Page 197 - The World's Best Boyfriend

promised to love and be committed to. How would he be any different from his
mother?
For a moment the name escaped his mind. Ritika, he remembered. The names

got blurred as he drove on.
Ritika. Before her it was Satvika. Another girl he had committed to love for
life before it broke down and came to nothing.

‘Can you stop? I need to pee. Right now,’ shouted Aranya in Dhruv’s ear.
‘There’s a petrol pump after a few kilometres.’
‘NOW.’

‘You can’t pee here,’ shouted Dhruv and went faster weaving between trucks
and buses.
‘That’s only going to make it worse!’

‘Where will you pee?’
‘ANY DAMN WHERE.’
Dhruv stopped the motorcycle at a sufficiently deserted stretch of road and

gave her an earful, deriding all womankind and their weak bladders.
Aranya got off the bike, stepped closer to him and dug her index finger in his
chest. ‘And listen closely. If you or anyone comes even close to me when I’m

doing my business I will reach for your intestines through your mouth, pull them
out, rip them apart and hang them around your neck. So don’t even dare to move

an inch from here.’
She walked away till she was just a shadow. Dhruv heard the crunching of
leaves and then nothing. He didn’t move an inch. Aranya came back after five
minutes; a smile had replaced the murderous look. He drove without a word,

though all he wanted to do was to keep looking at her and talk.
‘That was pretty intense back there, the intestines around my neck thing,’ said

Dhruv after a while.
‘I don’t like people around when I’m not dressed. How is that hard to
understand?’
‘But even when you’re not, you will always have those layers of fat covering

you!’ Dhruv laughed and waited for a piercing retort. He had hit a raw nerve. He
drove a few kilometres without a word. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘It’s okay.’
‘You’re not really fat, just a little healthy maybe.’ Dhruv added after a pause.
‘By my standards.’