SS:Piazza di Spagna - Part 12 Upd Aug 2nd - Page 16

Its funny how you got it both right and wrong...

Part 9 is in the Shower room...😉 Upcoming I mean...

But Maan's POV is already over in the last update. The paragraphs after the divider is all Maan's.

I am sure the only reason God blessed us with 2 different organs to perceive things around us is because... The mind may forget but the heart can still feel.

Manashi and Avi...awesome pics...i was thinking of one more scenario...what if Maan comes to check Geet sleeping ...he looking at her...here is when we can have flashback of the past...

Originally posted by: 6th.Element

Its funny how you got it both right and wrong...

Part 9 is in the Shower room...😉 Upcoming I mean...

But Maan's POV is already over in the last update. The paragraphs after the divider is all Maan's.

Originally posted by: --Ratna--

It is over 😲...i was thinking u will continue it in the shower...was looking forward to learn more about his feelings...thought we will get some idea of the past...no problem will wait for Part 9 😍

Avi ...i dont doubt the feelings...i wanted to know the past thru his thoughts...i am just not good at conveying my thoughts 😕

Originally posted by: --Ratna--

Avi ...i dont doubt the feelings...i wanted to know the past thru his thoughts...i am just not good at conveying my thoughts 😕

Part 8: One down, one to go

He was beaming, swiveling in his high-chair, when Arthur and Thor walked in.

"Well my friend" Thor started even as he was about to sit in the chair on the other side of the desk and Arthur in the couch, "That must have felt like the steam room in there.."

Nodding, and while he kept that smile, he tried to rotate his right shoulder while he held onto his left arm from feeling that motion from the other side of his body, "So, how much do I owe you?"

"Not to me...G owes me and you owe G. The last I remember, your counter was running at 2 laundries, and one weekend rental of your Ferrari. She might just make that two, after your little stunt in the room with Geet"

Maan rolled his eyes, imagining parting with his red hot-rod of a Ferrari for two whole weekends and then frowned remembering the long list of cars Giovanna had totaled for the agency. "Why does she owe you?" Maan asked, getting up from his chair to get a bottle of water from the cooler and walked across the room while he slid the t-shirt back over his head.

Thor shrugged, adding, "Oh! What did you expect? We couldn't have had a better betting session on your countdown to..What was that?" He looked up, scrunching his forehead and shook his head slowly, as if he was processing for pattern recognition from the bits that he did remember.

"Si..." His face lightened with recognition and he began speaking with that deep richness of Maan's voice, "It's about time we be done with it...This physical is..."

Maan spoke over him, sounding frustrated, "All right, all right, I get it."

Though Thor brought up the reference - of his strangling proximity to Geet - in good humor, he couldn't stand to have that scene repeat in his head. Even with all that professional expertise, sometimes his emotions had won over and he'd looked at her wholly, exposed from the storm of the memories that had hit him. At those moments he'd pressed his palm flat to the edge table and her one keen look down would have given away the effort and angst he'd been grounding there. It had been one thing to have her touch him in a long time and another to knowingly keep that reserve that was diminishing by the second, when it might also be the last time she would be within inches of him.

"One hour of the Vatican Archive access for every time you were breaking down like a second-rated spy. That's three for now. She will have to pull some strings with the camaraderie, but that's her problem" Thor ended smugly. Maan smiled content that he'd weird enough friends to survive any lockdown without having to be singled out as the only one in the agency.

"It's a shame she couldn't see through all that practiced calm..." Thor said, "Any more of that hand action, I'm sure you wouldn't have had the chance to forfeit as you did"

"Forfeit?" Arthur looked disturbed.

"Yeah!" Thor responded, "The deal was to sit in until she would be done with him"

"You are turning her memory loss into a game for your private amusement?" Arthur was angry and Maan decided to claim some of that blame. For all the frivolous quality in Thor's choice of words, Maan knew he cared just as much as Giovanna did. If not the same, even more than Giovanna; only, he didn't think Geet deserved to be pulled into the realm of uncertainty they lived in and he saw her amnesia as a blessing. Thor had expressed in few words his opinion, much against his likes when Maan had asked him for it: "I can't see her suffer now, but I can't allow for her to suffer more when you would leave her again with her knowing"

"You of all people should know that I would never play with Geet..." Maan said, sounding a lot grave than he'd been with Thor, "G thinks I should tell her everything and that it's the only way she is going to stop with her searching"

"And you have decided to have a little fun with her before you deliver her the death blow?" Arthur was concerned and that was the first time he'd seen him make a show of it in public. Indeed, this was the tipping point he'd not wanted it to be.

"There is no decision to make Arthur" Maan took a sip from the bottle and sat down on his table, close to Thor's side. "The status quo remains. Let's just say that knowing her past wouldn't make it any easier for her. She is more traditional that you all make her to be...Well, if that weren't the case, she wouldn't have insisted on us getting married at the Church as well besides the one at her Sikh temple, just so that she doesn't piss off Jesus for all the orphanage upbringing I had in me" He stared unseeingly at the ground, at his feet that swayed loose from one side to another, "She would never move on with Dev if she ever comes to know of us..."

He smiled realizing that was also the first time he'd taken his name with respect - if not calling names at him was something to go by, that is.

"That doesn't quite add up..." Arthur sounded calculating, "If you really do want her to be with Dev, then why would you key his car? Or have him hurt...Even that thing about the super..."

Maan was laughing now and so was Thor, "First of all, I wasn't going in place of the super. I had Thor intercept the maintenance calls and have one of our agents go in so that he could also have her house swept for bugs. Keying his BMW..." He waved his hand with a shrug still holding that smile, "that was a cathartic moment..There is no replacing that, Arthur. What's a little trouble in front of all that he will be rewarded with. You know, it's like how knights stood up and fought for their fair maidens in the middle ages...It's just that, Dev doesn't know who he is against..."

"Does that mean you are still fighting him for her?" Arthur retorted and that stunned him, for not having quite foreseen that countermove from Arthur. He saw that Thor had his eyes on him too, the silence blaring as a drone in his ears. Right, he still didn't have an answer. But before he could come up with a good response, Arthur got to his feet and walked over to where he was seated.

"I just want you to do the right thing, Maan" He said, patting his shoulder with a paternal grace and slowness that he rarely conveyed, "She loves you too much for you to betray her this way...After all, she was ready to di..."

"Arthur..." Thor cut in "I think you should check on Giovanna and Geet in the observation room"

Maan had his eyes closed and heard Arthur's receding footsteps leave the room. He didn't need Arthur to finish his sentence to know where he'd been going with that and now the scene came to him in the black of his eyes, corroded and greying from the pain that it caused him to remember it. With time, he'd learnt to overcome the constriction in descent time. The recovery period had gone from hours to minutes and now the impact remained only with him for seconds and yet it still managed to come back with such vividness that he could still taste the metallic tang of blood in his mouth, his feet beaten into a bag of bones, his eyes swollen and his clouding vision that couldn't place her in the frame despite knowing that she was in her room - the same room they had slept through many nights in Tibet - standing with a gun to her head while her raking sobs were relayed to him over a webcam, her eyes freely letting her tears slide, the green of her iris reducing to a grey with the morbid fear of loss - of having to lose each other for all of eternity - when her mind had gone numb from having to decide who she had to let go...

The moment passed and he opened his eyes to see Thor stand up and place his hand on his shoulder, "Are you ok?"

He nodded, his gaze still fixed to the ground where the image continued to clear up and the black of the marble picked up a gloss from the spot lights that hung directly above him.

"Where is mommy?" His voice strained to pick up a non-existent cheer, "I need my physical report from my wife dearest..."

He laughed now, the morose humor clear as he corrected himself, "Or soon to be ex-wife"

"She should be here anytime now..." Hearing Thor struggle with his words, he looked up, "Why don't you go on and have a hot shower. Its lockdown and the odd hour is coming up. You don't want to miss out on that time, given how we don't even have a hot or cold pack for your shoulder"

Maan got off his desk and nodded. Thor had been right about his shoulder needing some attention besides the obvious matter at hand. He had another mission to go on in less than seven days and a bad shoulder was a liability he couldn't afford then.

Grabbing a few towels off his runner, he sped his way to the common shower room that alternated between the men and the women on odd and even hours, with men taking the odd hours. It'd been an inside joke since god knows, how long... but he'd argued that no woman on the team had been even in form when they were all part of the agency for their bodily assets. They were either deadly honey-pots or deranged toughened women who were more bulky than some men on the team.

Nothing lingered in his head for long, when he felt an urgent haste to anticipate Giovanna's next move. The woman was proving to be more deadly than having Geet in the same room as him and it irritated him further that being removed from the situation, she had a far cooler head than his to plan her moves against him. The wager had come off as one opportunity to prove that he was no longer affected by Geet, but he'd called it quits when he could no longer take her nearness and had incited her on purpose so that she would send him away. It had worked then, but the next time Giovanna was going to throw him into the death ring of fire, he doubted there would be any turning back.

He just couldn't tell where or how or in what form he will have to face the vile plans of his partner. For the moment, he could breathe and hoped to have some respite as he stepped on the white tiled floor of the shower room. Surely, he could hide here for the rest of the hour, he thought as he unzipped his jean and reached for the towel he'd just thrown in on the bench.

wonderful update.