Raghu was focusing on the movie. He laughed at a scene while I put on my shoes. I looked up at him surreptitiously as I tied the laces. His eyes got all crinkly when he grinned and it made me feel warm inside. I didn’t want to think why. I straightened up and he looked at me again.

‘So, how come you’re eating all this in the morning? Didn’t you have morning sickness?’ I asked Ma, tearing my gaze away from Raghu.

‘Disappeared after the first trimester!’ Ma looked jubilant.

The human body is strange.

‘See you guys later!’ I called out.

At the door, I turned back to take a look at Ma. She looked content. Raghu was sitting cross-legged on the sofa and snagged a piece of pancake from Ma’s plate. She yanked her plate away and he laughed.

I walked away, trying not to think too hard about the turmoil inside me.

Nisha wanted to know everything about Raghu during our lunch break. I sensed Anirudh was bored or jealous that Nisha was showing so much interest in Raghu. He had a look of irritation on his face that kept growing as we talked and it actually amused me.

‘You’ll meet him on Saturday, right? At the movie. See for yourself,’ I stalled.

‘You know, you could have told me he’s coming too!’ he interrupted suddenly.

‘Why?’ Nisha asked confused.

‘I don’t know if I want to be there while the two of you act foolishly around him, like he’s Curtis Stone,’ he muttered.

Nisha and I looked at each other and we both burst out laughing. Anirudh was definitely jealous.

‘Curtis Stone? Please!’ I laughed but I felt my face heat up a little.

Raghu was obviously nothing like the hot Australian chef but he was certainly hot, I thought. Shit. Raghu wasn’t just cute. He was hot. How had this happened?

I glanced up to see Nisha pinch Anirudh’s cheeks.

‘SO cute. You’re jealous!’ she said.

‘I’m not!’ he said, crossing his arms defensively. ‘Why would I be?’

‘Don’t worry. You’ll always be my Sheldon Cooper,’ she said, tweaking his ear. Anirudh narrowed his eyes, but by then Nisha had turned to me.

‘Did Raghu ask you why you stopped talking to him?’

Nisha was like a terrier. Never letting go of the topic.

I sighed. ‘Sort of. He tried to bring it up, but I didn’t want to talk about it,’ I said.

‘But why? It would have been closure for you Ananya,’ she said earnestly.

‘Closure from what?’ I asked her, shrugging. ‘I’m no longer angry with him. So we can just put it behind us now.’

‘Yes, but you didn’t talk to him for years. Because he dated the girl who was horrible to you.’

I grimaced. It sounded ridiculous when she put it like that.