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My first OS on DevAkshi...where Dev finally gets to read 50 shades of grey.😆 Hope you all like it.
It's after ages that I am writing something...thanks to Dev and Sona who got me back to it.
Sorry for any typos or grammatical errors.
The Grey Shades Between Us
^banner made by me
He forcefully dragged his eyes away from his laptop and swallowed heavily. Small beads of sweat had accumulated over his eyebrows.
What had he just read?!
He was glad, really glad, that he had finally finished the story that he had been caught up in since the last two days.
'50 shades of grey'...he had been tempted many times to give up midway but he wasnt a man who didnt finish what he started. While most of the content had disturbed his simple sensibilities, some of the other content had been less disturbing.
Maybe if author had skipped writing some of the...stuff, the story wouldnt be so bad.
Now, it wasnt as if he had never read or seen anything about intimacy. He had...maybe not as much as the others but enough.
But this...this was just...he loosened his tie and blinked.
How could one write such stuff? How could this book become such a rage?
More importantly, who read these kind of books to make them so popular?
His eyes widened.
Tina! His secretary Tina...sincere, hard working, quiet and timid Tina read such books?!
And here he was thinking that the book was about the color 'grey'. He rolled his eyes at himself.
Really Dev? Could you be anymore dense?
He shook his head as he remembered how he had spoken about the book with Ms. Bose.
She had laughed at him.
Wait...she had laughed at him and corrected him.
"Mr. Dixit...woh book color schemes ke baare mein nahi hai..." There had been a faint color on her cheeks then. (He was surprised that he could remember such a minor detail about her.)
His eyes widened.
That meant...Ms Bose had read this book too?!
His mother's nutritionist, a no-nonsense , straight forward girl...the girl whom he considered his good friend, soft spoken and these days , for some reason unknown to him, the very shy Ms. Bose had engaged herself in reading this book.
A frown marred his forehead. Why were innocent girls reading such books? First Tina and now Ms. Bose?
Such books should be banned!, he fumed in his mind.
He had also read on the internet about the craze this Mr. Grey had caused among the girls. Why? How could any self-respecting girl or woman like such a man? Only because he had good looks and money?
According to Dev, the man was almost like a criminal...stalking Ana, and then ...all that...he couldnt even finish his thoughts...
On one side, there was a great wave of feminism around the world and on the other side, people gushed dreamily about a man dominating a woman in one of the worst ways possible.
He shuddered...He would have to make sure his sisters never got their hands on this book.
----------------------------------------------
He entered his house, his hands in his pockets, his steps slow, his mind still reeling over the things he had read in the last three days. He had been so distracted that he had been not able to concentrate on his work at all...
Did Ms. Bose always read such books? Did she prefer such kind of books? Does this kind of content appeal to her?
He stopped suddenly. What was wrong with him? Why was he concerned with what she did or didnt read? What did it matter to him if she did read such books? Its her personal choice.
But, somehow, it did matter to him...ever since her revelation, that she had a boyfriend, he had realized how much each detail about her mattered to him.
He had had no inkling that she had someone special in her life. He knew everything about her...everything. So, how was he not aware about such an important fact of her life?
That Tina!, he started fuming once again. It is her job to give him all the information. If she hadnt been so engrossed in stupid things , she would have known and informed him.
"Mr Dixit?" He looked up to see the object of his thoughts ( and confusion) standing near the entrance of the kitchen , looking at him with a frown.
When she had come out of the kitchen, she had found him standing in the middle of the living room, fuming silently, staring at the carpet, as if it held all the answers of the world.
"Are you okay, Mr Dixit?"
"I dont really know", he muttered.
"Sorry, I didnt hear you..."
"I...I'm fine." He tried to give her a small smile but the image of her, sitting on her bed, with her eyes glued to that book, just wouldnt leave his mind!
Maybe, he was wrong...maybe she didnt really like such books...maybe she had just given it a read since it was so popular.
He couldnt understand why the thought of that book in her hands bothered him so much.
Or maybe her boyfriend had made her read it...the thought came creeping silently into his mind filling it with even more anger.
I will kill her boyfriend with my bare hands if I ever come to know that he...
"Mr Dixit...", his thought was interrupted once again.
Sona looked at him closely, "You dont look so well..."
She wondered why he was looking at her with so much fury. Last she knew, they hadnt fought over anything.
"Did I...erm...are you angry with me?"
Dev , then realized, that his anger was irrational. He was assuming stupid things and letting them affect him.
He released a breath and shook his head at her.
"No, Ms. Bose...I am just tired, that's all. I havent slept since properly since the last two days."
"Oh", she gave him a small smile, " Would you like a coffee?"
He nodded, " Yes thank you ...but no milk please."
She nodded back at him and went into the kitchen.
He moved his feet forward to go upstairs to his room but found himself walking into the kitchen. He stopped a few feet away from Sonakshi who was standing at the counter , beating a mixture of sugar and coffee in his black mug.
He suddenly realized how habituated he had become with her presence at his home...especially after he returned home from his work.
She looked up , glanced towards his chest and turned back to her work , smiling.
"So, back to the grey shades again, Mr Dev?"
He snapped out of his reverie.
Grey shades...what?
"What?", he asked her moving two steps closer.
"The color of your shirt, Mr Dixit...I see you are back again to the greys. I guess you have the lost the urge to explore the other shades?"
Explore the other shades? He couldnt describe the things that ran through his mind at her words.
He tried to dispel those thoughts when their conversation from that day echoed in his mind...
"Mr Dixit, woh book color schemes ke baare mein nahi hai."
"Toh phir kis baare mein hai?"
He noticed how her cheeks reddened as she tried to control her laugh and said, "Hoga kisi ke baare mein..."
He had made a fool of himself that day in front of her.
He suddenly had an idea and his eyes lit up.
"Ms Bose", he said moving closer, "You didnt answer my question that day?"
"Which question?", she asked without looking up.
"About that book...50 shades of grey."
He didnt miss the way her fingers slowed down. He lowered his tone and continued, "You never did tell me what the book is about..."
She started beating the coffee mixture again, her hands moving faster than before.
"Its just a fictional story..."
"About what?"
She swallowed. "Its a love story..."
"And?"
"What do you mean by 'and'..its a love story that's all."
"When I saw Tina reading it, the book looked quite thick...it must be more than a love story."
She pursed her lips.
"Ermm...I dont really know, Mr. Dixit."
He hid a smirk at the flush that was crawling up her neck and continued.
"But you read it , didnt you? You told me that day that it wasnt about color schemes."
Knowing her lie had been caught, she turned away from him and went to the stove to get the boiling water.
Coming back to the counter, she poured the hot water into the mug.
"Its about the problems that the couple, in the book , face in the course of their love story...she comes from a middle class background and the guy is a rich business man."
"That's all?", he asked.
He noticed how she was avoiding looking at him while she vigorously stirred his coffee.
"Yes , Mr. Dixit, that's all."
"Do you think I should read it?"
"No!", she said a bit too loudly. He raised his eyebrows at her as she stopped stirring and looked at him shaking her head. "You shouldnt."
"Why not? "
"Its not really interesting...in fact, its quite boring. It wouldnt appeal to you at all."
"How do you know that it wouldnt appeal to me?", he held her gaze as he questioned her.
She went quiet and simply stared at him wide eyes. Finding her voice, she looked away and replied, "You just wouldnt like it...believe me."
Smiling internally, he grabbed a spoon from the counter and a jar of pickle. Opening it, he scooped a very small amount in his spoon and put it his mouth.
It was a very quirky habit of his.
He always liked to have something sour before drinking his coffee. His mother always reprimanded him about it but he couldnt help it no matter how strange it was.
Sonakshi looked at him as if he had gone mad.
"Mr Dixit! Why are you eating that? You are going to drink coffee now!"
"So?", he asked putting the jar back on the counter.
"So?! The pickle is sour...and your coffee is almost bitter since you prefer such a small amount of sugar in it. Why would you make your palate sour before drinking coffee?"
He was about to explain to her when he suddenly had an even better idea.
With deliberate slowness, he moved closer to her and noticed her eyes widening at the reducing proximity between them.
He bent his head lower towards her , lips so close to her ears that his breath stirred her dangling earrings.
His low baritone, which had gone suspiciously husky, washed over her like warm velvet , as he uttered his next words.
"My tastes are very singular, Ms. Bose...you wouldnt understand."
Hearing her sudden intake of breath , he moved back gently and watched with satisfaction as her cheeks colored themselves with a lovely shade of crimson and her eyes glazed over slightly.
He took the mug of coffee from her hands which had frozen midway.
"Thank you for the coffee, Ms. Bose."
He smirked at her fully then, his dark eyes smiling with mischief.
Turning away, he walked out of the kitchen towards the stairs, a weirdly sated feeling running through him at the fact that he, not her boyfriend, has caused her to blush like that.
Animosity, anger, resentment, frustration, peace, forgiveness, friendship ...these were the shades that had existed between him and Sonakshi Bose.
But, today he had discovered a new shade between them...it wasnt grey though...somehow it brought the colour orange to his mind.
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I guess the "singular taste" dialogue will only be understood by people who have read at least half of the book. I havent the whole book either ...after a point I just couldnt go forward.
Oh and about the coffee and pickle thing...I dont really know anyone who does that...I just had to use that idea to fit in the dialogue there. 😆
So just adding the 'singular taste' explanation here for people who havent read the book:
That dialogue is used in the book by Christian Grey where he tells Ana in indirect words what kind of things he likes...will not elaborate on that though. Hehe.
Singular tastes mean strange or not what is usually considered normal.
The reason to add that dialogue here was for Dev to let Sonakshi know that he had in fact read the book.
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