CHAPTER THREE Scene 1
An insistent pounding woke Arjun
"Open the door! I know you're in there!"
Bad movie dialogue. He looked at his pitiful nineteen-inch TV kept in the corner.Saturday morning cartoons were running. More pounding ? and probably some kicking, too ? shook his door. He moved, then groaned at the pain in his neck ? the actual pain from falling asleep on the rented couch, not the metaphorical pain in the neck from the pounding on his door.
Arohi-"Open this door!"
It had to be the stuck-up old-maid music teacher from next door, Arohi. What's her problem now? He swung his legs down, and the insurance loss ratio stats he'd been reviewing when he'd fallen asleep slithered to the floor.
Arjun bent to pick up the papers at the same time he became aware of music from his bedroom.Bolero. He'd left it playing all night.
Swearing under his breath he wasn't about to give Ms. Prune Face the satisfaction of hearing him he jogged into his bedroom and turned off the CD player, grabbed a pair of gray sweatpants off the clothes hamper and hopped toward the door as he drew them on over his boxers.
Arjun thought What was he going to say to her? He couldn't think of their last meeting without wincing. He'd had no idea she'd overheard him with Natasha as they'd made a pathetic attempt to salvage their long distance relationship before calling it quits.
He'd run into arohi the next morning and had made a neighborly jesture bcoz, frankly, his feelings were a little raw and he'd wanted the distraction. It's not as if he'd meant for her to hear him. And was she discreet about letting him know she'd heard him? Did she make a joke out of it? No, she'd scolded him. Scolded. Him.
So they'd made a deal.
Whenever he planned a little bedroom action, he was supposed to play Bolero to warn her and mask any noise. Embarrassingly, there hadn't been any reason to play Bolero, and so he just stuck in the CD sometimes out of pride.
And last night he'd fallen asleep on the couch. While working. On a Friday night. Pathetic.
"Arjun!"
Major pounding on the door.
Kicking, he thought.
He yanked open the door before she managed to do serious damage to herself.
Arohi gasped and stumbled forward. He reached out to keep her from colliding into his bare chest, but she jerked away with a disgusted expression, as though he'd actually wanted to touch her…to hold her….Arjun stared down at her. She stared back, her eyes wide with…with something, and he didn't think it was disgust.
Maybe he'd been a little hasty to help her avoid body contact.
Edited by norchid - 14 years ago
Itti Si Khushi Sab TV
Bade Achhe Lagte Hain
