I am in love with my EX-WIFE Ch5 pg 14 - Page 8

Even after his attempt to steer clear of the murky territory, he innocently pulled her back in to the center of her heart's dilemma. "By the by, who was that man leaving?"

"Nothing", she dismissed his hand reaching for her apron string. "Just a hazy night's mistake".

She encircled her arm round his elbow, laying her head against his still beating heart. And she noticed how it raced in thuds when her skull landed on his chest but that was not important today. Her only release was the calming rhythm ringing through his veins when she was near. "Juna", she mumbled into the wool of his sweater.

With the rising sunlight hitting them at a perfect angle, his doe eyes looked nothing short of a perfectly formed pair of crystals. He looked to her with a curious thought, blinking as the canvass in his head etched out her portrait a million different ways.

"Omn?"

"It's time to move on", she let out a chuckle that fell just short of self-loathing. Locking her tiny fingers inside his long ones, she patted their knotted hands until she knew what to say.

"Remember the pastry shop in Calcutta?"

"Omn". Too stunted to form full sentences, he nodded in an affirmative.

"If you are still up for the challenge, I would like to purchase the bakery with you". She let go of his hand and gave his space to make an informed decision. He didn't have to respond in the moment. She gave him time think things through.

Juna had been her rock through changing storms and waging storm of fickle men entering and exiting her life at their convenience. He'd held on to her dream and her life's investment when no one else would. All he ever wanted was a move to Kolkata. "I still want to be a baker", he said. "But grant me this, recreate our magic in the ghost city. What say you?" He had asked two years ago with a smile on his face and she took it in jest. A man who never takes life seriously surely doesn't want to move across the country all for a dream, she thought. But as she learned the sincerity in his heart, she apologized. She offered to buy him out of the cafe. But he wouldn't have it. He wouldn't leave without his "partner in life" as called his small business co-owner. She regretted not making this choice for him. Even if it wasn't her dream, it was his. And not like she had another dream, it was Calcutta or Mumbai. Juna or Rishabh. One man or the other.

Two years and one failed marriage later, following a boy to the city of his dreams sounded as horrible as it did the first time she did it. But she had convinced herself, with Jun it would be different. With Jun, life was simple. Jun was everything Rish wasn't and did nothing Rishabh shouldn't. She'd given him the option to move away if his feelings for her ever got overbearing but he stuck around. Their friendship was more important than some stuck romantic ending weaved in his head, he told her.

And even as he packed up his life and flew down to the almost ancient town, a glistening doubt kept knocking in a corner of his heart. What if? What if he came again? That man by her door from two years ago...that man who discarded her after he got the use out of her...that man who left her hanging on to door knobs to catch her breath. What if he came again and took her away? His train of thought jumped from friendly concern to pure jealousy to disgusted, imposing opinions. But with one look at her composed features, he regained the strength to temper his emotions. He had to imitate her, put on a brave face, and wait until the winds slowed down. A new city meant new hopes and dreams and a new life with a woman who would love him back. He pushed aside the thoughts of his lost crush and looked forward to settling in the bustling suburbia awaiting them.

"We are here!" she state the obvious as he followed with luggage behind her. She offered him a hand with bulk and settled her frame against the high rise bar stools stacked in a corner.

As the corners of her lips went limp from looming sadness, he ruffled her hair with in fingers and cooed, "Cheer up love, we'll find you a bong boy soon".

"To hell you won't!" barked a stunned Rishabh stuffing bittersweet chocolate squares in his mouth. With cocoa spit sparkling the air around him, the tall standing man brought back a bittersweet film Madhu had been trying hard to forget.