FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN

Fight and Flee

Neel paced the length of his office. Any moment now, and Manjari could be here to meet him. He had not wanted to give his C.V. to Prof. Dawson but he had insisted. Did Manjari know he was here? Today he would get the answer to all his questions. Questions that had not allowed him to sleep for the past two years. He checked his watch again. Where was she? Was she coming or would she do a runner again?

When he heard the knock at his door, he let out a sigh of relief. She was here. He composed himself and went to open the door. She looked as beautiful as ever and she had no clue that she was here to met him.

He could not resist himself and said, "Hi babe! I have been waiting for you". Her eyes widened and she fainted. Neel caught her before her head could hit anything. He was angry at her. Yes. But he still loved her. He had moved heaven and earth in her search. "I have got you. And you are not going anywhere this time........." he whispered in her ears as he carried her to the couch in his room and laid her gently on it. He picked up her fallen bag and placed it beside her and then dragged a chair to sit opposite her, his legs crossed over each other and arms resting on the sides of the chair.

He saw her gaining consciousness and look around her. He noticed that she looked very pale. He stood up to get her a cold glass of water. Her hands were shaking so much that she had to hold the glass with both her hands. She drained the glass of water and stood up to go. Some things never change, he thought to himself. Even after all these years, her first instinct was to flee. She had almost made her escape by the time he came to his senses. He let his arms reach around her to push the door shut effectively cutting off her escape and then pulled her into his arms.

He felt her stiffen and then fight his embrace.

"Let me go", she demanded.

Like hell, he would. "Not till you answer my questions".

"What questions?"

"Why did you leave?"

Manjari could feel Neel's gaze boring holes in her. She would not lie. She had dreamt of this moment. In one vivid dream, she even slapped him for what he had done. In her favourite one, he had apologized to her in front of everyone. There had been many more, but it did not matter. They were just that. dreams.

A laugh of hysteria built in her throat, but she forced it down, racked by a cold stream of nerves. She had moved across continents to avoid him, left everyone and everything behind to escape him and yet here he was.

Yes, he was here. Her heart had never beat so fiercely if he was not near. Her body still responded to his touch. She felt her heart hum again as she felt whole again, alive, and then she felt a sliver of anger.

He had ruined it all. She would be stupid to fall for his sweet false words again. She had to be strong. She was a different person now. And stronger. She fought his embrace and pushed him with all her might. He had not expected her use of force and stumbled against a chair and fell. She heard his yelp of pain but did not turn around to look. She was more focused on making it to her car. She punched the buttons of the elevator repeatedly praying for it to come fast. She jumped into it and was pressing the buttons when she heard him rush towards her. She prayed for the doors to shut faster and was glad when the elevator began to move.

She made her way to the parking and got into her car. For once she was glad of the tinted windows that would make it impossible for anyone to look inside. She pushed back her seat and took big gulps of air.

What a day it had been...who would have thought that Neel would turn up like a blast from her past?

But he did, he had... and his nerve to demand answers....

Closing her eyes for a moment, she sighed as she went over the encounter. He still looked the same, but he had more lines around his eyes. His voice had such a note of longing that she almost gave in to him. Then she remembered how he was a master deceiver. He had deceived her before, and he could do it again. Manjari cursed that phase of her life in which Neel had meant a lot to her. But that had changed. He had let her down, let Amaira down, broken her trust. She had loved him, and he had ruined that. She was not going to fall for his charms again.

She started her car and thought about what to do next. She knew that Neel was a whirlwind and it would be almost impossible to avoid him. Everyone feels for his charms, his charisma, and his vivaciousness, he filled a room, and he dominated groups. He was a natural leader and he was here for the next four years at least... She banged her head on the steering wheel at the thought of putting up with him for that long. She would have to ply her cards carefully. First things first, how she would have to tell Prof. Dawson that she would not be able to help this research scholar? Maybe she should apply for a leave for a semester. The University could hire someone against her. She could finish writing her book, maybe also finish her research, and spend more time with Amaira, who was almost ten and was going through her pre-teen years.

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Neel winced as the cool antiseptic touched his forehead. Manjari had pushed him with quite some force and he had hit his head against the corner of his table. She had not even stopped to look at him, forget helping him. He was so confused. What had he done to deserve so much hate? The hate that had been clear in her eyes. He had tried to catch her, but she had vanished in thin air. He finished bandaging his head and decide to talk to her tomorrow.

Neel took special care of his appearance the next day. He already had Manjari's schedule memorized and knew that her day began at 11 am. He made it a point to stop on the way to get her favourite coffee and croissant. On reaching her class, he was surprised to know it had been cancelled for today. Neel did not have to be a rocket scientist to know that she had not come today. He looked at the coffee in his hand. He walked to the nearest dumpster and dumped the coffee and croissant in it and made his way to the administrative wing. Enough was enough... He needed answers and he would get them at any cost.

"Hi Carla", said Neel addressing the Assistant Coordinator.

"Hi Neel"

"Can I have the contact details of Prof. Manjari Chaturvedi. She is supposed to help me with my post-doc research, but she is not here today, and we forgot to exchange contact details yesterday".

"Yeah sure..."Neel waited as Carla gave him Manjari's email id and cell number. "But I do not think she would be able to help you this semester. We got an email from her today morning. She is taking this semester off and is not offering any courses to undergraduate students. She wants to concentrate on her research."

Neel became more furious on hearing this. What was he being punished for? Could not she have the decency to tell him what he had done? "Can I have her address too? I could go and meet her. She specializes in my area and she could help me". He has her his most charming smile. Give me the address, he prayed. Give me the address.

Carla hesitated.

"It's Ok", Neel said. I can always ask Prf. Dawson for her address. After all, it was he who recommended her."

Prof. Dawson's name worked like charm on Carla. Her face cleared as she wrote down Manjari's address for Neel.

Neel looked at her address. For him, it was like manna from heaven. He typed the address on google maps and set out for her home. He was determined to get his answers today.