She managed to jerk it open in time to see Asher striding around the station wagon to where his car was parked. The station wagon has hidden the car from her view but then she hadn't been looking for it either.
As she ran down the sidewalk after Asher, she heard the car door slam and car start. . Before she reached the driveway he had reversed onto the street. Sara had brief glimpse of his profile and the forbidding grimness of expression before car accelerated down the long drive.
"Sara?" her brother was calling her to her from the open door.
She paused long enough to ask. "Are the keys in the wagon?"
"Yes, Where are you going?" he asked. Already guessing.
"I've got to explain to him. I can't leave it like this." The answer was tossed over her shoulder as she ran to the car.
She lost sight of the Mercedes taillights when she turned onto the main road. Judging by the direction Asher had taken, she took a chance that he was going to the inn.
His car was parked in the section reserved for the employees, steam rising from the hood, when she arrived. She parked the station wagon beside it , and hurried inside, slowing her steps to a fast walk through the lobby. Ignoring the questioning look she received from the night clerk, she didn't stop t explain what she was doing there at that hour of the night.
Her heart was pounding and she was out of breath when she reached the door of the Asher's suite. Before she lost her nerve, she knocked at the door rapidly three times. She felt a tense kind of relief when she heard hard strides approaching from the other side of the door. It was jerked open by an impatient hand. Asher's eyes narrowed on her with icy anger.
"I deserve the chance to explain what you saw,' Sara rushed before he could order her to leave.
Minus his topcoat and suit jacket, he had on a white shirt, his tie askew from an attempt to loosen the knot. His hand returned to finish the job as he pivoted away from the door, not closing it. Sara moved hesitantly into the room, shutting the room behind her and watching the suppressed violence in the way he stripped the tie from around his neck and tossed it onto a seat cushion.
Without looking at her, he walked to the gold-leafed coromandle screen and opened it to reveal the bar. He took a drink and swallowed in a gulp without looking at her.
"I------"It was difficult to know how to begin when she was so frigidly ignored. "Chris and I grew up together. We played as kids, we were in the same grade in the school. He's studying to be a doctor and I haven't seen him in ages. He arrived home this afternoon for the Christmas break."
"You must have had a very joyous reunion," Asher remarked caustically.
"It was wonderful to see him again. "Sara refused to deny that. "Chris and I are old friends. That's all we've been. It's more like we're brother and sister. I know how it might have looked---"
"Do you?" Asher spun around, withering her with the fiery blast of his anger. "Do you have any idea at all what it's like to break appointments, to tell important executives to go take a running, jump into a lake, because there's this woman you can't get out of your head----and if you don't see her, you're likely to go crazy? So you take off, drop everything. Then you're there, in her room, waiting for her to come back from church"from church!' he emphasized with biting contempt. "You hear a car drive up and voices, you're so anxious to see her that you nearly go flying out of the door. But there she is ----kissing someone else."
"But it didn't mean anything," her voice was hoarse, scraped by the rawness of the emotions he had displayed, his feeling of betrayal. "You've got to understand it was no different from kissing Perry."
"Am I supposed to believe that you missed me?" he challenged, unconvinced. "That you wanted to see me again?"
"Yes." She was astounded that he could doubt it.
"Then why haven't you written me?" Asher demanded, setting his glass down with a thump to punctuate the question.
"Because I thought--------When you called me and I couldn't come to California-------" Sara was so confused she couldn't finish one sentence before starting another. "You said goodbye----I thought it was final. You were angry because I refused." She reminded him.
"Yes." He began to cross the room. "I was furious---with you and with myself when those letters stopped. I thought I had lost you. I came all the way to apologize for being such a selfish, arrogant jerk." He stopped in front of her, and held her by her shoulders, "Then to find you in that man's arm. I-----"
His face was deeply etched as he struggled to control his warring emotions. "Do you blame me for going little crazy?" he said. "For wondering..." He raised his head again, anger still smoldering in his eyes. "How many many men are there? How many men would fly halfway across the world to be with you?"
"Asher there is only you." Sara whispered, lifting her trembling hand to let her fingers trace his face.
"That's what you say." Rueful cynicism flashed across his expression, "But I don't know what you do when I'm not here, My God, don't even know if you had any boy-friend ."
She was stunned that his doubt ran that deep. "You don't mean that!"
"Prove it," Asher challenged her . "Stay with me tonight,"
"You expect me to spend the night with you just to prove myself," she accused, and keeping a distance with him. "What kind of reason is that?"
"It's a damned good one," he flared. "Because you have to convince that I've been going through this hell for nothing."
"No!" A sudden surge of strength enables her to wrench herself from him and she backed quickly towards the door. "I shouldn't have to prove anything to you. Do I ask you how many women you have friendly with since you met me? Don't forget I know about Helen! What kind of things do you think I imagine when you are gone? You can't lain awake as many nights as I have wondering who you are with. But I promise you tonight, it's not going to be me! Not for a reason like yours!"
Pivoting, she raced out of the door into the hallway. But her haste was unnecessary. Asher made no attempt to follow her. The demons that pursued her were from her own imagination. She allowed her flight to walk swiftly through the lobby and outside the station wagon.
A sense of justifiable indignation and pride kept her eyes dry and her chin steady. It wasn't until she was at home and alone in her bedroom that she began to think about some of the things Asher had said and implications that he cared for her"even loved her.
Her temper cooled quickly when she realized she might have rejected the very thing she wanted most of all. The next question was whether she could swallow her pride and admit that to Asher .
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Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Indian Mythology
