandwich in ketchup and winked at Harsha, who looked between her two favorite people and tried to hold back her excitement.
“It really is great coffee, isn’t it?” Harsha said, holding up her mug.
Veer and Sasha gave her identical dirty looks. “That does not qualify as coffee,” Sasha pointed out, while Veer nodded in agreement. “That’s barely a latte.”
“Exactly what Veer thinks.” Harsha sipped her oat milk vanilla latte and relished the sugary, syrupy taste. “I didn’t think you both would get along so well.”
“Why wouldn’t we?” Sasha rested her arms on the table. “We both like you .”
Harsha nearly choked on her latte. What the hell was Sasha thinking?
Sasha’s lip twitched. Before she could play matchmaker any further, Harsha changed the topic to her last gig. It had gone great in terms of the pictures she snapped, but in true high school fashion, there was all kinds of chaos. Three mean girls got into a huge fight, two couples broke up, and one parent cried.
“Teenagers are so brutal these days,” Veer mumbled as he ate his sandwich.
“They’ve always been brutal, like at my sweet sixteenth party,” Harsha said, chuckling. “It was more drama than a Netflix reality TV show.”
“Why?” Veer asked.
Sasha already knew this story and she burst out laughing. Harsha held back a smile, pretending to think about it. “Let’s see: Neha wore the same shade of pink as me, so I yelled at her for stealing my thunder. Cut to ten minutes later, there was cake all over both our designer dresses and someone uploaded the video to YouTube. The whole school saw it.”
Veer put his sandwich down and opened the YouTube app on his phone. “Is the video still up, or do I have to track down your former classmates to get the link to it?”
“Don’t you dare,” she said, swatting at his hand. “It was the most embarrassing moment of my life. I looked like a cartoon character with strawberry cake all over my pink dress.”
“Strawberry, again?” Veer chuckled. “Cute.”
Harsha’s blush darkened as Sasha giggled. “Well, you should get back to work,” Harsha said to Veer.
“Right.” Veer exhaled softly, definitely getting the message. He stood, tray in hand. “It was great meeting you, Sasha. I’ll see you both tomorrow, for my big surprise?”
“We’ll be there,” she replied, waving.
His footsteps thudded down the stairs. Harsha didn’t look up at her best friend until Sasha let out a loud, exaggerated sigh. “He’s adorable. How could you not pursue this?”
Harsha put her coffee down regretfully. “It’s too complicated, S. If only I hadn’t come up with this whole arrangement—maybe I’d have gotten to know him better outside of Sunstag, and then we’d have had an actual chance at…”
“Love,” Sasha finished.
“Yeah.”
“Well, you might not have the perfect love life, but at least your career’s going in the right direction.” Sasha rested her head on her hands, a smile on her face. “Today’s birthday party, then Neha’s wedding? You’re in demand.”
Harsha beamed at her. “Hopefully, it only goes up from here.”
“It will,” she promised. “You deserve only good things. Especially after all the shit you went through before moving here.” Sasha rolled her shoulders back and stood up. “I need another coffee to go.”
Harsha nodded and closed her eyes as Sasha went downstairs.
Honestly, it almost felt like a lifetime had passed, not just since the day she met her ex on the flight to Bangalore, but since the night the fake relationship was born—thanks to Neha, of all people. She and Veer had come such a long way, from that awkward hug as strangers during their first fake date, to their now unflinching support and affection for each other.
Her eyes dampened, and she wiped them away resolutely. Sasha might have thought Harsha ought to be selfish and give things a real shot, but Harsha wouldn’t. There was simmering attraction between them, and the start of romantic feelings—but she wasn’t in love, right? And neither was he, not after everything he’d told her.
Love was hard to ignore—but feelings could be kept in check. And that was what Harsha would do.
The next day, Harsha grudgingly got dressed, rubbing her bleary eyes, as a yawning Sasha put on mascara. After ordering takeout from CTR, they’d stayed up most of the night talking and watching rom-coms, finally falling asleep around four a.m.
And if it weren’t for the fact that Veer had apparently planned something “super fun” for them to do this morning, Harsha wouldn’t have gotten out of bed at all.
Veer’s car honked thrice from downstairs at nine a.m. on the dot. “Can’t we just go back to sleep?” Sasha groaned, wearing her sneakers.
It was a nice, breezy day, with bright rays of light filtering in through a sky of clouds after last night’s rains. “It’s a great day to be outdoors,” Harsha said, if only to convince herself. Veer had told them to wear something comfortable that they wouldn’t mind getting dirty.
“Morning!” Veer greeted them, full of energy, when they slid inside his car, Harsha in the front and Sasha in the back seat. “Are we ready?”
“Only barely,” Sasha mumbled, stretching her arms as much as she could within poor Nayanthara’s cramped interior. “Where are we going, by the way?”
“It’s a surprise,” he said, grinning from ear to ear. He started the engine, and they drove with the windows down through the city, which was quieter than usual this Saturday morning. Harsha closed her eyes and soaked in the sunshine as the cool wind whipped her curls around. She never could have enjoyed a car ride like this in the stifling Mumbai humidity. Bangalore was home now—she had no doubt about it.
Veer stopped the car in a shady spot outside Cubbon Park and gestured for them to get out. While they complied, he opened the trunk and took out a large shoulder bag.
Sasha eyed the bag, looking doubtful. “If that bag was any bigger, I’d think you brought us here to bury a body.”
Harsha snorted, then covered her mouth as her best friend burst into giggles. “I haven’t heard that snort in months!” Sasha said, clapping her hands.
“Let’s go,” Veer said, locking his car with a beep, “before you two get sentimental.”
“Too late for that,” Harsha said and wound her arm around Sasha’s, smiling.
Veer led the way through the lush, green park, which was a welcome refuge from the chaos of city life that Bangalore usually promised. A group of women dressed in workout gear ran past them, their breaths fast and loud. People walked their dogs, stopping to let passersby pet their furry babies, while couples sat on benches and chatted, their time only each other’s.
Harsha didn’t live too far from Cubbon Park, but she’d only passed by here once on her way to a lunch date with her ex. It looked like the perfect place to click some photographs, get a morning jog in, and gush over cute puppies. “Where are we going?” Sasha asked when Veer got off the jogging track and led them into the grassier lawns of the garden.
Veer smiled as they approached an area filled with people…painting.
“What is this?” Sasha asked as she took in the scene alongside Harsha.
Veer stretched his arms wide. “Welcome to Cubbon Paints! I thought we could enjoy the scenery and paint something to remember each other by?” He held up the shoulder bag. “I brought supplies for all of us.”
Harsha blinked. Was this a dream? Sasha seemed to have had the same thought as she shot Harsha a funny look. Harsha’s real boyfriends had never put this much thought into a surprise outing with mutual friends, let alone a friend of Harsha’s they’d only met one day prior. “This looks fun,” Sasha finally said. “You didn’t have to plan all this, though. We could have just gone out for lunch.”
“I wanted to,” Veer said plainly. “I’ve passed by the event a bunch of times and thought it looked like so much fun.” He led the way to an empty spot, spreading a large mat from his shoulder bag on the ground, then took out a large box of oil paints, brushes, and paper and arranged it all on the picnic mat.
They sat down and got on with it, shielding their works of art from one another. Harsha had an eye for photography, but she’d always had trouble with paintbrushes. Sasha wasn’t the most creative, either, but she looked like she was having fun—a laugh escaped her lips as she dipped her brush in light brown paint. Knowing her, Harsha was sure Sasha would make a caricature of Veer.
Harsha wasn’t sure what to paint. What did she want to remember the most about this trip? Her best friend, of course. She settled on painting Sasha with a large pink heart drawn around her face and cups of coffee around the borders.
An hour later, they unveiled their paintings. Sasha laughed at Harsha’s amateur-ish, bare-bones portrait of her but gave her a tight hug anyway. “I’m going to hang this up on my wall back home.”
“They’ll probably think a seven-year-old painted it,” Harsha said, laughing back.
Sasha had, of course, drawn Veer as a bearded man in a barista uniform, a medal around his neck, and captioned it Barista of the Year . “I would have drawn a trophy, but a medal’s easier,” she said, shrugging.
“It’s perfect.” Veer grinned, then hesitated as he pushed his own page in front of them. “This one’s for Harsha.”
At first, she wasn’t sure what she was looking at. The painting seemed to be set against the backdrop of a train car, with two stick figures sitting by the window. The only recognizable features were the beard and goofy smile on the man’s face, and the woman’s long, curly black hair and closed eyes as she slept on the man’s shoulder. It took Harsha a moment to remember the train ride from Bandra to Churchgate after the depressing lunch with her family. Was that what this painting depicted?
“This is so cute,” she said, running a finger along Veer’s painted beard. “Thank you.”
He scratched the back of his neck and turned his face away, but not before she caught his wide grin and blush. “I’m glad you like it.”
“I love it,” she insisted, reaching her fingers forward and taking his hand.
He looked her way at last, his eyes lidded and full of an emotion she couldn’t place, but before he could speak, Sasha cleared her throat and stood up. “All this painting has made me hungry. Brunch, anyone?”
They dusted the grass off their clothes, packed up their stuff, and returned to Veer’s car. Harsha touched her hand to her heart as she trailed behind Veer and Sasha, who were discussing Sunstag’s coffee beans. She couldn’t stop thinking about the painting and its implications. Veer could have painted anything he wanted, but he chose to paint a moment that nobody but the two of them would remember. He was making it harder and harder for her to pretend this would only ever be fake…and she didn’t know if she loved or hated him for it.
Sasha’s last day in Bangalore came around sooner than Harsha had anticipated. One moment, they were heading to Cubbon Paints, and the next moment, Sasha was wheeling her suitcase toward the airport’s entry gate.
Sasha stopped at the back of the queue and bowed her head. “Well. I guess this is it.”
Harsha wiped her nose and wrapped her in a tight embrace. These three days had passed in a flurry, and Harsha wasn’t quite ready to let go of her best friend just yet.
But she had to, because Sasha would miss her flight if they waited any longer, and her grad school friends were expecting her in Jaipur.
“I’m only a Zoom call away,” Sasha reminded her as they pulled apart, tears flowing down her cheeks too. “I love you, and you’ll be fine.”
“I’ll miss you so much,” Harsha whispered. She shut her eyes as more tears formed. “Long-distance best friendships should be outlawed.”
“One hundred percent,” Sasha said furiously. “And if anything happens between you and Veer at the wedding, you’d better call me right after.”
Harsha rolled her eyes. “S, didn’t I say that won’t happen?”
“You’d be surprised what the magic of weddings can do.” Sasha grinned smugly. “I’ll text you when I land.”
The line moved ahead, so they exchanged one final hug before Sasha entered the airport, and Harsha got into her Uber to head back to the city. She sat back and put on her AirPods. Hopefully, music would distract her from the pain of watching her best friend walk away. Who knew when they’d see each other again? Plane tickets were expensive.
Her phone buzzed.
Veer:
Did you drop Sasha off? Hope you’re feeling ok
[photo attached] If not, maybe this will help?
Harsha burst out laughing. He’d sent her an old photograph from his school production of Little Women . Front and center onstage, surrounded by other kids, was a young Veer in a wig and a pink dress, playing the role of Amy like his mother had said.
Harsha:
Thank you! This definitely helped
She caught the eye of the Uber driver in the mirror and bit the inside of her cheek, trying to suppress her giddy laughter. Veer Kannan had gone above and beyond for her in his role as her fake boyfriend. She only wished the wedding wouldn’t change that. Wouldn’t change them.
Two days to go.