FF: New York times Thread 5 Completed 10/03 - Page 9

Their household bustled with the Monday morning momentum that came with the beginning of the week. Her sit-out encounter with Abhi last night had turned into another outdoorsy make out session. With the wind on her face as his hands had raked her skin in the plunging darkness, her body had thrummed from the thrill of possibly getting caught and it had made it seem all the more devilishly desiring. Something about the boldness from feeling each other in the open built up a surging tempo in her blood every time she thought of it. Being in her brother's apartment and openly playing hide and seek with her family had come off as a reviving experience...making their passion come alive with a zeal like no other.

Letting out a sigh of content as her thoughts raced over, with a slow smile lacing her lips, she took a bite out of her coffee cake. Just then Geet came rushing out of her room scurrying for her things, to pack them for her trip back to SF. Naini sat hunched over the countertop and looked up, tidying the crumbs she'd dropped on the NY times newspaper she'd been glancing over.

"Oh! Geet Bhabhi" She said straightening herself on the kitchen stool "Are you missing something?"

Geet ignored her at first; however she decided to indulge her the way she had pictured her bhabi in her head. But before she could respond Maan stormed out of the hallway with a heavy annoyed stomp.

"I swear Geet if you don't avoid this last minute packing you are definitely going to miss your flight someday" She'd never seen her brother bristle before publicly at his wife, at least not since she'd come to stay with them and it was a first.

Geet gave out an exasperated sigh, a half eye-roll and disregarded his presence entirely and went on picking up her laptop by the table, her charger on the floor and swirled around to be ascertained she hadn't missed anything. Daadima joined them and chose to answer for her daughter-in-law. Although, what Naini heard, froze the blood in her veins.

"Maan is right Geet...you should stop signing his name like Meerabai all weekend and start looking into your work too. Perhaps we can avoid this 11th hour rush then" Daadima, in a lazy strut ambled over to the living room couch.

For a moment she thought by some strange stroke of a spell, spooky nevertheless, her words from the previous night were finding its way into her life. She refused to believe she was caught red-handed. But how?

Maan was terrible at hiding his own surprise and coughed, easing into the kitchen, hoping his expression confused his sister for he'd a look that was a cross between being embarrassed and condescending.

Geet came to a sudden stop near the coffee table upon hearing Daadima's words, while she was running around looking for her misplaced printouts and caught her breath. The nautaunki that she was, besides being the next generation of Daadima in the making, instantly caught onto the quip.

"Daadima" Geet took in a mouthful of air and spoke again "May be if Maan so much as snaps his eyes away from his laptop and work to give me some attention...then perchance I wouldn't be begging for it"

"Erhm!" Naini cleared her throat and her features settled into a "What did I just hear?" impression.

It was ironic how she was being the center of their focus while at the same time was being discounted from their conversation.

It was unanimous choice from the woman to have the next move from Maan and he graciously and wittingly obliged them.

"Daadima, you are making it sound like she is co-dependent" He hadn't planned that, but gave a mental pat on his slick move to defend his wife. Geet's smile told him he had already scored his brownie points. He opened the fridge and gulped down the OJ directly from the bottle.

"You should think about quitting those Kitty parties and useless tear-jerking non-thought provoking soaps and impart all your timeless wisdom" He modulated the last part of his remark, like that of Oogway, clearly for purposes of self-amusement "Then I'm certain, she will know how to deal with me" He took another swig from the bottle and struggled to contain the laughter that threatened at his lips.

Naini's head reeled from the surreal quality of the backdrop she was being a part of. Either the world had been taken over by 'matrix' - for the degree of deja-vu sense she picked up from the scene in front of her, translated into a major glitch in the system - or she belong into a mental institution for imagining what she was hearing. To her shock, her sixth sense kicked in, along with her instincts to run, like she was in the middle of a family conspiracy to madden her. Wait! This was a family conspiracy and the mental affirmation, had her palms go clammy in no time.

Despite the nervousness that raked her insides, she had no clue what had her still hold onto the seat at the counter. She must have known there was more to this, because like clockwork she found Meera's steps lining the hallway, every step laden with spiteful fury.

"Daadima...Do me a favor please? Talk to Yash and tell him he has to grow up now" She rolled her eyes and quickly went on "I'm asking him to tell me about the call to the decorators and he is busy watching Awara Paagal Deewana...He swears by this chota chatri scene, that it's the best ever written comedy of Jonny lever"

"Calm down Beta" Daadima walked over to her and fondly smoothed her hair.

"He is making fun of me saying I'm over reacting just like that chota chatri guy" She worked up a mock cry and bent to rest her head on Daadima's shoulder.

Oh! Dear lord...she needed water. Her throat was parched dry and she was going to faint if this went on, even for a moment longer. Why did she have to endure it all alone when her husband was an equal partner in crime? Her fingers crawled to her water glass and she attempted to drain it in one go.

She broke into a bad cough and the liquid in her mouth spurted out. She'd picked up her coffee cup instead of the water glass from the nerves that where knotting inside her.

"Careful beta" Daadima said, tugging Meera by her arm.

"Watch out gurl" Meera trilled alongside.

"Hey pay attention" Maan ruffled her hair as he turned on his heel towards their bedroom.

"Sambhal ke Naini" Geet gave her a mischievous smile, rather than a concerned one, not quite matching the words she'd spoke. And just like that, everyone in the room disappeared like it had all never happened to begin with.

She blinked, her eyes going wider by the minute like it was going to plop out of her head that instant.

She absolutely hated...no detested being the butt of anyone's joke and here she'd been spanked on her rump as if she was a spoiled out-of-control five year old. Exactly the reasons she'd kept their relationship under wraps. Now it was...Oh! well come back to bite her in the behind as expected.

In spite of the taunting that awaited her, she was hopelessly cheerful that she'd had stupendous success in conning the cons of her family. Initially she'd never intended for the act to carry on for more than a few days, but when she'd convinced herself no one were suspecting and that combined with the rouse from the secret nature of their meets had forced herself to take it up to another notch. After having done reveling in the delirious frenzy, she decided it was time to make the call and have her husband get a taste of all that she was unexpectedly served. And so she did just that.