"Take Me Back"

Episode 3: The Broken Promises

The rain continued to lash against the windows, but inside the café, the air was suffocatingly dry. Kabir’s request to 'pretend we aren't strangers' hung in the air like a heavy fog.

I closed my eyes for a second, and suddenly, I wasn't in this café anymore.

[Flashback - 5 Years Ago]

The sun was setting over the college terrace. Kabir was pacing, his hair messy, his eyes burning with a mix of excitement and fear.

"It’s just a year, Aria," he had said, grabbing my shoulders. "The scholarship... the internship in London... it’s my only chance to build a life for us."

"A year is 365 days of not seeing you, Kabir," I whispered, my heart already aching.

"I’ll call. Every night. I’ll write. I’ll be back before you even realize I’m gone. I promise."

He had kissed my forehead then, a promise sealed in the golden hour of a summer evening. But promises are easy to make when the sun is out; they are much harder to keep when the storm hits. Three months later, the calls stopped. Six months later, his social media showed a life that didn't have room for a girl from a small apartment in Mumbai.

He didn't just leave; he evaporated.

[Present Day]

I opened my eyes. The Kabir sitting in front of me wasn't that dreaming boy. He was wearing a watch that probably cost more than my apartment's rent.

"You promised a lot of things, Kabir," I said, my voice cold and sharp. "You promised to call. You promised to come back. Instead, you became a headline in the business news and a ghost in my life."

Kabir didn't look away. The guilt in his eyes was so raw it was almost hard to look at. "I had reasons, Aria. Terrible, selfish reasons that I thought were right at the time."

"Reasons don't fix a broken heart, Kabir. They just explain why it was broken."

I stood up, grabbing my bag. I couldn't do this. I couldn't let him 'take me back' when I had spent years finding my way forward.