Chapter 89: Sangeet – Part 2
She made her way out
of the crowd and into the parking lot, but couldn't find him there even though
she could see that his car was already parked.
She was a bit disappointed as she made her way back in. It would be hell to find him with all the
people inside; besides, she didn't want to make it obvious that she was looking
for him and she didn't want to call him and make it seem like she had been
counting the minutes until he came.
And so she made her
steps purposely unhurried as she made her way back in. She wandered through the crowd taking her
time, but when he still hadn't found her fifteen minutes later, she was peeved. What was the stupid point of wearing such a
sexy sari that was getting looks from most of the men around her if the one
that you wanted to notice seemed to not even be in the vicinity, or even terribly
interested in finding you!
There was a waiter
already walking around with cocktails and on impulse, she grabbed one. It was still early and she was not even a
social drinker. Errant boyfriends – turning sweet and sexy girlfriends into alcoholics one
at a time! She mentally gave up a
toast before taking a sip… and then several more…
Some guy that she
had never seen before tried to introduce himself to her. She didn't want to be rude, so she stayed and
made pleasantries for five minutes before deciding that sufficient time had
passed for her to make her un-rude escape.
Just as she turned around, she ran smack into his chest. Her heart dropped
to her stomach just like that. It was incredible really, how he affected her
like this even after three-something years.
"Careful…" he said in that voice of his that always
managed to send shivers down her spine as he steadied her by the elbows.
"Um…" she started before looking up at him and then
lost her train of thought…
She really shouldn't
have worn this sari. Now she felt naked… and everywhere her skin was showing,
she knew there were goosebumps cropping up to give her away…
"Uh…" she started again…
before realizing that, unbeknownst to her, her power of speech had been
replaced by monosyllabic stuttering.
When fight was in jeopardy, flight was really the only safe
option. She was getting really good at
generating such catchy pearls-of-wisdom in her head… she gave herself a mental
pat-on-the-back while murmuring a quick 'excuse me' and making a speedy
getaway.
She remembered then how
she had run from him another time too… another time when his proximity and his
whispers during a power-outage had made her forget herself for a moment… and how
he had caught her quick intake of breath and watched her eyes close in pleasure…
and how he had followed her to an empty hallway to give her her first kiss…
With a certain deja
vu, she rushed out into the hallway now and snuck into the first room that she
found; a makeshift office with its walls lined with books, it turned out. It was blessedly empty, which was nothing
short of a miracle given that every square inch of the house was currently over
maximum capacity. She walked over to the
window to open it a bit and stood there staring out.
Another ten minutes
passed in silence without anyone coming knocking… By then, she was feeling irritated beyond
measure. To add to it, a mosquito flew in
just then and landed on her bare shoulder. She slapped it so hard that she was sure that
she bruised herself. The mosquito
evidently had no plans to be bruised much less flattened out of the mortal coil
so easily just because a silly chit was cross with her tardy boyfriend, because
it flew off with not a sting, itch, or scratch.
The girl on the
other hand, rubbed her shoulder vigorously, while returning to her musings.
It was like he had not even noticed
that she looked smashing.
Maybe she didn't look so smashing.
She looked around
the room to see if there was a mirror to answer her, "Who's the fairest of them
all (to Aarya)?", but of course, there was none to be found. She made do with the lazy reflection on the window
pane, which essentially told her nothing.
There was a lot of skin, some hazy black, and a bit of silver sparkles on
the pane…
When another five
minutes passed and he still hadn't come, she wondered why she had even decided
to come to this Sangeet. Of course,
Shiv, Gauri, and all their kin and pals were fun folk, but there were two itty
bitty ones at home who were also oodles of fun… when they weren't taking their
ten hour naps, that is…
She stalked over to
the door and opened it then, reprimanding herself for being the dimwit waiting
in an unoccupied home-library/office for a secret assignation with her clearly negligent
boyfriend while there was a party outside in full-swing. Just as she opened the door, she saw him
standing there raising his hand towards the knob.
She gave him what
she hoped was the laser-point of her withering-to-ashes look before walking
out. She heard him call her name, but
she didn't look back as she joined the throng of people.
She hoped that he
got swarmed and bitten to pieces by a clan of mosquitoes that were the
pest-equivalent of Attila-the-Hun!
-----------------------------------------------
Edited by sridevi27 - 13 years ago
comment:
p_commentcount