From the Point of Three

chapter 3

5 pm dragging her heavy lead legs through the parking space, Akira tries to fish out her car keys from her bag.

"Good evening my lady", she turns towards the familiar call. "I'll be your chauffeur for today" kayra gives curt bow before opening her car door for her.

"Oh my my" Akira fans her face with hands and batting her eyes.

That made both of the burst into gust of laughers as they got in and were off.
The ride was quiet the only sound was the rumbling of the engine mixed with soft tunes from the radio that served as a lullaby.
"Where to?'' asked akira noticing the turns her chauffeur took were different from the usual route. Different yet almost as familiar as her own.

"My place" kayra winked.

"Mm...Hmm" her head nodded in response and again the musical rumbling took over the silence till they reached their destination.

6 pm kayra was slicing, dicing, stirring, chopping her way through her kitchen trying to prepare the best chicken she could.
All the while bathrobe cladded Akira with her head buried in her sketchbook humming a sweet tune to herself, once in while she lifts her head to look out for any kitchen fires.

"Which one of these is corn starch?" kayra pushed two twin containers containing something white towards her direction.
"This one!" she picked after scanning the content in both of them, "when was the last time you entered this part of your apartment?" she rested both her elbows on the cold marble counter entwining her fingers together to make a bed to rest her chin.

"So.....this one is starch you say," kayra changed the topic and grabbed the container.

"You sure you don't need any help?" Akira raised a perfect eyebrow.
"Of course not" she waved off, "I am a great cook."

"Am I supposed to believe that?"

"You doubting me?"

"Yes, I know kayra Chowdhury has never cooked a decent meal in her entire existence of 26 years," said she in a singsong as she pushed her sketchbook aside and joined kayra in the kitchen.

"You practically live on take out" Akira points teasingly.

''No! I am thriving on the world's best meals prepared by you" kayra fumed.

"So what are we cooking?" Akira gave an eager grin. "There no we cooking," she grabbed both of her shoulders, "it's me cooking" she declared as she directed aki all the way to living room, sitting her on the couch, handing her the remote and switching the TV on.

"Wait here, "she grinned, "Dinner will be served soon."

"Call me if you need me." Yes ma'am," kayra gave a scout salute and march back to her 'foreign' territory akira sat there folding her legs under her, browsing through Netflix as well as checking her phone for calls, texts and voice mails. There was plenty of them, texts from work, friends, spams but they were not the ones she was looking for.
Her heart sinks as the fact hits that he never do really texts in the first place. At least not anymore.

In the past, when she was new there used to be tons of 'hi', 'you there?', 'how's your day going', 'can I come over?', 'let's hang out', 'good morning' and 'well nights', whenever she looked at her cell. And now all she have is an empty chat box and unanswered calls.
"What went wrong?" she though and sighed putting her phone aside. She played the first thing that her eyes caught which turned to be a horror movie.

"You know what I love about horror films?" she heard as the credits started rolling at the end.

"Hmm?"

"Dumb people who follow voices die first!" kayra laughed.

I guess dinner is ready" Akira asked turning it off, "I am starving"

Actually about that..." kayra runs a tongue over her lips and scratched her nape, "stuffstuckbottompancolourcurrydarkerthansupposedto" she blurted out.

"Let's go and take a look" Akira chuckled making her way to the kitchen followed by kayra with her tail between her legs
"The chicken was sticking at the bottom of the pan and the color was getting darker than expected, I came to call you, "she explained, but got distracted by the movie, an innocent fault on my side" she raised her hand in defeat.

Akira burst into her one of the most contagious laughs tearing up spreading crimson tint all over her face making her sit on the kitchen floor again her actions was followed by kayra.

"How pizza does sounds" kayra asked wiping her tears. Akira's stomach grumbled in response.

"Well then pizza it is," she got to her feet pulling Akira with her.

10 pm the doorbell buzzed making kayra grab her wallet and sprint to the door returning with a large pizza, garlic bread and two bottles of coke.

She scooted next to Akira on the couch again dumping all their feast on the table.
"So how's work?" Akira inquired with a mouth full of pizza.

"Just the same," she replied before washing her bite down with the soda, "it's just people coming to therapy because of some jerks who never went to one."

"Akira let's talk about last night," she held on to her hands, "what happened between you two?"

"What do you mean" akira tried to pull back, she wasn't ready to talk about this, she her relationship was crumbling down but she wasn't t ready to acknowledge it, she wanted to hold on the to the broken memories believing doing so would fix everything up.
"It's eating you up Aki, kayra urged again, Ishaan is eating you up. Just talk to me about it, I want to help."

"Let's not talk about it."
"But..."

"Please, "pleaded Akira tears on the brink to fall that made Kayra stop prying more.
She hated this helplessness of hers, being unable to even help the person that meant everything to her. She felt pathetic and ugly to be just being spectator of Akira's misery. What was the point of being a psychiatrist counsellor when you can even get your close ones to open up to you?

"You still play," Akira made her train of thoughts stop.

Her eyes travelled to the place Akira pointed where sat the most beautiful possession she own. Her grand piano.

"Remember in school you wouldn't miss a single chance to sneak into the music room jut to play", she chuckled, you used to say "one day I'll be owning one myself and then play every minute of the day"

"Yeah, Kayra gave a weak smile knowing the topic was being changed and off she got, her legs took to her piano.

"Any request?' she asked resting her fingers on the keys.

"You know it" Akira stretched her legs on the couch, resting her back.

Kayra took a deep breath, closing her eyes and letting her fingers runs free on the territory they truly belong and let the beautiful simplicity of I Giorni fill the whole apartment.

As Kayra's fingers danced delicately on the keys, Akira shut her eyes to feel music going in through her ears and touching her soul calming her beating heart, stopping all the thoughts running wild in her mind. She could feel the rhythmic waves of the melody soothing her skin. Her mind went blank and her eyes let out all the emotion she was holding in form of warm tears. She cried along with the music but kayra didn't let her fingers stopped she kept on playing.

It was a good cry, the kind where you feel every tear lift off a heavy boulder that has been crushing you're heart and soul, she let them fall. Bit by bit the sound was decreasing until it was fully out and silence of sleep took her into their arms.

Soft snores were kayra's cue to stop, she bee lined to the Akira sleeping figure. Maybe this was the only helping she could do for her and she hated that. She picked up a box of wet wipes siting on the side table and wiped freshly stained face.

She carefully holstered Akira up in her arms and carried her all the way to her bedroom. Placing her on the bed she planted a hesitant soft kiss on her forehead, covering her with sheets and giving her another kiss before getting in bed next to her.