APRIL 6, 2021
EPISODE 3
The indignity of her sodden state and the discovery of Mandhar’s perfidy combined in Pallavi to make her irate and distrustful. Particularly when she realized Raghav was leading her out of the casino complex towards the resort hotel.
“Where are we going?” she demanded.
“Somewhere you can clean up,” he replied.
She stopped in her tracks, threw off his hand, and said, “I’m not going into the hotel.”
He turned to look at her. “I’m not taking you to the hotel,” he clarified. “I have a villa on the lakefront.”
He spoke as though this arrangement could not be offensive to her—but to Pallavi it was more horrifying than the hotel option.
“No,” she stated, her arms wrapped around her waist. “I want to go home.”
He shrugged. “As you wish.” He spoke into his phone: “Send a car to the East Entrance—”
Pallavi interrupted him. “—I don’t need your car. I’ll order a taxi.”
He ignored her and continued speaking on the phone. “At once, Farhad!”
Ending the call he addressed her as though she was a difficult child. “You’re not climbing into a public taxi at this hour. In this state.” To punctuate his message, his eyes made a scathing survey of her from head to toe.
Pallavi said, “You need not worry about me, Mr Rao. I can handle myself. I’ll get myself home.”
And then in an act of dismissal, she swung away from him, pulling out her phone to order the taxi.
Raghav was near enough that the long wet ropes of her hair whipped his face. He turned his face aside and with the back of his hand wiped it.
“Sorry,” she said, making an automatic—and perhaps less-than sincere apology.
His jaw tightened as he leaned over her, glaring into her eyes. “Listen, I don’t give a f**k about you. But because of the scene you just created in there,” his finger pointed towards the casino, “two dozen witnesses saw me leave with you in a dress that leaves no room for imagination. Should you be raped and killed and left in a ditch by the roadside, which door do you think the police will first knock upon tomorrow morning?”
All this—except the expletive—was spoken in Telugu—but she understood him perfectly.
And though she resented his autocratic manner, she was not so foolhardy to deny he had a point. The hour was late—and times were such that no woman should presume safety on the road.
She agreed silently and turned away from him. This time with more care so as to not hair-slap his face. His fury was palpable.
Fortunately, a black sedan soon approached. She knew it belonged to him because of the RR emblem on the bonnet. A young man jumped out from the passenger side.
Pallavi presumed this must be ‘Farhad’.
He took in Pallavi’s state and then exchanged looks with Raghav, as though to ask—‘what the hell?’
Raghav gave a humourless laugh and said by way of explanation, “Madam went for a swim in the lake and now wishes to go home.”
Farhad opened the door to the back seat and enquired politely, “Your destination?”
Pallavi began to give the address for home—but then recollected she was staying at Krishna’s. So instead she provided him with the name of the temple near Krishna’s home. Farhad left her side and went to inform the driver.
Though not inclined to speak another word to Raghav, Pallavi was not ill-mannered—and she knew she owed him an apology. She stepped towards him and said, “I’m sorry for all that chaos inside. Thank you for arranging for the car.”
He made no reply.
She was climbing into the car seat when she realized—his jacket!
“Oh!” she exclaimed, stepped out again and began to remove it rather reluctantly.
Truth be told, she didn’t want to be without it—to be shivering in the back of the vehicle in a dress that leaves no room for imagination.
“Keep it,” he said.
She gave a grateful nod, promising, “I’ll have it returned to you tomorrow.”
He shut the car door once she was back in, then leaned down and said through the open window, “Don’t let me see you at Sagar Lake again. There are plenty of other casinos in the city where you can conduct your business.”
With this harsh dismissal, he straightened, rapped the roof of the car to signal the driver to push off.
In writing this tale, Sisters, I’ve committed to keep nothing from you. You will hear it all—the delight, the despair, the divine, and the diabolical. Therefore, I will not attempt to hide from you that all the way from Sagar Lake to Krishna’s home, our Heroine silently wept.
Edited by JalebiJane - 4 years ago
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