Exams Over!!!! So I wrote to my heart's content... Enjoy!!
"She is sugar, curiosity, and rain."
E. Lockhart, We Were Liars
Chapter 5
Sharon refused to think of Swayam for the whole day, not that she had the free time to. Her mom had talked to Mr. Menon to make her fit to be able to lead the company in the future, and that meant that Sharon was always kept on her toes; at least while she was in office. Sharon tried to maintain as much gap between her personal and professional life as she could. But that only meant that things were a bit trickier for her because she was not only given assignments based on legal issues, but she was also supposed to learn marketing, manage finances, sort legal issues and what not. And because she refused to work on her assignments at home, it meant giving extra hours in office and then tackling other interns as to why she was the only one with so much work pressure. To counter that question, Mr. Menon constantly kept handling varied assignments to every intern, and sometimes they happened to be out of their scope.
'Well, they can learn something extra too. It's helping them too, so I don't see the issue,' he would tell anyone who would go with any complaints regarding how a certain assignment didn't fall under their scope of work. As a professional, you should be ready to cope with every possible situation'. And Sharon agreed with him.
Before she knew it, it was Saturday and Sharon was still in her office; a day people usually didn't come, except for the head of departments. Saturdays were normally saved for meetings with foreign delegates or meetings among the heads of various departments together regarding upcoming projects. So it was no big surprise to her when she found the entire office empty, except for the one room beside it; that of Mr. Menon, occupied with the light switched on.
Sharon smiled to herself and went to her cubicle. Saturdays were the days she could make the most of her time since she didn't have to be cautious of anyone barging in nor did she have to hide what she was doing.
The last year of St. Louis college had been particularly tough for her because she had finally come to terms with the fact that JR Cements was her future; and for that she started giving sincere efforts to college, trying to accumulate as much knowledge as she could. She had known very well that it had become a source for gossip in college; the college diva spending her entire day in library instead of rehearsal hall or better, bullying others. Their opinions could go to hell, frankly.
By the time it turned two-thirty in afternoon, Sharon was buried deep in her work, with a pen caught between her teeth and eyes scrunched in concentration, completely oblivious to the world. It was only when she started feeling her muscles cramp from the four hours of absolute no movement that she decided she could do with a stroll. Sharon scrunched her eyes shut and stretched her hands and legs as far as they would reach. She pushed her seat back and got up when she saw the silhouette of a figure leaving, a figure she had become way too accustomed to see by coincidence these days.
"Swayam?" she called out loudly, not caring she was in office. There was no one to chide her anyway.
Swayam jumped at that and immediately whipped back, staring at her wide-eyed. Sharon made her way through the cubicles to him, with a frown. "What are you doing here?"
"Er... I had just... you know your company's merger is being handled by our company right? So I was here just to hand some documents," he replied.
"Okay," Sharon shuffled on her feet, grimacing at the fact that he came all the way to JR and he had absolutely no intention of meeting her at all. Like, he was about to leave...
"Have you had your lunch?" he asked.
Sharon looked up, surprised. "What?"
"You wanted to go for lunch, right?" he repeated with a smile.
Okay... first he avoided all suggestions of lunch and now he wanted to have lunch with her. What do you want, Shekhawat!
Anyway, she was hungry and alone. On cue, her stomach growled. Huh! She decided she could do with some food... and company. Only because of that, she convinced herself, was she saying yes.
"Okay, cafeteria is on the top floor," she stated, as they made their way to the elevator.
"Er... don't mind me saying this, but isn't that stupid? To have cafeteria on the top floor? I mean to carry so much food to the top floor... that must be difficult. Wouldn't it be much easier to have it on the ground floor?" he mused.
"I never thought about it...," Sharon frowned, surprised, as they got on the elevator. That made sense actually. "Or maybe, the ground floor was already taken. This entire huge building was not made in a day! Yeah, now I recall. This was only a two storey building and back then and it didn't house a cafeteria. People had to go outside for lunch. When the building got extended to eight floors only then cafeteria was added."
Swayam nodded slowly to that. Sharon narrowed her eyes at him, "You couldn't care less, could you?"
"Huh, er... no... I mean... interesting," he blabbered.
Sharon rolled her eyes, slowly shaking her head. The doors opened and they made their way to the cashier.
"This is so good!" Swayam exclaimed with his mouth full, as they started with their lunch. In that moment, Sharon couldn't hold back a snicker thinking this would have probably been scandalous for those circle of women her mom moved in.
"This is one of the reasons why I like coming to office on Saturday. Since there are so less people and most of them are, like, guests of this company, the food is always, without fail, really the best on Saturdays," Sharon ranted.
"Wish Simons had such a good catering," he muttered, "food is really bland there," his words barely audible over the amount of food he had stuffed in his mouth. Sharon frowned. Okay, screw her mom's pretentiousness, this was gross.
"That doesn't mean you would try to stuff yourself with a week worth's food in five seconds. Go easy on your stomach," she chuckled.
It was then Swayam looked up at her, visibly flustered. He sat a little straighter, not crouched on his plate for the first time since they sat down, and politely swallowed his food down. "Sorry," he smiled sheepishly, "hungry, that's all."
Sharon smiled back. Looking at him in that plain shirt, tie and trousers with his hair pushed back, she was very much reminded of the guy she recalled from her college days. The one who almost always wore a shirt over a T-shirt, and little too loose jeans. In her memory, his hair was not jelled and it always covered his forehead. Okay, maybe not all of it was memory but some was Facebook research. Very crude research, mind. To her credit, he never told her his last name but still she could recall it.
"You have become much more confident since college," Sharon mused aloud before she could stop herself.
Swayam froze when he looked at her. "You remember how I was in college?"
Sharon shrugged. "I wasn't as unobservant as you think. Or as self-centred as people thought of me to be. I don't remember you very well," she admitted, "but you're not like a huge black spot in my memory. Actually, just a couple of days ago, I remembered; you are Tani's brother, aren't you?"
Tani had attended St. Louis College for a comparatively short span of time, a year junior to them. She dropped out of college during her second year and instead opted for a BMS degree and shifted to Delhi. She had dated Rey for a brief time span, about half a year after which she left and things got difficult between them. Sharon was still not sure how they had come together, because whatever she had seen of Tani, she was a very soft spoken girl. Too much actually. She was quite verbose but not one to approach someone herself. And for one, she seemed too intimidated by Sharon to ever want to talk to her.
Whatever. Rey's affairs had never bothered her. But this one stuck in her memory because she remembered them having a bit of a messy breakup and she was probably the only one he had some solid feelings for. He was heartbroken for months, but Sharon never despised Tani for that because she knew Rey had caused it to himself.
"Nice girl," she murmured, smiling.
Swayam hummed in response. "She is coming here this evening."
Oh. So it was not a lie. Way to be insecure Sharon!
"So it was Tani you were talking about," she remarked.
Swayam nodded.
"How is she doing?" Sharon asked. Did she move on from Rey, was what she implied. But if Swayam understood, he didn't comment on it.
"Good," he replied, smiling, "really good, actually. She is marketing head in Ergo."
"One of those bigshot companies," Sharon remarked.
"Like ours," Swayam smirked and raised his fist to her. It was a beat too late that he checked himself, looking at Sharon's confused expression. Sharon realised and raised her fist but he was already lowering his and in that moment of indecision from his side, Sharon grabbed his fist in her other hand and knocked her knuckles with his, chuckling.
Both of them laughed softly as they continued with the food.
***
"So, in all seriousness, I think a little bit of milk in eggs while scrambling makes it softer to eat and it, like, just melts in your mouth," Rey ranted like some Masterchef. Sharon hummed in response, chewing at a strand of lettuce as she was perched over the counter in the kitchen of Rey's apartment. It was Saturday and they had a rule of hanging in his apartment every Saturday to watch movie. Rey had moved out of his dad's house to this apartment in the second year of their junior college. Sharon had stayed here with him for about one and a half years, when she left home and decided to pursue dance as a career.
Good times! Yeah, Whatever.
"Sharon!" Rey shouted like he had been saying her name repeatedly. Sharon jumped and asked, "What?" more out of instinct than anything else.
"Are you even listening?" he asked with hands on his hips and a scowl on his face. Sharon was sure he would look more intimidating if he hadn't been wearing an apron saying Best Mom Ever'. She remembered Rey buying it with her and he had taken it as a dig to society, he had explained, as if to say, Hey, I am a guy. And you know what, I love to cook! Does that make me the best mom ever?' His intentions of making a statement hadn't stopped from Sharon referring to him as mom' whenever he wore the apron and in return Rey refused to deter from his stand as well.
"Yeah," Sharon replied, "you were talking about cooking." He loved to talk about cooking... while he was doing just that. Cooking.
"What about that?" he folded his hands across his chest, challenging her.
"You know what? I feel like eating some pasta. How about you be a good mom and feed me some pasta," she smiled flashing her teeth.
"Sharon," Rey warned.
"What? I am hungry, mom. Do it," she demanded.
"Sharon, spill," Rey stated flatly. Not just his voice, his entire features were flat. "Look at you," Sharon remarked, "I am really impressed with the way you school you features to go just blank... like those emoticons on Whatsapp. If I were to replace those, it would be with your face."
"Sharon what happened? You're showing classic Sharon-is-tensed symptoms. You're trying to distract me by pulling my leg," he checked off each point on his fingers, "you're munching too much. You're not listening to me... and you're twirling that lettuce in your hand again and again."
Sharon looked down at her lap to look at the single leaf of lettuce, a part of it munched away, and rest gone black due to wrinkling too much.
Sharon didn't look up. She stared at the lettuce like it had betrayed her.
"Sharon," Rey repeated softly, standing by her side. "What is it? Is it something to do with our marriage? Do you want to call it off?"
Oh boy, do I want to call it off... but that was not the case right now.
Sharon looked at him. "Rey," she started, "do you... do you remember... her..." she paused, wondering if she was making a mistake. But from Rey's look, confused inquisitiveness, she had already dug her grave if this was going downhill, no going back. "Tani," she finished in a small voice.
Rey froze, as he stared at her. They never discussed Tani. He had talked about all his relationships with Sharon but when it came to Tani he never did. After her, he had only been on a few dates and then he gave up. Sharon suspected it was because he never quite moved on from her.
"Why would you talk about that?" he asked in a clipped voice. Sharon flinched. She never liked it when Rey got so cold.
"I met her brother... Swayam," she said.
"I know who he is," Rey replied, "was on my basketball team."
Sharon nodded. "He told me Tani is coming to Mumbai... today."
Rey stared at her for a while before taking a deep breath in and sighed. "Okay, so? I mean, she must have come to Mumbai a lot of times before this. What's so different now?"
Sharon shook her head, staring at her lap, "just that... this was the first time I got to know," she mumbled. She looked up but Rey was not looking at her, like he didn't have the courage to. "Do you miss her?" Rey didn't answer. "Do you want to meet her?" Rey's head whipped up to stare at her. Not angry, not emotional, but he still didn't answer. "You never had a closure," she replied softly.
His eyes softened. "I don't know...," he mumbled, "I don't think about her all that much. But when I do... it just... it just reminds me of what I could have done different... right."
"You have a chance to set things right," she insisted softly.
Rey shook his head. "I don't. I am getting married, Sharon."
Sharon's heat sank. Yes, yes you are. Sometimes she forgot that this was actually happening. In half a year they were going to get married.
"You still have that regret, I think," Sharon said, "I don't think you should live with that, Rey. I think you should meet her once."
Rey smirked, amused, "Look at you... sending your fiance to his ex-girlfriend!"
Sharon laughed, "Yeah well, we are not an average couple, dear husband," she mocked, "I am not those insecure kinds."
They both laughed, knowing this was end of the conversation and Rey lighted the stove again. They chattered endlessly, watched a movie and fell asleep on the sofa with Sharon's head in Rey's lap, knowing full well, they were going to end up with cramps all over. They never talked about a certain ex-girlfriend again, but the conversation still lingered in the air, settling on Rey like a burden. He remained wide awake even after Sharon had fallen asleep.
He was not sure if meeting Tani was a good idea. But the more he thought about it, the more his heart wanted to, to a point where he started thinking that he would probably combust on the spot if he didn't see her once. Heart... not a very reliable mode of thinking.
Why was his life such a chaos? Did this have to happen now? Just when he was about to move on, with the best decision of his life; move on with his best friend. He was not ecstatic with the decision, but he knew in their marriage, there would be no expectations, no insecurities. They would be so content together, things would be so simple.
But maybe not. Life is never ever simple.
It's complex as hell and he had to deal with that. Only for you, Sharon, he promised himself. Only so that he didn't end up with a series of what if's' in his head and end making Sharon feel undesired, he decided to give it a shot. He knew how insecure Sharon could get. It was mostly her insecurity that made her feel the need to attract everyone's attention at college, become the college diva. With time the need for attention had decreased but she could still feel insecure at times. For her, he had to.
Only for Sharon, he promised himself. Only for HER...
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All the love,
Srishti
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