Chapter 5
Varun and Yash followed Geet in their car to her house after they’d ate dinner together. When they arrived, they headed inside and started working on moving the appliances and setting it up. Geet headed upstairs with Nyra giving her a quick shower and changing her into her pyjamas then tucked her daughter into bed.
Geet joined her brothers downstairs making them cups of coffee and handed it to them as they put together dining room table.
It took them a couple of hours but they had finished setting up the ground floor appliances and set the living room with the sofa, coffee table and ottoman. On one side of the living room across the corner, they had set up a desk with a large chair where Geet could work from.
Yash and Varun slumped on to the sofa yawning.
“Why don’t you just spend the night here?” Geet suggested placing bottles of water on the coffee table. “It’s nearly midnight now” she said glancing at the clock.
“We’ve got to be up early for work so we’re going to head home. I need to shower as well” Yash said grabbing a bottle of water and gulping down half the bottle in one go.
After they’d quenched their thirst and cooled down, they’d bid bye to Geet and waited until she locked the door before they left.
Geet checked in Nyra once more before she retired to her bedroom.
The next couple of days, Geet had seen Maan only briefly and that too through the window. Nyra stood by the window waving madly at Maan and Pepper as they went for their walk. She had begged Geet to let her go with them, but Geet reminded her daughter, they were neighbours and not friends. Also, Geet had some work to catch up. Geet was a graphic designer which allowed her to work from home, it definitely helped with her pregnancy. With the last couple of weeks of finalising the divorce and moving, she hadn’t taken on any work from any new clients.
Now that things were slightly on track, she rummaged through her emails and tackled them signing on 5 new clients with deadlines in 3 weeks for each of them. Each design takes her typically 10-20 hours depending on the size of the project but juggling a new home with a toddler and pregnancy stretched her very thinly.
Geet sat at the desk going through the agreement she had with one of her clients and started making the draft sketch of what they wanted. She handed Nyra her colouring book with new crayons to keep her occupied. Geet glanced over her shoulder time to time to check in on her daughter.
“Mama do you wike my papa?” Nyra ran up to her showing her drawing of scratched lines.
“Is that Pepper?” Geet feigned excitement.
Like her grandfather’s habit, Nyra bobbled her head up and nod. “That Papa”
“Pepper” Geet corrected.
“I say dat mama” Nyra responded. “That me” she pointed to a scratched lines of a ball.
“Aww you look beautiful” she gushed cupping her daughter’s cheek and kissing her. “You’re soo cute, I think I want to eat you” she opened her mouth mockingly eating her cheeks. “Nom. Nom. Nom”.
“Mama” Nyra squealed laughing and ran away. Geet stood chasing her daughter slowly as she couldn’t run as actively as her daughter. “Nyra” she laughed as Nyra skipped out to the garden. “Come here. I’m hungry”.
“You can’t eat me, mama” Nyra screamed laughing as she ran from one side to the other.
“I have to…” Geet exclaimed.
Woof. Woof.
Nyra halted and yelled excitedly. “Papa!” she rushed closer to the fence holding the white wooden fence and tiptoeing. “Papa”.
“Nyra” Geet tugged her back and looked around for Maan but couldn’t see him anywhere. “Oh baby, has your daddy left you outside?” she asked Pepper.
He barked in response waggling his tail and tried jumping up.
“Mama, he alone. Papa!” Nyra squealed stretching her arms out trying to reach for him.
“Nyra…” Geet huffed pulling her back. “He isn't your doggy”.
“But Nywa want Papa!” she exclaimed. “Papa” she screamed.
“You rotten son of a bitch! Who’s out there?”
Geet’s eyes widened, and she quickly snatched Nyra close to her trying to hide her daughter behind her seeing the anger etched on the woman’s face.
“Sam, listen to me” Maan followed behind an angry storm.
“Who are you?”
Geet frowned and darted a look at Maan.
“She’s the neighbour” he stepped in front of Sam blocking Geet from her anger.
“Neighbour! Then why is she calling you papa?” she screamed.
Geet pressed her lips together and looked at Nyra who also quietened in shock.
“She’s calling Pepper” Maan informed calmly and looked nonchalant. “Not Papa”.
Pepper barked sticking his tongue out and wagging his tail at his name.
“Shut up, Pepper” Sam screamed.
“Papa!” Nyra cried out hearing him being shouted at.
“See!” Sam yelled smacking his chest.
“You’re scaring the kid for goodness sake” Maan cut her off trying to pull her away inside. “You already scare half the men in the town, now you’re scaring little kids too”.
“Let go of me, you rotten b*stard” she snagged her arm out. “I can’t believe you’ve been hiding a kid!” she smacked his chest and stormed out.
Maan walked out and noticed Geet crouched, cuddling Nyra to her soothing her and raised his brows seeing that Pepper was on the other side of the fence rubbing his face on Nyra’s stomach. “I lifted her over the fence” Geet informed. “You kind of owed me for Nyra crying” she added. “So, who was the screaming devil?” she looked amused.
“A regret” Maan smiled bashfully leaning against the fence watching Nyra interacting with Pepper. “Too drunk to remember but she apparently didn’t forget” he rolled his eyes.
Geet chuckled. “I see”.
“How have you been?” he asked.
“Good, you?”
“Yeah. Busy with work” he nodded. “What about you? Haven’t seen you much. Seen a lot of Nyra standing by the window every time we went for a walk”.
“I was catching up on my own work, between moving and Nyra, I hadn’t had much time to take on new clients” she responded. “I’m a graphic designer” she added with a smile.
“Oh, nice” he nodded. “That’s a good industry to be in. There’s demand for it”.
Geet nodded. “What about you?”
“Construction. My dad runs it, my brother and I work with him in the firm” he replied and tiled his head staring at Geet. “Should you be crouching down in your condition?” he asked.
“I’m not an invalid” she laughed grabbing the fence and hoisted herself up. “My papa says the same thing” she added in amusement.
“Your papa is a wise man like me” he winked.
“Are you saying you’re wise? Really? After that drama” she mocked.
“I’m not responsible for crazy women” he held up his hands in surrender.
“Bhai!”
He whirled around and smiled seeing his young sister walking towards him. “Kiara”.
“Sam called to say you’ve got a kid” Kiara frowned and looked across to the next door garden at Geet and Nyra.
“Sam misunderstood like always. She’s crazy, don’t listen to her” Maan huffed in exasperation. “You didn’t call dad or mumma and tell them that did you?” he asked narrowing his eyes.
“Well… I…” Kiara smiled slowly looking embarrassed.
“Maan!”
“F*ck sakes” he yelled.
“Are you insane?” Geet snapped gesturing to Nyra whose eyes widened.
“Stwanger you say bad word again” she gasped covering her mouth with her tiny hands.
“Baby girl say bye, it’s time to go” Geet said clasping her hand and tugging her away from the family drama that was about to unfold.
“Papa! Nyra yelled. “Mama I wanna palay” she complained.
Pepper looked across to where Maan was and trotted behind Geet following her inside.
“Traitor” Maan muttered seeing his puppy waggling his tail and following excitedly.
“Sam was right wasn’t she? That girl is calling you papa” Kiara stated throwing her hands up in the air. “Dad is going to kill you”.
“You’re dead to me” Gurvinder snapped walking out. “What is this I hear about you having a child?” he yelled.
“I don’t have a child” Maan sighed heavily.
“Don’t lie! I just heard her calling you papa!” Gurvinder poked Maan in the chest with his index finger angrily.
“Ow”
“Where’s my grandchild?”
“You don’t have any!” Maan cut in angrily. “That’s my neighbour. She moved in a couple of days ago” he pointed in the direction of her house. “She’s got a kid. Her kid is… I don’t know, 3 or 4 years old and can’t say Pepper so she calls Pepper, papa!” he sighed deeply and pinched the top of his nose. “Bloody heck! That f*cking sam…” he cursed.
“She’s my friend” Kiara smacked his arm.
“Well choose better friends than that devil” Maan countered. “She made a mountain out of a molehill and twisted everything like Cersei from Game of Thrones”.
Kiara rolled her eyes.
“So, you haven’t been hiding any grandkids?” Gurvinder questioned sceptically.
“No, I haven’t. And I’m not stupid to kill myself by having kids” he responded.
“You’re going to give me grandkids someday” Gurvinder announced as a statement.
“Keep dreaming” he replied walking into the house seeing that Pepper wasn’t going to be coming home anytime home seemingly.
“I am and so is your mother” he followed his son with Kiara. “You better not upset your mother” he warned.
“Are you about done now?” Maan asked pulling open the fridge and grabbed himself a bottle of water. “Sam’s lying and I have no kids. You got your answers and now doors there” he pointed to his front door from where they’d entered.
“I didn’t drive here so I can just shout and go. Get me a tea. A ginger tea” he told his son entering the living room and settling down on the chair and switching on the cricket match.
~ Maan's family ~
Gurvinder aged 55 years old
Shalini aged 55 years
Maan aged 27 years old
Vicky aged 24 years old
Kiara aged 20 years old
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