SS: A Bend in the Road [Wattpad link-P.126] - Page 8

6.

It was raining again that night when she was standing on the corridor outside her room, under the roof, feeling the droplets of rain that now touching her toes. The roof didn't cover the balcony entirely, which was good, because she stepped into the rain now, at first with just her hand extended, later letting herself been kissed by it thoroughly.

Strange it was, to hesitate going back to something that had always been her favourite. Then she smiled to herself, as much as Maan Sir had given a part of him, the confidence, and the bullish will to stand through everything that's going wrong around her, he might also have had given his hesitation to embrace life.

She closed her eyes and wondered why had she, been thinking about nothing but him lately. But then, she knew the answer to that.

One morning, she stumbled into the store room to fetch something, and true to herself, she stayed back, interested about certain things around. The store room had the personal stuff of somebody; it was as if a part of somebody's life was dumped here. There were a couple of basketballs, now without air lying down somewhere, there were trophies that caught dust, and which in turn had piqued her interest so much. When she went nearby, she had seen that there was one such trophy in there, standing tall, which stood out despite of it being veiled by a thin layer of dust now. She let her finger touch the nameplate, and wipe it and then saw the name.

Maan Singh Khurana.

The man that was an enigma, whose thoughts and actions had always been something beyond her, or so she had thought.

But now, as she had seen him dump something that must have once valued a great deal to him, all she had to do was to leave, and forget it. Only that she couldn't. She might have been interfering in his personal affairs, maybe she had no business to stay in here for another second, but as she had laid her eyes on an old black and white picture that was hung against the wall, that caught dust, despite of all the common sense whispering in her ears not to, she picked it up and with the veil of her dress, wiped it delicately, with trembling hands.

The drizzling turned into a downpour and the humming in her brain stopped as she felt the fierceness of rain pouring onto her.

The smiling picture of Maan Sir had made her stomach lurch. There was something painfully beautiful about that picture that she didn't have the heart to put it back in place.

She told herself that it was for the love of photography that she's stealing the picture to herself, and she wanted to keep believing it.

She could picture Maan Sir smirk and that's the maximum stretch of lips she had ever seen of his. But this, was somewhere between a smile and a laugh and she knew the photographer had captured a honest moment. He was looking at the camera with such unadulterated happiness, but what stood out was the look in his eyes, while looking at the camera lens. There was a shine in his eyes and the gaze communicated nothing but love, and that had set Geet uneasy. She had to tell herself it was directed at the photographer and not her.

To keep her inner voice mum, she pictured the photographer to be an attractive woman who could turn heads just by being there in the room, not a plane jane like her...

Yet, yet... she couldn't wonder, a teeny weeny bit of hers that how it would be like to have look at that way by him... when she would feel the only person being present and the rest of the world faded...

-

A month had passed since he had left for Hoshiyarpur.

A month was a long time to get over a person's anger. He was discovering now it wasn't the case with him.

When he got to know what had happened to Geet, his first instinct was to kill the person and drink his blood.

But there had been a buzz of other thoughts that came later. So much made sense now, so much of Geet sneaking around every time against her parent's will, against everybody to track somebody down...

The mere thought of what happened to her had set his heart ablaze again.

After he left Hoshiyarpur, he had left for a brief trip to Manhattan to overlook a quarterly review meeting that lasted for a week. And since he had been there, he had busied himself among a series of meetings with big wig potential clients that would push his company's revenue to Mars if converted. In one way work had provided to be a distraction.

It kept his violent thoughts under the surface. It didn't give him much time to want to kill the faceless person that had hurt his Geet.

His Geet...

He had known for quite some time that he had had feelings for Geet, but never even accepted them, even for himself.

But when it came to him, he didn't want to fight it. He might not be vocal to express it, yet, but he wasn't going to deny it.

A week later, when he came back to India, he chose to drive from Delhi airport to Dehradun. The Chopra project was at its cusp and he needed to be there and talk with Rishi once, about how the project is heading. And then there was Geet who's there...

As his car had reached the vast guest house, a part of which was still used as Khurana's personal estate, while the rest was used to accommodate the employees that are visiting Dehradun branch, he felt strangely at peace.

The private estate of this guest house was where he had spent his majority summers growing up. This was one place he chose as a getaway while he was doing his graduation in Delhi.

This place held too much of importance that he consciously stayed away from it.

But as he stepped back in after such a long time, the echoes of his past has stopped whispering in his ears...

All that had captivated his senses was that woman who was standing in the first floor corridor, drenching in the rain.

-

On a night similar to this, had she embraced him, on a night similar to this had she felt his protective arms around him...

On a night similar to this, had she heard him whisper her name, like a reverent prayer...

"Geet..." she felt she had heard and turned only to have her heart drop to her stomach...

There he was...

Standing at the threshold, walking now towards her, he stopped just before her. He wasn't how she remembered him. With cheeks sunken, bags under his eyes, unshaven for what seemed like four weeks, he was not the prim and proper boss that she had remembered...

He seemed like a different person... not the one she knew for the past few months, not even a shadow of the one she had seen in the photograph...

She had no idea why she had done it, but she had raised her hand to touch him, more than sure that he would disappear the moment he does...

As he felt her raise her hand to touch his jaw, he felt something come over him, the month long frustration of not seeing her maybe... he felt her fingers on his jaw with his, and captured her hand. Bringing it to his lips, he had kissed it.

He felt her hand going rigid in his hold as she seemed to have come out of whatever haze she was in...

This time, though he didn't give her the chance to walk away from him, like she did the last time...

Instead, he did...

She stayed back in the rain trembling like a leaf, as she had seen that look on his eyes, the same gaze that she had seen in the old picture... And this time, it was for her...

Lovely update .both had come long way ,accepting the feelings for each other .

Sigh. The picture. It had almost similar effect on me then.

He walked away because of his past experience I guess. But I know these two are not the kind who can suppress or ignore their feelings for long.
Looking forward to the next.

Oh my god!

Part 6 - So beautifully written. Both are searching for what happened in their part, here geet in store room and there maan at hoshiyarpur. Geet was jealous to see his loving smile in the photo she found. She guessed the whole story behind the photo being thrown away in store room.

I must say that you have the gift with words... Amazing... The t it le of the story stands out too... Will come back for more

Wonderful updates