Signs of heavy rains were evident as they sat staring at the sea. No words were said. She was hurt; he was disappointed. Whose fault was it anyway? certainly not my fault, he thought. It used to be so different! A few years ago they were inseparable. And now they were breaking up. How did it happen? Where did the love disappear? No one could tell.

They were here on the day it all began. He had brought a bunch of white lilies for her. He had already proposed her a week ago. She had asked for some time to think. And a week later, they were sitting at the same spot. She began the usual college gossip and ignored the real topic for a long time. He had to patiently wait for hours before she gathered the courage to say it. Her eyes welled up when she finally said it. Yes! It had always been a yes! Right from the moment they started hanging out in college! Her answer was ready even before the question had formed in his head. And they were finally together.

And now, five years later, here they were again. The Marine Drive hadn’t changed. The Arabian Sea was the same. The buildings behind them didn’t change. The thousands of Tetra-pods in front of them were exactly where they were. Everything was as it used to be five years ago. But they weren’t. Their relationship had been through a lot. They tried their best to make it through together. But in the end, it had to happen. A thundering cloud swiftly moved towards the city as the first drops of rain fell on the ground beside them. They didn’t move. Within seconds, the rain started lashing. They sat staring blankly into nothingness.

He started feeling cold. He opened his sack and took out his phone which was kept safely in a plastic bag. She looked at him from the corner of her eye, still not finding the courage to utter another word. The last word spoken between them was a good twenty minutes ago. And after he said those dreadful words, she had chosen to get lost in her own tears. There was no escape from this. Tears kept streaming down her face. All the memories they shared, all the time they spent together, all the time they spent away from each other thinking how they would spend their day together when they get married, all of it washed away in a whirlwind of misunderstandings. Her tears multiplied with each passing memory and she hid her face between her knees again.

He spoke first after what felt like an eternity of silence. The rain was coming down really hard. “I’ve booked an Uber. How are you going home?” He asked.

“You go! I don’t want to go home!” she replied as she straightened herself and wiped her tears.

“Don’t be a fool Pi…!” He was about to scold her. But he realized that he had no right to scold her or call her by that name anymore!

“Fine, I’m leaving!” he said as he got up and snatched his bag from under hers.

She didn’t look back. She couldn’t see him go away. It hurt her when he used to leave town to visit his parents even though she knew he was coming back. Now he was leaving her forever. How could she see that happen!

It must have been ten minutes when she heard footsteps approaching. She got startled when a hand tapped her shoulder. She turned back to find him. A small hope took birth in her mind and got transpired into a shy grin on her face. But before that grin could widen into a smile he uttered his words.

“Get in the car! I’m going to drop you home!!” he said as indifferently as he could.

She wanted to say no. But her body reacted before her mind could. She saw herself following him to the car parked on the side of the road. They got in the car and the ride started. She didn’t want to share a ride with him. A ride would mean another hour between them with no words left to say. It used to be that they would get five minutes between lectures and still they had something to say. And now an hour of silence awaited them.

The only sounds disturbing the silent equilibrium were the periodic hissing of the rain wipers and the blinking of the parking lights. The rain filled the gaps of silence, providing a constant rhythm. Every two minutes the lady from Google Maps would say a few words which the driver followed. Even he felt the tension between his passengers, because he swiftly turned on the radio. It didn’t do much to lighten the mood of his passengers, but he decided to ignore them and focus on the task at hand. It was easy to ignore them as no words were spoken. The driver hummed along the radio as the lady from Google Maps guided them to their destination.

The rain kept lashing the city. between the songs and advertisements, the radio jockey announced which roads were to be avoided if commuters didn’t want to get stuck in traffic or go through water-logged areas. The Driver listened intently in case he had to take a detour. He wanted this trip to finish as soon as possible. On a normal trip, he would chat with the passengers, share good and bad experiences of driving an cab. But his passengers for this trip were in no mood to even talk to each other, let alone exchange a few words of courtesy with the driver. He observed the couple a few times from the rear-view mirror and tried to guess what could have been wrong.

Little did he know that even his passengers didn’t know exactly what had gone wrong. there was no love triangle which torn them apart; there were never any major fights which hinted a future so dire. He kept staring out the window, although nothing was visible. All the glasses had fogged up. The driver kept changing the direction of the AC blowers so that he could see. But the fog kept coming back.

She kept stealing glances at him. Her attention got diverted to her bag as her phone started vibrating. She took it out and saw her mother’s number flashing on the screen. They had been at the marine drive for hours and she hadn’t informed her mother. shit, I’m dead! thought she as she answered the phone.

“Hello, beta where are you?” her mother asked in concern.

“I’m in the cab Ma! coming back from college! Don’t worry I’ll be home in an hour!” she replied and bit her lip.

“Are you alone?! share your ride details with Akshay na beta he will track!” suggested her mother.

“No Ma I’m not alone, Dimple’s with me!”

“Okay fine then! Be careful and come soon!”

“Yes Ma, see you soon! Bye!” she cut the line.

She saw several missed calls and messages from her mother, brother and father. It reminded her that she had a life besides him. She felt guilty for being so careless.

“You could have told the truth!” he spoke for the first time in a long time.

“Ah… what?” she pretended that she hadn’t heard him just to make him speak again.

“I said you didn’t have to lie!” he repeated himself.

“I don’t know why I did..” she replied. Then thinking she could continue she said, “listen, could we talk?”

“There’s nothing to talk! I’m dropping you home, and that’s it!” he said.

“But… what about us?” she asked.

“Nothing! It doesn’t matter anymore!” he replied and looked away.

There was no way she could break him. He had made up his mind. The tears began to flow again as she looked away and chose to remain silent. He stole a glimpse at her and looked away. He didn’t want to show her that he was crying too. He was convinced that he would marry her, long before there relationship became serious. But so much had happened in the last year that it felt almost impossible to continue.

To be continued...Next episode, same time next week!