Chapter 9

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Part 9

"Ma! Meri who Blue waali dupatta kahan gayi?!" Sonakshi yelled while ruffling through her closet full of clothes. Such a funny thing this was. Her closet was almost bursting with the amount of clothes it had, but she didn't deem even one of them fit for wearing today. After all she had to go to the Dixit Mansion today and her nerves were giving her a tough time. Sonakshi's favourite colour was blue and it had never ever failed her. So, she had decided to go for her favourite blue long kurti teamed with leggings and her pretty blue dupatta. But God never listened to her at the right moment because of which now she couldn't find that dupatta anywhere. As she continued her frantic search, Asha entered the room.

"Ki holo Shona? (what happened Shona?) Kyun chilla rahi hai?" Asha said, surprised to see such an anxious Sonakshi. As far as she knew her daughter was calm and collected in all situations. But Asha didn't know that calm and collected had become a foreign word to her daughter since she had met Dev. "Ma! Mujhey blue dupatta nahin mil rahi hai!" Sonakshi said desperately. Asha just laughed at her daughter, walked to the couch opposite Sonakshi's bed and picked up the blue dupatta lying there. "Eta Ki? (What is this?)" Asha said pointing a finger at the dupatta and laughing. Sonakshi sighed and hit herself on the head and slowly approached Asha with an embarrassed expression. "Sorry Ma, Tension me bhool gayi ki maine kal raat already issey nikaal ke rakha tha" se said nodding her head at herself. "Arey koi baat nahin. Tension me hota hai aisa. Waise tension kis baat ki hai Shona?" she asked her daughter.

Sonakshi quickly put on the dupatta and walked to her dressing table and looked for her lucky watch. "Woh Ma, mujhey aaj Dev, I mean Mr. Dixit ke ghar jaana hai. Unhey kuch important cheezein discuss karna hai. Par main kabhi Dixit Mansion nahin gayi hoon naah. Toh thodi si nervous hoon. Plus, presentable bhi toh lagna chahiye naah" Sonakshi said putting on the second earring. Asha laughed seeing her daughter so nervous. But she didn't want to tease her and increase the nervousness. So, she left her alone and exited the room. Sonakshi quickly checked through her bag. She had printed all the important documents last night. As she finished checking a car honked outside their house. Sonakshi jumped up. "Taratari karo Sona, (Hurry up Sona) Mr.Dixit ki car aa gayi!" she said to herself and ran out of her room with her bag in one hand and her phone in the other. She made her way to the breakfast table and greeted her family members with a quick kiss on their cheeks. Explaining that she was getting late, she picked up a sandwich and ran out the door.

It seemed like she was doing that lot these days, running out the door. And it was all Mr.Dixit's fault. Spotting the white car, she speed walk towards it. As Sonakshi approached the Mohan, the driver, greeted her. "Good Morning Madam, Dev Sir ne bheja hai mujhey" he said tipping his hat at Sonakshi. Sonakshi quickly nodded and said "Good Morning. Haan haan, unhoney bataya tha mujhey. Chaliye." She got into the car and put her bag on her lap. As the car moved forward she bit into the sandwich and immediately she was reminded of the incident last night. "Ab Coffee ke saath saath sandwich khatein huye bhi mujhey Dev ki yaad aaney lagi hai" Sonakshi said to herself softly.

She had given up fighting with her mind. No matter how many times she scolded herself, she would end up calling him Dev, obviously only when she was alone. She would rather die before she called him Dev face to face. After all he had a fiance. A pretty, successful, intelligent and rich fiance. Perfect for him. Now that she though about it, there was no point dressing up so much because Dev would never look at her that way. He had already found someone. Sonakshi finished her last bit of sandwich as her mood plummeted down. All that happiness and nervousness dissipated at she realised she was only going to work. This wasn't a special family meeting. It was not like she hadn't known that. But it had only sunk in now as she was five minutes away from Dixit Mansion, in Dev's car. "Tomar matha kharap Sona (you are mad Sona)" she said to herself, "Unkey barein me mat socho" she tried coaxing herself. "Unki shaadi hone waali hai" she thought sadly as Dixit Mansion came into view. "Who tumharey barein me nahin sochtey, toh tum kyun soch rahi ho" she concluded wiping a small tear and sat up straight to look composed. But Sonakshi had no clue that she wasn't exactly correct in her deductions, because Dev's mind was a completely different story.

Dev paced his room from one end to another. "Yeh Dr. Bose aab tak ayi kyun nahin?" Looking at his phone he realized there was still five minutes left to ten. He nodded his head. "Pagal ho tum Dev" he said to himself in the mirror. "Aa jayegi woh. Tum kyun itna uchhal rahey ho" he berated himself. He hadn't been able to sleep all night. Thoughts of Sonakshi continued to plague his mind and he just could not understand why. He was supposed to go for a day out with Natasha today, which is why he had taken a day off from office. But seeing Sonakshi last night had made him do weird things. He had thought of a plan to meet her on a day off and go as far as to bring her to his house with the stupid excuse of some discussion, only because he didn't want to miss seeing her one whole day. And the most confusing part was he hadn't felt even slightly guilty on cancelling his plans with Natasha. Instead he was somewhat relieved.

As Dev pondered over his weird demeanour towards Sonakshi, Sonakshi entered the Dixit Mansion downstairs. Keechu Bhaiya, the Dixit's help walked towards the door, "Aap Dr. Bose hain?" he asked her politely. Sonakshi smiled "Haan." "Aie Doctor Didi. Bhaiya ne aapko yahan bithaney ko kahan hai. Main unhey bulakey lata hoon" he left Sonakshi on the couch to call Dev. At that moment, Riya raced out of her room, to leave for work. "Arey Dr. Bose aap aa gayi!" Riya said excitedly. "Achha huya aap mujhey jaatein jaatein mil gayi!" she said sitting down beside Sonakshi. Sonakshi smiled at her and said "Haan." "Ma, Nikki, Neha Di! Dr. Bose aa gayi!" Riya yelled at the top off her lungs. While Sonakshi was surprised by this, Dev jumped up from his bed. "Dr. Bose aa gayi!" He ran to the mirror, checked his shirt and hair. Just then. Keechu Bhaiya entered his room saying, "Bhaiyya, who Doctor Didi aa gayi." "Haan Haan. Main aa raha hoon" he said dismissing him. Making a thumbs up sign to himself in the mirror he walked out of his room. Downstairs, Ishwari, Dev's mother, came out of the kitchen followed by Neha, while Nikki came out of her room. All of them sat around Sonakshi on the couch. Sonakshi got up and touched Ishwari's feet. "Namastey aunty" she said with a small smile, but inside she was dying of nervousness. She hated being the centre of attention. "Namaste Beta. Tumharey baarein me bohot suna hai. Riya se bhi aur dev toh kehta hi rehta hai" and Sonakshi turned red with embarrassment. Dev! Why did he keep praising her? This made things so much more difficult for her.

Seeing Sonakshi embarrassed Ishwari assumed that she was embarrassed by compliments. So she laughed and said "Arey Beta sharmao mat. Achhey kaam ke liye to acchi batein hi kahan jaata hai naah" Sonakshi smiled again. Ishwari ji seemed like a nice person. "Arey Nahin aunty. Yeh toh mera farz hai. Logon ka khayal rakhna" she said making it sound like it was no big deal. "Arey nahin beta. Sab itney achhey se nahin kar patein. Aur maine suna hai ki tum kuch hi din huye aai ho par sab tumharey kaam se behad khush hai." Sonakshi didn't know what to say to that, so she just kept quiet. "Waise tum yahan kabse rehti ho? Bangali ho naah tum?" Ishwari enquired. "Haan aunty. Main Bengali hoon. Main toh bachpan se yahin rehti hoon. Par ma baba Kolkata me rehtey the shaadi se pehley. Phir shaadi ke baad job ke silsiley me yahan Delhi aye. Uske baad main payda hui. So tabsey yahin hai. Mere Dada ka bachpan Kolkata me hi guzra" Sona explained.

"Phir padhai bhi yahin ki hogi?" Ishwari asked. Sonakshi agreed and told her about her college days and her studies to become a nutritionist and Ishwari's smile grew wider with each sentence. She was impressed. Sonakshi was such a sweet and hardworking girl. If only Dev had not signed the contract with the Gujaral's. Oh! She promised Dev to never think of it. Anyway, it was already done. No point thinking over it now. As they chatted some more with Sonakshi, Dev came downstairs. "Good morning Dr. Bose" he greeted her directly ignoring everyone else. Sonakshi was so engrossed in her fun conversation with Nikki, Riya and Neha that she jumped slightly hearing Dev's voice. "G-Good Morning Mr. Dixit." She retuned his greeting. But Sonakshi was not the only one stunned at Dev's greeting. All three of his sister's and Ishwari were looking at him with wide eyes and jaws hanging open. No matter what happened or who Dev was meeting, he always wished his mother first. But today he completely ignored her. Ishwari looked first at Dev and then at Sonakshi and slowly smiled. She knew what these two didn't at this point. And she hoped that she was right.

Dev asked Sonakshi to join him in the garden so that they could "discuss" about those papers. Sonakshi agreed, excused herself from the group and followed Dev to the garden. She was terrible at handling herself when Dev's entire attention was solely on her. Her heart ran out of control and made her to stupid things. They sat down at the garden table and Sonakshi took out the papers and a pen. But in a hurry, she clumsily dropped the pen on the ground. Seeing Sonakshi flustered Dev smiled to himself and bent down to pick up the pen at the same time Sonakshi did and bumped his head with her. "Ouch!" Sonakshi yelped. "Sorry sorry Dr. Bose" Dev apologised, but before he could say anything else, Sonakshi brought his head towards her with her hand and bumped them a second time and instantly turned red. "Who, do baar nahin kartey toh seengh nikal aatey" she said to him seriously and Dev just stared at her.

Their faces were still a few inches away from each other and on realising that Sonakshi's mind started screaming at her to move away. But she couldn't.

It was like, Dev had her locked in a spell with his gaze.

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Aaaj ke liye itna hi!

Next update hopefully on saturday!

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