Here's another update. I hope you guys like it. Please suggest ideas for where this story should go next.
"Dev?" said Kasak, softly whispering into the phone as she was in the hospital.
"Haan?" he asked.
"Do you have any meetings lined up for today? I was hoping we could go out tonight," she said. As it turned out though, Dev did have a few important meetings lined up. Nonetheless, Kasak and Dev planned to spend the weekend together at Dev's place.
"But how?" asked Kasak. "Aunty jee and your sisters will be home,"
"No, they won't. They're all going to stay at Mama jee's new house for the weekend," Dev said confidently. "And I make an excuse and say that I have to work on a presentation,"
"Okay," Kasak agreed. "See you then!"
"No, I'll see before that," Dev said. "I'll come pick you up from the hospital today. We can drive to your house together and then share a coffee. It's only Tuesday, yaar. Mein weekend tak wait nahi karna chahata," Dev laughed.
Kasak smiled warmly and agreed. Dev would pick her up at 7.30PM. Though Kasak's duty ended at 6.00PM, she decided to finish up working on some patients' diagnosis during the waiting time. And if there was still any time left, she would catch some of the IPL game for today.
The big clock struck six and Kasak headed towards the cafeteria to finish up her work. She was working on the treatment plan of a patient with a very severe case of Thyroid deficiency. That case itself took much longer to prepare than she had anticipated and she didn't even realize how the time passed. Patah patha jaanta hai, ek tu hi na jaane pyaar mera...Kasak's phone went off, pulling her out of the intellectual zone she was so keenly involved in. Dev's name flashed across the screen.
"Oh, damn!" she thought. "I totally forgot the time," She quickly picked up the call. "Haan, Dev. Kahiye? Kahan pohche?"
"Hi, Kasak. I'm waiting for you outside," said Dev from the other end.
"Okay. Mein bus 2 minutes mein bahar aati huh," Kasak said, gathering her papers which were spread across the entire table. She grabbed her makeup out of her purse while simultaneously putting her phone in the purse and quickly rushed to the bathroom. She decided to touch up her makeup to make sure she looked extra preety since Dev was picking her up.
Kasak didn't quite know what it was, but ever since she and Dev had begun their relationship, she paid much more attention to her looks. Before that, Kasak always made sure that she looked relatively presentable in general, but ever since Dev had confessed his feelings, she felt it was her duty to look her best all the time. It was not necessarily for him, or that he would devalue her for not having make up on. Rather, it was a corollary of the "love waali feeling". Kasak wanted to make sure that she enjoyed this relationship and these new emotions to their full extent and in order to do that, she wanted to live every moment to the fullest and looking good was simply a part of it. This relationship with Dev had splashed new colours into her otherwise dull life; and those colours were brightening up the other colours already present in her life such as those of her friends and her family. Truly for the first time, Kasak felt how it was to live life with rose colored spectacles on.
She observed Dev's car parked in the VIP spot of the hospital and walked towards it. He briskly took off his square framed, black sunglasses as he saw her coming, and gave her a warm smile as she settled in the car. "Hi," he said.
"Kaise hai aap, Dev?" Kasak said, smiling back affectionately.
Dev said he was very tired because it had been a long day at work. Tina had lined up five consecutive meetings and presentations for him. "Areee, toh phir aap kyun aaye mujhe pick up karne? I could've managed na," Kasak said concerned as Dev drove.
"Tumse milke hi toh meri thakaan door ho jaati hai," Dev said turning his head to look at Kasak instead of the road.
"Yeh sab filmy baatein bandh karo, okay?" said Kasak.
"Nahi, nahi. Seriously keah raha huh. Mein tumse milke bohat relax ho jata huh. Waise toh tumhari aur meri life mein hamare respective professions aur kaam ke bager kuch khaas karne ko hai nahi. Toh, aise mein, when I interact with you, I get to experience a different side of Life," explained Dev.
"Haan, who toh hai," said Kasak. "Usually, I'd simply go home, eat and sleep. But, today since I have you, I can spend some good time with you,"
"See?" said Dev, pulling into Kasak's apartment complex. They climbed the stairs in silence as Kasak fumbled through her purse to find the keys. Dev was typing something on his phone during the whole climb.
After they reached Kasak's apartment, she inserted the key into the rusty lock. "Ugh!" she said. "It's jammed, again,"
"I know," said Dev still not looking up from his phone. "There's a traffic jam in Rajpath road again. Tina is stuck there,"
"Kya?" said Kasak. Dev finally looked up from his phone and gave her a "DUH" look.
"Dev, yeh Rajpath road beech mein kahan se aaya?" Kasak questioned, leaving the key hanging in the lock.
"Tumne hi toh bola na, phir se traffic jam ho gaya hai," Dev said in a matter of fact tone.
"Mein Rajpath road ki baat nahi kar rahi thi! Have aa manas ne kaun samjahave? (Who would explain this to this man?)" Kasak said. "My lock, Dev! MY FREAKING LOCK IS JAMMED!"
Dev disapprovingly looked at the hanging key, and then looked back at Kasak. Then, he shook his head in utter disdain. "Kya yaar," he muttered under his breath and gestured Kasak to move aside. With one swift turn of the key, Dev unlocked the door and opened it. Kasak heaved a sigh of relief.
"I hope Virat's batting hasn't started yet," Kasak said grabbing the TV remote.
"I thought ke hum coffee peene waale the?" Dev questioned.
"Haan toh TV dekhte dekhte peeyenge," Kasak said, hurriedly flipping the channels.
"Mein yahan tujhse baat karne aaya huh, time spend karne aaya huh. IPL toh mein ghar pe bhi dekh sakata tha," Dev said annoyed.
"I know!" said Kasak apologetically. "Bus, mein Virat ki batting dekh kar bandh kar doongi," she said.
"NO!" said Dev grabbing the remote from her and turning off the TV.
Kasak didn't want to argue with him. So, she headed to the kitchen to make coffee. "So, how is Aunty jee?" asked Kasak.
"She is fine. Tumhe bohat miss karti hai In fact, who dono tumhe bohat miss karte hai," replied Dev taking off his jacked and settling on a chair in Kasak's dining room.
"Dono?" asked Kasak.
"Haan, Dono," said Dev smiling.
"Matlab Aunty jee aur Nikki?" said Kasak.
"Nahi, matlab Maa aur Mami," said Dev bursting into laughter. "Lekin ab toh mama aur mami bhi apne naye ghar me chale gaye hai, toh Ma bohat akeli ho gayi hai,"
"Oh," said Kasak, bringing the single cup of coffee to the dining table. Then, she went in the kitchen and filled up another cup simply with warm water. She also brought that to the dining table.
"Tum coffee nahi pee rahi ho?" asked Dev.
"Uh-huh...aa tamara mate (This is for you)," said Kasak, dipping a Green Tea bag into the cup with the boiling water.
"What?!" said Dev in an angry tone. Seeing Kasak's stern face, Dev didn't argue any further. He simply picked up the cup of green tea and sipped it. Dev and Kasak then talked about how their respective days had been and some things that were going on around the world. After a few minutes, Kasak saw Dev observing her face closely.
"What?" she said. "What are you staring at, Dev?" asked Kasak.
"Nahi woh...Are you wearing a lot of makeup?" asked Dev. Kasak was surprised that he had noticed.
"Um...woh...mein..." said Kasak.
"It's okay. It looks nice, but I'm just surprised. That's all," said Dev, awkwardly. They continued talking for a little while longer before Dev got up to leave. Kasak observed him gracefully put his blazer back on and escorted him to the door.
"Aavajo, Dev (Bye, Dev)" she said.
"Toh, weekend ma malishu? (So, I'll see you this weekend?)" said Dev in his accented Gujarati.
Kasak laughed and said: "Chokkas! (Sure thing). By the way, your Gujarati is improving," They were both standing at the door, and Dev replied:
"Yeah, Nats... I mean Natasha has been teaching me," At that comment, Kasak turned around and walked back into the house. Dev grabbed her arm from behind, pulled her towards him and immediately wrapped his strong arms around her and embraced her in a tight hug. "Jealous huh?" he whispered into her ear. She tried to break free from the prison of his arms, but he was too strong. She simply couldn't. And the more she tried, the tighter Dev's embrace became. Finally, a minute or so Kasak gave in and hugged him back. Then, Dev released her and said: "Good bye hug toh ho gaya, now I can leave,"
"See you this weekend," said Kasak as Dev departed down the stairs.
Shiv Shakti
