✔️The single housewife (Completed)

The handsome stranger

Eva's POV

A day had passed and Deep hadn't returned home yet. My repeated calls were met with the message "Era, I am sorry I won't be able to pick up your calls. I am stuck with some work. I will come home tomorrow so please don't wait for me today."

I had imagined many times how great it would be to be alone without my in-laws. Only me and my husband. Probably we could spend some time with each other. Probably we could have loads of romance in each other's company and I would cook Deep's favourite dish. Ours was an arranged marriage.

Since I was alone at the house, I decided to go to my comfort place. Yes, my old house. MY HOUSE. I was restless. Wanted to confront Deep about divorce. But he wouldn't meet me or talk with me. To curb the restlessness, I packed my lunch and came there. I needed a maid to help me clean the giant house. Cleaning would provide me with a distraction. Something that I craved the most.

I talked to the neighbours. Asked them if their maid is free to help me mop the place. I agree that the neighbours were reserved yet friendly but most of them were retired senior citizens who kept to themselves. Finally one of the maids, Kokilaji agreed to come to my place during noontime.

While I dusted the furniture of the entire house, she swept the place. It was time to mop the place. We decided that she would cover the ground floor and I would take up the first floor. We could leave the second and the third floor for the next day.

Things were uneventful until I started hearing the same faint music from upstairs. I don't believe in ghosts or haunting but the unusual event made me nervous.

"Kokilaji!" I shouted at the top of my lungs and she rushed hearing my panicked tone.

"Do you hear anything?" I asked her. It was followed by a pin drop silence.

"No ma'am, I don't." She said.

I again asked her to listen carefully but she twitched her nose and gave me the same answer.

Unable to accept the verdict, I went to the third floor and stood in front of the storeroom. I could hear the sound. However, it stopped suddenly. I turned around to find Kokila climbing up the last stair.

"I can't hear anything Memsaab (ma'am)" she said.

I shrugged. I tried to open the door. It wouldn't just open. Even though there was no lock.

We both resumed our work. My mind went to the stranger I saw a day before. I inquired her about any person with blue eyes.

Kokilaji at first looked at me suspiciously. Since I had worn a mangalsutra, she knew I was a married woman. Why should I marry a woman like me take an interest in an unknown stranger?

However, on more insistence, she declined that she had seen anyone from the locality with blue eyes. And mind you, she worked in the neighbourhood for the previous ten years. She was confident that she hadn't seen anyone with that appearance.

I wondered who was? And why did I keep on hearing the music? It was all very strange. Anyways, I decided to sit on the swing after all days of labour. I switched on the music on plugged the earphones. Everything was okay until I heard the song. It was played on the day of my wedding. I had danced to that song like a happy bride with my parents. That day I had sworn to myself that I would have a great married life. A stable one with two cute kids and a happy family.

"Are you okay ma'am?" I looked up to find the same stranger, this time looking more handsome. His blue eyes were again fixed at my ring. He suddenly looked at me and gave me a sympathetic smile.

Our eyes locked for damn 10 seconds! I was locked in the blue depths. Thinking of that, I guess I had never locked my eyes with my husband for more than 2 seconds!

I looked away as the guilt made its way into my conscience.

"Are you fine ma'am?" He gently asked me the same question.

"Yes, I am", it took a great effort to prevent my voice from getting choked. However, my eyes betrayed me by dropping a few tears.

"Sometimes it's okay to leave things the way they are. So that you can move to the better options." He said.

Before I could react, he took out a mogra flower from the hoodie of his sweatshirt and placed it on the right side of my hair.

I was more than shocked. I turned around to ask him what was he doing on the unknown property, but he was no more. It looked like vanished in the thin air.

Again, I heard the music. But this time I was too shocked to investigate.

The house was welcoming, soothing and most importantly gave me the warmth that I had craved. However, I had been doubting if it was haunted. Who was that handsome hunk and why the hell did he keep on disappearing?

I got up and decided to leave the shady place as soon as possible.