Posted:
8 years ago
Doubt, Desire & Distress
Tuesday the 18th, she left for Bhatinda as usual, he dropped her off at the train station, it was the Sarai Rohilla-Firozpur Cantt train
Ranjan sent a guard with her, after R&B tattled on the last train journey from before the wedding
Ranjan was unahppy she would even agree to stay back Monday, as Shatabdi only plied Mondays to Bhatinda, Monday night over dinner she heard a earful
"Jab aapko pata hai achhi train hafte mein ek din jaati hai, why would u stay on Monday puttarjee?"
"I didnt even check until last night" she mumbled
This "superfast" would get there after 1:30
She had emailed Ritu at 4 AM when she woke, at she dragged herself through the motions of getting ready
Lingering by the bathroom, braiding her hair...
"the train's at 6, we need 20 minutes to get there, the guy's bringing ur tix"
"This is too early" she yawned
He had kept her up half the night over a Monty Python movie, and then to make love, when she got her shut eye it was past midnight
"U can get urself something at Coffee Day" he pushed her through the kitchen, egging her to make it fast
She picked a bottle of orange juice put it back got apple juice, put it back guava juice
He opened packed all three
He packed a bunch of fruits
"What NO MUFFINS?" she complained
Mahavir had gone to Modern Bazar there was a dozen muffins
R&B pulled the tray out and placed it on her tote bag
"I NEVER checked out of Amritsar!!!" she said in SHOCK
WIDE AWAKE
He turned startled "U didnt... did u" he nodded
She sat down
"I am paying for a room in TWO cities, KMPG wont pay" she panicked
"Would u like them to empty it and chek u out?" he asked
She squirmed
"OR TAKE THE TRAIN TODAY TO BHATINDA?" he hissed
She dragged her tote bag two muffins and her purse and laptop bag his Ferrari trunk wouldnt open because she wa spressing the wrong key
The alarm beeped
Ranjan came to the patio and yawned all the guards rushed
"Sorry galat key" she mumbled
She handed R&B the keys back
"Its this one" he explained in the twilight
she leaned on him
"I dont wnat to go" she cried
"I am going to come see u" he promised like she was Shravu
"WHAT TIME?" she moaned
"Its some goddamn train" he whispered, hugging her
"We have 48 minutes to catch the train, he cursed
She waved to Ranjan he walked over to the car "Betaji chhutti kar lo sust ho"
"Umm nahi" she nodded wearily
"tell her" he coaxed R&B
"We have less than 44 minutes" R&B gritte dhis teeth
"YOU DONT WANT ME TO GO DAD, HE DOES" II poked him with her finger
He grabbed her finger and shoved her in the passenger seat
It was 14 mins to 6 when they got there, his guy was there with the tickets, so was the guard
she waved, yawning... he waved gesturing "TEXT ME"
Ashwini was back so her interaction with the two dudes was a minimum
Looked like Bally "had a word with her" Ritu was a lil guarded
"FINE BY ME"
"IT DOESNT MATTER TO ME II MUMBLED DEFENSIVELY
She called Akka every night, spoke with Shatabdi, she made AKKA MADE SOME SOUNDS AND SAY SOME WORDS
Shravu was "ok" in this weeks unit tests Akka said, 14 and 18 out of 25
She worked on Ranjan's benchmark analysis, and exchanged emails with the guy supplying the data from some private "investigative data firm"
The strike was still on... she wondered how much loss Ranjan had already incurred
She arranged with the hotel to empty her room on Tuesday and hold on to her
stuff so she could have it picked up by a showroom worker and have it sent to Delhi somehow
She cursed herself for not being careful... her life was a mess
She sent lame jokes to the dude every evening.
"Will u stop?" he finally called and ordered huskily
"No" "I wont until u come over and do things to me" she challenged
"Like what?" he demanded
"Undoing my saree ur teeth" she whispered
"Thats easy, getting ur blouse hooks is not" he said gamely
she shuddered...
"Or my bra hook"
"Thats no fun, its on the back" he whispered
"Do u remember the whipped cream mess?" she asked
Like they had been married 70 years and a million such nights
Ive had meetings all day" he groaned aroused
"the one blue berry that got away" she whispered, reminding him of the blue berry dipped in whipped foamy cream slipping between her legs
"I shud have never let u use ur tongue" she said coyly
"If u are on a mission to send me over the edge u are succeeding II" he warned
"Oh I just want to hear u.climax.." she chuckled
"Ur close" he cursed in French
They let the stoked fires die down slowly
"when is ur flight back?" she asked sadly
"Sunday at 8 PM to Zurich" he said
He couldnt come over Thursday... she was coming over Friday night, Ritu would only allow her to leave after work at 6 PM
She got back to Delhi after 2 AM on 22nd morning...
he brought brownies and flowers
She jumped up and hugged him
"U do all this the day before u have to go, how clever da" she cried
"I cant be spending all this money if I am not going" he mocked
She punched him hard... a flurry of blows "How cheap" "How cheap" she cursed
He dragged her to the car... as she opened the box of brownies, biting into one
He bend down and took half from her mouth
They got home at 2:30 ish the news crews were STILL THERE
Turning on their camera lights and wtaching the car drive into the gates saying stuff into the mike... II was irritated and exhausted...
and Ranjan was sitting on the couch holding a bottle of water
She was pleasantly surprised
"DADDD" she hugge dhim
He looked tired
"U havent SLEPT yet?" she asked
"I was winding up to go to bed, I was so exhausted, I almost passed out" he said softly taking his glasses off
II sat by him in panic
"Do we need Dr Baig?" R&B asked when he came in a few minutes later carrying her tote bag and flowers, she had the box of brownies
she was feeling Ranjan's forehead, it was burning hot..the stress of the strike, the loss of revenues the politics surrounding the shut down, the media blowing it all up was all finally catching up to the man
.II nodded and.. leaned on the couch.. resolute
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