Chapter 11: Dinner at Khuranas – part 2
It was incredible really how seriously Nirosha took the game. Gauri watched in wonder as she quickly drew a table and calculated the scores of each player.
|
|
Maan-Geet |
Dev-Tara |
Viraan-Nayana |
Mr. & Mrs. Kapoor |
Shiv-Gauri |
|
1. |
1/1 |
1/1 |
1/1 |
1/1 |
1/1 |
|
2. |
1/1 |
1/1 |
0/0 |
1/1 |
1/1 |
|
3. |
0/0 |
0/0 |
0/0 |
0/0 |
1/1 |
|
4. |
0/1 |
1/1 |
0/0 |
1/1 |
1/1 |
|
5. |
1/1 |
1/1 |
1/1 |
1/1 |
1/1 |
|
6. |
1/1 |
1/1 |
1/1 |
1/1 |
1/1 |
|
7. |
0/1 |
0/1 |
0/1 |
0/1 |
1/0 |
|
8. |
0/0 |
1/1 |
0/0 |
0/0 |
1/1 |
|
9. |
0/0 |
0/0 |
0/0 |
1/1 |
0/0 |
|
10. |
1/1 |
1/1 |
1/1 |
1/1 |
0/0 |
|
Total |
5/7 |
7/8 |
4/5 |
7/8 |
8/7 |
"Vicky, man, I don't know how I am going to give my sister to you. This score is atrocious!" Nirosha said now looking at what she had calculated. "Good thing Nayana only knows you marginally better than you know her!" she added.
"I don't know, Ni. All I am seeing are possibilities... Clearly I don't know your twin well enough and need to spend more time with her. Don't you agree?" Vicky replied in his classic Vicky way.
Nirosha looked back at him and smiled to say, "It's a good thing she is the one who got you. You would walk all over other women with that sweet mouth of yours!"
"Maan bhaiyya. I have to say, this is absolutely shameful! I thought you knew everything there is to know about Geet!" Nirosha said now, choosing her next target.
Only Nirosha could get away with saying things like that to Maan – except his wife of course - because he now smiled to say, "I am going to have my wife write her autobiography for me, in case you have ideas for such games in the future, Nirosha. I am getting a little tired of losing, you know."
"Knowing Maan, he would probably insist of dictating and correcting my own autobiography!" Geet replied with a laugh now, but then she looked over at her husband and said more quietly, "You know everything that matters..."
Gauri had to say, she had never seen Maan smile like he did in that moment…
"Awww…" Nirosha said then and Gauri sort of agreed with the corny sentiments. Nirosha then turned to the rest of them to say, "Well, Dev bhaiyya, Mr. Kapoor, and Gauri, these scores are pretty impressive, but you are still one point short of your spouses…. So, the winners of this most awesome game adapted for your pleasure by yours truly are… Di, Mrs. Kapoor, and the wild card of the night…. Shiv!"
Gauri looked at Shiv to see that he was totally not pleased with his win. Especially because Tara now said, "For two people who claim to have an extreme dislike for each other, you guys know and remember an awful lot about each other."
Shiv looked at Gauri when he replied, "Well, you know what they say... Keep your friends close and your enemies closer…"
"Well, it looks like your wish came true. You're going to get to keep her close to you from now on… real close…" Dev said with a smirk and Shiv shot him a withering look.
They stayed late into the night and Gauri was pleasantly surprised that she had actually had a good time. She felt a bit strange sitting next to Shiv on the ride back in the car though and scooted closer to his mother. She couldn't help but think about the game and his answers kept replaying in her mind over and over. Especially the way that he had looked at her when Dadi had read that her best memory of him was when he had saved her from drowning…
She thought back to that day now…
She had just found out earlier that afternoon that Aradhna, her best friend, had developed a crush on Shiv. She had wanted to pull her hair out when Aradhna had told her. What was wrong with all her friends?? Aradhna had been the only one who had held strong up until then; all her other friends had fallen completely under Shiv's spell a while back, not that he was even aware of their existence. He was two years ahead of them and only dated girls his age, not that it kept her friends from making complete fools of themselves whenever they were within six miles of his shadow! She had been fuming and had wanted to cool down with a swim and her mom had taken her to Shiv's house where his mother, Smitha aunty, had apparently been trying out some new recipe of sweets. Gauri had always been a willing guinea pig in Smitha aunty's baking experiments. While the mothers chatted in the kitchen, she had gone for a swim, after being assured that Shiv was not home. She had definitely not wanted to run into him that day. So, imagine her rude surprise when he almost cracked her skull open underwater, jumping into the pool. She knew later on that she had lost consciousness, but when she came to, spitting up water all over him, all she had been able to remember was the feel of his lips on hers. It had made her feel strange in her belly and then she had looked over at him to see him looking so… concerned?… she had never seen that emotion in him directed at her, and she had started kicking him before she could even properly process what it was that showed on his face. He had caught her kicking leg… but then she had seen his surprise at realizing what he was holding and she had watched his gaze gradually move down the leg that he had caught… and it had jarred her because the strange feeling in her belly came back again. She had suddenly become conscious of how much her swimsuit revealed, even though it was a relatively modest-looking one-piece. So she had pulled her leg back and had started kicking him once again so he would stop looking at her like that and making her feel so strange… That had snapped him out of it well and good, because he had suddenly looked at her like the Shiv that she knew and had pushed her back into the pool before straightening up… And then it had been her turn to stare…
She had seen him in his swimming trunks a million times before… but that had been when they were both younger… much younger… She couldn't take her eyes away from how different his body looked now. When had he developed abs? The kind that was separated into lean, long packs? When had his biceps gotten so… defined? She saw the cut of the muscles of his torso by his hips and gulped. And then he had grabbed his towel and had turned around to walk away and she had discovered that his back muscles were another group of miracles entirely… She caught herself in her staring quickly and fell back into the water, convinced that he really had caused permanent damage to her brain when he had smacked into her underwater. She had tried to never think of that day again, tried to being the key word… because evidently, she had thought of it again…. Otherwise, how would she remember it so clearly now?
When they arrived home, she found reasons to linger downstairs in the living room and the kitchen with Shiv's mom, but before long Smitha aunty was wishing her good night and going upstairs. She walked around the kitchen aimlessly for a bit and then decided that she was really hungry for an apple. She stood over the sink as she bit into the fruit, making sure her sari was wrapped around her and tucked into her waist so that it wouldn't be the unwitting bib to collect any juice from the supremely ripe apple. Eating an apple could apparently be a highly meditative exercise, because so lost was she in her apple-eating, that she didn't hear him come up behind her in the kitchen until he caught her around the waist and turned her to face him in his arms in what she was coming to realize was his classic sneak attack move. She managed to not spit out the apple piece that she had just bit into, but as caught by surprise as she was, there was a drop of the juice of the fruit that lingered briefly on her lower lip before rolling down her chin. Great! She really did need a bib! But he caught it before it dropped onto her sari… with his lips…
The well-munched apple that she had been holding in her hand dropped into the sink…
It only lasted a moment, but when he looked up at her afterwards, she saw that he was surprised at what he did… then the Shiv that she knew was back and he said, "That's for all the insults you hurled at me today at dinner. I don't care what you threaten me with Gauri, but know this… every time you do something like that, I am going to consider it as an invitation that you want me to touch you! So, don't push your luck!"
She pushed him away from her and said, "I hope to God that you are going out again tonight, Shiv. Because, I am not sure that I will be able to resist at least trying out one of the murderous fantasies that I have been harboring against you for ages. Ages!"
He snorted at that declaration, but she saw that he already had his car keys with him as he left the kitchen. She heard the door slam behind him a short while later, indicating that he had left the house as well. She breathed a sigh of relief and finally went upstairs.
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