Ashlok FF - You've Won My Heart! (Chapter 10 updated on page 138) - Page 99

Within mere few days, Shlok and Astha had distanced so much that it seemed almost impossible for them to revive their old friendship. It was their ego, attitude and ignorance towards each other that continued to increase their misunderstandings. And Shlok's continual attempts to provoke her in his quest to satisfy his ego were not helping the matters. In fact he would often end up hurting Astha unknowingly and unintentionally, adding to her emotional wounds. However this time he did realise that she had been somewhat hurt. But as usual his ego prevented him from doing anything about it.

Shlok sat fidgeting with his phone on the bed, his ears fixated on any hint of sound coming from outside the bedroom. Every now and then he would throw a quick glance towards the door or the clock. It has been almost 3 hours since he had finished talking to Swati...still there was no sign of Astha since she left the room earlier. May be I went overboard this time, he admitted but the next moment his alter ego tried to defend his actions. But what was wrong in what I did? It's not like I have hidden anything from her. She knows the whole truth then why hurt?

He remembered she had always been a little possessive about him, particularly when it involved a girl being too friendly with him. It would always annoy her. But he had no problem keeping distance from girls in school and college since he wasn't interested in being friends with them anyways. Swati was the first girl after Astha who he developed friendship with. I guess I shouldn't have openly flirted with Swati in front of her.

Unable to wait any longer, Shlok got up and headed for the door. The house was very quiet. Silence prevailed inside the house. Everyone had gone to bed, it seemed. He searched the house looking for Astha. Kitchen, hall, garden, guest room, all were deserted. Now Shlok started to worry for her. Where could she have gone? He was wondering about her whereabouts when the thought of terrace made him sprint towards the stairs. Taking two stairs at a time, he reached the top and pushed open the door to the terrace noiselessly, which already stood slightly ajar. And indeed, there she was, standing mere few feet away with her hands on the railing. He had taken a single step towards her when something about her gloomy look made him stop in his tracks. She was staring above at the sky, where the dark wispy clouds eclipsed the crescent moon. Still the faintest glow of the moon managed to find its way to the land through the moving clouds. The cool breeze was swinging her open hair to and fro. Her eyes were fixed on the moon as if she was lost in its imperfect beauty. He carefully studied the part of her face that was visible to him and was instantly taken aback after noticing a lone tear making its way down her cheek. A pang of guilt much stronger than before made his heart squeeze in shame. He was only looking for a reaction from her..to annoy her at the most..but here he ended up hurting her. Her face was reflecting years' old pain. But what or why? He was unaware to it. Sometimes she seemed like a mystery to him, a puzzle he was unable to solve. Her reactions were sometimes beyond his comprehension. He often felt as if she was hiding countless secrets within her soul.

She was still lost miles away unaware of his presence. Surprisingly, he didn't find a heart to face her at this moment. Why was that..he didn't know. The intractable and unyielding Shlok Agnihotri was ready to back down for the first time. He turned around and left just as noiselessly as he came. He came to his room and got ready to go to bed. After he got changed into his night suit, he went to the sofa and lied down. He struggled to go to sleep but all his attempts failed. Nearly 20 minutes had passed when the door finally creaked open very slowly as if the intruder was afraid to disturb its occupant. He instantly closed his eyes pretending to go to sleep. She tip toed inside and went to the washroom to get changed. After few minutes she had switched off the lamp, the main source of light in the room and lied down on the bed. Shlok opened his eyes to find the room engulfed in semi-darkness, due to the faint light making its way in the room from outside. He stared at her from across the room, thinking about just how unstable their relationship had become. Where were they heading to with all these unresolved conflicts between them, frequent arguments, always trying to dominate each other while putting down the other? He remembered their good old days. What great friends they once were but now they had become increasingly estranged and it was all because of this new relationship that they were both compelled to be bound in. But regardless, at least they can try and become friends and for that, he realised, he may have to take the first step. He may not admit to her but he missed the company of his childhood friend.

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Walking barefoot on the dewy grass, she inhaled the fresh smell of early morning air, with a hint of sweet scent of flowers mingled in the atmosphere. The golden sheet of light was spread across the cloudy sky. The sun had barely risen. It shone its warm golden light over the garden, bathing everything in reddish glow. The chirping of the birds was like music to her ears. The soft and sensual wind was causing the flowers to dance merrily.

She was taking pleasure in the feel of wet grass on the sole of her feet. The cool morning breeze and the morning warmth was stimulating her senses. This activity always managed to uplift her mood, no matter how low she must be feeling. It worked like a therapy for her, effectively relieving her of all the stress and tension in her life. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath pushing all the thoughts out of her mind. She wanted to avoid thinking about yesterday's incident. She didn't know why she was hurt so much when she knew about that 'Swati' girl all along but watching him talk and flirt with her reminded her of how friendly they once used to be. It made her feel like as if she took her place in his life, and that is what hurt her most. But now after reaching to a firm decision, her mind was relatively at peace.

While basking in the early morning sun she managed to clear her mind of all the thoughts and lost herself in the surrounding nature. She sat down at one end of the lawn, wrapping her arms around her knees and rubbed her feet on the soft grass. She was rudely interrupted out of her reverie by the water spraying on her face. For a moment she thought it was raining. She looked at the sky while standing up, feeling slightly confused at this abrupt change in weather. The sky, even though was cloudy, was showing no signs of rains. The very next moment she realised that it was actually the garden sprinklers that were showering water on her. The pressure of the shower was quite heavy thus she was quickly getting wet. She ran to the other end of the lawn to find her slippers, picked them up and tried to get out of the range of the sprinklers. By this time she was completely soaked. Her blue coloured shalwar kameez was clinging to her wet form. She wrapped her duppatta over the upper part of her body and made her way inside cautiously trying her best to get to her room without being spotted by anyone. Thank God it was Sunday and everyone was still asleep, or she would have faced embarrassment in front of others.

While hurrying towards her room silently, she suddenly bumped into someone. A gasp left her mouth as her wet form was about to slip on the marble floor but before she could a pair of strong arms wrapped themselves around her petite waist to steady her. With wide eyes she looked at her saviour and realised it was none other than her 'dear' hubby. He was clearly surprised to find her in this condition. His intense gaze hovering over her face and his physical proximity was increasing her heartbeats in spite of herself. Their eyes met for good few seconds. Astha was the first one to break the eye contact, trying to put on the mask of indifference back on her face. Looking anywhere else but at his face, she noticed that she was holding his upper arms tightly in an attempt to save herself from slipping. She glanced at him and saw his eyes fixed at her face. She instantly loosened her hold on his arms and straightened up while stepping out of the circle of his arms. Without throwing another glance at him, she walked away.

Shlok's eyes followed her to their room. He was on his way to the gym when she walked into him in such a peculiar state. But now for some reason all he was feeling was confused, and it had nothing to do with her being wet.

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"Astha are you sure about this?" Gauri asked sounding unsure.

"Yes Gauri! I have made my decision." Astha said with a firm determination. "That's the best for me right now. It will give me the much needed independence I am seeking. Being dependent on him is the last thing I want to do. I want to be able to support myself. Besides, it is the perfect distraction...exactly what I am looking for to escape all the problems in my marriage."

Astha called Gauri to inform her about the decision she took recently. She was the only person with whom she shared all her secrets and problems now. Right now she was standing beside the window talking to her on the phone.

"But what about your in-laws? Are they ok with it? Have you told them about your decision yet?"

"Yes I did talk to aayi and she didn't say much. I know she wouldn't mind. It is only baba that I am concerned about. But aayi assured me that she will talk to him and if needed, she will try to convince him too."

"Cool! It's a good thing that your in-laws are so supportive of you."

"I know. I am lucky to have such nice people as my in-laws. If only..." Astha trailed off.

Gauri caught on so in order to change her best friend's mood, she decided to change the subject. "Hey do you remember our classmate Aditya when we were doing graduation..."

Astha tried to recall. "The one who always cracked jokes?" Astha asked.

"Yes...do u know where he's working?"

And they continued chatting about their old classmates. Unknown to Astha, Shlok was standing at the door listening to her conversation. What was she talking about? What decision she has taken? He wondered.

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However, he didn't have to wait very long to find the answers to his questions. The next morning he had just come out from the washroom after taking a shower wearing track suit pants and a vest when he saw Astha dressed in black trousers and a white long shirt with duppatta wrapped around her neck like a scarf. Standing in front of the dressing table she was busy fixing her hair into a neat pony tail.

"Are you going somewhere?"

"Yes. I have got an interview today" she informed him casually, her attention still focused on her hair.

"Interview?" he confirmed, stunned at her revelation. "I didn't even know you were looking for jobs." Now he understood which decision she was talking about.

"Well at least now you know I was. Just last night I got a call from a company to invite me for an interview." she said while applying a light pink lipstick.

"But you should have at least informed me. And why the need for this decision to work? You didn't work before marriage."

She turned towards him and gave him a piercing look. "Before marriage I didn't feel insecure about my future but now I can't say the same after getting married to you. Before marriage, I could rely on my parents to depend on but here, can I depend on you? I don't think so." she said shaking her head.

Shlok was shocked to know she felt this way. He wanted to defend himself...make her realise how wrong she was to feel this way, but thought it better to let go.

Astha continued, again turning around to observe herself in the mirror. "I have already informed aayi and baba of my decision...those people who have accepted me into this new relationship. Since you haven't I didn't feel the need to inform you."

Now he was starting to feel infuriated. So what if he didn't? But the truth was she was his wife and he had a right to know about all the major decisions of his wife. He stared at her for few seconds, debating against whether he should say something but he was sure it would lead to another verbal argument...something he wanted to avoid right now. He threw the towel on the bed and came to stand beside her in front of the mirror and started to comb his hair. Astha looked at him, surprised at his silence. She was sure he would retort but here he was behaving as if he didn't even hear her. She shook her head to dismiss the thought and walked out of the room.

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Precap: "Shlok, drop Astha to her interview." Anjali instructed Shlok. Meanwhile Astha was feeling helpless thinking that once again he will start protesting but he surprised her. "Sure aayi why not?" he said with a smile and then looking at Astha, he stood aside as if giving way to her and pointed towards the door. "Shall we?"

I would like to thank all my readers for their patience. I am really sorry for making you guys wait for so long. I will try to update the next chapter soon...within a week.

Now waiting for your precious comments 😊