Chapter 1
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The sun was about to set in New York City. He hastened towards his car, but with the precision of an athlete. Drops of water still clung to the ends of his slightly-too-long hair, framing perfectly his sharply handsome features. He had showered not too long ago before he exited the gym. Adi Mehra scanned the parking lot absent-mindedly. He knew that none of his friends came to this particular gym and that he would recognize nobody here, but that's what he liked about it. He needed that little bit of solitude. He worked out not for vanity, but for the release of raw energy. There were tensions that he couldn't name, that exercise helped subside. It was a coping mechanism, you could say. In any case it helped him unwind from the stress of his work since he worked as a financial trader on Wall Street.
He opened the car, feeling mildly annoyed at how his shower had done little to cool the warmth in his muscles. He sat down and leaned his head back with eyes shut tightly. The image of her face was still stuck in his eyes. He could just
sensesmall fragments of her voice, as if he could feel the minute sound waves touching the air around him. His irritation at this memory of her only made it stronger. The images of her collapsed with his long-buried desires. Dreams of his lips rustling against her skin. Things that never happened, but still… He brought his head forward, pulling himself out of the reverie. He gathered himself and started the car. Maithili Mishra continued to lurk in the folds of his memory as the ignition brought the engine alive.
* * *
Maithili re-dipped the tea bag into the steaming mug. She pulled it out one final time, discarding it to the side. The aroma rose up from the mug and greeted her. As she inhaled it, she returned to the thoughts that preoccupied her all week. Thoughts about
him. She had added him on Facebook, as if connecting with an old friend rather casually. It was not casual, of course. Things never were when it came to him. She re-adjusted the dark rectangular frames of her glasses out of habit. She smiled as she recollected old memories.
Adi and Maithili studied at the same college in Bangalore. He was three years her senior, but the little time they spent in the same compound together was eventful. All in all, they barely got along. But that was all in the distant past. The memories most fresh in her mind were from three years ago, during a road trip with a large group of friends where she met him again. After the initial ruffling of each other's feathers they finally settled down, got comfortable, even friendly. Their friends teased them about the undeniable chemistry between the two.
Maithili and Adi had to admit this chemistry to themselves too, especially when they got lost.. well, separated, from their friends for the last week. Her smile grew wider when she recollected this. How stubborn she had been, how obnoxious, even. And he had put up with her with a lot more gentleness and humility than she had expected from the oh-so-cool Adi Mishra. His bad-boy personality in college had irked her, so much so that even if she found him charming at times, she never admitted it.
Maithili's assistant Natasha walked into Maithili's office, interrupting her thoughts. True to her profession and personality, Maithili's office had the chaotic atmosphere of art. The narrow exit of her office extended into a gallery space on Queen Street. It was Toronto's most artistic streets, lined with one gallery after another. Maithili lived in a loft not too far from the gallery.
"Ready for the big opening?" asked Natasha.
Maithili's work was set to have an opening at a prestigious art gallery. The stress was high for both Maithili and Natasha, especially the latter because it was her job to coordinate and organize all of the details.
"Sure, it'll be fine," Maithili smiled with an absent minded calmness that she had cultivated over the past couple of years. She had learned to channel her intensity into her art, and learned to relax and calm down about the other things in life. Or at least she tried.
"Better than fine. It will be fantastic. Because you, dear woman, are a fantastic artist, a true visionary…" Natasha trailed off, toning it down a little because she knew her boss's nature to be critical of compliments.
Maithili took a final look at the computer window open in her before closing the Mac notebook shut.
She had been looking at Adi's profile.
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