A couple of days passed in a similar way. In fact they had started to spend more time together in her room. Nothing had changed except that the feelings of intimacy had started to grow.
He called Guru and Tanvi from his hotel room that evening and explained why he was at Pune for a week. He also informed that in past few days she had shown no sign of any weirdness. He thought that she had played a prank on Tanvi and she had fallen for her gag.
Tanvi, however, wasn’t convinced of Chaits’ information and cautioned him against going overboard. She grew more and more concerned and decided that she along with Guru would visit coming weekend to make sure that everything was alright and return with Chaits. They all agreed on this plan of hers.
Chaits continued on the spree of outings with Anjali, spending more and more time with her – actually, more time with her in her room. He wanted to prove Tanvi that her concern was baseless and nothing was wrong with Anjali. He could see that his plan was working and Anjali was normal – not weird…
It was Friday afternoon. They ate their lunch at one of the renowned restaurants in Pune. He suddenly remembered that Tanvi and Guru were supposed to arrive at Pune the next day. He had less than 24hours at hand to look for any sign of weirdness in Anjali…
He told Anjali that he was a bit tired of driving around the city and wanted to sit back and relax. As expected, she suggested that they can sit and relax in her room and he happily agreed.
They arrived at her home and soon were lazily sitting in her room. He relaxed on an easy chair near the entrance door of her room while she sat on the edge of the sofa on the left side of his chair – at the farther end away from him…
She picked up the TV remote and played her favourite music channel and started to sing songs along with the tracks played on the channel. They sat there lazily watching the TV and chatting in between whenever she stopped her singing. He suddenly remembered that there was an international match that was being broadcast ‘live’ on the sports channel. He told her about his desire to watch the live action.
She wasn’t interested in live sporting action and wrinkled her nose at this request from him. Then she decided that she has to start taking interest in the topics that interested him.
She picked up the remote and switched on the sports channel. She smiled at the glint of interest that showed in his eyes. She put down the remote next to her. The channels swapped and the music played again. Chaits looked at her irritated expression as she picked up the remote and put on, the sports channel again. She sat there asking him questions to understand the rules and follow the game.
He was happy to see her take interest and proceeded to educate her about the game, its rules and how it is played. After a while she started to get bored of watching the game and longed to play the music channel. All this time she was holding the remote, her hand resting on her lap.
Wearily, she put the remote on the sofa, next to her and the TV switched on the music channel… Chaits looked at her a bit irritated – the match was at an interesting point.
“Stop it! Sunny!” she said curtly, “he wants to watch the game and I want to watch him watching the game.” She picked up the remote and switched back the sports channel.
The floor below Chaits seemed to disappear along with the easy chair he occupied. After all, Tanvi was correct in her reading. Anjali did speak to ‘Imaginary Sunny’ when she was in her room.
“Sunny?” he finally managed to utter his name in a low voice.
“Yes… Sunny!!” she said giving him a broad smile, “I always tell my parents that every girl like me should be blessed with a best friend like him” then she suddenly sounded irritated, “No. Sunny … You never can be my boyfriend.”
Chaits looked around in the room and saw everything else except Sunny.
“Where’s Sunny?”
“Oh! He is standing next to you. He is teasing me about falling in love with you…”
He didn’t know what to say or how to react – he very well could see that she was imagining Sunny in that room.
To steer the conversation away, he casually asked her, “The day I left our college, I saw you looking at me through the window of your classroom. Then, Sunny suddenly appeared next to you. You both spoke to each other and he pulled you away from the window. That was the last I saw you and him.”
“I always wanted to tell you what happened on that day. But people – especially my parents – they don’t want me to think or speak about that day.”
“Why?”
“It’s a long story.” She started and stopped as she saw him get up and in a pose to open the door to leave. “Do you want to hear it now? – or if, you don’t – let me know – but I got a request – please don’t get brainwashed by my parents – You’re the one I love – You’re the one I care for – the only one I trust and my only fear of losing…”
She was now tense and sad. A tear rolled sown her cheek even as he opened the door of her room, ready to leave – back to his hotel…
He couldn’t think of anything. He was at loss of words and action. After a long moment, he shut the door and approached her. He took her trembling hands in to his own and held them lovingly. She looked at him – sadness and fright of losing him was clearly visible in her eyes, even as few more tears rolled down her cheeks.
He gently pulled at her hands and she put them around him in a tight hug as if, she never would let him go out of her sight. She looked at him, her eyes begging him to trust her and not walk out on her. He bent down and kissed her quavering lips gently to reassure her that he loved her – still the same…
Her hands released their tightness of hug around him as her mind sensed that his feelings of love for her had not changed. She kissed him back more affectionately, her eyes full of love oozing out for him…
“I’d love to hear what happened that day, but, not now. Guru and Tanvi will be reaching here tomorrow morning. Let’s go out – all of us together – somewhere where you can relate what happened at that time…”
‘Do I have to tell it when everyone is around? Why not when just you and me are here?”
“Sweetheart, they are our family. Guru is more than my brother and Tanvi – I respect her as I respect my mom. I don’t hide anything from them – neither do they hide anything from me. I want you to be a part of our family and feel it…”
She looked at him begging him to change his decision and hear her out – alone. She looked at him for one long moment and knew he won’t budge from his decision. Finally, she agreed.
“Good girl.” He said and smiled. He gently kissed her again, “I got to go now. Have to rest and pick them up tomorrow morning from the bus stand. I’ll let you know what time we will pick you up from your house. Let’s enjoy the day – okay?”
Reluctantly – she let him go, her heart sinking with the thought that she may never see him again. She stood there looking blankly even as he picked up his stuff.
“Please don’t forget to let me know your plan – I’ll be waiting for your call.” she said.
He nodded and left her room. She rushed to the window and looked at his car parked below. She saw him get in and drive off. He had forgotten to look at the window and float a flying kiss toward her.
Her heart sank as all kinds of negative thoughts swirled in her mind. She started feeling and almost to a guarantee that she would not be seeing him again. She started to weep and sank on her knees in the corner next to the window.
“Don’t touch me…” she said between her sobs, “I call you as my best friend. You say that you always want to see me happy and smile. Now look – what you have done… You have made me sad. Look at me – I’m weeping because of you. I hate you – Sunny…” she looked at the door and was up in a flash, “No you are not going out behind him. I swear I’ll hurt myself dangerously if you do that…”
It was late in the evening, Anjali’s mom called her for her dinner. She didn’t respond. She sat there in the dark corner, waiting for his call or a message. She finally lay down and went to sleep. Her mom was accustomed to such behaviour from her and entered her room with plate of her dinner. She kept it on the writing desk that was in the other corner of the window and left without bothering to ask her if something was wrong.
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