Chapter 1: The Girl who wants to be Unseen
South Bombay. 2030. The top floor headquarters of Velvet Minds.
Mia was sitting on her blue couch, sipping her deliciously flavoured mocha latte. One of those rare moments where her brain had finally decided to shut up for a while. No endless bane of existence. Just coffee. Rain. Silence.
The buzzer went off.
Her secretary’s voice came through the intercom.“Liz is waiting. She’ll be inside in five minutes.”
Mia sighed softly.
Showtime.
She pressed the button lazily.“Buzz her in. I’m ready.”
Liz. Her next patient.
Mia glanced once more at the preliminary intake form lying beside her. She had already titled it in her head.
The Girl Who Wanted To Be Unseen.
Something about it bothered her. Intrigued her.
Five minutes later, there was a cautious knock on the door.
Mia looked once at herself in the mirror and instinctively pulled on her listener look. The change was always subtle. But then, she had always been the best actor in the room.
“Come in,” she said gently.
The door opened. And Liz walked in. And she was nothing as Mia had pictured her.
Liz was immaculate.
Perfect makeup. Beautifully styled hair. Wonderfully chic in a white mini skirt and a soft pink blouse that probably cost more than most people’s rent. She was gorgeous, unapologetically so.
But what caught Mia’s attention was the lipstick.
Fiery red.
Not elegant red. Not subtle red. “Look at me” red.
Mia studied her carefully.
This is a girl who should want to be seen. A girl who does get seen.
Yet her file had said otherwise.
Liz looked around the room nervously before pointing at the blue couch.
“So… is this the dreaded chair where we talk about feelings?”
She was joking. Trying to, at least. But the tension in her body answered the question before Mia could.
Mia matched her tone smoothly. “Yes. This is where the magic happens.”
Liz made a face before sitting down.
“No,” Mia corrected calmly. “Don’t sit. Lie down. Against the pillow. Its easier in comfort.”
Liz obeyed awkwardly, leaning against the giant fluffy comfort pillow.
For a moment, silence settled between them.
Rain tapped softly against the enormous glass windows overlooking South Bombay.
Liz cleared her throat. “So… what do we do now?”
Mia smiled faintly.“You start.”
Liz blinked.“That’s it?”
“You feel it first,” Mia said softly. “And then you say it. Out loud. Exactly as it exists inside your head. No editing. No sanitising. No trying to make it pretty. Exactly as insane as it sounds.”
“We talk about Limerence.”
The word itself seemed to make her tense.
Liz’s voice grew smaller. “Even if it sounds delusional?”
Mia looked at her firmly.“Before you call it delusional, we establish one thing first.”
Liz looked up.“Your mind is real. Your feelings are real for you, no matter what anybody else says about them.”
A pause.
“In Velvet Minds. We have a saying. INSANE is the most sane thing in the world. Fuck normal.”
That finally made Liz smile properly.
“I can see why you come highly recommended,” she said softly. “I like that.”
Then, quieter: “Fuck normal.”
And then she began.
And what Mia heard next, was the most bizarre experience that the human mind was capable of. YET.
