Unexpected Routine
When Vikram saw off Suman with Shravan an uneasy feeling pitted in his stomach. For the first time in the past 2 weeks, his doubts have raised to a level where he repeated the line 'Appearances are deceptive' again and again. He thought if he had been a bit of a lazy and sweet- gullible ass when it came to seeing at their past so-called infatuation and now platonic relationship. Seeing them off in the same car and most probably meeting them the next day in the same house was suddenly looking unpalatable. There was a smirk in Shravan's voice when he waved a bye and Vikram thought that he had completely missed Suman's good night. Maybe, she didn't say it at all. Well!
--------------------
'Had fun, Captain Tiwari?' Shravan raced the car through the empty lanes of Bhopal sitting in an air conditioner, oblivious of the thundering clouds. He didn't let anything remotely romantic seep in.
'To heaven's limit.' Suman passed a reply with pressed lips. She won't say that she wanted to laugh out loud when Vikram had danced with her or made a mocktail and Shravan could do nothing but glare.
Shravan's agenda for the night was clear. He was here to make her feel what she had missed all these years. Vikram was his friend and he hated to admit that Vikram didn't stand a chance in front of Captain Malhotra's teaspoon full of aura, leave the rest. And then, when he had just thought of pulling Suman for dance, maybe twirling and twisting her to the tunes her body might have forgotten- Vikram had bounced out of nowhere. Sometimes, Vikram's nonchalance made Shravan doubt his professional skills- if he was some really bad lawyer and if Suman had really drained her currency on his skills.
'You didn't have any fun, right?' Suman could barely hold herself from taking a scoop of his envy.
'I did until you forgot to wish my friend a good night.' Shravan looked at her and Suman was hysterical but anything. She frowned a bit and then everything came even and crystal to her. She hated to say it, but she had messed it completely.
'Vikram's not an immature git to crib over some forgotten late-night address.' Suman rolled her eyes trying to sand the situation.
'Of course, he won't until he could see you checking out his best friend's torso and completely dismissing his presence.' Shravan had the time of his life when Suman had sat beside him in her scarlet-golden saree after being the night's showstopper and then looking at him as if he was some muffin. Sweet!
'Rubbish.' Suman thanked the night to hide the pink blush which had crept on her cheeks. She found her heart giggling on the utter nonsense Sharvan Malhotra mumbled all day long, except when they were at their jobs in the Cantonment. She loathed herself the most when she couldn't help but stare at his intelligence when he spoke to his seniors or to her for that matter. He held the perfect drills, the perfect ground shooting schedules, and could do awful file works like a magician.
Shravan imitated her words in a dramatic and silent way, trying to entertain himself. He didn't know why, but suddenly he wanted to be silent and just enjoy the fact that Suman Tiwari has defied herself today. Her 'I have moved on' chant was ruined into a fine dust when he had seen her gazing at his torso. Okay, he was smart and that was all about it. But then who he was kidding if he said that he didn't love Suman's look today? So when she had walked down, pressing the creases of her saree with her hands, he had wanted to shut the house and hold her on an arrest and then do all the things he would be court-martialed for afterward. 'Wrong thoughts.' he had cursed himself when Suman with her honey dripping voice had called him out with 'A let's go, baby!'. God, her sarcasm- of course, when they both were alone. She also resorted to showing him that she very well understood his plans and that if he is going to do something unexpectable then Suman Tiwari was up for it.
'I need Ice Cream.' Suman broke his Elysium, as she mellowed down the FM.
'What if I say I am selectively deaf for the night.' Shravan looked at her oval face, getting rounder in anger.
'Then I am selectively mad for the day.' She raised her hands in the air and with full force opened up her car door. She sat perfectly still and smiling as Shravan screamed his throat out. 'Close it! You silly girl! I said shut it!!!' Shravan could lung a bit of air when he finally complied with her wish. 'Have you lost it?' he screamed at her, a dense fear of most insane kind pitting in his stomach.
'Do you think only you have the authority of being insane and mad? If I give a flying rat's ass to what you think your car is gonna suffer for my actions!' Suman spat.
'Oh just hold on YOU! You think of the bloody car, and what about you? what was I to make of myself if something had happened to you?' Shravan had shouted his guts out but after 2 minutes of complete silence, he regretted his enormous show of concern.
Suman wished she could enjoy his predicaments, but then she gulped hard enough in anything but happiness. She could feel her heart pounding against her ribs, feeling after a very very long time- wanted. Like somebody really wanted her, like somebody really could question his own existence in her absence. 'Would you still get me an ice cream ?' Suman asked with all sincerity.
awwwwwwwwwww...... Was all Shravan had imagined saying if he was his teen self. 'Holy Cow! Of Course, or maybe we won't be found alive tomorrow morning. Pretty much of a shame for two soldiers to die on an ice cream wish!' Shravan couldn't hold his tongue but upset her a bit.
----------
Shravan stopped the car at an Ice Cream vendor, and when he saw Suman still sitting in the car he bent a bit and look at her expecting face. 'You wanna beg or walk?' Shravan asked her earnestly, and she shook her head in a no. 'I am cold.' She pleased him to get her some butterscotch flavor to which he huffed. 'I won't ever buy you an ice cream again.' He sighed and she couldn't help but mutter 'You better.'
Shravan called out the almost leaving vendor, who might have been fed up with the midnight blues. ' I appreciate your dedication, but then that girl, you see' Shravan pointed out 'Isn't really in her senses. Can I have butterscotch?'
The vendor looked at him hysterically as if someone being mad had any relation with the flavor they wish to eat. He rummaged through the content of ice creams and pulled out one. 'Couples have black forest honestly!' he made a remark and it was enough for Shravan to have an idea.
'Then keep this and give me a black forest.' Shravan asked gleefully.
'What if she turns madder?' The vendor remarked a bit slyly.
'You better mind your business. She has a gun!' Shravan plopped his eyes, trying to be stern in the former part of his sentence.
------
Suman waited like obedient little girls, and as Shravan slipped in, raised her hands for the treat. Shravan scratched the back of his head, the same way he did 7 years back when he was about to play innocent when he really wasn't.
'Sorry Sumo!' Shravan revealed the black forest flavor he had bought with him.
'Lier!' Suman exclaimed oblivious of the fact that she didn't reprimand him for her old nickname. 'I saw you slip back butterscotch.' She accused him and folded her arms on her chest.
'Oh really, then get one for yourself.' he pointed out to the vendor who stood there almost packing his business in a hurry.
'Why does he look so scared?' Suman raised suspicion.
'I don't know.' Shravan dived for a bite in his ice cream.
'Idiot.' Suman mumbled and Shravan ignored with perfect nonchalance.
As Suman, contrary to her shivering self stepped out of the car, the vendor began his sprint. He ran away with the ice creams, thinking of her as some spirit. Suman called out and tried running a bit with her heals but came back in a minute. She opened Shravan's car's door and took away his ice cream to throw it off for a death plunge. ' Mend this.' she spat in anger.
'Sports shoes?' Shravan asked, trying to contain his laugh.
'Funny, Fraud Malhotra!' Suman clasped her head, as tears welled up in her eyes. Shravan instantly grew all silent, stepping out of his car seat. He walked in front of her, trying hard not to kick himself right in his ass. 'Sumo!' he tried cupping her face, which looked waned in discomfort and agony. She looked superiorly tired.
'Leave me Shravan, let me be. I apologize.' She tried disentangling herself from their proximity. It was making her dizzy and transparently comfortable all at once.
'No.' Shravan could hear something crumble in his chest, maybe his heart. It felt like somebody had punched him in the gut.
'What no?' she looked at him, straight in the eye, more accusing than ever.
'Sorry.' he gulped harder and then felt like giving her a sweet peck on her cheeks. Maybe her forehead too. what about her lips?
Suman could feel her corneas get glassy as she tried sucking a sob. She should have walked away much earlier, but then she realized later that she was very much in the mid of everything.
She looked at him and counted all the times, she wanted him to hold her just the way he was doing now. Even if the reason was as lame as some ice cream. Why would she ask for an ice cream from him in the middle of the night at a deserted street of Bhopal if it meant nothing at all?
Rather it meant the world to her.
Since the day he had started living with her, she has realized what she had missed.
'I miss you.' Suman's voice cracked at the base but Shravan's hands only grew tight in their grip on the contrary. 'I have missed you all these years. I haven't moved on, and no it wasn't a mistake to love you. it wasn't an infatuation. I still madly love you and I have made a lot of terrible mistakes, and now I don't know how to run away when you stand so close!' Suman almost screamed in his face or she would cry like infants.
Shravan looked at her trembling lips. Her shivering figure and her earnest confession. If this wasn't a jingle to his ears then no music existed on the face of the earth. He looked at her closed eyes, maybe she expected him to leave. But he won't.
Shravan bent down and claimed her lips in a dogmatic fashion. Like a routine with rules. The way she liked it. In the past few days, he had made a way to her inner life, and now they shared an unexpected intimate relation. It was like, talking about each other's mind's desire without a second thought, walking into each other's routine, and then setting it all right with authority. As he deepened the kiss and scratched open her mouth, it was all it took for her to do it along with him.
As soon as they parted Suman couldn't stop murmuring 'I love you! I love you!' against his chest and he couldn't help but nod and repeat after her.
Like an unexpected routine with unexpected rules and regulations.
