‘You just made my day, Ananya!’ he said, his voice excited. ‘I love you, man!’

My face flushed at his words and I cleared my throat. He’d meant it in a different way. A way that didn’t mean anything. But I had this warm toasty feeling inside me, something that reached down to the tips of my fingers and toes and I shut my eyes as the auto started once more.

He was clearly unaware of the import of his words because they obviously didn’t mean anything to him.

I cleared my throat again. ‘Hey, so don’t tell her I said anything. Please.’

‘I won’t! I won’t! But really, I’m so happy! I thought I’d have to really work at convincing her. And this just makes my job easier. I can’t wait to get back to Bangalore now and I have you to thank for that,’ he said.

My face had turned warm again and I had to remind myself that Raghu probably didn’t even remember flirting with me. I was just his friend. His fat friend. My heart sank at the harsh reminder.

‘Ananya?’ he said suddenly, making me realize I had zoned out.

‘Hmm?’ I blinked at the warmth in his voice and I pictured him, that easy smile on his face, his eyes crinkling at the edges.

‘Thanks. Really.’

‘No problem. I’ve got to go now,’ I said and ended the call because I couldn’t keep hearing his voice and not feel anything.

Calling him had been a mistake, I berated myself. I was feeling all sorts of things after hearing his voice. The ‘I love you’ he had said was what friends say to each other all the time, but my emotions were all over the place.

I took a deep breath and put my phone away. My hands curled around something crinkly and I frowned. What could it be? Then I remembered the aloo paratha from this morning. I pulled it out and unrolled a little of the foil from the top. It was cold and looked soggy but I bit into it anyway. It was still delicious. I thought back to Aunty V’s words this morning.

Did she really think that I was perfect now, as I was? Was that possible? There was so much I had to do before I could allow myself to think of myself as ‘normal’, let alone perfect. I chewed the paratha slowly.

My phone pinged.

It was Aunty V. Odd that she would text me just as I was thinking of her. She didn’t say anything in the text though. She had just shared a link. I frowned as I clicked on it, wondering what it could be. It was a link about something called body neutrality.