Almost Yours - Final Part

The moment kept replaying in Aaditya’s head. Karan’s name on her screen. Her small smile. His growing confusion.

By morning, Aaditya had enough. This needed to end, one way or the other.

He called Karan.

“Bro, we need to talk.”

They met at their usual chai tapri.

Aaditya didn’t waste time.

“Listen, I need to be straight with you. The girl I’ve been seeing… it's Rhea.”

Karan froze for a second. Then frowned slightly.

“Rhea? My Rhea?”

“Yes,” Aaditya said, bracing for impact.

Karan looked a little nervous. “Actually bro, funny thing is… after I bumped into her the other day, we started talking again. We were thinking maybe… you know… giving it another shot.”

Aaditya's heartbeat doubled. His mouth went dry.

“Wait… what?”

“Yeah man. We’re meeting for dinner tomorrow. She seems open to it.”

Aaditya felt like the ground beneath him disappeared. The mess was far bigger than he had imagined.

He somehow whispered, “Full name?”

Karan blinked. “Rhea Sharma, bro. You know, from college. The one who used to collect keychains. You’ve never met her.”

Aaditya sat back, completely frozen.

“Wait. Rhea Sharma? Not Rhea Mehta?”

Karan shook his head. “No yaar. Who is Rhea Mehta?”

Aaditya buried his face in his hands.

“This whole time… we were talking about two different Rheas?”

Karan stared at him. “Looks like it.”

Aaditya wanted to scream and laugh at the same time. All that stress. All those sleepless nights.

At that moment, his phone buzzed.

It was Rhea. His Rhea.

“Hey, all okay?”

Aaditya called her directly.

“Listen. I need to ask you something.”

“Sure,” she said.

“Karan, the one you dated… his full name?”

“Karan Malhotra,” she said casually.

Aaditya's eyes widened again.

“My Karan is Karan Sharma.”

There was silence for two seconds. Then both of them burst out laughing on the call.

“So basically,” Rhea said between laughs, “we’ve spent days worrying about completely different people.”

Aaditya could barely catch his breath. “This city needs fewer people with our names.”

“Or maybe we just need better communication.”

“Good point,” he said. “So, now that both imaginary exes are out of the way… coffee?”

“Absolutely,” she laughed. “And this time, let’s hope no more name confusions.”

As Aaditya hung up, he messaged Karan.

“Bro. Problem solved. It was never your Rhea.”

Karan replied instantly.

“See? I told you from Day 1. You overthink too much.”

Aaditya shook his head and laughed.

“And you underthink everything.”

And with that, the confusion finally ended.

Almost.

***The End***

#romance #comedy #flashfiction #shortstories