Mayur FF:Last Thing I expected Chapter34Page32 - Page 14

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Chapter 32

CJ looked up from her paperwork when Mansi, his secretary, walked in and called for her attention. "You have a visitor, Ms. Jain."

She looked down at his desk, to the agenda-sheet Mansi wrote out for her every morning. "I'm not scheduled for an appointment."

"He says that it is urgent," Mansi replied in a tight tone. "Should I send him away?"

CJ shook her head wearily and gestured for her to let the visitor in.

She gave her a frown and proceeded to bring the visitor in to the grand office, closing the door behind her as she left.

The tall man, dressed in a black suit , stepped forward and stuck his hand out to CJ, introducing himself quickly. "Ranvijay Rathore, madam. I was told you could help me."

"Take a seat, Mr. Rathore," CJ said, pointing to a chair in front of her desk. "What exactly can I help you with?"

"Actually, it's more along the lines of me helping you," Ranvijay said.

"I don't have time or the patience for riddles, Mr. Rathore," CJ drawled. "Why are you here?"

"The Sharmas need a witness for their Appellate Analysis," he said plainly, receiving a surprised look from the pretty lawyer. "I can be that witness."

"And you are acquainted with the Sharmas? You have seen their parenting up close?"

"I am acquainted with them," Ranvijay said. "I've known Mayank for a long time and have had the recent pleasure of meeting his wife."

"The witnesses have to be close to the family, Mr. Rathore. I am Neev's godmother and have been friends with Mayank since a very long time. I have never even heard your name mentioned before."

"Ah, Ms. Jain, but I have one thing that the other witnesses don't have," Ranvijay said with a genuine smile. "Due to a slowly diminishing personality disorder, I have long ago developed an immunity to all truth-forcing serums and lie-detectors."

"You can withstand the power of a lie-detector?" CJ asked skeptically.

"Indeed, I can," Ranvijay replied. "I have lived most of my life lying through my teeth, so I can safely say that I'm very skilled at it."

"Why would you do this for the Sharmas? What's in it for you?" CJ asked.

"I'd like to settle a few immoral affronts I've caused them," he answered.

"How did you hear about their need for a witness?" CJ continued her line of questioning. She was always known for studying a subject to death, needing to know everything in order to go forward. It was one of the reasons why she had the second-highest position of judicial advocacy at the firm.

"My mother is a friend of Shilpa Sharma; I overheard a conversation of theirs over tea. I asked Madame Sharma who was representing their case and she directed me to you."

"All witnesses are subjected to a background check. Do you have anything on your record that I should know about, before I submit your name?"

"I've been jailed before for assault, but I was told that it would be removed from my record if I attended psychological rehabilitation sessions, which I have."

Before CJ could ask another question, Mansi knocked on the door and poked her head into the room. "A visitor for you, Ms. Jain. She says she doesn't have an appointment but that it's urgent."

"Aren't they all?" CJ murmured beneath her breath. "You can show her in once Mr. Rathore has left."

Mansi's lip curled. "She said it can't wait and that she's terribly sorry she's interrupting, but she really needs to see you."

CJ ran a hand down her face and nodded. "I'm sorry for that, Mr. Rathore. It's been a busy few days."

"I don't mind," Ranvijay said with a nonchalant shrug. "Please, see to this person and I'll wait."

CJ stood up from behind her desk to greet his visitor when she suddenly stopped and stared at the open door and the woman standing in the middle of the doorway.

"Miss Walia?" CJ asked in a surprised voice. "What are you doing here?"

Rashmi fiddled with her palms and pushed her glasses up her nose, making them even more crooked than they were before. "I'm so, so sorry, Ms. Jain, for intruding, but I just came back from a departmental meeting and had to come talk to you."

"Well, please, come sit down. If Mr. Rathore has no other questions, then my meeting with him is through."

Ranvijay stood up and smiled at the two women. "I'll see you at the hearing, then. Goodbye Ms. Jain, thank you for your time."

CJ nodded cordially at the man and then heaved a sigh of relief once he had left. "Sorry about that, Miss Walia. I've had a few unexpected visitors as of late. Now, what can I do for you?"

She pushed her glasses from the side, throwing them off-balance yet again. "I needed to go over the Sharma case with you since I just finished speaking with the Supreme Court member watching their case. I told him we were filing for an Appellate Analysis, and he said that that is completely legal and as long as we can procure the four witnesses then we're doing okay." Rashmi smiled slightly and occupied her nervous fingers with an errant lock of hair. "I asked Mister Patel if I could possibly fill in for the fourth member, but he said I don't qualify since I would be on the panel that decides their fate."

"That's very kind of you," CJ smiled. "But, thankfully, we've got all our witnesses; I'm going to submit their names for their background checks today."

"Then everything is working out smoothly," she said. "I can drop off the names at Mister Patel's office. I'm on my way back there to pick up my contracts and some extra forms."

CJ shuffled through the papers on her desk and pulled out the scrap of parchment with the four names written on it. She quickly jotted down Ranvijay Rathore's name and handed it to Rashmi.

"Um, I should get going. I'll take those names and I'll be in contact with you for the Sharma case anytime I hear something new or important," she said, standing up and knocking down the cup of coffee on her desk with her notebooks. "Oh! I'm so sorry!"

She waved away Rashmi's busy hands as she wiped the mess with tissues.

"I'm such a bloody klutz," Rashmi sighed, knocking her glasses askew just once more. "I really am sorry, Ms. Jain."

"Again, you have nothing to worry about," CJ smiled. "I knock things down all the time."

"You're just saying that," she murmured.

"No, it's true. I'm always driving Mansi crazy with how clumsy I can be. She's always picking up after me," he explained.

"I'll be on my way," she said guiltily, "before I do something like burn your entire office down or something equally destructive."

"Goodbye Miss Walia," CJ called out cheerfully as she leaned against her desk.

Annie adjusted the hairpiece on her head, looking into the mirror with a grimace on her face. How could she have lost her hair? She had visited seventeen dermatologists and none of them knew why she had suddenly gone bald.

"Annie?" she heard the tiny voice of her son behind her.

"What?" she asked a little too harshly as she turned to find Neev standing in the doorway staring at her jet black hairpiece.

"I like that color on your hair," he said. "It's like Daddy's."

She stared at him and frowned. "Uh, thank you, Neev."

"Can you take me to the park?" he asked, walking into the room and passing by her open closet. He lingered there, looking at all the clothes and running his hands over the silky fabrics. "I want to play outside, please."

"Ask Angelo," she said distractedly. "I have to visit the damn wigmaker again."

"Uh-oh, Annie, one bad word," he giggled. "You have to sit in time-out."

"Oh, I'll do that immediately," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Now, go away. Angelo will take you somewhere."

"I can't find Jello," Neev explained. He made sure she wasn't looking when he slipped the everlasting dungbomb into her closet.

"He should be in the study," she said, swiping away the fake bangs from her face.

Neev ran his hand over an extra soft dress and then left the room, his short legs accelerating once he neared his room. He walked over to the bed and looked under it, smiling when he found the mischievous faces peering back at him.

"Did you put the dungbomb in her closet?" Benji asked, crawling out from under the bed.

"Yes, I put it in there and right in the middle like you told me to," Neev said, jumping up onto the bed and bouncing a few times on it. "What is the dumbomb going to do, again?"

"It's going to make all of her clothes smell really nice," Uday explained, climbing onto the massive bed and bouncing next to Neev. "The smell won't come off for a very, very long time no matter how many perfumes she puts on."

"Now, we'll be back tonight to check up on you and read you your bedtime story, okay?" Benji winked.

"Okay!" Neev said.

He watched them leave the room through the window. He jumped off the bed and ran to find Jello to see if he would take him to the park. Jello wasn't a bad man, just very boring. He liked to talk about moneys and pretty ladies and a lot of boring stuff, but Neev usually just tuned him out.

Twirling the piece of graphite in his hand over and over, Mayank watched the dark substance stain his fingers, leaving them a dark grey mess. His mind wasn't focusing on the graphite stains, or the blueprints sitting in front of him. He was supposed to finish the sketches for a project he had started weeks prior, but couldn't seem to focus on the task at hand.

His guilt was starting to eat at him. He had done something unforgivable. He had done something sneaky, underhanded, immature, and completely irrational. It had been two weeks since Neev had been taken to Delhi and two weeks since Mayank had done that one unforgivable thing.

He looked up at the clock near his desk and sighed with the realization that he couldn't keep his guilt at bay any longer. He had to tell Nupur the truth, had to confess his deplorable deed. She would probably hate him, would most likely hurt him, and would definitely want to smack him. He deserved it all.

Throwing down the piece of graphite, he rolled up the blueprints and handed them to Ravi, his right-hand at the company, and left the office building in a hurry, his coat clutched in his hand as he turned the corner and drove straight home.

He arrived to an empty flat, a note from Nupur left on the coffee table telling him that she was out shopping with Gunjan. He changed out of his work clothes and slipped into a pair of basketball shorts and a white t-shirt, leaving the flat again to run. He had been slacking in his exercise habits, not doing his usual three-times-a-week run through their neighborhood.

Maybe running would empty his head of the guilt… of the pain… of the loss. True, he did have Nupur, who loved him, whom he loved back. But, he needed his son. He also had to tell Nupur what he had done. He wouldn't be able to look at her one more moment without her knowing.

He ran for two hours, never slowing his pace, never letting the burning in his chest and legs slow him down or tempt him to stop. Every time his foot hit the cement, he thought of his son, far away, living with a woman who probably could have brought down Osama Bin Laden with the power of her nagging alone.

By the time he reached the flat, he was beyond exhausted; his breath came in short bursts as he clutched his side and wiped the sweat away from his forehead with the back of his arm. He unlocked the door and walked into the foyer, wincing as he realized he had forgotten to stretch before running, his muscles now screaming at him to not walk so slowly.

"Mayank?" Nupur's voice permeated through the walls from the bedroom. "Is that you?"

"Yeah," he called back, throwing his watch onto the coffee table and collapsing on the couch.

She appeared in the doorway, the light behind her. "Where have you been? I was a bit worried."

"Sorry; I went running, lost track of time" he sighed, stretching his legs out in front of him and taking a steadying breath.

"Did you have a good run?" she asked, coming to sit next to him on the couch and then leaning away from him. "Goodness, you smell like the outside."

"Yeah," he replied tonelessly.

"What's wrong?" she asked suddenly.

"I have to tell you something," he said, looking directly at the blank television.

"What is it?"

"I did something foolish," he said slowly. "I haven't been able to tell you, because well, for one, I didn't recall doing it until yesterday, and because I haven't had the courage to. That's something you remember about the teenage Mayank, right? I was a coward?"

She tilted her head, her brows furrowed in confusion. "What on earth are you talking about?"

"I couldn't face the truth that my son was taken away from me," he continued. "I wasn't entirely in my right mind when I left that hospital room two weeks ago. I went and … and …"

"Mayank, what did you do?"

"I don't have any stock left of...of contraceptives anymore," he said simply, never meeting her curious gaze. His eyes focused straight ahead, unblinking. She stayed silent for a moment, digesting his words.

"We've been having no protection for a week now," he continued.

More silence.

"I think I may have lost a bit of my sanity when they said they were taking Neev away. I had felt like my mind was disconnected from the rest of my body, doing things its own way. Thinking about it now, I'm pretty sure my subconscious thought to replace Neev with another child. I barely remember doing it. I suddenly remembered last night before I fell asleep, that I stopped using protection. That's why I think I might have gone or am going crazy."

Even more silence.

"If I had remembered, I would have said something, Nupur," he said, his voice still without emotion. "But, now I'm not so sure I regret doing it. The thought of you having my child doesn't sound so bad, does it?"

He was starting to worry about her silence. Where were the nine million questions, the yelling, the screaming, the cursing?

He didn't dare look at her. He knew what he had done was wrong, beyond wrong, and he wasn't going to look her in the eye until he knew how she felt about it all.

"Aren't you going to say something?"

"What do you want me to say?" she asked.

"I don't know."

"I have to get out of here," she said quickly, moving to get off the couch.

Mayank's warm hand caught her wrist, dragged her face to look at him. "You promised you wouldn't leave me. You promised."

"I don't know what you want me to do, what to say," she said in a controlled voice. "I have to get away from you."

His hand fell limply from her wrist, his eyes burning with a fury she hadn't seen since they were in college, since the time they had reunited when Neev was first enrolled in school. "Then, go."

"Mayank…"

"Go!" he snarled, lifting himself off the couch and leaving the room.

"I just need time to think!" she yelled back at him. "You can't have expected me to take this all in stride!"

"Get the hell out!" he screamed through the closed door.

She rolled her eyes. Yeah, like I'm going to leave now because you order me to. Think again, buddy. She sank back against the couch, her heart starting to catch up with her mind, beating irregularly with the news that Mayank had kept from her.

She hadn't had any symptoms of pregnancy; nothing had felt different for the past week. She thought to herself, using a mental calendar: her last period had ended the day Neev had fallen off the balcony.

She pressed a hand to her flat belly, her fingers tracing the width of it. She could imagine a little boy, just like Neev… big, trusting eyes; a wide, innocent smile… She could imagine a little girl with guilty hazel eyes, a smirk ready to erupt at a moment's notice, and beautiful wavy hair the colour of dark chocolate.

She had always heard women saying that they had these "feelings" when they became pregnant, like they just knew that they were with child. She didn't feel anything like that. That was probably a good thing, she told herself. She wasn't ready to have kids… was she?

She was already a mother, already a wife… so her rationale didn't completely make sense. She was very prepared to have a child. She loved children, would love any child given to her. It had only taken days for her to fall completely in love with Neev, and he didn't even have her blood running through his veins.

She really didn't know what to do about Mayank, sulking in his room. He probably thought she was angry with the news he gave her. To tell the complete truth, she was a bit angry, never liking to have no control over her life. She would have liked to have been aware ahead of time of the possibility of getting pregnant, but ever since marrying Mayank, things tended to be taken out of her control, out of her hands.

"You're still here," she heard Mayank's voice say from the entryway of the living room.

"Yes," she said in a hoarse voice.

"I'm not going to apologize," he said bluntly.

She looked up at him, he was freshly showered, his hair still wet and pushed off his face. He looked remarkably like he used to when they had first started at Excel, his face in a scowl.

"I'm not asking you to," she replied.

"Why didn't you leave?" he asked.

"Because you did that job for me," she said.

"I don't like you," he said quietly.

"Yeah, I don't like you much either," she told him.

They stayed quiet, their breathing the only sound in the room.

He came to sit beside her on the couch, not touching her, not saying a word. They sat side-by-side, their thoughts going in every possible direction.

"Do you know if you're…"

"No," she said quickly. "I don't know."

"I want to say I'm sorry for not knowing about this sooner, but I can't. I want it too much. I want you to have my child. You know my selfishness knows no bounds."

"I'm not angry, Mayank," she said.

"I know. You stayed."

"You forgot to add arrogance along with selfishness."

He gave a short laugh at that.

"I need to talk to someone," she said, "most preferably another woman."

"Whatever you need," he shrugged.

She stood up and toppled back down when Mayank caught her around the waist and smashed his lips to hers, as always, showing her what he had a hard time saying in words. He pulled away slowly, dragging his hands off of her waist, slowly lingering against her stomach.

They exchanged a subtle look and she left him on the couch, walking to the door with haste lest she turn around and shag her husband despite his mental lapses.

"I miss you oodles and oodles," Sonali said to the webcam, smiling at Vikram's head. "The shirt I stole from you has lost its smell."

"Ye stole my shirt? Is it the one I use for trainin'?" he asked.

She smiled widely. "Yes."

"Ah, I've been lookin' for that shirt, Sonali," he said with a betraying smile. "Tell me it was washed before you filched it."

"Nope. It smells like you after a nice, rough, training session. I fall asleep with it," she explained. "It smells so manly."

"You'll be the absolute death of me, lass," he laughed. He stopped when he heard the knock at Sonali's door. "Expectin' someone?"

"No," she said. "Maybe it's my boyfriend rental delivery."

"Ha-ha," he said dryly, watching her walk to the door.

Sonali opened the door to find Nupur, who smiled wanly at her. Vikram watched the two of them talk and then watched as Sonali walked over to the laptop and blew him a kiss. "It's girl-talk time! Bye, Vicky! Have fun in Calcutta!"

He waved and ended the call, the desktop turning back to show a beautiful picture of Sonali and Nupur shot against the sunset.

Sonali turned back to Nupur and pointed to the couch for them to sit. "What's on your mind, love?" she asked as she grabbed a juice bottle lying on the table, pouring it in a glass for her.

Nupur shrugged and accepted the juice with a polite nod. "I came to ask you a few questions."

"Yeah, sure--" Sonali stopped when she heard another knock on the door. "Oh, that must be Shilpa."

"Maa?" Nupur choked. "Here?"

"Yeah, I invited her over for tea. It's like a gossip explosion whenever she comes around. I love it," Sonali smiled as she walked to the door.

Nupur put the glass of juice down on the coffee table, her hand shaking too much to keep it steady. She heard the two women at the door greeting each other warmly. She had become used to Shilpa's loving nature, something that she had missed tremendously.

"Nupur, my darling!" Shilpa's sing-song voice said as she walked into the living room. Floated into the living room would be more appropriate, her sari swaying behind her gracefully. "How are you?"

"I'm… fine, Maa," Nupur said, standing up to hug the older woman.

"How is Mayank?" Shilpa asked, taking the seat next to her daughter-in-law. "Are the two of you doing well?"

"We're… fine," Nupur said, feeling repetitive. "Mayank still has his bouts of gloom and I sometimes find him sleeping in Neev's room, but I think he's trying to adjust."

"Oh, my poor child," Shilpa sighed. "Sonali, sweetheart, come sit down. We can drink tea later."

Sonali obeyed, leaving the small kitchen to take the seat across from the two Sharma women. "Have you two found your fourth witness."

Nupur shook her head sadly. "CJ said she had to speak with us later tonight… I think she needs a fourth name soon, but we really can't think of anyone."

"Everything will turn out for the best," Sonali assured her. "Neev is meant to be with you and Mayank; fate is just taking a little while longer to get everything sorted out."

"Our little, spiritual optimist," Shilpa chuckled.

Sonali smiled and lifted her arms in a careless gesture. "I just think that good things happen to good people if they are patient enough."

"You're starting to sound like a fortune cookie," Shilpa said with a roll of her eyes.

Nupur watched them chat and laugh, her nerves building to mention her problem. She wanted to tell someone, find out if she was worrying for nothing. She blew a frustrated breath out. She should have just read a book on pregnancy to find out the symptoms... or screw that, she should have just walked to the closest chemist and picked up a pregnancy test to take a piss on and find out the old-fashioned way.

"Nupur!" Sonali finally yelled. "Come back to us, doll-face!"

"Sorry," Nupur said.

"I was just telling Shilpa Auntie that I don't know why you're here, not that you're not welcome," Sonali said. "Before I answered the door, you said you had to ask me something?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, I just wanted to know how you were doing," Nupur said lamely. "I feel like the only time I see you these days is at work."

"I'm as fine as I was yesterday when we talked," Sonali laughed. "You sure you're okay, Nupur? You don't seem yourself."

"Actually, I think it's just this headache," she said. "I think I'll stop by the chemist and pick up some pain reliever."

"I think I may have some…" Sonali said.

"No, it's alright, I have to pick up a few things anyway," Nupur said. "I'll see you two soon."

Shilpa and Sonali watched Nupur leave the room at an unnatural pace. They turned to look at each other with curious looks. "You think she's lying?"

"Oh, there is most definitely something going on with her," Shilpa said. "Maybe she got into a fight with Mayank?"

"Hmm...probably not...If I didn't love Vicky as much I'd say their love was the most enthralling one I've seen," Sonali said seriously.

"What's this? You love young Vikram?" Shilpa asked excitedly. "When did this happen?"

Sonali actually blushed. The first time Shilpa, or anybody for that matter, had seen her do it. "Um, yeah. I really do. He actually said it first."

"Tell me everything," Shilpa gushed. "I thought he was in Malaysia for that camp."

"Well, it was our one month anniversary a few weeks ago and he was in Kuala Lumpur, so I knew we wouldn't be together for that, but I was never really into the whole anniversary thing. I mean, it had only been a month, and I don't really care about celebrating or anything, but Vicky flew in internationally just for our anniversary! You know how difficult it is to get a ticket at that time, but he did it, and he took me out to dinner, gave me a silver necklace that I have yet to take off and told me how he felt about me. He was all shy and stumbling over his words, Shilpa Auntie… I swear, I never cry, but the minute he finally got the words out, I burst into tears like some drama queen."

"That's fantastic, darling!" Shilpa said with a smile. "I knew you two would hit it off from the beginning."

"I am beyond ecstatic. At first, I was worried that it was too soon for us to be saying we love each other after only a month, but Vicky just rolled his eyes at me, 'Ah, lass, you're worried about nothin'!'" she said in a great imitation of her boyfriend.

"He's absolutely right. I am so sick of society putting rules on how long it should take to fall in love. Goodness, just fall in love and don't care what anyone thinks. It's that simple."

Sonali nodded in agreement. "Now, if only Nupur had been here, she would have agreed. You know Mayank was barely in the country a few weeks before those two got married. Simply amazing."

Shilpa coughed lightly into her hand. "Yes, amazing."

No need to tell Sonali that it didn't even happen until after the wedding…

Neev scrunched up his nose when he ran down to dinner that same evening. The smell in the dining room was disgusting. "Yuck!" he shouted, his fingers clamping his nose shut.

"Don't run, Neev," Annie snapped, her face contorted in the most evil scowl he had ever seen.

"It's stinky in here," he said.

The man named Jello held his napkin over his face as he looked over at his wife. "Yes, I believe something has happened to your mother's clothes."

"Did you poop in your clothes, Annie?" Neev asked, climbing up onto his chair, trying hard not to let go of his nose.

"Don't use that type of language!" she shrieked, "and no, I didn't poop in my clothes!"

"Annie said poop," Neev told Jello.

Jello said nothing, the look he got from his wife clearly predicted death if he said a word.

"Angelo, could you pour me some wine?" Annie asked through her teeth.

He did as asked, dropping the napkin to do as she bid. He started coughing without the cloth barrier to protect his senses from the rank odor of the everlasting dungbomb. "Excuse me," he coughed, quickly leaving the room.

"Where is Jello going?" Neev asked, still holding his nose and taking a bite of his food.

Annie clenched her jaw and uncorked the wine bottle, drinking directly from it, tilting her head far back enough to lean the wig on her head a few inches.

"I can't taste my food," Neev complained.

"I don't care," Annie said. "Go eat somewhere else."

"Can I eat on my bed?" Neev tried.

"Fine," she shrugged, knocking back another gulp of wine.

"Can I eat in your bed?" he asked.

He expected her to yell, to immediately say no, or to just glare at him. He didn't really expect her to burst into tears.

"Uh-oh," he said quietly to himself, watching her hands cover her face as her shoulders quivered in shaken sobs. "Don't cry, Annie."

She ignored him, kept on crying.

He pinched his nose harder as he got down from his seat and walked over to his birthmother. He walked right up to her chair and put his small hand on her knee. "Don't be sad," he said in a nasally voice, his nose as closed as it cou ld get. "It's okay that you're stinky and that you have no more hairs."

She sobbed harder, her hands falling down to look at his hand on her knee. She looked at him, the boy who was her son, the boy who didn't really belong with her. "I'm ugly, hideous… Angelo won't even sleep in our bed!"

"You're not ugly!" Neev said quickly, his innocent honesty taking precedence over every other instinct he had. "You are really pretty...well sometimes you are!"

She blinked at him, her tears staining her cheeks. "Thank you," she said slowly, looking him in his own chocolate eyes, so very much like his father's. "Go… uh, go eat your dinner, Neev. Then go to bed."

He nodded and then ran to grab his plate. He walked out of the room, carefully holding the plate in one hand and closing his nose with the other.

She watched him leave, his short legs very skinny in the shorts he had dressed himself in that morning. She hiccoughed and dabbed at her face with her dinner napkin. That little boy had done something to her in that moment. She didn't like what she was feeling. She didn't like that unknown emotion… was it guilt? Was it a maternal emotion? Was it indigestion?

She had no idea her son was currently in his room, eating his dinner and talking to Uday and Benji, telling them that she had smelled very, very stinky at dinner and that she had started crying. She also didn't know that Benji and Uday were currently telling Neev that his next mission was to play mirror until Annie went slightly crazy. She didn't know about the explanation they gave Neev of the game, that the sole rule was to repeat everything a person said back to them. A lovely game indeed.

Nupur closed the front door to the flat and clutched the paper bag in her hand tighter as she locked the door and listened for any sound. She heard Mayank in the kitchen, the sound of silverware clanging against a plate. She walked in and found him sitting at the small breakfast table eating a quick dinner and reading a Rugby magazine.

He looked up when she walked in, his eyes fixed firmly on her face as she gave him a tired smile. The paper bag in her hand caught his attention as he looked at it and then back at her face.

"Did you have a good talk?" he asked.

"Not really," she replied.

"Are you angry with me?"

"I don't think I am," she said. "Maybe, but I don't think so. I don't know how I really feel. Isn't that stupid? I don't know if I'm upset or annoyed or happy or excited…"

"What's in the bag?" he suddenly asked.

She looked down at the bag and then at him. "A pregnancy test."

He said nothing.

"I want to make sure," she told him.

"Would you be upset if the test was positive?" he said.

She thought about that for a moment and then shook her head.

"Would you be upset if the test was negative?"

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "Would you?"

"If it made you upset, it would make me upset," he told her, looking at the Rugby magazine on the table. He didn't explain or go on.

She took a breath and then left the kitchen, walking straight for the bathroom. She needed her wits about her to effectively pee on the little white stick without making a complete mess.

She wished she could hear Mayank's footsteps behind her, but they never came. Not that she wanted him to watch her pee on the stick… good God, no… but it would have been nice of him to wait outside the bathroom door like a good husband and tell her encouraging things.

Wait, for a second there, she forgot who she was married to. Mayank sitting outside the bathroom door telling her nice, comforting things? Ha! He loved her and all, but he was still Mayank.

She took the paper bag, opened it, took the bright blue box out of it, opened the box and pulled out the instructions. She read the instructions seven times, making sure she knew exactly what to do. Okay, she actually read it nine times, but who's counting?

The little, white stick in her hand taunted her, carrying her future in its existence. She took a deep breath and glanced at the instructions one last time. They told her that she had a choice of peeing into a cup and dipping the stick into her urine, or she could just pee directly on the stick. She decided to just go for it, not wanting to have to clean up any more than she already would have to.

She willed her hand to stop shaking as she wiggled out of her pants and underwear. Sitting gingerly on the toilet seat, she nearly dropped the damn stick into the toilet bowl when she heard the knock at the bathroom door.

"What is it?" she asked shakily.

"You okay in there?" Mayank's voice asked through the door.

"Just peachy," she called back.

"Sarcasm not needed," he replied.

She rolled her eyes and then realized that she couldn't go if he was standing there listening to her take a leak. "Could you go away for a second?"

"Why?"

"Because I don't you to hear me peeing!" she said loudly.

"I've heard you pee before," he said.

"What?!"

"In the mornings, before we go to bed, a lot of times," he said seriously. "Why? Are you embarrassed? Peeing sounds the same coming from everyone."

She bit back a whimper of frustration. "Never mind, just forget it. Listen to me pee, for all I care!"

"Okay."

She cursed under her breath and then pretended he wasn't standing outside. She thought of waterfalls, faucets, rushing rivers, running water…

She closed her eyes and when she finished, she flushed the toilet and did all that neat stuff like wiping and pulling her pants back up.

"So?" Mayank's muffled voice said.

"We have to wait two minutes," she said, placing the stick face-up on a piece of toilet paper on the counter. She washed her hands, three times, and then turned away from the evil, little stick, not wanting to actually watch the little window on the stick change colors.

She picked up the empty box and looked at the back. Blue meant no baby. Pink meant baby. Blue… no baby. Pink… baby.

"Are you going to open the door?" Mayank asked.

"No," she said. "I can't… just, not now. When… I… later, just… later."

He took that as a sign of her nervousness. "I still don't like you," he said softly.

She turned to the door and took two steps until she could touch it. She pressed her fingers against the wood. "I know, Mayank," she said with a gentle smile. "I still don't like you, either."

She heard his small laugh and then a silence. "It's been two minutes."

She looked down at her watch and gulped. "Yeah."

"Well?"

She walked to the counter and picked up the little stick.

The new color was very clear-cut. It wasn't a shade in between the two colors, but the exact shade that the box had shown.

She stared at the new color for a long moment and then slowly turned to the door. Mayank was leaning against the doorframe when she opened the door. He looked at her and then at the white stick she held in her hand.

"So, what's the answer?"

kaitz..............🤗................wht a terrific update dear....i really hv srsly no words to describe abt this update.....this ws surely a surprise update 4me...vr lot of things u mentiond tht i thot u may nt do.....😆😉............just wanna say one thing....shes pregnant na....😳............hehe.....hope u had understud evrythin tht i wanna say in tht one line above...plzzzzzz plzzzzzz continue sooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnn

OMG dear!!!!

awesome part again!! it was really funny at some points. so, is she pregnant? why did u end at such point? plz plz plz continue soon.