Abhi-Pragya FF: Rockstar (COMPLETE- ALL PARTS ON PAGE 64) - Page 33

I was missing him.

It had only been 3 days, but I had to count every moment for it to pass.

Since I had taken off for those 3 days to take care of Daadi, I had all more time to deal with.

The day Abhishek was supposed to come back, Mitali Bhabhi had asked me to participate in her kitty party.

Sitting amongst other women in the kitty party, my thoughts circled around Abhishek. It didn't help that I was even wearing the saree gifted by him going by the kitty party theme of shades of red. Andy had designed a sleeveless blouse for it, which I wasn't used to. But I couldn't deny I felt something better about my body ever since that night and even spent half an hour dressing myself up which was a shock to me.

However, my mind was in a mess. It jumped between opposite thoughts. On one hand, I felt whatever had happened meant something; it would lead into something substantial. But on the other hand I was ready to face that it was just that moment and the moment was not meant to be. I had reminisced several moments I had spent with Abhishek over the last few months and that hadn't helped me either to feel this way or that way for it was all such mixed signals, perhaps skewed to negative.

Yet, the point was I missed him. I just wanted to see him again, no matter what he thought of that night.

He had called home a couple of times and he had forgotten his mobile phone at home, in his hurry. Whenever he had called, I was with Daadi and we mostly talked her health or his album release and he seemed very busy.

Of course he would be busy. In those three days he was going to be away, it was a 20-hour flight each way, and then he had the music album release, press conferences, parties and interviews to take care of. It seemed like the controversy that surrounded him was solving too along with the album release.

I didn't have a plan as to how I was going to talk to him when he was going to be back in the house. I decided I would do that based on his reactions. I kept telling my heart to be ready for the worst.

But my heart had a mind of its own and shamelessly craved for him.

It was about time for Abhishek's arrival and the kitty party ladies had left for their homes. But even before Abhishek arrived, we had a guest brought by Aakash.

Everyone seemed to be surprised to see him. The moment that person saw Daadi, he came running to touch her feet and apologized.

Mitali Bhabhi narrated to me the story of this man when I went to help her with making tea. The man was Purab Khanna, Abhishek's best friend from childhood, who also managed his celebrity career. He was engaged to Aaliyah but he called off the engagement for some unknown reason. And that had soured Abhishek and his 20-year old friendship. Purab hadn't shown his face to the Mehras for two years ever since.

"Namastey Bhabhi", Purab greeted me as I served tea.

Daadi introduced me to Purab and he said he had known me already for he had followed Abhishek on media all this while. He told me he was very nervous about meeting Abhishek.

Sometime later, we could hear cars parking outside and we knew Abhishek was home. Purab said he doesn't want to shock Abhishek right away and told us he would be in the terrace and we should let him know once Abhishek settles down.

Akash cheered as Abhishek walked in and Daadi and the kids went to hug him. I stood at a distance and we smiled at each other when our eyes met.

He walked towards me and gave me a side hug saying "how are you, Chashmish?". Before I replied to him, he was looking at a wine bottle on the tea table, which I thought Purab had brought.

"Is Purab here?", Abhishek asked abruptly.

"Who got this wine? Only he gets this wine for me.. only he knows... where is he?", Abhishek looked around.

Daadi explained to Abhishek that Purab wanted to make amends and had apologized to her. She advised him to not blow up things and let the past resentment behind. Upon learning Purab was in the terrace, Abhishek ran upstairs.

Daadi more or less gave me the same story about Purab as described by Mitali Bhabhi except that she also noted how Purab was one of the few people who genuinely cared for Abhishek.

Abhishek and Purab did not come downstairs even after an hour. The family had dinner and I also made Daadi eat given she needed to take medicine. Everyone was ready to sleep but the two men didn't come down from the terrace.

Aakash suggested that we take their dinner upstairs. I got the dinner plates ready. Aakash grabbed water, glasses and the wine bottle.

"After all, relationships aren't forced, Purab. Stop feeling guilty, it's not your fault. Leave it all behind yaar", I heard Abhishek say as I walked the steps to the terrace. Purab seemed to be in tears, Abhishek didn't seem all right either.

"You should have dinner", I said placing the plates on the small table.

"Hey Purab, did you meet Chashmish?", Abhishek said changing things into a lighter mood.

"Pragya Bhabhi? I already met her", Purab tried to ignore my nickname courtesy Abhishek.

"Thanks guys, you got food here. Purab and I used to eat, drink and even sleep here sometimes", Abhishek remembered.

"Yes Bhai, let's live the old times", Purab joined hands.

"Enjoy your meal", I decided to leave the friends on their own but Abhishek asked Aakash and me to join them for dinner.

Aakash said he had already eaten but he would accompany them for the wine. I lied that I had eaten too not wanting to interfere between them and walked down.

It was almost midnight but Abhishek still didn't come to the room. Although I didn't know the details I knew there was something deep that Purab and Abhi were dealing with. I couldn't eat or sleep because I was just feeling jittery over everything. I sat on the bed in Abhishek's room, resting my back on the headboard browsing random things on my iPad. I set an alarm for 6 am for I had an early morning exam duty to fulfill the next day.

The next thing my mind realized was being drawn to the warmth by my side, I was snuggling to it in a moment between sleep and alertness.

"What are you doing Chashmish, soney do na (let me sleep)", when I heard Abhishek's voice I was almost awake.

It was dark except for the little moonlight that peeped through the half open window. I realized I was sleeping in Abhishek's arms. The last I remembered was browsing, sitting on the bed.

Abhishek's hold around me got tighter. "Aaahh", I couldn't help a moan when he caught my earlobe between his teeth.

"Missed me?", Abhishek mumbled nuzzling my neck. Our lips were on each other's before I could gather words to say something.

"You look gorgeous in this saree", Abhishek said between the kisses with his toes sliding up my leg moving the saree along.

I probably had transformed from a state of half asleep to trance when Abhishek's hands took over his toes and slid further up my thigh, while his mouth struggled with my blouse.

No voice of reason warned me, no logic mattered to me as I completely surrendered to his prompts putting my three days worth of dilemma and thoughts to a shame.

The need of bodies or the yearning of souls? I didn't care either ways.

But that's not how I felt when I woke up in the morning. I was deeply perturbed and angry. I couldn't believe I let it happen again without even talking a word about it. Abhishek was still sleeping like a baby and I felt like wanting to shake him to awareness and ask for answers.

But before I did that, rang my alarm. I snoozed it, remembered my exam duty and quickly got ready. Abhishek still had slept while I decided to leave for work. I put a blanket on Abhishek to cover his naked form since I was going out of the room. I still didn't want to leave him naked while I left the room, so I fiddled with the latch to see if I could lock it from outside while he could still open it from inside.

"Good morning Chashmish", came his lazy voice.

"Thank God you are up. I didn't want to.. I got to go, have an exam duty, I am late", I said and turned to leave.

"What, wait Chashmish, I have something important to talk to you", Abhishek said rubbing his eyes.

"Me too, but not right now. I have to go", I said looking back and turning to leave again.

"We can't do this every night and...not talk about it. Come on Chashmish, we need to sort this out. It has gotten complicated now. This is not what I...you know what, I am like freaking out with this", he sat up.

"I want to talk about it too, but right now, please let me go. I will be very late", I said in a hurry.

"What time will you be free?" he asked finding his shirt.

"After 11", I replied.

"Okay, this will be sorted out by the evening. I will make sure we do", he said determinedly.

"Thanks, bye for now", I walked out of the room in a hurry.

My exam duty was very busy with one set of students demanding sheets over sheets and another set playing tricks with chits. But at the back of my mind, I was dying to go through what Abhishek termed as sorting out.

When I finally finished my duty and went to my cabin, I was taken aback to see 5 missed calls on my phone from Mr. Bose, Abhishek's lawyer.