Chapter 4

[NOCOPY]

Previously - Shiva tries to cope with his feelings for Raavi when her marriage is fixed with Dev. Meanwhile, his own marriage is fixed with Raavi’s ex-bestfriend, Shilpa.

Part - 4

An hour later, haldi was officially over and everyone had left, but Raavi hung back. She wanted to confront Shiva. But as she went about searching for him, she spotted him leaving the house on his bike. She sighed and went to say bye to her Dhara di before leaving.

“Raavi, tumhari aur Shilpa ke beech sab teek ho gayi? Mujhe sirf uski chinta hai ab. Do din baad hum sabko issi ghar mein saath rehna hai,” Dhara said to her as she was leaving.

Raavi blinked unsure as to how to break it to her. “Dii, meine kal raat ko bhi vohi batane ki khoshish ki aapse. Mujhe patha nahi kyun mujhe buri feeling aa rahi hai. Mujhe raat bar neend bhi nahi aayi. Dekho na Somnath ki sabse sundar ladki ki haldi pictures karab ho gaye.”

Dhara smiled. “Tum dono char saal pehle kyun lade the?” she asked.

“Vo- vo-,” she stuttered twisting her fingers. “Main aapko kaise bataoon.”

Raavi looked around thinking of an excuse to run away from this discussion and start planning Shilpa’s murder.

“Diii, Mausi ne mujhe ghar jaldi vapas aane ko kahi thi. Mein aapko kal bataungi, pakka,” Raavi said getting up quickly and leaving the house.

“Ab iss bhoothnath ko kahan doondungi,” she mused. 

She called at the store, their Kaka picked up the phone, “Raavi beta, Dev idhar nahi hai,” he said.

“Nahi Kaka, Shiva hai kya?” she asked.

“Shiva?” he said taken a little aback, “haan, vo aya tha, par ab vo godown gaya hai.”. 

Raavi hired an auto to the single room that they called a godown, a few streets away from the store. 

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The door to the room was wide open and Shiva’s bike was parked outside it. Raavi paid money to the auto driver and went in.

It was completely dark inside and due to the lack of ventilation it was hot and stuffy. 

Raavi took a hesitant step inside. It took her eyes a while to adjust to the darkness, but she heard a repeated sound, as though someone was punching something. She whirled around to the source of the sound. And there at one corner of the room was a muscular figure punching the life out of a bag hanging from the ceiling.

His back muscles were glistening even in the darkness with a sheen of sweat. Raavi watched mesmerised as his back muscles flexed as he threw in punch after punch.

As she walked closer in the darkness, she bumped her leg onto a metal box. The loud clang of metal metal boxes falling on the floor and her short cry of pain echoed through the room.

Shiva turned around and spotted her on the floor, clutching her feet. After a split second of disbelief, he rushed to her.

“Abey Mami ki behen ki beti, dekhe nahi chal sakti kya. Puri din girti padi rehti hai.”

“Itni andheri mein exercise kaun karta hai? Aur exercise karke bhi kya fayda, sab kuch uss Shilpa pe waste hone waala hai,” she said mumbling the second part.

She tried to move her leg, but felt a sharp pain in her ankle. “Aaaaah!” she yelped.

“Shiva! Meine apni pair moch li hai,” she cried, holding her ankle.

Shiva crouched next to her and tried to check her injury.

“Aaah!” she cried again, moving her leg away from him.

“Ey gadhedi, dekhne toh deh.”

He got up and switched on the dim yellow light and came back to her.

“Tu kade hoke yahan bait sakti hai?” he asked pointing to a small stack of rice bags next to her.

She shook her head, her mouth curling into a distressed line and she let out a whimper.

He looked at her pained expression and knelt down and scooped her up into his arms in one smooth move.

Raavi who was caught completely off guard, laced her fingers around his neck and held herself close to him, “girana math!”

He scoffed, if she only knew the extent to which he could go to protect her, the amount of pain he could take for her. And if by putting himself in pain he could see her smile, he’d do that too. And right now, he was doing just that, he had been doing so since so many years.

Every time she gushed over Dev or sat too close to him, it was like someone was branding his heart with red hot iron. But her face lit up in those moments, her eye twinkled like twin stars, her lips pulled into a huge smile and parted to reveal her pearly white teeth. And he tried to be content with just watching her be happy.

But sometimes, the jealous side of him would come out. And that combined with the i-hate-my-mami-ki-behen-ki-beti facade that he put up, fooled the entire Somnath into thinking that he wanted nothing to do with her.

All these thoughts ran in his head as he gently massaged her sprained leg with a little oil that he found in the godown.

“Shiva, tu Shilpa se shaadi kaise kar sakta hai?” she asked.

“Shaadi? Tumhe ye tak nahi pata ki shaadi kaise karte hai,” he said sarcastically.

“Mazaak mat kar! Tujhe patha nahi kya ki voh ek bahut badi daayan hai. Patha hai ki tu bhoothnath hai, par vo teri level se bhi badi waali hai. Tujhe zinda kha jayegi,” she whined.

Shiva was dragged out of his thoughts, he looked at her face in surprise for a second before morphing his face back into a scowl.

“Tujhe kyun itni problem ho rahi hai, tu bhi toh chudail hai. Dono zindagi bar ek dusre ke khoon peete rehna, tum dono se hume toh chutkaara milegi.”

“Very funny,” she said dryly. “Tumhe kabse shaadi karni thi. Tu toh pure zindagi single rehne waala ta na?” she asked standing up.

“Tu shaadi karke Dev ke saath pure Somnath ghoomegi, aur mein akele ghar baita rahoon? Tujhe pareshaan kare bina mujhe chain se neend nahi ayegi. Toh meine socha ki kyun na mein aur Shilpa milke tujhe pareshaan kare. Tere best friend bhi hai, zindagi bar dono ek hi ghar mein rehna.”

“Aaargh! Tu ek number ka jhalla hai, ye mujhe patha ta. But tere sar mein dimaag hi nahi hai, ye aaj patha chala. Kisi aur ko pareshaan karne ke liye kaun shaadi karta hai? Shaadi to pyar ke liye karni chahiye. Meri baat sun, abi sirf haldi huyi hai, Dhara di se kehke teri shaadi rokh do. Mein tera saath dhungi, mein unhe sab explain karungi,” she said holding both his arms and looking up at him in earnest.

“Teek hai. Agar mein apni shaadi rokh doon, to kya tu bhi apni shaadi rokh degi?” he smirked looking directly at her eyes.

Her eyes widened, “kya?” 

“Tune toh kaha ta, mein bhoothnath hoon. Tu chudail hai. Aur tu toh mujhe bachpan se jelthi aayi hai na?” he said, his arms going around her waist. “To mujse shaadi kar aur zindagi bar jhel le,” he finished pulling her up tightly against himself.

Raavi’s mouth dropped open at his absurd proposal.

“Match made in hell hogi,” he quipped and used one hand to push a few strands of her hand behind her ear slowly. His other hand holding her up by the waist, keeping in mind her sprain.

“Mein-“ she started her mind didn’t seem to be functioning. All she could think of were the completely nonsensical words that he’d blabbered. Also, she was completely aware that they were pressed up tightly against each other. The light material of her kurti did nothing to block the warmth from his body.

To add to that she seemed possessed by a primal urge to wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him senseless. She blanched at her own thoughts as her body shuddered. She fought to keep her hands by her sides.

Overwhelmed by the foreign emotions coursing through her body, she went into her defensive mode and pushed at his chest, “ek din bhi nahi huyi tere uss daayan se mile huye aur abhi se tum pagal jaise baate karne laga hai,” she said dismissing his proposal.

And that seemed to remind Shiva of their circumstance and he loosened his arms around her, still unable to let her go.

Her phone started ringing, and they jumped away from each other, composing themselves.

Raavi’s hands trembled as she tried to take her phone out of her sling bag.

“Mausi?” she said into the phone, peaking up at Shiva. He was standing with his back towards her picking up the box that she kicked down on her arrival.

“Haan, aa rahi hoon,” she said to her Mausi and cut the call.

“Shiva-“ she began trying to recall why she had come to meet him in the first place. 

“Abi nikhal yahan se, varna nikhal nahi paogi,” came Shiva’s deep rough voice.

She squeaked at his guttural tone, before dashing out through the door.

♥️

Part 5 - Page 13