Her Second-Hand Husband! novel Chapter 5

Anika's PoV

My fourth semester holidays went boring as usual. I was eagerly waiting for the college to reopen to go to college as a final year student. My devil of a brother always fights with me when I am home even when he is in his final year. Dad was the one that always stood by my side. Mom got many garland and bouquet orders during my vacation. Mom is an expert in making petal garland for weddings. She gave me the bouquet orders and I earned some pocket money through that in the holidays. That was the only good thing that happened in the college break.

"Ma, I will come late today. Me and Nithya are going to the library after college." I told mommy as I was getting ready for college. It's college reopen day today and I am more than excited to go back to college.

I have been talking to Nithu about the mail stalker as I received no mail from him for a complete semester. I was actually missing his mail. Though he sent only four or five mails over the years, I felt him to be my friend. But by now we are sure that he is someone from our college.

"Why is he not sending me any mails, Nithu?" I asked her, getting inside the college bus.

"He must have passed out or must have found something more important than to mail an unknown girl." Nithu said playfully. Though that is a possibility, I could not take it.

"He may have passed out or even got a job. But he will for sure come and meet me." I told her, hiding my disappointment.

"He must be one of our seniors, de. If not he would not have given you a base paper that is worth making a project. It is of no use to him now. So he must be in MSc just like you thought. But Anu, I think it is not safe to track an anonymous mail person or to wait for him like this. Are you sure this is just friendship?" Nithya said and asked.

"I don't feel any threat towards him, Nithu. I am so eager to meet him. He said he will come to greet me when I am done with my studies. He also said he will meet me on my special day. I am sure he is one of our seniors. He is a good man, Nithu. He never said anything bad and he said he will come with a bouquet of yellow flowers. Yellow flowers represent friendship! He is genuinely a gentleman." I told her.

"Whatever!" she said and we went in the direction of our class getting down from the college bus.

"Hey Karthik, hold on. I have your library card." Nithya yelled and ran towards Karthik. Karthik is her neighbor and in a different department. I walked behind slowly and someone bumped into my back and I dropped my books.

"Aahhh! Where are your eyes?" I yelled and turned to see who that was.

"I am so sorry. I was in a hurry." It was Arun. I got my breath hitched and I was out of words. He leaned down and reached for my books. He gathered them and gave them to me.

"Thanks." I got it from him.

"No, it's my fault. I am so sorry." he apologized again.

"It's ok." I looked at him and he nodded his head and smiled at me with a beautiful dimple on his cheek. OMG!

"Hey, no idea to come to class?" Nithu shuffled me. I was still standing there even after he left.

"Arun talked to me, de. OMG, he is so handsome up close." I told her.

"Ufff, Come let's go." She pulled me towards the classroom.

After reaching the class, I stuffed my books in the desk and that is when I noticed a bunch of papers stapled together. It is the same base paper that the stalker sent me. Where did it come from? It must be Arun's. I decided to meet him during the lunch break. I know his classroom.

"Hi, Senior. I think you missed this one." I went to his classroom during the lunch break with Nithu but she stalled outside the room.

"Ahh it was with you? It's ok, Beautiful. You can have it. This is no longer useful to me. I brought it mistakenly." he said with that same killing smile.

"My name is Anika." I told him. I felt shy when he called me beautiful. His friends were around him and they were looking at us.

"I know. Guys know the names of all the beautiful girls in the college." he said and all the guys shared a knowing smile.

"um... I thought you might need it. Are you sure that I can have it?" I asked him.

"100%! You can have it." he said with that same smile.

"Ok, Bye." I tried to leave as I was getting embarrassed by the situation.

"OK, Anu, See you." he sent me off. I couldn't ignore the butterflies that fluttered inside my tummy when he called me 'Anu'.

"That's him, Anu." Nithu said as soon as I joined her.

"How do you say?" I asked her, burying my excitement inside me.

"He called you beautiful. He bumped into you and gave you the base paper like it was a mix up. He knows your name. He said that he no longer needed it and brought it by mistake. If it was a mistake, how did he even know that he brought it?" she asked me and I felt the same.

"We shall wait, Nithu. We don't want to run into conclusions so soon with just this incident." I told her.