Unsteady | ✓

Chapter 26 : Lifeline

Gauri stood by the window, her arms hugging her as the breeze blew against her frame. She had lost the number of times, that scene in the passageway had looped in her mind. Her fingers lazily reached the part of her cheek where he had kissed her. 

A lone tear appeared in her eye. Why did she long for him? Her eyes started to get a thicker layer of sheen. She remembered the nights she spent crying and praying to God to hurt him like he had hurt her. People in love don't do that, right? There is selflessness in love. She couldn't be in love if she wanted him to be hurt right? 

* * *

Omkara whistled a tune as he got ready for the day. He was going to meet Kashish, Shivaay's legal advisor about the Abdulla matter. Clearly, they had played the foul while setting up the agreement. Omkara couldn't really put the blame on Zoya. She looked over more than her job profile asked her to. She took care of his portion of work too when he wasn't around. She was human and it was really okay, if she didn't see the scam happening right under her nose. Two times of the apparent budget had been applied to do the decor of their home. 

He sighed, although it was one of the most expensive trouble he had faced so far, he knew Shivaay's legal team would find a solution to it. All he was concerned about was Gauri. Yesterday, he finally felt that they were making some progress to act on their feelings. He was buttoning up the shirt when he noticed the diary she had given him. His smile faded. He took the first piece of cloth his hand landed on and put it over the distracting piece.

"Good morning everybody!" He greeted and took his place on the dining table. "What's for breakfast?" He said with delight look at the dishes.

"Omkara, it's Monday morning. Poha is for breakfast." Shivaay said looking at Omkara amused. They said sometimes trouble makes a person act crazy. Instead of being worried, Omkara seemed happy. Something didn't fit the picture.

Shivaay wasn't the only one to notice Omkara's upbeat attitude on a Monday morning where he would crib about the same thing being cooked for breakfast.

"A special day today?" Rudra asked curiously.

"Yeah, I might sue the Abdullas today for cheating! It will be the first ever court case I will be involved in." Omkara appeared to be too thrilled about it to the others.

Shakti let out a laughter. "I like how you're dealing with this problem."

Omkara forced a smile wondering why everyone was staring at him with awkward smiles.

"It's good, you should be this cheerful everyday!" Pinky remarked sitting beside Shakti, placing the glass of bottle gourd juice beside his plate.

"What Pinky, every other day this boring juice!" Shakti complained only to get a deadly threatening stare in return. He smiled and started sipping the juice like he was drinking the sweetest nectar. Omkara smiled, was he really so strikingly cheerful?

* * *

"Hi, Gauri!" Omkara greeted cheerfully entering her room.

Gauri cocked her head in the direction to notice his bright smile. "Seems like your matter from last night got solved," she remarked placing the book aside while he walked up to the table and took a seat on the chair beside her.

"Nah, it's a very weak case. But Kashish said that she will try to at least recover half the amount we are losing to them."

"Oh, anyway, let's start with the usual!" She said pushing the graphotherapy book towards him.