FF: Maan&Geet: 120, Chandini's Rooftop - CLOSED - Page 34

Originally posted by: princess_mimi

my di is a huge fan of NY TIMES but I just started with this one n I am loving it... idea is unique n ur writing is too good... pls add me in ur pm list😍

Originally posted by: chandreyeeroy

iv read ny tyms n truly luvd it...bt dis is diff. n bettr damn interesting bt it seems u hv 4goten dis ff plsss i request u 2 cntinue dis sooon...plsss

Originally posted by: 6thElement

Ah! Thanks Gurl. Who is your di? Its been a long time since anyone has shown up on this thread and I was modifying the story draft for this story yesterday...Its a nice coincidence.

The jeep raced its way through the busy streets of Chandini Chowk while her mind rushed to a different place. It had been ages since she felt this out of control and the irony of it all was that her mind seemed to agree with what her heart was chanting like a prayer. Maan...the one name seemed so wrong on her lips and yet she couldn't contain herself from repeating it, as if the mere repetitive action would somehow make him more attainable.

Everything went over her head, when she tried to make sense of the anxiety she experienced about his leaving that night. It scared her furthermore when she realized - in that searching moment - that what she felt then stemmed from a place, where she didn't care to find out if he was...or could ever...

Somehow not finishing that thought seemed more bearable to her. All her restraining convictions to never attach herself to any one thing or person had crumbled shapeless with his arrival. And now she had to work on forming those barriers again...

She'd long imprisoned her spirit in a place that was far from the reach of the wretched men she was with. As much as the loneliness of her world threatened to strangle her sometimes, she would give anything to be surrounded by the numbness she had once felt there. But that world was gone. She was no longer alone even in that only place that belonged to her. His sojourn of four days had filled it with his essence to last a lifetime, which stole her peace, tormenting her right upto the gates of hell and yet it was the only token he was leaving behind to remind her of his presence in her life.

Dwelling...rather possessed by his thoughts came close to being stuck in quick sand, that she had slowly begun losing the sense of passing reality outside her window. It was consuming her in entirety that she needed a lot more than a jerk to shake herself out of the haze she was in. Sasha's goon who had accompanied her for her blood test had compensated for what the jeep hadn't done to her. He shook her none too gentle by placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Ai...chandini...Come soon. Your tea shop is here" His voice came as a low rumble like gravel pounding against each other and it cleared the rest of the blur she had momentarily struggled with.

She didn't honor him with a response and quickly stepped out of the idling vehicle. Throwing her head back, she took in a deep breath, as if she was looking up to the skies in quick prayer. In reality she only wanted a taste of clean fresh air that could wipe out his scent her lungs was filled with. Without wasting another beat, her feet ran up the three short steps to greet her second...or perhaps third favorite person, right after Pinky.

"Manchandaji..." Her eyes flew to the back of the small tea shop missing the person seated at the same table every time she visited there.

Still holding her dupatta close to her lips, hiding most of what she could of her face, she ran towards the store room in the back, when someone hurriedly got up from the table enroute and blocked her way.

"Chandini...It's me Taposh"

She blinked, growing helplessly annoyed that he chose the exact same day to speak up when she'd less time than usual to get a few necessary calls done. Her mental clarity of the task at hand she had to accomplish gave her the necessary firmness to deny him once...and for all the other times he had remained silent.

"Listen Taposh" She moved back slightly "There is nothing to talk. I have already told my decision to uncle"

"But Chandini...trust me you don't know what I'm offering" He moved forward, just as she took another step backwards.

She wanted to laugh then, but she held back doing so and maintained the same guarded look on her face. How could she explain that he could never offer the one thing she wanted...not when it wasn't his to give away.

Any other day, she would have stood there to indulge him in a taunting conversation at his proposal. Despite what her house guest had broken inside her, her humor was not all lost and she decided to make light of the situation, hoping that would take him off her back sooner.

"Trust me Taposh. I have gotten all sorts of weird proposals in the last few years, that I doubt you can surprise me anymore..." She shook her head as she walked past him and turned back to face him "So whatever that is, you better take time to think twice...and you can tell me next month...How about that?"

Taking the scrunched up dupatta off her face, she flashed her pearly whites at him in a lazy grin.

She had no clue it had been a wrong move on her part; at least the part where she'd given him an almost full view of her angel face. It did little from deterring him from the path he'd set his heart on and her rejection made her seem all the more elusive than she already was.

Her feet toppled one behind another, as she made another attempt to head back to the store room; although before she could reach far, he made a bold move to hold her wrist.

"Chandini...I love you and I want to marry you" His words came nothing short of a child's fantasy and she smiled at that.

"Taposh...Let me go. You are behaving like a five year old kid" She looked churlish, trying to pry his hands off of her.

Her words incited a fury, he couldn't curb any longer. It came across to him as if she was goading him to prove he was nothing like the teenager she thought he was. Twenty two years of all erupting maleness was not a joke to be dismissed when he had patiently waited for a response from her for nine months.

He let her go, just as his conviction to have her by hook or crook hit home stronger.

Strange as it appeared, she was surprised he'd let her go then. It was odd that one moment he'd been stubborn as a five year old and then in the next he'd instantly obeyed her instructions. Lost in making sense of what made him act the way he did then, she gathered her steps to get back to finding her uncle. She swiveled on her feet and shot towards the drapes that covered the back entrance. Pushing aside the floor-length drapes, she charged inside the suffocating space that was the store room.

She hadn't known he'd followed her inside, once she'd left the main shop area and so she gasped when a forceful hand, took her by her waist. Pinning her to the wall, he caged her between the red cracked bricks and his body. Before she could push him away and jolt him out of the madness he was engulfed in, he did the unthinkable.

He kissed her...smack on the lips.

There was little to be alarmed about in what he'd done. This was only bound to happen when she'd pushed his buttons for so long. She reckoned as the initial shock wore off that despite what she did for a living, she somehow still couldn't bear the abuse coming from the man who was proposing marriage to her. She smiled inwardly then...just as unpredictable as his action was. What did she expect when she stood for everything enticing to a man of his age?

It had been a long since she'd done what she was about to do next, when a man forced his way with her. Anticipating the pleasure that would tingle against her fingers, she pushed him away causing him to stumble on his feet. In another flash, before he could steady himself, she drew her arm wide and slapped him hard.

That should do it...she thought. He had to know by now that there was no way in this world she would ever see a man younger than her as her equal, concurring she'd apparently spared the rod with him for a little too long, spoiling him beyond bounds.