Yogita’s remark
“O.K. Yogi. I’m tired now. I’d like to
have some rest now. Come Ravi. Let her also take rest. Maaji, you also have a nap.” Yogi could literally feel the coldness
in Sharon’s voice. She was dismayed. How had she been so indiscreet? The words
had just slipped out involuntarily. But didn’t that mean that it was at the
back of her mind then? At all times too?
Tea-time was a strained affair.
Everyone tried to make small talk and failed miserably.
“Pass the sugar.”
“Here are the biscuits.”
“Isn’t it too warm now?”
Soon, there were no questions to ask
and none to answer! Everyone’s mind was buzzing with questions though! Only one
person had the answers. Yogita. She was pensive and subdued. She ate with
downcast eyes and avoided eye-contact with the others.
Sharon and Maaji looked at her with piercing eyes that seemed as though they’d
bore a tunnel into her brain to wrench those answers. Ravi looked distant and
disturbed. Why had Yogita said that? Did she fancy him, her bestie’s husband?
Was she really joking or….? If she was just joking then, why did she appear so
sullen and chastened now?
He looked at her with new eyes. She
was beautiful, no doubt. Her dark hair falling over her forehead made her
appear fairer than ever. Her winged brows twitched ever so slightly as she
sipped on her tea quietly. Her peach colored, ankle-length dress rose and fell
with her curves, as it fell in elegant folds at her feet. Dainty toes painted a
deep maroon shade. The second toe every now and then went over her big toe and
returned to its place only to go back again. Nervous. Fidgety.
When he raised his eyes, he caught Sharon staring belligerently at him.
She pursed her lips as tightly as her teeth would allow, so that just the front
two stubbornly sat on her lower lips. Her eyes held a hint of moisture.
Accusation? Doubt?
He rolled his eyes, shrugged and
finished his tea, now gone cold, in one long gulp. Then with one graceful
sweep, he leapt out of his chair and escaped to the living room, to the safety
of his couch. The tension on that dining table had been just too much!
A film of sweat clung to his collar
and stomach. He exhaled and then inhaled for 5 times. He rolled his head right
to left, left to right, up and down, down and up, wriggled his shoulders and clenched
and unclenched his fists.
Suddenly, he jumped up and started
pacing the length of that room and then went out into the porch and sat on the
swing. The steady rocking sensations soon made him calm. He closed his eyes.
After a while, he felt a warm palm
clamp down on his outstretched arm even as the swing swayed with the weight of
another person. It was Sharon.
“Come off it Ravi. It was nothing.”
She said calmly.
“What are you talking about?” he asked
carefully. Too carefully. He could feel the rigidity in his neck return.
“Yogita’s remark, of course! She was
just teasing you, that’s all. Don’t read anything much into it.”
“Then why were you and Mummy so tense
after she said that?” he peered into her troubled, dark eyes.
“Hm, well, we were taken aback that’s
all!”
“Somehow, I had a different feeling,
Sharon. As if she really meant it!”
“Well, assuming that she did, does it
make any difference to you? To your feelings for me?” queried Sharon, her heart
racing. Her hand instinctively turned to her tummy, adjusting the bulge, to sit
properly on her perch.
“No, but I feel uncomfortable. Let’s send her
packing as soon as she recovers. No more hospitality on our part!”
Just then, Maaji arrived. “You’re right Ravi.” Sharon remained silent, mulling
over it.
Yogita was meanwhile trying to sort out her
feelings, in her room. Sharon was her best friend whom she could die for, when
the time arose. Aunty was a dear who had graciously welcomed her into her home
and her heart even after knowing how she hated mothers-in-law. Ravi was her
best friend’s husband and Aunty’s son, who had decently and charmingly accepted
her presence in that house as a welcome guest; the best friend of his beloved
wife. And she was the one who was
trying to be wicked and steal his affection! The vamp of the piece!
She had to leave him alone, his thoughts alone;
if not for him and his family, for the sake of her own peace of mind! He had
filled her thoughts to the extent that she couldn’t think about anything else.
She had never ever thought about any other guy so much, in her entire 26 years
of life!
She tried to focus on how things would
be moving in her office, in her prolonged absence; on her colleagues and
over-bearing Boss; on her home where her parents and brother would be missing
her, on her other friends and relatives. She drew a blank. She couldn’t even
visualize them! All that she could see in her mind’s eye was Ravi. In sharp
detail.
Tall, fair and striking. Intense, dark
eyes that smiled at her, thick and sleek hair, closely shaven, greenish jaw,
sensuously curving pink lips which parted once too often to laugh aloud, broad
shoulders, long limbs…The suave and handsome person who had stolen her heart!
Now she didn’t belong to herself. Only
to Ravi. He had to take any decision on her behalf. She no longer had a mind of
her own!
The copyright of this novel is with Mrs. Priya Ramesh Swaminathan.
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27 chapters have been published till date...
