Free I Too Had a Love Story by Ravinder Singh Page A

clenched and unclenched her fist.
    ‘
Arey
, I know
baba
. I said
na
, we will manage,’ and she looked at herself in the mirror.
    ‘Now will you please hang up? Pleaseeeee?’ She turned her back towards the mirror.
    ‘Yeah, we will be there in five minutes. All right? Bye now.’ And she came to me, disconnecting the call. She was panicking, all of a sudden.
    ‘Shona! I have to leave. I am getting late. Mom must be about to call.’
    ‘Hmm … All right. Don’t worry, you’ll be on time. Where are Neeru and Girish?’ I tried to comfort her and, more importantly, to extinguish the fire that had just now been burning in me.
    ‘At the reception,’ she answered.
    ‘Ok. And I guess you guys will be going by the same cab,’ I asked, getting up from the bed and taking a sip of water from the half-filled bottle.
    ‘Yes, the same cab,’ she said, getting up and moving towards the mirror again.
    Then her cellphone rang again and, again, it was Girish. I picked up the call this time.
    ‘Hey, I guess you should hurry up. It has started raining again,’ he said.
    Though I hated him at that moment, I still said, ‘Yes, just a second. We are coming down. See you there.’
    We were about to leave that room, when she screamed onemore time. ‘Shit! I forgot this,’ she said, looking at the big plastic bags which Neeru had left at the entrance to the room.
    She quickly picked them up and said, ‘Shona, this is for you.’
    ‘What is this?’
    ‘Open it.’
    I did what she asked. A blue-striped shirt with a Park Avenue tag and two ties: one, black with white stripes in the middle; the other, steel-coloured. I was so pleased. A girl bought something for me … My Khushi bought something for me. And I suddenly recalled a couple of managers from my office whom I used to see, at times, in shops along with their wives, who were selecting shirts for them. I felt good, realizing all those things were happening to me now. New things, different things, beautiful things.
    ‘For me?’ I asked her. ‘No. For that fat cab driver,’ she tried to tease me. ‘Really? You had an affair with him too?’ I teased her back. ‘Shut up,’ she responded with a smile but her eyes wanted me to fear her. Then she reminded me, ‘I have to rush now. It has started raining.’
    ‘Oh yes. Let’s go,’ I said, dropping the box on the bed behind me and stepping out of the room. This time I made sure to walk beside her, and she acknowledged that with her mischievous smile.
    We were about to reach the reception when I couldn’t control myself any more and asked her, ‘Why are you leaving Khushi? Don’t go … Please.’ And my speech paused there, along with my feet.
    She stopped there as well and held my hand in hers and said, ‘Just a couple of months and I won’t have to leave you this way. I will be all yours.’ There was so much love in those words as if, from now on, she was going to take care of me forever.
    ‘I know,’ I said.
    ‘Now shall we go before Girish gives another call?’
    ‘Yes.’
    Back at the reception, we met Neeru and Girish again. They were trying to tease Khushi with their faces and expressions but she was, somehow, managing everything with her simple smiles, digressing from what they wanted to hear. We all stood there for a few minutes before they went to their cab which was parked outside the hotel.
    It was drizzling. They got seated and the cab reversed. They were leaving and my eyes were following the left window from which she was waving to me. I almost ran into the middle of the road to catch a last glimpse of her for the day. Then the cab took a right turn at the end of the street and she disappeared.
    But Oh! I loved the light rain shower and looked up at the sky, thanking the heavenly firmament.
    That day did not end there, though.
    A few minutes later, I was in my room, busy performing my victory dance and singing the lines ‘
pehla nasha, pehla khumaar
.’ Just like in the movie, I placed my left