FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN

Fate Intervenes

Here is the next chapter. Happy Reading. 

The next two weeks were pure torture for Manjari. Amaira was hell-bent on meeting Neel and Manjari had to use every trick in her book to maintain distance between the two. On -line school was a blessing because it kept Amaira occupied for at least a major part of the day. The plus side was that Manjari was so exhausted by the end of the day that she slept like a baby. No more midnight rendezvous with Neel.

"Why can't' I go and meet him?" and there she went again.

"Because he is in quarantine. And I want you to be safe".

"Well, it is almost 12 days now and he still has no symptoms. I think it is safe for me to go and meet him."

"No", said Manjari "and no arguments. Please go and check if the heating is on or not. The house is freezing!"

"I am fine", Amaira said belligerently.

"Well, I am not. My bones are cold, and they need more heat."

Amaira glared at Manjari but Manjari ignored her. She simply nudged her in the direction of the thermostat.

"It is on", she shouted.

Then why is it so cold, Manjari wondered.

She went to the kitchen and checked the air vent. The cold air was coming out of it. She went to the thermostat and powered it off and on again. when she checked the vents again, warm air was coming. She heaved a sigh of relief and went back to her work.

Amaira looked at her mother, a frown marring her foreheads. Something was wrong, her mother was behaving fishy. She just would not let Amaira meet Neel. Why? Was she upset with him? Why would she not let her spend time with him? She looked around. Her mother was in her office. Taking a class. She had a break for another half an hour. Amaira quietly opened the connecting doors and went downstairs...

"Neel papa..." she shouted softly "....Papa..."

Neel was busy cooking his lunch when he heard Amaira voice. Was she here? Manjari let her come? How? Or was Amaira sneaking past Manjari again? The plus side of living in the basement was that he could catch bits of the conversation between mother and daughter. He knew for a fact that Manjari had categorically told Amaira to not come to meet him. He would have loved to meet Amaira but there were enough issues with her mother already and he did not want to add more. He wiped his hand on a dish towel and made his way towards the voice, determined to tell her to go back. He found her looking down at him from the bannister with a huge smile decorating her face.

"Hi Pumpkin", Neel said smiling back.

"Hello, papa...I came to visit you."

"hmm...Doe your mother know? ", Neel got straight to the point.

"About what?"

"About the fact that you are here..." he said planting his hands on his hips.

Amaira gave him a cheeky smile and shook her head.

"Then you shouldn't be here. She is going to be upset that you went behind her back."

"Are you and mummy fighting?". The sudden turn of questions shocked Neel.

"Why do you say that?", he asked slowly.

Amaira shrugged her shoulders. "She rarely talks about you, ...you rarely come upstairs and even I am not allowed to meet you. even though she said I could when you came to us..."

Neel wished he could answer Amaiar's questions but he was as confused as her. So he tried the most obvious approach. "I am in quarantine...",

"I know you are lying...I am a big girl...you can tell me anything...is it because I asked you to be my daddy? Is that why you did not come to visit me in India? "