Poetic Sensibility

33 - Phone Calls And Guilt

I am terribly sorry for all the late updates! I've been having extremely busy days so I will be updating the story every alternate day. For those of you who are unaware and may be interested, I have started a new story on Wattpad (yay!). It's called 'Nephilim' and can be found on my profile. It's got supernatural overtones and is far, far more pg-14 as compared to this one. As for PS, there are only about 17 or so chapters to go and I have a very good feeling about how it's going to proceed (although I have no idea where the story is going). Anyway, I'll be putting a little bit of Paris in between so do watch out for that! Happy Reading!

        Samay was glad Sarah wasn't around. If she would've been, he would be teased 7 ways to Sunday. After Romi had asked him to stay back, they had had a nice, light conversation about all sorts of things. From books to movies to their favorite milkshakes. They had then fallen into a companionable silence when they had both pulled out books to read. There were always a few things to say in between reading and Samay couldn't quite quell that sense of accomplishment that was bubbling inside him. But then he remembered the dead-ends he'd come to when he asked something which Romi believed was far too personal and became all tight-lipped.

He even remarked, "I would say I feel like Sherlock Holmes around you but that would ring true only if I could deduce something." Romi had chuckled softly, a sound that Samay couldn't quite forget.

        But things weren't going to really go his way because his phone started to ring. He fished it out of his pocket and saw that it was Sarah calling. Think of the devil!

"What's up?" he asked as soon as he answered the call.

"I heard something very, very interesting today," she began. Oh no. Did she know already that he had been to Romi's place? He was never going to hear the end of it.

"Now, look. I meant to tell you but things came up," he defended.

"What on earth are you talking about? How could you tell me about the license approval from the Centre. It was just shipped to my home about 20 minutes ago," she replied. Aaaaah. No wonder she sounded so happy. Shit, he thought. Now he was in trouble.

"That's great! So have you decided any names? We need to register the organization itself. I don't think it should take more than 4 months but we need to give them options. And we need to look into the whole 80 (G) provision. I think I'll get Tushar on it as soon as we have a few names in mind. He's probably got a rough draft of the document already made," Samay replied. Distracting her was the way to go for now.

"I have one or two in mind. I think Kabir does too. Will run them by him. He's already done research on the tax provision thing but bringing Tushar in might be a good idea," she replied. 

"Great, I will call him up right away. And also get him to send someone to your place and get a copy of the license made. I'll see you maybe tomorrow to discuss the details. Call in Kabir as well," Samay replied. He needed to inform his brother about the progress as well. So far, everything was looking good. He was about to say goodbye to her when she interrupted him.

"Not so fast, you cheeky little git. Tell me what you were talking about," she demanded.

Damn her, he thought. He was hoping she wouldn't question him about it. "Nothing at all," he replied.

"Don't you go about lying to me. I can hear the guilt dripping from your voice. What have you done?" she asked.

"Nothing at all!" he exclaimed. There was complete silence on the other end and he knew that she was waiting for an acceptable answer. He let out an exasperated sigh and said, "Okay. So I was at Romi's place."

There was a shriek on the other end that only bats should hear. His ears were still ringing when she fired a barrage of questions at him. "Oh my God! What were you there for? How long? What did you talk about? Did you tell her? What did she reply."

Women, he thought. "Calm your pants, young lady. I only went to discuss stuff regarding the Paris trip. And she showed me a little essay she had written. It was good fun. We talked for a bit, read some and then I upped and left. Nothing to get excited about." Except that he was feeling super excited. He had read something of Romi's that none of the others had. He liked the fact that he was special to her. Maybe. He really hoped he was.

Sarah, however, sounded deflated when she said, "Oh. That's it? I hate you for driving my hopes up. So what's happening about the Paris trip, then? Was Keshav there too?"

"Nope. Just me. I wanted to add some specific things to the itinerary." He replied.

        Or at least that's what he wanted Sarah to think. He couldn't tell her that he had gone over to Romi's place because all the curiosity was killing him slowly. And now he had to admit to himself that he was getting super charged about the trip. He could sense that Romi was finally thawing as far as he was concerned. She was starting to enjoy his company and was keen on letting him in. At least she had shown some initiative. He also decided that he firmly liked what he was learning of her. His mind drifted back to the day they had met and all the prejudice he had stacked up against her. He smiled thinking about how wrong he was. There were not many things that Samay was wrong about. And even fewer so that made him happy about being incorrect. But this was definitely one of them.