60. Ms.Singhvi & A Kiss
“Well now that you have decided to bring this to KM yourself, why can’t you tell it to me on my face?”, came the deep & furious yet sarcastic reply from behind.
She sprang up to her feet in terror and turned back to meet the furious pair of eyes that belonged to The MSK himself! At that moment she regretted it all! How stupid was she to come and talk about this here? She could have just told Mrs.Singhvi that she was not comfortable. After all, who cares about her reaction to it? But this????? This… she knew that she has to face it now!
Maan stood there with his hands crossed across his chest. His posture was stiff like iron, showing his unpleasant mood and his eyes were burning holes through her without a single blink!
She has never seen him so angry towards her!
Geet wished for the earth to open up and swallow her at that moment.
Maan was super angry on her for considering an alliance for him! But he could also see something else peeping out… it felt like she herself was torn.. As if she was not happy about it either.
He walked across the study and sat on his chair.
“Sit…”, he spoke out sternly making her immediately sit on the sofa behind her.
“Geeeeeet….. come here and sit”, he himself was surprised to see her so flustered and jittery.
Now, he knew very well that Geet was not a woman who fears anyone! It was her confused heart that was dealing with her after getting caught by him in her little act of selflessness aka stupidity in this particular matter!
Thinking this, he was almost about to chuckle but his anger and hurt warned him not to! This crazy, lovable, adorable, wonderful…… No..No…Nooooo…
This crazy girl has crossed the limit! Now he has to give her a reality check!
He made up his mind seeing her fidgeting with her fingers, all lost.
“Tell me…”
She looked at him and kept mum as if processing.
“Tell….it… to…. me… on…. my….face…., Geet”, he spoke slowly as if daring her to speak and that sparked her up!
“Maan… It was just a request from Mrs.Singhvi to know if you’re interested in marriage and her daughter..”
“I am very interested in Marriage, Geet.. Very very interested!”, he looked at her pointedly making her cheeks burn red involuntarily in a mix of anger and something akin to shyness.
“Then why don’t you just see Aarti? She is beautiful, talented and kind.. No harm in just meeting her, is there?!”, she looked at him as if challenging.
Maan was so pissed off right now! This woman was testing his Love - left, right & center! So, now he decided to test her patience…
They kept staring down at each other for god knows how long and then suddenly he replied, “Cool! I’ll meet Aarti!”
There was pin drop silence and all the color from Geet’s face was now gone! She sat like a statue.
“Geeeet..”, Maan had no heart to disturb her reverie that screamed her love but he had to!
“Huhhh??? What did you say?”, she came out of her shock.
“I said… Saturday we are planning to go to the Pub to celebrate Dev’s birthday, right? Invite Aarti there.. I’ll meet her!”
“Are you sure?”
“I am!”
“Okayyyy…..”, she drawled as she kept looking at him
“OKAY????”, he asked arching his eyebrow
“Okay…”, she voiced out meekly and got up to leave.
“Geet.. ruko…”
“Huhhh? You want to say something?”, she asked expectantly
“Yes!.. It’s dinner time already.. I’ll also come..”, he said as he got up.
“Oh… okay…”, she almost pouted as she went ahead and opened the door to wait for him.
Maan wanted to really laugh out now. He just shook his head as they both reached the dinning area where everyone was reaching too. Just as everyone were sitting down, Dadima looked at Maan and raised her brow for which he just rolled his eyes!
“Okay guys.. I have something to say”, Maan started gaining everyone’s attention.
“Geet here… has brought an alliance for ME!”, he said in an almost sarcastic voice making everyone gap at him and her in shock, as if they both were aliens!
Dadima had already filled in Dadaji with the information, so both of them remained calm.
“Aarti Singhvi, an artist, beautiful, young and kindddd - in Geet’s words..”, Now Meera turned towards Geet, looking at her as if she was ready to kill her, which Geet conveniently avoided by turning away from her, only to come face-to-face with Vicky who gave her a disappointed look himself.
“What have you thought of it, Maan?”, Dadaji asked calmly
“I have decided to meet her..”, there were some inaudible gasps of confusion as he continued, “In Dev’s Birthday party that we have planned on this weekend at the pub..”
Now Dadima sensed it was a very dangerous game that her kids were playing and it was better not to discuss more about it on the table!
“Okay bete.. as you wish! Now let’s have dinner..”
The dinner was a quiet fiasco were Geet was just playing with food and Maan had to stare her down to make her eat and prove that she was not affected.
The next morning, Maan clarified to everyone at KM to behave casually when Aarti comes and requested all to give them some time. He also made it clear that he was not doing anything without thinking. So eventually, Dadima just warned him to not let it get too complicated and left it at that.
The rest of the week went uneventfully for all. While Geet was secretly dreading the weekend, Gayathri Singhvi was over the moon! She couldn’t believe that the MSK was ready to meet her daughter!
She had not been very sure when she started this but now she felt that this was a sign and it was meant to happen! Aarti Singhvi was on a trip and as soon as she reached on Friday, she was informed that she was invited by MSK for his brother’s party.
She was kind of shocked to know that her mother took her alliance to the Khuranas and they are actually considering it. She was unprepared and blank but decided to attend the party first.
It was Saturday,
Since it was Dev’s final birthday as a bachelor, all his friends, his siblings friends, Meera’s friends were all invited and a part of Mumbai’s most posh and huge clubs was booked.
So this eventually brought in everyone including Farhan-Aisha, Yash, Pari-Varun, Adi-Pinky, even Vicky’s few newly made friends at college!
Vicky was now in his prime years of adulthood and the brothers decided to take him to his first club experience themselves. Their idea was to be open about everything, so that he doesn’t hide anything from them, tries out everything and learns to limit and have controlled fun in life! Because they very well understood that they can’t keep him shielded from the world.
Geet got ready in her plum off-shoulder, knee-length dress and was mindlessly applying her plum lipstick, lost somewhere.
Her phone shrieked, bringing her back to reality.
“Hello…”
“Am waiting by your block.. are you ready?”
“Maan.. You didn’t have to come.. I would have come by myself..”
“True.. but am actually excited and nervous.. So, just wanted to know more about Aarti before reaching the club.. That’s why..”, he stated with a tinge of sarcasm and there was complete silence.
“Hmm.. Am coming..”, she cut the call, sighed and made her mind up before storming out.
Maan was confused with her silence but in next few minutes a ballistic missile stormed out of the building, erasing all his doubts. Geet had her face neutral as if she was unaffected but the way she stomped towards his car in irritation was more than enough for him to crack! He somehow controlled as she got in and greeted him with a forced smile.
“So??? What do you wanna know?”, she asked as he drove.
“Mmmmm… anything.. So that it’s easy for me to start a conversation with her.”
“Oh!!! Now the great MSK is unsure of how to start a conversation? With me toh you have never had an issue till now, right?”
He cleared his throat and measured his words before speaking out. Then a fleeting thought passed his mind.. Mrs.Geet was gonna be dangerous and he has to start training himself, he concluded.
And while he was lost, she quickly harnessed her emotions, “Mmmm.. actually she is an emerging artist who loves to travel too. So… you can start on the places she has visited and share your experience..”, she suggested on a serious note making Maan more agitated.
“Hmm.. that’s a nice idea..”, he gritted down.
There was silence after that which neither wanted to break.
Soon they reached the club and met up with everyone. Vicky joined with his friends and introduced them to the others. While the boys couldn’t get extra comfortable with the men, Geet and Meera were perfectly playing the ‘Good Cops’ to get into the youngsters group, so as to ensure that they get to know if these people were upto any mischief in general.
They all started having fun and soon drinks were ordered with DJ playing the best for the night.
Geet’s phone vibrated reminding her of Aarti. She directed her to come in and looked up to see her entering in.
“Phew.. phewwwwwww…”, she heard someone whistle in admiration and turned to see Varun standing beside her.
“Your friend? She looks hawwttt…”, he exclaimed seeing Aarti.
“Mmmhmmmm”, Geet cleared her throat and replied, “She is Aarti Singhvi and has come here to meet Maan..”
Immediately Varun got the context and rolled his eyes at her.
“G…. You are… You are… soooooo stup..”
“VARUN…”, Maan cut in making him to roll his eyes again.
“Pari was looking for you..”, Maan showed his eyes to shoo him off and it did work.
Maan looked on to see a girl in her prime 20’s walk in wearing a knee length, white sequence dress with 3/4 sleeves. She looked beautiful, elegant and poised.
As she moved closer, she waved at Geet and came closer to give her a hug. She then noticed Maan staring at them from far and blushed slightly, making him to avert his gaze.
Geet looked back and forth for a moment before heading towards the group and introducing her to everyone around. Though everyone knew why she was invited, they all behaved ignorant and casual as they didn’t want to make this whole thing awkward for anyone.
And anyways Aarti was sweet and merged in effortlessly! She finally met with Maan and they both shook hands. Maan being a gentleman, turned towards the bartender to order a drink for her and she moved closer to him to look into the menu.
Everyone else got distracted, giving them privacy to talk, bond or whatever! Geet couldn’t stop herself from staring at them. She kept trying to avert her gaze.
“Yaaarrrr… where is this Yash? He is not even picking up my call!”, Pari wondered.
“Huhhh… He will be here.. Don’t worry. He has been very stressed since last month’s project in Tokyo. Post production and upcoming events are taking a toll on him. I have decided to talk to him this week and take over some work off his plate…”
“Hmmm… That’s a good idea. I will also join the meeting and let’s share the work.”
“Cool..”
Just as they were talking, a visibly spirited away Yash walked in. He greeted everyone and all had a great time.
As the night progressed, they all danced away and finally had a proper dinner. Some of the friends slowly started dispersing but the Khuranas and the gang were in no mood.
Geet was dancing with everyone to distract herself when suddenly someone tapped her shoulder from behind. She turned around to see Aarti smiling at her, making her to come off the dance floor to a corner immediately.
“So.. did you have a good time?”, Geet asked with a smile.
Instead of replying, Aarti just engulfed her in a friendly hug.
“Thank you, Geet.. For inviting me and for everything!”
Geet looked on cluelessly to understand if she was hinting her liking towards Maan or something but couldn’t find her answers there. Her eye immediately roamed around the place to spot Maan but he was nowhere either.
“He is waiting outside to send me off.. Why don’t you join me?”
Geet’s eyes misted with a mixture of content for doing the right thing and pain of loss that she pretty much denied to accept. She had this feeling that probably everything went well between Maan and Aarti.
They walked out to see Maan standing near her car. He hugged Aarti goodbye and by the time they returned back inside, the whole gang wanted to head to marine drive to enjoy.
So they all headed to Marine drive, sat down enjoying the cold winds from the Arabian ocean as they clicked pics, made funny videos and totally behaved like teenagers while Maan was the one who made all the videos and finally gave up on them. He walked ahead and bought a chai from the tapriwala and sat on top of the platform overlooking the sea.
A minute or 2 later, Geet sat besides him with a chai in her hand. He could hear all other voices far away but they both remained silent.
After what seemed like an eternity, he asked, “Don’t you want to know what happened?”
She just turned and looked at him with a slight smile.
“She is genuinely a nice girl.”, he paused before turning to look at her.
“Not a bad choice Geet!”, he told this and kept looking at her but Geet only kept smiling.
“Let’s see how it goes..”, he said as if he wanted to give it a try.
“That’s nice, Maan! I am really happy that you are considering this..”
“I know… I know that you are truly happy.”, he stressed
Soon they all started back to their respective homes. Yash had passed out and was delirious by the end, so Farhan promised to take him home.
Maan dropped Geet at her place and walked her till her doorstep.
It was 3.30AM in the morning and the city was resting peacefully in deep slumber.
She opened the door, turned around and thanked him before walking in, only to be held back.
“So??”
“So???”
“You are back in your den… at least now will you let out your feelings?”
She tried acting clueless but her eyes turned slightly glassy.. so very slightly that ONLY he could find out!
Seeing her hold back like this broke his patience. He dragged her in softly yet firmly to the living room.
“Whyy? Whhhyyy Geet?”, he whispered desperately pushing his hair back as his eyes clouded effortlessly, making her eyes cloud too.
“How can you hold back like this? Please teach me too because I can’t be like you.. If I were you, I would not have been able to bear my love meeting her prospective match, especially when I know that she loves me beyond anything in the whole damn world!”
As she struggled to speak with tears streaming down her face, he continued.
“And please don’t tell me that you don’t have any feelings for me. I am NO FOOL. I know my Geet!”
The overwhelming emotions staggered both. There was silence!
“Do you trust me?”, he asked out of nowhere.
She kept looking at him as he held her waist and yanked her close.
“Do. You. Trust. Me. Geet?”, he asked again firmly and her hands went around his nape holding him tenderly, making him have goosebumps in anticipation.
Their breaths became shallow as the thick silence blanketed them. He very slightly lowered his head down towards her. And what happened next blew him away!
She moved towards him too, looking up to place her forehead to his, letting out a defeated sigh as if surrendering to her heart’s desire.
It was too intimate for both as their breaths caressed each other’s face, yet there was peace finally. They stayed like that for God knows how long as their hands tightened their holds on each other.
The whole world went blank around them as they built forbidden dreams behind their closed eyes.
He was sooo aware of her that he felt his sense blast as he felt her nod her head against his forehead.
Maan immediately opened his eyes to see her.
“I trust you, Maan… More than anything.. anyone..”, She whispered.
He held her cheek and made her look at him. A moment later, their lips fused into their first kiss..
It was neither just him nor just her.. If you ask, it was both of them surrendering to each other at that moment.
Precap: Aftermath
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