He drove in silence, still not trusting himself to speak. He could feel her staring at him nervously, but she too remained quiet. Finally he pulled the car over and turned it off. Unbuckling his seatbelt, he got out, went to the other side and opened the passenger door. He waited while she removed her seatbelt, and held out his hand.

As they strolled side by side through the park not speaking, it took some minutes before the tranquility of their surroundings finally put him in a place where he, at long last, felt in control enough to consider the subject at hand.

"Now Rachna, tell me in the simplest of terms why I shouldn't be absolutely furious with you right now."

"KT, I haven't done anything wrong, in fact..."

Kabir stopped and turned to face her, and placing his finger under her chin, raised her face up towards his. Shaking his head slightly, he spoke, "Wrong answer, Sweetheart, definitely the wrong answer. Try again."

"Yes, well anyone knowing would have been better than the alternative you left us with. Do you realize how worried everyone was for you; your sister, your friend?  Rachna I'm even willing to remove my worry from the equation for now, but how could you do that to them, hmm? Do you realize only because Naomi happened to hear where you planned to go; did we even have an idea where to come and look for you?"

Petulantly, she crossed her arms, "I was only a phone call away, why didn't any of you bother trying calling me?"

Rachna giggled nervously, "I take it that you've figured out who he is then?"

"Rachna, you have to realize that you are not doing anything to help your case."

It was her turn to walk up to him. "My case, so by that definition I should have a say in this discussion, right KT?"

"What?"

"As in, now you will listen to my side of story, and maybe you will thank me afterwards." Rachna said, punctuating every word with a poke to his chest.

Kabir reached for her errant finger, before responding, "That remains to be seen, but tell me'"

Kabir's expression told exactly what he thought of that suggestion, "And why would we even consider meeting him later?"

"We need to go over the plan, KT, to prove to his mother that I'm not perfect."

"She only need to see you now, Rachna, to figure that out."

"Okay make jokes, but KT, don't you get it, Shekhar doesn't want to marry me either, isn't that wonderful; it's his mother that's the problem. "

"His mother is his problem, Rachna, not ours. Let him deal with his own issues."

"Well, that's actually not the only thing he needs help with; there's also Neeta."

"I shouldn't even ask, but who is Neeta?"

"The one he loves; she just needs a little encouragement to realize this."

"Which will be accomplished how?"

"Well when she realizes his intent to marry me of course. It'll actually be very simple, my parents have told me to try to get to know him, so when Neeta sees me with Shekhar, then..."

"Don't tell me anymore; you're not going anywhere near him."

Rachna smiled at him indulgently, and reached out to hug him, "You are being very silly, but I must say you are awfully sweet when you're jealous, Mr. Tripathi." She said resting her head against his chest. "Just think of it as insurance to however you are handling things, plus we will be helping Shekhar in getting his own happy ending."

"I still don't see why we should be the ones to help him." 

Pulling away from him, Rachna looked up at him, "How about just because sometimes people need a little help to get what they want. After all, didn't we ourselves?"

Knowing she had convinced him to at least consider what she was saying, she smiled, "That's because you are stubborn, but don't worry it will come to you in the end."

crtkelly2014-08-20 17:08:16