Jay & Sunayana: Life After Her...

This is a sequel to my earlier post, "Jay & Sunayana: A Love Story". For all those who haven't read part that, here's the link for you. It's a small article and won't take up a lot of your time. And it will give you some context here. Many might relate to my protagonist here. So read on, once you're all caught up with the first part.

Jay and Sunayana had broken up a year after high school and it wasn't pretty. They had a whole falling out, what with her avoiding him for a while and then confessing to seeing someone else. He wasn't perfect either, he'd charmed a few girls too in the time when Sunayana had been giving him the cold shoulder, nothing serious though. Anyway, so when Sunayana told him they were done, his first reaction was denial and anger.

He could totally understand why she had blocked him from all social media sites. Smart move, as anyone who knew Jay would tell you that he could be really unpredictable at times. And when it came to Sunayana, he never played by the rules. Who Sunayana was dating was still a mystery to Jay, and even Jay himself thought that was a relief. But life after Sunayana hadn't been easy. It had felt like the end of an era. Jay had started changing the moment the two of them parted ways.

From what I've heard, Sunayana wasn't having a great time either. You see, the guy that she was seeing looked amazing on paper. And that's why she'd decided to stick to him, even though she'd started the affair to make Jay jealous. But it was beginning to seem like Sunayana was lined up for one disillusionment after another on the love front. 

Oblivious to all this, Jay was dealing with his share of messy relationship drama. He was running into one crazy chick after another. If you were a shrink, you'd probably feel like he was self-sabotaging by dating messed up girls. But I am pretty sure it wasn't intentional. You see, all Jay wanted at that point of time was to find that level of comfort he shared with his aforementioned paramour. But alas! That wasn't an easy task.

Jay hated Sunayana for over one and a half year after they broke up, which is ironical because people say that eighteen months is how long the chemical effects of a new love lasts in the brains of those inflicted by it. After the initial eighteen months, the hatred was replaced by something else, something I'd call "curious longing" for the lack of a better expression. Jay's mind had now started painting alarmingly rosy pictures of Sunayana, which weren't even all that accurate really. He now remembered her a a version of herself, a version that he loved once and had lost.

(Now let me steer all you crazy lovers who are reading this away from this story for a moment. Isn't it how it really is? Don't we all create this fictional versions of the people we love in our minds? Fictional versions that are easier to love than the real ones. Kinda makes you wonder about how much you actually love the person you're with, doesn't it? Just something to think about.)

Jay had really supportive friends, who'd verbally berate Sunayana in every conversation where she crept up as a topic. Now all of a sudden, Jay started defending Sunayana and rationalizing her actions in front of his friends. When that happened, all of them started believing that maybe he was finally getting over her. But the truth was far from it. He'd just tracked her work email from her company website and had dropped her a mail with his current number and an invitation for a peaceful mature conversation.

Jay didn't know it but he had already taken the first step towards a potentially disastrous path. Now it was all up to her. Would she respond to his mail? 

To know what happened next, you'd just have to wait for my next post. I know how you feel. I hate cliff hangers too. But hey, this is a marathon, not a sprint. But for all you restless readers, I have one little spoiler: A decade later, Jay and Sunayana happen to live in the same city now, which is a fictional city of course since this is a work of fiction. Wink Wink.. ;-)