Anu And Her First Love

ARJUN SMITH
When I woke up I traced my hand beside me to see Anu, whether she was still sleeping or already woke up. I know she was
such a sleepyhead. But when I suddenly remembered the last night, I was afraid of losing her. Was she still mad at me, I
wondered. Did she even come to bed after I scolded her? The bed, the other half was empty and my stomach growled in fear.
Did she fly back to India because of that small conversation? Okay, maybe not that small, I scolded her. I was shocked and
afraid, what'd I tell my mom and especially the media.
I stood from the bed and started searching the room. First, balcony, bathroom, workroom, and the whole house, he was nowhere
in the house. Then I made my way towards the kitchen to ask Alice if she'd seen her.
"No, please don't do it. He's...." Alice was talking to someone as I entered the kitchen.
"Alice, did you see A_" I was about to ask her about Anu as I entered the kitchen. I didn't even finish the sentence. I saw Anu
slicing some vegetables when she heard my voice and wondered that I was searching for her. She grinned at me like if someone
plugged a bulb into her mouth but mostly like she get caught the smile.
"Morning!" she exclaimed. As hiding something behind her back.
Wait. She wasn't mad at me at all? How so? She must be because last night I was hard on her. She bumped into me and ruined
my presentation for my meeting. Thanks to her I postponed my meeting to next week. And I can't control my anger when I saw
that once a paper now a wet material in my hand with the wetness of milk and the letters were disappeared as the milk dripped
through the floor.
I can't believe her she was crying the last night and now she was grinning at me. Something was going on with her.
"Morning" I kept my voice low.
"Didn't you have work today?" she asked me, confused as she saw me in my PJ's. I didn't even bother to change to search for
her. All, my mind says was that "I've to find her" and that's what ran in my head until I found her.
"Nope," I answered and walked away from there, thinking. Was she pretending like yesterday didn't happen? First, she was
grinning, I'd never see her grinning at me since the day I met her. Two, she was asking me question which I wasn't familiar with.
When I got back to my room I went straight to the shower and twisted the shower knob and let the water run through my skin.
When the hot water passes through my skin I completely forgot the real world and I was living in the blinded fantasy world. Once

I finished showering I wrapped the towel around my waist and started walking towards, back to my room. I wore an ash color
sweatshirt and sweatpants. And with one last look in the mirror, I walked downstairs to eat.
When I got to the dining room, the room was empty. I wondered, what's the reason must be? There was no one. Only the table
was set for a single person to eat. And I saw Anu who was laughing and clapping on Alice's shoulder as Alice hearing her out.
I cleared my throat to get their attention that I was hungry and thinking someone would come to serve me. I thought Anu will
send Alice to serve because we'd a big conversation just last night. But what I saw was untruly real. Anu was the one who came
to serve me with the bowl in her hand.
I dragged the chair backward and forward to sit comfortably and elbowed my hands on the table. As I was sitting Anu placed the
plate in front of me and started serving it.
"Where are the others?" I asked her, stern as usual for her and not for me.
"Rahul's brother went to Italy for business purposes. Devi and uncle went to a birthday party with Adam." She told me. Rahul
went to sign his new contract and mom, dad, Sam, and Adam went to the party, leaving us alone in this huge house.
I saw her placing Indian foods on my plate. She was the one who prepared food and that's why she woke early in the morning.
But she also knows that I don't like Indian foods maybe I wasn't familiar with the taste of the Indian foods, that was the correct
sentence I'd prefer.
"Didn't Alice cook today?" I asked her didn't expect her to answer.
"No, I told her that, 'I'm going to make breakfast all by myself." She said, proud.
Once she placed thousands of variety in front of me I got confused about which one I've to start with. When she saw my
confused look she pointed me a little bowl of white chutney but white doesn't look like white though. I was about to take that bowl
before the bell rang.