Part 24
On the ride home Virat phone started to ring, without looking he pressed the hold button cutting the call.
After a long and exhausting drive, Viren pulled up to the small cottage where they would be staying. He stretched out his legs as they finally reached their destination. As he looked in the passenger seat, he noticed that Jeevika asleep. Peering down at his phone, he discovered they had no signal. Leaving that aside, he crossed the pebbled driveway and knocked on the adjoining house.
A small middle-aged man, with a receding hairline, opened the door. He had to be no more than five foot three, wearing an overcoat on this cold evening. Viren stood on the porch freezing,
"Hopefully you didn't get lost on your way up here. I spoke to your wife about the booking. Everything should be in order, if there is a problem just let myself or my wife know." He began to close the door, when Viren tried to chirp in, "Oh wait, I forget the keys." He flicked them down off the peg and placed them into Viren's hand, "By the way, my wife arranged the milk, teas, and those kinds of thing as requested," Once collecting the keys, the bags and Jeevika. They headed down the stone steps towards the cottage.
Once reaching home, Maanvi and Virat headed in two different directions. She collected some pain relief for her headache and lay on the sofa, hoping it would work. After some time she felt a hand rubbing her. As she opened her eyes, she saw Virat sitting in the coffee table in front of her with a plate of food.
"You're lucky that Jeevika had made dinner, otherwise you would have been stuck with my cooking. And you know that sucks," he tried to make her laugh and in actual fact he almost did.
"Di?" She spoke very softly,
"They haven't got any signal so I can't reach them," Virat picked up the spoon and started to feed her. After a few small bites, she stopped, as her head wouldn't allow her. Unwillingly he put the plate down. Standing up she started to walk off, Virat rushed over and asked her what she wanted.
"An ice pack, for my head," Maanvi quietly replied. Slowly, she headed back to the sofa and Virat brought the ice pack.
"You should eat, that's what has caused this," he started to talk about how she needs to take care of herself even if stressed or busy. She has to take the time. He turned towards her and found her asleep on the sofa. He removed the ice pack and sat on the floor by the sofa.
"Thanks,"
"How you feeling?"
"Crap, my head is still killing me. I can just about keep my eyes open." Virat shot up but before he could react Maanvi grabbed his hand. "It's fine. I've got an appointment tomorrow anyway. We'll go then," his phone started to ring again and just like before he disconnected.
"Pass me my phone," confused Virat had not heard what Maanvi had said,
"Huh, I thought, sorry," Virat reluctantly picked up Maanvi phone from the table in front of him.
"I wanna call Di," Virat started to explain again, that he couldn't get through to either of them. He had even tried the numbers Jeevika had left for her. Instead, she decided to message her sister. Hoping she could eventually receive it.
The next day, Jeevika tried to call Maanvi but still with no signal on neither mobile nor the landline, she couldn't get in touch with her. Viren was trying his best to rush Jeevika out of the house. It was only 7 am and was still dark outside but Viren wanted to get to his activity. He was like a child on Christmas day, up at the crack of dawn, overly excited, he simply couldn't wait. However, in all the haste they had forgotten something.
Jeevika pulled out the driveway, "I knew I should have driven," Viren moaned, as she was not going fast enough.
"We've got plenty of time. Seeing as he left three hours early for a 40 minute drive. Just get your ticket out and admire that again. You should have put it in my bag," Viren happily started to searched through her bag, after he looked where had put it last night, he started to take out every little bit.
"It's not here,"
"What! You were supposed to put it in there last night."
"I did!" They began to argue about who had done what. Finding a suitable place to turn the car round, they headed back to collect the ticket. The entire time Viren complained about how they should have swapped drivers.
He dashed in the house to find where he had left the ticket last night. The house was spick and span, which would mean this task, should be easy. However, Viren could not find where he had left it.
Back home, Virat and Maanvi were getting ready for her check up. She was in her second trimester and this was simply a normal routine check up. Virat headed out early in the morning, leaving Maanvi alone for some time. She found it funny, for the first time she was truly alone in the house. However, in some ways she liked it. For a few moments, she was able to think about everything. After finishing her breakfast, she sat at the table. Yesterday, hadn't been good, but now as she sat alone with her child she felt some calm. Every time she placed her hand over her stomach, she always felt a sense of anxiety and the stress of having a child but for the first time that uneasiness was not present. It was a strange feeling holding a unique life inside you, sheltering it from the world, holding it safe, or at least trying to. The guilt from yesterday still persisted. One day she didn't take care of herself or think and her child most likely suffered as a consequence. How could she do this?
After a long look, Viren finally found this missing ticket, left by the laptop case in his cottage suite. He glanced out to admire the view when he saw Jeevika in the car with it running. Dashing back into the car and they sped off. Looking into her rear view mirror, Jeevika curiously asked, "So has your leadership discussed the new pay policy?" Viren looked unusually over at Jeevika and placed his glorious ticket on his lap.
"We just saw ours and are in that two week consultation period. I have tons issues with it," Struck with the randomness, Viren was oddly quietly until he realised,
"You want to discuss pay now? Here? I mean we do this when we get back. And bore Maanvi at the same time,"
Real Estate
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