The Life Of Abhira - Short Stories

Fell For The Innocent - 2

Akshara wandered on the streets of New York looking for a job. She needs money to enroll herself in a music class. She cannot ask her family orelse they will have a doubt whether hers and Abhimanyu's relation is working. She cannot even ask Abhimanyu, as she rarely sees him.

Suddenly she stops in front of a departmental store. She sees a advertisement outside, offering a job.
She immediately went inside and started enquiring.

As soon as she met the manager, she was selected for the job. Her job was to sit at the cash counter and the timings were from 3pm to 5pm.

"Abhimanyu won't be at home by this time. I can easily manage to work" She sighed.

Turning towards the the manager she spoke,

"Thank you so much Mr. Williamson."

"You don't have to thank me Akshara. Also please call me Lucas. Williamson makes me look old. And you know I'm still young" He winked at her. Akshara nodded.

"You can meet everyone and understand the work today Akshara and join from tomorrow. Is it fine?" Lucas asked.

"Sure" She replied. Lucas excused himself and went from there while Akshara roamed around getting familiar with the surroundings.

She did not realise when it turned 6:00pm. She hurriedly bid bye to Lucas and all her new friends and went home.

"I hope Abhimanyu is not home. I cannot face him" She told and booked a cab to reach home.

As soon as she was inside, she hurried towards the staircase without looking at the surroundings when a voice stopped her

"Where were you?"

She turned and found Abhimanyu sitting on the sofa, with his right leg above his left knee. His head was resting on the back side of the sofa and his eyes were closed.

Akshara kept on starring him. He wore a simple black T-shirt and grey sweat pants. The hickey marks were visible but they were not that red.

When he did not hear her voice,  he opened his eyes and found her starring him. He raised his eyebrows and smirked. Akshara cleared her throat and adverted her gaze from him.

"Where are you coming from Akshara?" He asked.

"Departmental store."

"But I don't find anything with you" He asked. "Don't lie to me Akshara. Say me where were you?"

"I promise Abhimanyu, I was in the departmental store. I... I thought to look around the places" She started fidgeting with her fingers. Abhimanyu observed her keenly, then came and stood in front of her.

"Akshara, I know we both were forced to get into this marriage. It wasn't your fault that you got married to a jerk like me. I love Lucy. And I don't think, I can give her place to anyone else. So, umm only if you want we can be friends?" He asked. Akshara looked at him shocked.

"Why didn't you marry Lucy?"

"Long story in short, my family specially ma and papa doesn't like her. Papa and her dad decided to set up hospital together but later on her dad caused us some problems. In short you can say he cheated us. This broke the bond our family shared. Lucy is completely different. But you know right, once broken can never be fixed"

Akshara nodded her head. "You can divorce me right?"

"I can but once again the reason is maa papa. They like you very much. Infact they consider you as their daughter which they never had. So it's impossibly for us to get separated." He told sighing.