Blast from the past
Khushi looked at the figure of her sleeping daughter and
thought of the day. It had been an exhausting day. She had been called to work
on Saturday. She had to leave Rena with her elderly aunt, which had been a
battle.
"Why do I have to stay with nani? I am nine, can take care
of myself." Rena had said.
"We have had this discussion before."Khushi had replied.
"I wanna talk about it now." Rena argued.
"Can we do it in the afternoon? Please, pretty please." She
had been desperate. She could not have left her alone in the home and she has had to leave immediately only then would she have made it to the client meeting on time.
Looking at her pleading face, her stubborn daughter had thawed a
bit.
"Ok, but only if I
get my favourite ice-cream," she said winking at Khushi.
"Ok done. But only one."
When she had finally
reached the office, she was called directly to Mayank, her boss's office. As she
stepped over the threshold she noticed the clients were already with Mayank.
They were sitting facing the boss, looked like a rich couple. When she looked a
little more closely, the man looked familiar. She got a tingly feeling and her
gut instinct told her to turn and run and keep running. If only she had
listened.
As she stepped into the room, Mayank introduced her to the
clients.
"Mr Raizada, meet Khushi." Mayank introduced her to the
clients. She stood frozen on the spot. It was a face she had never wanted to
see again. The face of the man who had destroyed everything she held dear.
"Khushi meet Mr Raizada and his associate." Mayank was
saying, "She will assist you."
"Don't you have anybody else?" Arnav demanded.
"She is one of the most experienced employees." Mayank said,
but he was clearly dismayed. "If you can give me a minute, I will brief her."
Arnav gave a hard look and left the office with Lavanya.
Apparently they were still going strong.
"Khushi what is wrong with you? You could have at least
smiled. They are one of our important clients. We get a lot of business from
them." Mayank was saying. When she didn't respond, he touched her on the
shoulder and asked again a little concerned, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing I would do better Mayank. Sorry for the abrupt switch
off. Which properties are we talking about?" she asked Mayank.
"I wish Raj was here. But he had to have flu. Are you also
coming down with it? Better take some meds. I don't want another one of you down."
"Look at this file all the details along with the owner's
details are in it. They were Raj's client. But we don't have much option." She
badly wanted to point out that if he had not been gender biased then they could
very well have had been her clients. But she was left to deal with middle and upper
middle class, the seriously rich were left for the golden boy Raj.
"Ok boss. I got it. See you in a bit."
Arnav and Lavanya were waiting for her beside his chauffeur driven Merc. After giving her a furious look he opened the gate for Lavanya to
get in and went around. She was left to take the seat beside the chauffeur. Not
that she minded, she was glad for a little distance. She was wondering what he
had to be angry about. She was the one who was wronged.
She directed the driver to the address given in the folder.
But halfway there and they got stuck in traffic. Mumbai was like that, always a
traffic jumble. Even the taxis here charged for the time and not the distance. There
meter ran by seconds.
"I have to get down ASR. I have a meeting," Lavanya said to
Arnav.
Arnav just nodded and pointed to the driver to stop at the
curb.
It was a silent ride then on. Both of them were fuming but
neither said a word. It felt like ages but finally they were dropped at the
destination.
"What can you tell me about the property?" Arnav finally
asked. She knew next to nothing. She had never dealt with higher end
properties. She just opened her mouth and closed it again turning pink with embarrassment.
Arnav gave her a furious look, told her to read the folder
in her hands and walked away. Khushi followed. They were greeted by the owner
themselves. Once Khushi introduced Arnav to the owners they took over the
entertaining the great owner of AR group of industries. An hour later she was
wondering how much more time would they take, when they returned.
Arnav looked surprised to find me there.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"My job." she replied tersely. He just took her elbow and
stirred her towards the Merc now waiting by the entrance. When he opened the
back door for her, she resisted and said, "I would take a cab back. I hope you
were satisfied with the services."
"Not yet but I will be." He said with an odd non-smile.
After forcing her in, he got in and indicated to the driver to drive.
"So what have you been doing for the last few years?" He
asked.
"Working," she replied.
"That I can see. But I was wondering what happened to the
settlement money. Don't take me wrong I am glad you are working. But it was a
lot of money." Arnav said.
"What money? I have always worked. I didn't take anything
from you."
"The payoff was worth it." Silence stretched between them. In the
silence she relived the memory of his weight on her, of his lips bruising hers
with passion, of his hands in her hands, laying on the grass aside the Raizada's
private beach. She relived the months of misery after their marriage and the
oblivion of losing a child.
"I didn't need a payoff. I would have run far and wide
without it. I didn't demand any money, nor did I take any. If you would have
given me money to stay, I wouldn't have. I would still have left."
"Can you just drop me here, my office is not far. I can
walk. You would be hearing from Raj on Monday. Goodbye Mr Raizada. "
She got down and went home. The office would have closed by now;
Raj could take care of the mess.
She took Rena to the nearest ice cream parlour, where she
ate her favourite chocolate cone and chattered about school, homework, new
girl, the swing in a nearby park. Khushi took her to that swing and they both
played till evening.
After dinner Rena was sleeping and Khushi was looking at her
wondering what money was Arnav talking about.
Edited by anvha - 8 years ago
comment:
p_commentcount