SS: A Bend in the Road [Wattpad link-P.126] - Page 33

If she could go back and show one incident, where she outdid herself in proving her stupidity, it would be that night.

She kissed him.

Worse, she goaded him to kiss her.

What a mess!

Deep down, she didn't regret the kiss although she did regret that it's her who had been all over him. What would he have been thinking about her.

She couldn't blame alcohol for her heightened emotional imbalance. She was just frustrated with everything going on with her life. Her feelings, and her messed up life, Maan Sir's care that looked dormant but had always been there, backing her up, and the image of Rasika stripping off her shirt...

Geet clutched her head to stop a pounding headache.

Again, she had only one thought reverberating in his head.

Whatever was she thinking getting drunk, worse kiss her boss!

Rishi had called that day and if not for him, she wouldn't have moved a muscle and would have happily hid in her room and if there's an eternity that needs to be passed for Maan Sir to forget about the kiss, she was willing to wait up.

However, to her utter luck she had not run into Maan Sir that morning. Plus she received a call from Rishi.

Rishi was going back to Delhi and wanted to ask if she was needed there.

And hence had happened the most comic phone call in the history of phone calls.

If Adi were the representative of nervous giggles, Rishi has become serious competition to him.

Anyway Rishi called up Maan Sir and told him that she was going to Delhi office and after a few minutes, he cut the call much to her heightened anxiety.

"What did he say?" She asked him.

"He said ok" Rishi said glad that the call was over.

"No, what were his exact words?"

"His exact words were" Rishi said. "Any other itinerary that I am supposed to know?"

Geet slapped her forehead and stayed like that for a while.

"You should have been ok with the initial explanation" Rishi said with a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I am realizing I don't get hints"

"None of us do, until the moment passes no?" Rishi said shaking his head "By then we give him a chance to yell at us"

Geet laughed, although what Rishi said reminded her of something different.

None of us realize hints, until the moment passes.

-

Geet was fiddling with the landline for a while now.

She had picked up the phone, dialed a number and banged it shut.

It's lunch time and no one was around. Not that anyone would bother what her business is even when around.

But she felt strangely silly and weirdly nervous to make that call.

How long would she able to avoid him anyway? High time she addressed the white elephant. It's better than she having to see him without any prelude.

Since Maan sir was still in Hoshiyarpur, Geet figured this was the best time for her to call him and apologize for her behavior that night.

At her eighth attempt, she called on the landline in the Hoshiyarpur guesthouse.

Landline because she always had the fallback option of disconnecting the call without any traces if she chickened out.

And chicken out she did the moment he picked up the call and said "Hello".

She waited for words to spill out of her mouth but nothing. Not a croak, not a word.

A moment passed and he was silent too. Then she heard his voice.

"Geet?"

Her eyes widened just a tad bit before she wondered if she could cut this call now and pretend it wasn't her.

"Thinking of disconnecting, are you?" She heard him say and suspected she heard mirth in his voice.

"No" she said automatically and closed her eyes slapping her forehead.

Now she gave herself away.

She heard his laughter now. It came out easy and unrestricted. She tried to picture how it looked. Her heart swelled with happiness at the image.

Opening her eyes, she took a deep breath and said what she was meaning to "I am sorry Sir"

His laughter faded and she heard him now, his voice more solemn.

"What damage did you do to office properties now?"

"What--?"

"Since running into inanimate objects seems to be your favorite past time, I was wondering what did you knock down now?"

"It's not that" she said "It's about..that night"

"What about it?"

"I'm sorry for that night"

He was silent for a moment.

"Well" he said making her heart beat faster "To be honest I didn't see that coming"

Her heart went on full gallop and she had to clutch the receiver tighter.

"I'm very surprised you found the alcohol collection. How did you do it?"

"What?"

"You're talking about confiscating my most treasured collection of whisky. Aren't you?" He teased.

"I didn't confiscate!" She said suddenly feeling awkward. Well, she did sort of break into his study and did take something that wasn't hers. She now had something else to feel guilty about. She was an alcohol thief! Babaji!

"I'm sorry for that also"

"What else were you sorry for if not this?"

"The..." She said feeling her throat run dry. "The aftermath"

"Oh that" Maan said understanding seeping into his voice.

"You got to practice more" he said much to her chagrin. "Don't worry, I'll make sure you won't feel sorry the next time"

And to her horror, with that he disconnected the call making her look at the phone receiver in dismay.

Next time? Is there going to be a next time?

It was cloudy that evening. There was a prediction of storm that's around the corner.

She had gone to the terrace to remove the clothes that have dried by now.

Her hair that was flying around her as flames, she had tied them into a messy bun.

She had worn a Saree that day, something out of blue but she had felt like wearing one. The pallu of her cotton saree bellowed the wind, flying behind her as she tried to let the clothes off the string, and dropped it on her shoulder, her thoughts running amuck.

There was a hot topic running in office that day, of how Ms. Rasika of Rise constructions was put out of the project and her father who supposedly had paid a visit to Hoshiyarpur to meet Maan Sir had retained the project but he himself would be heading it and not his daughter.

There were many speculations about the sudden quitting of the woman from the project especially because she was considered one of the most promising young leaders in the industry. People wondered what would have ticked off Maan sir to that extent.

Geet knew in her heart about the reason. She was there. She had seen things. There were moments when she had thought she did the same thing, throwing herself on him but seeing Maan react to Rasika's actions and hers, she had understood the unspoken words.

She couldn't brush away Maan sir's response as the moment. She can't brush away her own instincts to not stop kissing him as a weak moment.

She had known the difference between being a slave to the moment and accepting it and acting out of love.

What she and Maan sir shared was out of love.

She didn't want to place it in the same category as what she had shared with her namesake husband on a rainy night.

A thunder rumbled in the sky making her jump out of her skin.

How twisted was the environment she grew up in where submitting oneself to their husband, although if the so called husband was a mere stranger was so glorified.

And here, although Maan sir was more than what Dev ever was to her, their relationship was nameless. And hence that kiss pinched her a lot, making her wonder if she had become the likes of those women that threw themselves at Maan sir.

Was she one of them to him?

She removed more clothes off the clothesline, with these gloomy thoughts in her head when she heard a car's engine the bought her out of her musings.

She had gone to the edge of the terrace, with clothes still on her arm as she looked down at the car that has entered the premises.

The door opened and had Maan Sir got down, his hands running through his hair, his face holding a satisfaction of coming home.

He looked up then and she wasn't quick to move back and their eyes met.

In that moment she knew, she knew that it was a lost battle and with the skip of her heartbeat and the acute pain in her chest made her realize that home is where heart resides and she found her home, in him.

She had seen him close the door of the car, and move towards the outhouse.

She knew he was coming to her.

She had put the clothes aside, the wind beckoning her tucked pallu out making it flutter to the wind.

Her hair was coming undone and her hands were running cold as she had seen him take two steps at a time until he stood there at the threshold of the terrace, just as he got on the top of the last step.

Somewhere she felt the first drop of rain touch her lips.

She raised her eyes to look up at the now darkened sky and felt the other drop fall on her eyelids making her close her eyes.

She felt a cold touch on her skin, right at the first drop that fell on her lips and she opened her eyes to see him touching his index finger to her lips, with all the concentration in the world.

Her dexterous finger moved across her lower lip, pulling it down before he replaced it with his lips.

And this time, although none of them were out of senses, the kiss made her senseless.

She had draped her hands over his neck even as he pulled her closer with her hands around her waist, his thumbs pressing her behind her waist, on the skin, as she felt her hands climbing up to his hair, fisting it.