Two-Shot: Feelings & Evolving Emotions |PART 2: PG12

Raman decided he had wasted enough time doing nothing, letting his mind saunter around about things that... well... were supposed to be the last things on his mind.

WAIT! These things were not supposed to be IN HIS MIND! AT ALL! Yes, it had been close to 3 and a half hours since he had reached office and dare not had ANY work been done there by him. He was Raman Kumar Bhalla, CEO of the year, a workaholic... yes, all that he was supposed to be... and no, it did not seem to be the case at all. He had been sitting, staring away at his blank laptop, smiling from time to time, remembering a few things, then he'd get up, move towards the window blinds, play with them for a bit, look outside at the busy Delhi roads, smile again, sit again, stare into nothingness... repeat on loop. 3 hours had gone by; he had asked his secretary to not let anyone disturb him in his cabin. Mihir was going to give a late entry to the office today since the lovestruck man (or puppy) was busy planning his fianc' and His Saali's birthday.

Mihir has to grow up, Man! Raman thought to himself. But he had to admit, it was cute. He could see this newly engaged couple being all coupley. They were absolutely in love and ofcourse, at the same time, it was extremely irritating to see their Public Display of Affection, especially when him and his WIFE were anything but coupley' or in-love' but there sure was attraction, and he wouldn't even deny it any longer. And the attraction was not just physical... he was attracted to her in other ways... many more ways. Her every gesture did something to him now that pulled him towards her. He knew her, but he wanted to know more. He could feel her but he wanted to feel more. He HAD her but he wanted to HAVE more!

As if on cue, his mind automatically wandered to an incident that had happened a night ago.

---

He entered his room late at night and saw Ishita talking to someone on her phone. Her voice was low, as Ruhi was asleep right beside her, her head lying almost on Ishita's tummy. Ishita was in a half sitting-half lying position. She seemed... angry? He thought. Her voice was dangerously low, and sounded serious, he knew it was "low" because Ruhi was asleep... but it was dangerous in the sense it seemed that she was extremely cross at something and was trying to gently, yet firmly threaten someone over the phone.

"dekhiye, mujhe koi interest nahi hai aapse aur naa hi aapki life se, behtar hoga ki aap bhi meri life mai interest lena band karden. Its really high time you moved on, and trust me, Shagun, ab agar aapne dobara Raman ko ya mere parivaar mai se kisi ko bhi pareshaan karne ki koshish ki, you WILL have to face a wife's, a daughter-in-law's, a Mother's wrath! You certainly don't know what it is like to be either of these! You couldn't be a good wife, wait, you couldn't even become a WIFE till today, couldn't become a daughter in law, and certainly not a mother... not to Ruhi atleast, and I genuinely pity Aditya. What youre doing TO him and WITH him is absolutely wrong, and the day it backfires on you... you're going to have nothing left other than regret! Seriously! Toh ab mere pati ka naam lene se pehle, yaad se 4 baar sochlijiyega, ki unki ab ek PATNI hai, ek FAMILY hai, aur hum sab ek doosre se bauhot pyaar karte hai. Aapki yeh bachkaani chaalen hamara kuch bigaad nahi sakti, so better luck next time!" She got the last word, and she ended the conversation with a smile. A disgusted smile.

Shagun! So that's what and who it was on the phone! Raman stood there glued to his spot. He heard the end of the conversation, and he knew that it was just her, his Jhansi ki Rani, lecturing Shagun away, without break, and everything she had said touched his heart. He never knew Ishita could be rude to anyone else too except for him. He chuckled and shook his head. Ishita still had an annoyed, disgusted face. She looked up at the sound of him.

Here, she was so annoyed, and he was SMILING AWAY?! What the Hell is his problem!?

"Raman, what are you smiling at?" she asked him rolling her eyes and arranging the blanket properly on Ruhi. He stepped inside the room properly, closed the door with a light click and put his blazer on the couch. He dragged the dressing table stool and putting it right beside the bed where she sat, he sat on it.

Ishita was confused. She was worried if anything had happened, or if before she had that chat' with Shagun, she had already done something? But that slant smile on his face said otherwise.

He kept sitting there, looking into her eyes with that smile.

She raised her eyebrow.

"Raman!?"

"Hmm?!" he replied. Still sitting in the same position and not moving himself or his eyes a budge.

"Yeh aap...?"

"Ishita! Mujhe bauhot khushi horahi hai!" He said finally moving from his position, sitting straighter now, the slight smile, now a huge grin.

"Khushi?" she said smiling.

"Haan yaar! Khushi! Mujhe lagta tha tumhara Jhansi ki Rani avatar was reserved for me... that I was the one alone to have the privilege' of seeing the Rani Lakshimbai inside you, but nay, aaj toh kamaal hogaya! Kis bechaare ko itna suna rahi thi?" he asked her, he wanted to see what she responds, and if she herself was going to tell him what exactly happened.

"Kuch nahi, bas..."

"Kuch nahi?" he immediately retorted.

Ishita got that guilty expression on her face, and with a crooked sad smile, she looked at him. She took a deep breath, and looking at Ruhi for a second, she turned herself to Raman and started.

"Raman, I know that she came to your office the other day and did all that drama, she brought in Adi in between and... all that ruckus... Mihir told me" She said in a disappointed tone and looked at him.

He suddenly straightened himself and made that face when someone's caught doing something. HE got that guilty expression now, which he tried to hide, like it was nothing.

"Ishita, it was nothing. Im used to all her dramas..."

"And so am I, Raman!" She cut him off just as suddenly. "Why couldn't you tell me yourself?!" She definitely WAS disappointed. She had expected him to atleast share. They had come a long way since their marriage and she expected this of him atleast. Hadn't it been the case from quite some time? None of them hid anything from each other. Nothing. Whenever Ishita had to share something that she was perhaps acutely not as comfortable to share with Raman' he would become Rama' for her and she would tell him, he on the other side would, however WITH all his taunting and mocking still tell her stuff, and EVERYTHING at that, so she had expected him to inform her about what happened in the office 2 days ago. She waited and waited, and she could clearly see him disturbed because of that, but she asked him nothing, and disappointingly enough, he didn't tell her anything either.

"Ishita, you already are being dragged in this, it isn't even your headache and you still have to go through all the bullshit, I just... thought I'd keep you away from my tension... This tension at least."

"Your tension? YOUR tension? Really Raman? So now all this is your tension? Weren't we supposed to be in this together? Have you ever felt that ive lacked in sharing any of your joys or sorrows? Do you think im not worthy of being told what is it that's bothering you? I agree that we're not in-love or perfect husband wife, but I really thought that we were working it towards being friends, and do you realize that this is hurtful? What you're doing is hurtful! As much as I try..." she abruptly stops in the middle as she feels her tears trickling down. Raman immediately looks up with a jerk, his eyes wide with worry.

"Ishita..." He makes her look up at him and she's still crying. He closes his eyes for a second, annoyed and disgusted that he was the reason for her tears. He wipes them off and continues,

"Look, I know the least I can do is keep you informed and not hide anything, but trust me yaar, my intentions were clean, I didn't want you to be stressed or worried about this bullshit, you already have so much on your plate.. with Ruhi, your clinic... and then this... Mission Romi..." he smiled looking at her, expecting her sweet smile in return, but he got none. She was still looking down, and was upset. "Come on Ishita, we're not doing this again... accha, listen, tumne sunaa dii na usey? Khoob saari? Jaise main darta hoon na, who bhi dargayi hogi...bechari" he said in an effort to tease her. She looked up at him in what seemed to be like mock anger and then her lips twitched and slanted into a sly smile, which she was desperately trying to control.

"Yeh hui na baat!" he said hitting her shoulder, and now she had started chuckling.

"Phir bhi Raman..." she said being serious again.

Raman got up from the stool and clapped his hands in front of her and kept them that way right in front of her face. "Sorry meri maa! Sorry! Aainda apni dharam patni ko har har baat bataunga... aur haan! Washroom jaane se pehle, pehle maasterni se permission, khaane se pehle, sone se pehle, change karne se pehle..." he said touching his collar.

"Good!" She said getting up. "Khana khaaoge?" She asked.

"Tumne banaya hai?" he asked coming close to her. She knew he would start teasing her and say he doesn't want to eat ghaas phuus by a Madraasan's hands, so she said...

"N... nahi, maine nahi banaya" She said while moving out of the room, but he held her hand before she could walk out the door. He pulled her inside and closed the door. Her back was against the door and he was still holding her hand, he brought his face closer to hers, and closer, and closer... Her heart was beating fast like it was at some F1 race. He came closer and whispered into her ear "Phir rehne do..."and with that, he moved a strand of her hair behind her ear.

She was wide-eyed, taken aback, and yes, in shock, and the rapidly increasing speed of her heartbeats were only adding to it.

She looked up at him. He was smirking at her. He liked the effect he had on her, and she knew he realized that and that's exactly what the smirk was there for. She hit him on his face lightly with her spare hand and tried moving out, he stopped her again.

"Maine kaha mujhe nahi khana" He said in a husky voice, and he was staring deep into her eyes, peering into her soul. He was going to be the death of her she thought, she had to stop this.

"Maine kaha na ki maine nahi banaya hai.."

"isi liye nahi khana..." he said, he was still trying to close the non-existent distance between them.

And then suddenly something snapped in him and he... from what it seemed like... got back into his senses and he realized the awkward closeness, the proximity, the moonlight shining on her face, making her look even more angelic if that was even possible. Her lips were glossy and she had no makeup, just a bit of faded kohl in her eyes, she looked absolutely luscious, and he knew if he wouldn't snap out of it this instance, he would definitely do something that he'd have to regret later... (or maybe not)

He quickly moved away and said, "woh kya hai na, itne din se woh tasteless sabzi khaa raha hoon, aadat si hogayi hai... waise bhi, mere pait mai thora dard tha, kuch light sa hi khana hai, so jo tumne banaya hai woh le aao" he said winking. She smiled at him.

--

Back in the office, Raman sat staring at the laptop screen, finally deciding to get some work done, he still couldn't get the incidents off his mind... Raman and Ishita had become from strangers to acquaintances, to namesake husband-wife, to friends and now... now this other thing was coming into the equation but he did not want to acknowledge it. Truth be told, he did not have the guts to acknowledge it.

He was now starting to get his thinking and his activities under control, just then Mihir entered his cabin after a single knock, without waiting for a response. Raman looked up.Ofcourse! Had to be Mihir. He looked at Mihir for a split second, rolled his eyes and went back to working on his laptop.

"Bhaai! Mr Mehta se baat hogayi kya? Aur who Far East wale saare files ke approval par... signatures kardiye aapne? Acha suno, who sab hogaya toh lets go home..."

He spoke without even waiting for his brother to respond.

"Mihir? Saans lelega? Honestly, abhi tak tuu ne jo bhi bola... Usme se ek bhi cheez nahi hui hai.." He said sheepishly, looking guilty... again that same expression which one would have, had they been caught red handed by their mothers doing something they weren't supposed to.

"Kya?! Kya matlab?! Maine toh Bhaabi se poocha.." he looked at his watch... "Bhaai, you've been here for like, 4 hours now... yeh sab nahi kiya toh kya kiya? Dikhaao..."

He turned Raman's laptop so it would face him and saw a presentation opened, it hardly had 2 slides. He looked up at Raman and said "Yeh kya hai bhaai, yeh toh Khurana Brothers wali meeting ki presentation k liye hai na? There's still a month or so lef bhaai, pehle uspe concentrate karna hai! Tandon Saab ka bhi phone aya tha. I think he will come with us on the Singapore-Malaysia tour this month.."

"Yaar, dekh, honestly, main bhool gaya tha, aur yeh... yeh Neeta, KAISI secretary hai yeh? Bas baalon ka burger banake aajati hai... she should've..."

"Raman, relax, usne mujhe kaha k as soon as you came, you asked her to not disturb you and not let anyone else disturb you either... aur aapki dehshat aur terror dekh ke koi bechara soche bhi na mukarne ka" Mihir said and started giggling in himself.

"Chup kar! Abhi bata, kya Karen"

"Aap yeh bataao ke what kept you busy for 4hours?? Bhabii!?"

"Haan na..." he said without thinking, answering Mihir's question honestly

"OHH... BHAABI WAS..." Mihir spoke schemedly aloud.

Raman realized what he'd done. And now he was annoyed.

"Chup kar be, apna angoor ke beej jitna khurafaati dimaag itna mat use kiya kar, theek hai?"

They finished some work with Mr. Mehta and headed home.

In the car, Raman finally realized it was hardly 2 pm.

"Mihir, dopeher k Do baje hum kis khushi mai office chor kar nikle hain?"

"Bhaai, woh hum lunch karne jaarahe hai" He said with a huge grin while driving.

"Kya?! Tu pagal hai? Lunch hum office mai nahi karsakte? Tera dimaag..." Mihir didn't let him continue

"Bhaaai! Samjhaa karo. Bhaabi ke saath lunch"

"Bhaabi ke saath?" he said and then thought for a second, and then gave a sarcastic laugh.

"Hah! Tumhari bhaabi aa hi na jaye logon k daant saaf karne ke beechme se" He rolled his eyes.

Mihir was giving a victorious smile. This means that bhai obviously WANTS to have lunch with Bhabi, the only thing hes irritated and disappointed for is that he thinks she wont be there.

"Arey bhai! Don't worry, she's already there"

"Arey par WHY the hell are we having lunch together? And even if we are, why is Ishita there? And if me and Ishita are having lunch why are YOU there? And if..."

"Bhaai, WHY cant we have lunch?"

Raman gave up. He had ALL the annoying mindless people in the world be a part of his life.

As soon as they reached the restaurant, it didn't even take a minute for Raman to scan the crowd and get his eyes held at the epitome of divine simplicity sitting right there, across the room by the window. The blinds were half closed and so they let a bit of sun rays shine on the left side of her face and she was smiling wholeheartedly looking at something. He followed her gaze and looked at that direction. It was a man who was feeding a toddler some mashed potato. A lady was there too, probably the mother of the toddler, who kept the potato from the fries mashed on the guy's plate and he would pick up a small fraction and put it in his mouth for the little one to nibble on. The happy family sight in itself was very warm and heartening and he saw himself smiling to it to. Mihir's voice suddenly broke him from his trance.

"Yeh bhaabi kahan hai, mil hi nahi rahi, I'll call her"

Raman takes the phone from his hands, rolls his eyes and without looking in her direction, points his finger at her. There sat Ishita with the most attractive smile on her face.

"Chalen?' Raman asked him.

"Haan haan chalo bhaai" he said, impressed.

They came there and Mihir lightly hugged her from the back greeting her and then Raman said an awkward "Hi" too and sat on the chair. Suddenly, events of the past night flashed in front of their eyes, adding to the awkwardness. It was another thing when they just had come to have coffees or lunch normally, and THIS after last night, was another thing. Each being aware of the affect they had on each other, maybe not totally but to some extent they were... aware. Those coffees and food they had at restaurants were usually a majboori, or she had something to tell him, so he HAD to become "Rama" for her. This time, it was different. They were Raman and Ishita, and it was awkward and now... Mihir was their only saving grace.

As if on cue, Mihir's phone on the table started vibrating, and he gesture for the waiter to come. While picking up the phone he looked at Ishita and said,

"Bhaai bhabi, you guys order while I attend this..."

It had become obvious by the cheesy dialogues and the ever extending smiles and blushes that they could see on Mihir's face that it had to be none other than Mihika.AWKWARDDD.

Ishita looked at him and broke the silence.

"Kya khaayenge aap?"

He looked at her, they didn't know what was wrong and it was just another day but WHY did it feel so weird?

"Kuch... kuch bhi mangvaalo... non-veg" he said stressing on the non-veg part

Ishita suppressed her smile and shook her head and as she was about to order, Mihir got up.

"Abey, andhe toofaan, kya hua?"

"Woh bhaai... I need to go"

"Need to go matlab?" Ishita interefered

"Need to go matlab, I have to, actually Mihika... umm she got her lunch break late today, abhi hai, so we wanted to have lunch..."

"Ohhh" ishita winked, and being the understanding Bhabi and amazing sister that she was, asked him to go.

"Phir hum bhi chalte hai" Raman told Ishita as Mihir went.

"Haan!?" she said, surprised and disappointed at the same time.

"Kya? Mihir ke saath lunch karna tha woh chalagaya toh abhi hum kya Karen?'

Ishita was furious. Hes trying to show like its such a liability and disenchanting to sit here and have lunch with her!?

"Khaana khaane aaye thay na? toh khaa k chalejaayenge, and Don't worry, main AAPKO nahi khaungi, kya hai na, im VEG!" She said,

and she WAS annoyed now, Big time!

"But khair, aapko jana hi hai toh chalte hai, your office is at the other side completely, but its okay, I'll drop you" She deliberately brought about that point so she could stress on her favour.

Just then she spotted someone that brought a huge grin on her face and and hurriedly walked to them. Raman was still sitting there confused at what made her jump to them so happily.

She was chirpily talking to them, she shook hands with the taller guy and gave him a hug.

A HUG!? Why did she have to HUG that random guy? Wasn't the handshake enough? Raman's brainy commentary was on overdrive as he keenly observed his wife's every action. Did she just FLIRTILY (very playfully) hit him on his shoulder? Like she hit him the other night? WAS NOT THAT RESERVED FOR HIM? All this was getting him annoyed.

He then saw Ishita and co approaching him. He made a better face and adjusted to sit straight on his chair.

"Raman! Meet them, this is Rakesh, and his brother Ramesh. He was my closest friend, after Subbu" she smiled.

Raman held out a hand to each of them one at a time to shake.

"Rakesh... this is Raman, my husband" she finished with a content smile, by then Raman had gotten up too.

"Ishita? Ooh okay, this has definitely come forth as a surprise, who on EARTH would have thought that Ishita Iyer would NOT get married to Subramanyam? Like I could seriously picture your kids even back then!" He winked and laughed.

It definitely made both, Raman and Ishita uncomfortable.

"Honestly, its good in a way that you left him, remember what a hitler his mom was!?" He started laughing again.

Raman interrupted,

"Ofcourse it IS good ISHITA LEFT HIM... how would I have gotten married to my perfect match then!?" he pulled ishita close and put a hand around her shoulders. he ended the sentence with a wink and Ishita was taken aback but her insides were jumping with joy and excitement listening to it, feeling it... she also noticed how he stressed on the ISHITA LEAVING HIM part instead of what the actual case was. She was happy.

But then, the Jhansi Ki Rani in her struck, and she turned to Raman and said:

"Suniye, you wanted to go na? here take my keys, you came with Mihir, yeah? I'll have lunch with them and go home straight"

He smiled to hide the annoyance and with the smile intact and gritted teeth, he said:

"Arey Ishita, how will you come home then? Its okay we'll have lunch here... your friends can also join us" He said making a hidden disgusted face BUT with a smile, enough for only Ishita to decipher that he was annoyed/disgusted.

Ishita was enjoying it. Raman still had his arms around her and with every word he spoke, he held her tighter, as much as she was enjoying it, she didn't want to do any drama in front of her old friend and his brother, so they decided to have lunch together.

Raman observed how she was so playful and different with them.

Itne saalon baad milrahi hai, koi awkwardness dikh hi nahi rahi. Jhansi Ki Rani. Saari awkwardness yaheen ke liye hai sirf shayad. He inwardly gestured and pointed at himself And then his inner voice spoke, tu Ravan Kumar banker dara kar rakhega toh yehi hoga!

"Shut up!" He said aloud, and suddenly there was silence, everyone on the table looked at him.

Ishita touched his arm and asked, "Kya hua Raman?" She was wide-eyed.

Shit! He had actually asked his inner voice to shut up. That too ALOUD. He mentally smacked his head and then started fidgeting with the Bluetooth in his ear.

"Nah... nothing, I was on the phone" He smiled at Ishita.

She nodded and they all got back to what they were doing. And him... well he got back to what he was doing too... yes... staring at his wife... and not just her FACE this time...