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It was a silent Monday evening after the hustle bustle of the weekend when Raya and Raunaq moved to their new house. Now that I was alone in my apartment after more than two weeks, the silence felt a little eerie so I brought some work from office when I came back.
It hadn't been an hour since my return from the office when the doorbell rang. Not expecting anyone tonight, I got a very pleasant surprise to open the door to Mrs. Khurana's smiling face.
"Aunty!" I embraced her with a squeal.
She hugged me with all her love before I brought her inside. She signalled a uniformed person, who I thought was her driver, to put the decorated basket he was carrying on the coffee table.
"I brought this for you." She told me when the driver left.
I looked at the basket. It appeared to be an assortment of sweets.
"There wasn't any need for this, Aunty!"
"How was there no need! I have come to my daughter's house for the first time, I had to bring something sweet." She smiled fondly and caressed my face. I was humbled by her words and hugged her once again. It is nature's strange play that we find profound relations in places we can never expect from. I found a mother in Mrs. Khurana, a brother in Ayush and a sister in Anaya. I was very lucky indeed.
"Now, now!" She patted my back. She knew I was getting emotional so she distracted me by talking about random things. I was ecstatic to know she planned to stay till dinner.
"You've set your house very nicely, Geet." She complimented once I had fulfilled her request of showing me my abode. "I especially love the colours in your room."
We sat in the living room for over an hour, one thread of conversation leading to another, when I realised I hadn't yet offered Aunty anything.
"Should I make tea for you, Aunty? Or coffee? Maybe I should serve dinner now. Should I set the table? I think I should." I kept the string of my questions as well as answered them myself without giving her a chance to speak.
"Relax, darling!" She laughed. "I am not here to make you run here and there to serve me with delicacies! Come, I'll make tea for you today."
She got up from the couch and pulled me with her as I kept protesting and telling her to sit while I made tea. She wouldn't listen so I gave up and helped her.
The tea she made was the most delicious I had tasted in some time and I relished it till the last drop in my cup. It was only after I looked up that I saw Aunty's eyes on me, with a suppressed smile.
"Liked it?" I smiled sheepishly and nodded eagerly.
"Loved it! I don't know when I drank such tasty tea the last time."
Her eyes drifted somewhere far away as she recalled how her husband loved the tea she made. I could feel her longing for the times gone by when she pulled herself together and we reminisced the different times when we had been together seven years back.
It was close to the time of dinner when her phone rang. I walked to the kitchen to give her some sense of privacy as she talked. All I could make out from her words was that it was Maan on the phone and he had apparently called for the driver who had driven Aunty here.
"Maan's car broke down on his way home." Aunty informed me when I came back to her after she hung up. "I told him to give his car to the driver and come to pick me up himself."
My heart gave a violent beat but I kept a straight face and scolded myself as I nodded understandingly at her.
As I set the table and then we both sat down for dinner, she talked about her sons and how they had both taken their father's business to new heights. She was a proud mother and I felt happy for her. Somewhere deep in my heart, I was glad for Maan too. I knew he was ambitious about his father's business and it felt good to know he had been successful.
Not long after dinner, when I brought green tea for both of us, the doorbell rang. I took a deep breath before pulling the door open. Act normal, I commanded myself. It was him. For a fleeting moment, I could only stare at the brown eyes but I quickly blinked and smiled naturally.
"Hi!" He smiled too. "Mom's in?" He pointed inside the apartment.
"Yes." I moved aside. "Come on in."
He stepped inside and I shut the door, took a deep breath and followed him in. It was time to put what I had taught myself in the previous days, into practice.
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