CHAPTER 1 : OBJECTS OF DESIRE
Chapter 1: Objects of Desire
Hi everyone… I’m Rohini.
I’m a hopeless romantic person, and I believe in destiny — because someone made me believe in it.
All this time, when I was reading romance novels, I always thought the people who found love must be incredibly lucky. In all those books I read, people didn’t care about class, or colour, or differences; all they cared about was love, and they fought for it against the entire world.
When Anthony Bridgerton looked at Kate Sharma and said, “You are the bane of my existence. And the object of all my desires,” my breath literally caught in my throat. I’d sit up late tracing lines from other books, too. Like Mr. Darcy confessing, “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you,” or Catherine in Wuthering Heights whispering, “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
I used to close those pages, press the book against my chest, and just sigh. Then I’d look around at my own ordinary room, look at my quiet life, and think: that only happens on paper. That kind of desperate, consuming devotion is for fictional heroines, not for me.
I never, ever thought I would be loved that way.
But life has a funny way of shifting when you least expect it.
So, guys, with all the beautiful romance I have read in my life, I have finally decided to write one of my own. Not because it’s a fairytale, but because it’s real. Because against all the odds, the universe gave me a story of my own.
And if you’re wondering when it all began…
Well, it began on a completely ordinary day.
A day when I wasn’t looking for love.
I was looking for my best friend.
Three months.
That was how long it had been since I’d seen Nitya.
Three months of late-night calls, endless voice notes, blurry screenshots, “I miss you” texts, and promises that we’d meet as soon as possible.
And finally, after three painfully long months, that day had arrived.
Nitya was coming back to Bhopal.
And somehow, that was enough reason for me to forget that I had a medical entrance exam hanging over my head.
For the past few months, my life had revolved around books.
Biology. Physics. Chemistry. Mock tests. Wrong answers. More mock tests.
And the constant feeling that there was still something I hadn’t studied.
My desk looked like a crime scene involving highlighters, sticky notes, and NCERT books.
So, naturally, when I got the chance to leave all of that behind for a few hours, I took it.
And for the first time in what felt like forever, I actually stood in front of my wardrobe and wondered what I should wear.
I changed twice.
Then changed again.
I stared at myself in the mirror for a few seconds before finally deciding that I was being ridiculous.
It wasn’t a date.
It was Nitya.
My best friend.
The girl who had seen me cry over terrible mock-test scores, sleep with my face buried in a textbook, and once eat instant noodles for three consecutive meals because I was too lazy to cook.
I didn’t need to look pretty for her.
Still, I put on the earrings.
Just in case.
By the time I reached the place we’d decided to meet, I was already smiling.
And then I saw her.
Nitya.
She was standing a little away from the entrance, looking exactly like the girl I’d missed for three months.
Her dark hair fell loosely around her shoulders, slightly wavy and impossibly soft-looking. Her thick eyelashes made her eyes stand out even from a distance, and her slim nose was something she’d been unnecessarily proud of since we were children.
But Nitya had never needed beauty to make people notice her.
She had something much more dangerous.
A mouth that never stopped talking.
Seriously.
Give her five minutes and she’ll tell you about her journey, the weather, a stranger she’d seen on the road, her mother’s latest argument with her father, someone’s breakup, a new café she’d discovered, and somehow she’d still find a way to ask you why you looked tired.
I had missed it.
More than I wanted to admit.
The moment she saw me, her face lit up.
“ROHINI!”
And before I could even react, she ran towards me.
I laughed as she threw her arms around me.
“Oh my God, I missed you!”
“I missed you too.”
She pulled away and looked at me from head to toe.
Then she narrowed her eyes.
I immediately knew what was coming.
“What?”
“You dressed up.”
I rolled my eyes.
“I always dress up.”
She stared at me.
Then at my earrings.
Then back at me.
“Rohini.”
“What?”
“You’re wearing earrings.”
“So?”
“You haven’t worn earrings in months.”
“I have.”
“No, you haven’t.”
I sighed.
“Okay, fine. Maybe I haven’t.”
She smiled triumphantly.
“I knew it.”
“You’re impossible.”
“And you’re suspicious.”
“Suspicious of what?”
She leaned closer, lowering her voice dramatically.
“Who are you trying to impress?”
I burst out laughing.
“You. Obviously.”
She nodded as if I’d given the only acceptable answer.
“Good. Correct answer.”
And just like that, everything felt normal again.
The three months disappeared.
The distance disappeared.
It was just us.
Two girls who had too much to say and too little time to say it.
At least, that’s what I thought.
Because that afternoon, while Nitya talked endlessly beside me, I had no idea that somewhere between one conversation and another, between one ordinary moment and the next, my life was about to change.
I didn’t know his name yet.
I didn’t know what his voice sounded like.
I didn’t know what his smile looked like.
And I definitely didn’t know that one day, I would remember the smallest details about him.
Back then, he was just a stranger.
Just another face in a city full of them.
I had no idea that someday, that stranger would become the reason I believed in destiny.
And perhaps that’s the funny thing about love.
You never know when you’re standing at the beginning of your own story.
