Chapter 40
'Viren, tu koi zaroori kaam kar raha hai?' Viren turned at the sound of his mum's voice behind him. It had been an hour since he'd got home and he'd been walking around in a daze the whole time; just now he'd been standing at his window thinking about Nivi when his mum had interrupted him. 'Maa, main woh..' before he could think of something suitably important his mum cut him off, 'Accha woh sab chod, tu chal mere saath, mujhe kuch kaam hai!'
Viren sighed; if she didn't care what she he'd been doing, why did she even ask?! 'Maa...' before he could argue she shook her head and grabbed his arm pulling him out of the room with her. 'Iss waqt kya kaam hai Maa?!' It wasn't late at all really but he didn't feel like doing anything, he was waiting till he could call Nivi...'Viren? Tu sun raha hai naa?' Viren blinked; they were downstairs already and his mum had been pointing at some baskets of fruit other things on the coffee table.
'Umm yeh fruit basket?' He asked hopefully, thinking maybe she wanted him to do something with them. His mum sighed, 'Yeh sab humme Sharma's ke yahaan le kar jaana hai Viren...' she explained that they were for Naintara Dadi because they were going to see her since she'd come back from the hospital but Viren wasn't really listening, all he'd heard was they were going to Nivi's house. 'Tu chal raha hai ya phir main Siddarth ko bulaoon?'
'Nahi Maa!!' His mum looked surprised and Viren realised he'd yelled; he quietened his voice as he said, 'I mean, main chal tha hoon naa...' he smiled as normally as he could at her and she frowned but pointed at the things she wanted to take as Vandana came out and asked if they were ready. Sid came into the room too and Vandana asked him if he wanted to go; it looked like he was about to say no but Viren had a sudden thought that Divya would probably be there so he joined in saying Sid should come too and he gave in.
Viren couldn't believe his luck but now they were all just standing around and he was getting impatient. 'Accha ab chalte hai!' He picked up a basket and then moved towards the door. 'Viren ruk toh! Hum Maa ka bhi intezaar kar rahe hai.' He made an impatient noise and his mum frowned again, 'Tujhe ho kya gaya hai Viren? Pehle aana nahi chahta tha aur ab intezaar hi nahi ho raha..?!' Before he could say anything, he noticed Dadi had come and joined them. 'Thank you Dadima!' He was so relieved she hadn't taken too long, he hugged her while she looked surprised and then said, 'Ab chale?!'
'Nivi!...yeh tu kya kar rahi hai! Tera dyaan kaha hai beta?!' Nivi jumped and looked down at Dadi's words; she was making soup for her and it had started bubbling over without her noticing even though she'd been standing right above it. She quickly lowered the gas and then made an excuse to Dadi who shook her head, 'Tu kisi baat ko leke pareshaan hai?'
Dadi was asking it sweetly but Nivi felt herself start to blush and she quickly turned back to the soup saying 'Nahi Dadi, woh main kaam ke baare mein soch rahi thi...' She felt bad lying to her; she wasn't used to it but she couldn't tell her she'd been thinking about Viren. She hadn't been able to think about anything else since he'd gone and now she tried to focus on the soup as she told Dadi to go and rest in the other room till she brought it out.
As Dadi left, Nivi sighed in relief and told herself to pay attention to what she was doing and leave thinking about Viren till later. She couldn't help it though; he kept popping into her head at every opportunity and every time she had a free second she kept thinking about what had happened that evening, she still couldn't quite believe it.
After she'd come into the house, she'd stood in the kitchen for a few minutes trying to calm her racing heart before going out to see Dadi and her father; she'd made sure Dadi was comfortable before she went into her room and read and re-read Viren's note to remind herself it was all real. Just thinking about it made her heart beat faster again and she couldn't help smiling. She turned the gas under the soup off and turned to see Divya coming into the kitchen.
'Nivi, I heard about Dadi...I'm so sorry I wasn't here; aaj hi jaana tha Maa ko shopping!' She hugged Nivi and rolled her eyes when she spoke about her mum and then suddenly looked at Nivi's face. 'Wait...tujhe kya hua?!' Nivi tried to look innocent but there was no way she could hide anything from Divya and she couldn't get rid of the smile either, 'Kuch nahi Di...'
Divya shook her head, there was something Nivi wasn't telling her, she looked way too happy and her eyes were sparkling and there was just something about her...'You're not fooling me Nivi, what happened?! I heard Dadi tell Maa that Viren brought you back from the hospital...Oh My God! Nivi!!!' At Viren's name Nivi's smile had doubled and her cheeks had gone pink and Divya suddenly knew there must have been some major developments and she couldn't contain her excitement as she grabbed Nivi's hands.
'Sssh Di, you're yelling!' Nivi quickly looked through the open door at the other room and then said, 'Come on, I'll tell you in my room but you have to act normal till we get there!' Divya's eyes widened and for a second her imagination started going crazy 'Oh my god Nivi, you didn't kiss him did you?!' Nivi looked shocked for a minute and then hit her on the arm and Divya started laughing, 'Oww, I was just joking...and by the way you've gone all red again!' She rubbed her arm as they left the kitchen but they hadn't gone far when they heard the doorbell ring.