Love or Retribution?

Chapter 11

The moment she saw him coming out of the house in his running gear, Indira's face brightened.

"Okay, still here, he hasn't left yet", she told to herself and started jogging/running after him as she had been doing for 10 days until the ankle sprain happened and she was forced to stop for 3 days.

She had not recovered yet, but as waiting anymore can put a dent in her long thought plan, she ignored the pain and started jogging.

"Hi", she said with a smile  and overtook him without looking back, intentionally slowing down her pace, waiting for him to catch up.

"Hello...,"

"Took a break is it? didn't see you here for quite a while?", he asked running along with her, initiating a conversation between them for the first time.

Indira smiled between her ragged breath and looked at him astonished

"Yeah, was stuck with some personal work, but didn't think any one would notice"

"I didn't, until I saw you again today which made me realize why the park was dull for past three days", he replied, blatantly flirting with her which made her smile, as that is what she had been hoping to happen for the past few days.

She looked at him somewhere between impressed and intrigued.

She stopped running and scooched down to catch her breath.

"Are you trying to flirt with me Mister?" she asked with a smile that indicated she was neither irritated nor disgusted by his attempt.

"Anand, Anand Vijayaraghavan", he said, extending his arm.

Indira looked at him seriously for some time, and next minute her face changed playful.

"If you want to know me, you have to catch me", she said without introducing herself and started running again.

Anand looked at her surprised and started running after her with a smile.

Indira turned and saw him following her, she knew what she had to do.

"I am sorry, my ankle, but I have to do this, but I will make sure to do it as carefully as possible", she apologized to herself.

She turned and look at him again, he was almost near, she turned back and purposefully tripped on her self and fell down, showcasing like she got distracted by him.

"Ouch!! AAAAAA", she screamed holding her leg as he covered that few meters between them in a jiffy and got hold of her.

"Oh god, ssss, aaaaa", she moaned holding her already sprained leg.

"Hey, are you okay? here let me see", he said and slowly removed her leg from the shoe.

"Oh my god, its swollen badly, here, let me help you", he said and slowly helped her to sit on the side walk bench.

"This didn't happen today, I fell a few days back, I thought I recovered but I think the running aggravated it, its okay, just get me an auto, its nothing a cold compress can fix ", she said between her painful moans.

"Where do you live?", he asked worried.

Indira gave the area name without actually giving the address.

"Oh that is around 5 kms from here, you come all the way here to run?", he asked intrigued.

"Yeah, I like the calmness and serenity of this park, running here is like a meditation to me, it clears my head.... " she said looking at the park and then looked at him, who was staring at her with a smile.