Chapter 5

When Purvi reached her car, in the parking lot, she found Kavin leaning against it, scrolling through his phone. Muttering a curse under her breath, but making up her mind to be mature about it, she approached him. The moment she was only four feet away from him, he raised his head and pocketed his phone, as if he could feel her near him.

"What are you doing against my car?" Purvi asked, calmly. Dushyant was nowhere in the vicinity.

"I thought we were gonna travel in your car?" Kavin raised his eyebrows, but a playful smirk on his lips. He stepped closer, rubbed his knuckles on Purvi's cheeks, as a quiet whimpery sigh escaped his lips.

He had missed it. It was always bewildering to him how soft Purvi's skin was. Being a part of a team, where she had to run behind criminals, go about her duty in dirt and sun you would think it would affect her skin's texture. But Kavin was in awe.

"Can you...stop doing that?" Purvi stepped back, out of Kavin's touch. "And no, we are not taking my car. I am taking my car and you are following me in yours." She moved around, trying to avoid Kavin's body touching hers, as she opened her car door.

"Hey, guys," Dushyant's voice pulled Kavin out of a trance-like mood, while Purvi craned her neck above her car door to look at the man who was jogging towards a car at the end of the parking lot. When he reached them, Purvi gave Dushyant a bear hug. She had missed her best friend from the academy.

Even though they were a year younger than Purvi, both Kavin and Duhsyant became instantly her friend, when she had to supervise them for a week during shooting practice.

"You two are gonna have to go together. Abhijeet Sir asked me to go to the forensics and collect some reports of a previous missing-and-found case. He thinks both the cases might be connected." Dushyant announced, still hugging Purvi sideways.

If looks could kill, he would have been already dead, with the mental daggers Kavin had been giving him.

"You what?" Purvi's eyes went wide. You gotta be kidding me, universe, She thought.

"Yeah, a two-month-old case. Komal Baheti's case. He thinks it has something to do with Ovika's disappearance. I have got the address, I will meet you two there?" He looked down at Purvi, who was frantically shaking her head as if begging him not to leave her with Kavin.

When he paid no heed, Purvi voiced out her opinion, "Well, why does he think so? Also, I was handling that case. If anything, I will go get the report, you two can go ahead in your car and I will meet you there." Purvi's argument, with her hands on her hips, made Kavin chuckle.

"What's so funny?" she snapped, her eyes squinting at corners, a tic in her jaw visible from a mile.

"You know, doll. I don't bite. We can go to the Pujari's residence together and Dushyant can join us later. Think you can handle me till then?" As if to prove his point, he quickly made his way around her car and got in the passenger seat.

"Really?" the disappointed face she gave Kavin only made him shrug his shoulders, as he fixed the seat belt.

"Go ahead, I will be there just behind you. Don't try to kill each other until then." Dushyant warned both of them. Purvi huffed and got inside, fixing her seat belt, as she started the car.

Kavin, as if to test her patience, turned her radio on and started fiddling with it, not allowing on a certain channel to play.

"Stop doing that." she swatted his hands away, turning the volume down and allowing the news channel to play on.

"I wanted to listen to music, doll." He said softly.

"Well, too bad, it's my car. And stop calling me that nickname." Purvi focused on the road, even though she could feel his gaze on her neck.

"Why?"

"Because"

"Because what?" He was completely facing her as if challenging her to get angry.

Purvi took a deep breath, as she had to stop her car in traffic.

"Because you don't get to call me that. You lost that right, long time ago. We are colleagues right now. Nothing more, nothing less. And I expect my colleagues to call me by my professional name." she bit back her tears, that was threatening to spill.

She looked outside, to hide her tears, the hurt on her face even though it had been over 7 years.

"But you promised that I will always get to call you that." Kavin reached over the mid-console, held her chin and made her look at him. He wiped her tears, allowing his thumbs to rub her temples. She used to love it.

"Yeah? That was before you broke my heart into million pieces and didn't even have it in you to check if I was doing okay. Hell, if I was alive. I promised that before I found out that you broke my heart and took it away with you, with it, maybe a piece of my soul too. And that was seven years ago. I am living with half a heart since then, Kavin. So you will forgive me if I am hostile towards you or if I can't allow you to call me a nickname that only brings bad memories to me."

Purvi looked at him in his eyes. If she didn't know better, she would have thought that the wetness pooling in his left eye was because he was hurt by her proclamation. But she knew better.

She knew that Kavin Khanna never loved anyone other than himself. Kavin Khanna never cared for anyone other than himself. And if you told her that 10 years ago, she would have had your head on a platter. But now, Purvi would attune with your statement, without a second thought.

She had known Kavin closely for 12 years, and she could admit Kavin is nothing if not a cold-hearted bastard. No matter who said he changed, as she reminded Daya, a tiger never changes its stripes. And Purvi knew better than to allow Kavin to enter her life and break what left of her heart again.

She would be damned.

For the first time ever, Kavin was at a loss for words, and she was grateful for that. She didn't think, she would be able to handle any more emotions for the moment. While he trained her eyes on her, figuring how he fucked up so bad, Purvi tried to turn off the fact that he was sitting next to her and trained her body and mind to focus on the road.

The day had only just started and she already wanted to go back to her home and bury herself under her blankets and covers.

Soon, Purvi, soon. She reassured herself, driving off to solve the case.

A/N: Heya, I hope you all are staying safe and taking care of yourself. If you have liked the chapter, drop a comment, a question, or what you would like to happen next.

If you would like to read anything else by me, I write poetry on my Instagram account. Go follow me there at kukirahj. Dm me there and tell me that you have read this story, we will have some fun talks and I would love to hear your theories. Bye for today.