Chapter 63

Spreading out!

Of course she allowed Jaidrith to go play pool volleyball

She got many pictures of the two hour lesson

There were many of Aatreya as well, not taken or sent intentionally but made it to the photo collection

It was apparently shot by the training instructor’s assistant

“Did u check the chlorine content in the pool?” she questioned worried

“I did, here, it is attached” he sent a pdf document

She really could not fault him in anyway

She went to work after dropping the kid off so she could at least flex to Sen on Monday about coming in on her day off

She didn’t work much just sat at her desk and went through all the documents he had sent to her over the last month, videos from work lunches, and meet and greets and general non confidential meetings with coworkers

He was easy to talk to, people seemed to love him, he had stable relationships and now had a lovely child, albeit shy and awkward

Well… what do I offer Jaidrith

She wrote a bunch of things on paper and struck them all off, one by one

And then at the end her own name

And circled it

She Googled if people were allowed to be just with their first names in India

As if on cue, a friend, Hemang (the Lonavala group)

Texted her, “suna?”

“What happened?”

“Amru might be pregnant”

She did not want to know that, then she exchanged 30 minutes of texts with the group of friends about meeting some weekend

Her bile slowly rising up

She spent the next hour quite literally throwing up

Her Dad had texted her twice over the last week and she had been ignoring him

Now she knew why… she prayed it was not true, decided to go to Siddhi Vinayak

The thought of her father in bed with her best friend hurt her immensely

Sick sick sick!

She picked up her phone after taking a 20 minute nap in her work chair

And texted Aatreya

“If you ever get sole custody of Jaidrith will you take good care of him?”

He was beyond shocked to receive that question

“Can I call?”

“Yes”

“Why would you ask that?”

“I just want to know”

“I would do whatever I am doing today”

“OK”

“Mrunalini? Is everything OK?”

“Yes, it is thank you” she sent a smiley

“OK good” he sent one back

“I can pick him up around 6 will that be OK?”

“no problem, I was going to make dinner”

“I cannot stay” she said quickly

“I meant for him” he said politely

“Oh OK sorry”

“That’s fine”

“I got a lot done today” she lied

“That is awesome” he said

“Thank you! He hates to come to my office” she said relaxing for a bit

“I can imagine, I haven’t brought him to mine”

 he laughed

“Your office looks great” she said sadly

“says the person who works for a luxury resort” he

 Smiled

“If you saw my office you will know what a sweat shop is”

“No way”

“You can bring him here at 5:45” I will show you”

He was in shock

“Sure” he whispered

“If you are going to be busy its OK” she mumbled suddenly feeling she had crossed the line into a territory she was not at all familiar with

“I can drop him off, see you at 6”

She didn’t know who she had to request a guest pass for Aatreya

She frantically figured it out

She was pacing the lobby of the operations office nervously at 5:45

He appeared with the kid at 5:50, with her darling Dhru in tow

They spent 20 minutes discussing his first volleyball lesson

She was in a jeans and white shirt, he was in khakhi shorts and a tee

“I should have worn better clothes” he grinned

“I am not in my uniform either”

“I noticed” he smiled

“OK” she said as always

“I meant… Its great to unwind”

“Thanks for taking care of my Dhru” 

“U are welcome” he nodded

She forgot she had to bring him in

“It’s a small cube” she warned

“I will not spread out” he teased