You Were My Crush: Till You Said You Love Me! Read Online Free PDF Page A

mattered. My mom, a double doctorate in contemporary literature, told me that she was dejected because the man she was getting married to did not even understand the language she spent so many years studying.
    Things had changed now, though. As his business grew, he had to deal with high-profile clients and so he had mastered the language. He had spent a major chunk of the last three years in his London office. He had come back with a hint of a British accent. He was now an older Indian version of Gerard Butler or George Clooney. Seeing him today, it is very hard to believe that he almost did not make it through school.
    I always thought the real reason why these meetings were so painful was because I felt drawn to his charm. And whenever that happened I felt guilty about it since he had made my mom go through a lot. But when he stood in front of me, with an apologetic look on his face, and used compelling words, I had a tendency to forgive him from the inside. In those moments, I felt like I had
betrayed
Mom.
    ‘Sign these.’ One of the lawyers showed me where all to sign. I did not need to read those papers. He could not havepossibly bought my forgiveness through them. I finished signing those papers, and the lawyers left.
    ‘Benoy,’ he said.
    ‘Yes,’ I tried to be unresponsive and cold. I tried not to look at him.
    ‘How is college?’ he asked. ‘Have you started going?’
    ‘Yes, as if you don’t know,’ I said sarcastically.
    I knew he always kept tabs on me, tracked me wherever I went and knew whatever I did. I always thought he had someone following me at all times. Once, when my car broke down in the middle of nowhere, an employee of his was ‘coincidentally’ in the area to help me out.
    ‘Are you interested? Do you like the subjects?’ he asked and tried to be all fatherly. I wanted to tell him that it was too late to ask.
    ‘I don’t know. Some of them maybe,’ I said, still trying to be at my rudest.
    ‘If there is anything you need, you can always call me. And I was wondering if you would like to do your internship at my office in your summer vacations? You would get to learn a lot here,’ he said.
    ‘I don’t want to,’ I said.
    Fuck!
He even knew that I had been looking for an internship. It was something that we had to do after our first year. Usually, nobody took it seriously and everyone sourced fake certificates. But, I had spent months sitting at home or at hospitals and I thought the internship would be a welcome change. I had to be around people again! Life had sucked for quite some time. Things had changed a lot from my schooldays.
    My school life was awesome! But now … every friend had got busy, moved out and settled in their college life. I was the one left out. It had been more than a year since I had any social life. Anyway, I had given a few interviews and had met with no success. At some levels, I always thought my dad was sabotaging my interviews with various companies.
    ‘It’s your choice at the end of the day,’ he said, ‘… but you can think about it.’
    ‘Fine,’ I said and I got up.
    His office was definitely much bigger than the offices where I had given my interviews. The only concern was whether I would be okay working with him. The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that I
should
work with him. After all, he was my father.
    Yet, my insides were tearing apart. On the one hand was my tendency to pick up the broken pieces of my life, have a sense of family, and on the other, it was hard for me to forget what my mom had gone through while bringing me up alone and my missing dad’s part in all that.
    I am too young to have to take these decisions
, I thought.



Chapter Seven
    L
aw.
Probably the most boring subject ever made. I have heard lawyers earn a lot. They deserve it, man! The torture they go through is unimaginable and no amount of money can justify it. Anyway, a really old professor was teaching us something and Eshaan probably