Decree & Dashed hopes
"I heard she had friends over dimpal!!" Manny sneered to somehow get to him.
"The help now believe someone took it" he said blandly
"Umm... I asked Santram to look for it in Vik's room, he couldnt find it, I asked
"Did anyone use the room, was someone staying over?" Manny mumbled "U know koi aaya tha kya?"
"He said woh bhabhiji ke friends aur kuch parlor waale madam" "You tell me if I am over reacting" Manny sounded agitated
"Its not here Manny" he said calmly "U need to ask Vik"
"Like I DIDNT?" "HE LIVES WITH ME. We are not married but he lives with me" Manny was hinting at stuff that was quite unnecessary
"That was uncalled for" he said coldly
"I am not saying Ishita took it dimpal, all I am saying is its gone and someone took it" Manny tried to be "reasonable"
He was losing patience "I can ask the help to look again" he offered reasonably
"Can you ask Ishita to check with her friends please?" Maany ACTUALLY SAID IT
"U mean call them up and ask if they happened to steal a macbook from Chankyapuri?" he asked unemotionally
"Not steal... u know ... umm... uh...borrowed to check email" Manny backed off a little
"Checked email and stuffed it in her purse?" he asked to confirm, jeering
"R&B, i need that goddamn laptop I need it now, it was at home yaar, now its gone... u dont want the help to check with her, you wont check with her, I dont know why?"
"Would you mind if I asked Vik if he borrowed my Rolex while he was here?" R&B asked amused
Manny hung up...
He was unperturbed, he was used to Manny behaving this way, for her it was always
her way or the frewway, she could get away with saying anything. When he dated Marliese there were many such incidents
Whether it was her way of shielding him from pain later by making him "aware" of how things were right now... only she knew
Her brand of protection always came with brutal prescriptions. He never took more than one dose. Didnt care for it.
He didnt usually discuss this with Sam either...
He didnt lead his life according to anyone's decree, he listened to Ma... and she disappeared one afternoon, Pooof!!!! completely from his life
He went in to take a shower, he had to go to Spectrum first and then had calls with William and Sukrit in the afternoon, IF he could take it
He walked into the bedroom she lay face down, asleep... he lay down by her and began to bother her,
kissed her ear, her nose ring, he hadnt shaved in three days, he gently unbraided her hair... she opened her eyes
"Neeyum toongade yaarayum toonga vidaade da" (u dont sleep, dont let anyone else sleep either) she scolded, it came out all muffled in a sleep drugged voice
He pushed her on to her back and slid over, caressing her waist, letting his fingers sneak up under her tee...
"What time is it?" she asked dodging his lips
"Baisakhi and the day off" he said rolling her tee over her torso...
She tried to push him off to check the bedside clock "Ayyo NINE?" "ARE U SURE? "IS IT NINE?"
She kicked him
"Not now da" "Please" "ITS NINE" "AYYO" "Its NINE"she moaned...
"And then it will be 10" he muttered amused... yanking her tee off completely
~~~~~~~~
Chachu's family was the last to arrive after 2 PM, he stood in the balcony with Bala and Mihir, and Tan it was almost
like every person came in their own car, the kids were younger thank God they cant drive, between the 4 sons and the wannabe starlet there was 8 cars parked outside
It was Ranjan's idea to host something "big"at home for Baisakhi/Tamil New Year, his wife had wanted to invite her parents and Vandita... now it had ballooned to something big and noisy
Sam and II were in the kitchen, making traditional Punjabi vegetarian and Iyer food, the help were given the day off, he thought it was a bad idea
"I want to try it" II had claimed
She did the up down the stairs a million times already
"Come home da" she ordered
"Let Tan or Bala get there" he said, he had barely worked at Spectrum for an hour
"OK Fine when u call me home I am going to do the same" she warned
"There is nobody at work, the office is closed and you are sitting there by yourself"
He had to get up and return...
Ranjan wandered up with Lasya in his arm, "Mama" he pointed to his son and coached the tyke...
He turned and leaned on the balcony and smiled at her, she wore a hot yellow kurta and a hot pink salwar typical
Punjabi style, with a glittery scrap of a hot pink dupatta tied across her body on her left shoulder... her hair had something sparkly all over
She stretched her arms and gave him a gummy smile...
He stretched his and gave her big wide grin...
"Oye hoye" Tan said "Kya scene hai"
"Main pakdoon?" R&B asked Ranjan in Hindi
"Zaroor puttarji" he said walking towards his son
More about AGM and Chachi in flashback, after the laptop story blows over
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wednesday evening, was bad!! The day was bad too... but we can talk about it later
Sam waited in the lounge, no she did not bring Lasya.
Ranjan wasnt home, her husband must be upstairs because his car was outside
"Hey aap kab aaye" "I had a terrible day at work" II complained
She washed up downstairs and headed to the kitchen, for a 6 PM "sugar fix"... no her husband was not in the frig, she wanted some mithai
She got out a bunch of mithai from yesterday, and made chai "Aaj kaise, will you stay for dinner?" "Bache kidhar hai?"
"khaana khaane nahi aayi hoon" Sam was deeply troubled
"Kya hua?" II asked startled
"kya ho raha hai is ghar mein?" Sam was deeply distraught
Ii stopped what she was doing, he husband wandered down to grab a beer from the "beer frig"
He didnt look at her or greet her
"hey" she said
He didnt look at her, just uncapped the bottle, took a swig and turned away
"I am here to talk about Manny" Sam said between tears
"Her laptop was lost, I dont know who took it" II began to cry
"OMG!! SO YOU DID BUY HER A NEW ONE" Sam clamped her hand over her mouth... as if the sliver of doubt in her mind was all wiped out and was replaced entirely
with despair.
Ranjan returned from work, smiling cheerfully upon seeing Sam's car outside, found the two women crying in the kitchen
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