I met Nirav at a common friend’s house party. We hit it off quite well at the party and by the end of the night, he told me we should hang out sometime and asked for my number. He seemed like a decent guy so I gave it to him. The next day, while I was sitting in class, I got a text from him. We started talking and there was just no going back after that. Soon enough, we met and kept meeting almost every weekend until after a month later, we decided that we were definitely dating each other.
It was in this phase of puppy love that we ran into Anamika one day. Anamika had been my classmate in school and we had been good friends except that after school we kind of lost touch. I introduced Nirav and Anamika to each other and realized there was an awkward tension between them. ‘We know each other.’ Nirav told me, ‘Anamika is in my college.’ ‘Oh? That’s great! You are already part of my friend circle then!’ I said placing my hand on his arm, Anamika laughed nervously and said, ‘Well, I have to go right now. Give me your number, we’ll catch up!’ We exchanged numbers after which she left and Nirav and I continued with our date.
It was two days later that Anamika messaged me. It started off with a how were things going and then she asked me ‘So are you dating Nirav?’ ‘Yes! We are dating. It hasn’t been long but I really like him!’ I replied with a heart emoji. ‘That’s great, no he is a good guy. Anyway, let’s meet up soon?’
Anamika and I met twice or thrice after that, when she used to come to my college. I would ask Nirav to join us since they were from the same college but he would always be busy around that time. It was one day when I was visiting him in his college that I said I should probably call up Anamika and ask her to meet us. Nirav didn’t look very enthusiastic about it. ‘I just want to spend some time with you.’ he told me. I couldn’t really argue with that so I let it be but I wondered if there was something he wasn’t telling me.
It was when I met our mutual friend, the one whose party we met at that my doubts found strong ground. I asked him how he knew Nirav and he told me ‘Oh I met him at our MUN conference. We became friends quite quick. He was dating someone back then, I am surprised he moved on so quick to be honest.’ ‘Really? Who was he dating?’ I asked him ‘Some girl from his college, she was at the MUN too, what was her name… oh yeah, Anamika.’
I couldn’t believe what I had just heard, Anamika and Nirav were dating each other? No wonder they tried to avoid each other all the time. I wasn’t one of the people who held grudges for their partner’s past but the fact that both of them had never told me about this upset me quite a bit. It was a weird feeling to find out that I was dating my friend’s ex-boyfriend. I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about this, so, I immediately called up Nirav and asked him to meet me.
Without wasting any time, I confronted him when we met. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you and Anamika were dating?’ A look of shock dawned on his face ‘Who told you that?’ he asked. ‘Someone had to since you decided not to’ I replied.
‘It’s not like that, I was figuring out how to tell you.’
‘Yeah? That’s like the most cliche thing to say in this situation.’
‘No, really, Anamika and I talked about this…’
‘Oh, it was a mutual decision was it?’
By now I was angrier than before. The fact that they had talked about it and decided to not tell me was just unbelievable and yet, it was the truth. Suddenly, Nirav held me by the shoulders and said, ‘Listen, I am really sorry I didn’t tell you. I didn’t even know you two were friends and it put me in an awkward situation. I honestly had no clue how to handle it or how you would handle it and it scared me. There are no excuses, I was scared. Anamika and I dated for two months before I even knew you. We broke it off because we really weren’t getting along. We still had feelings for each other but then I met you and it was quite clear why nothing worked out with her. I like you… In fact, I love you! And I really don’t want to ruin what we have because of this.’
I looked at his face, he was looking me right in the eyes and it was really difficult to not hug him and cry right there. ‘You love me?’ I asked ‘I do’ he replied. ‘You don’t have any feelings for Anamika anymore?’ I asked ‘She’s a friend but that’s about it.’ ‘You have to promise never to not tell me something like this ever again’ I said, tears rolling down my cheeks. ‘I promise I will tell you everything about all my ex-girlfriends’ he smiled, wiping the tears off my cheek.
Later, I did talk to Anamika about it, she told me how she didn’t want to tell me before Nirav did since that might be a problem in our relationship. She also told me how she wished us well and nothing less. So, I guess, in the end after all the drama, everything worked itself out.
*Names changed to protect privacy.
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