Falling In Love With You

Chapter - 28

There is something interesting about a monday morning , being the first day after a lazy weekend the monday morning starts in a hurry , most of the formal meetings , business proposals , target achievement analysis meetings all takes place on that very morning and just as the morning breaks the time just flies away as if it had wings attached to it. That's what has happened to every other employee of Syntana , the time flew by and before they could even remember to fret over a hectic monday morning in the midst of their busy work schedule the morning slowly turned into an afternoon with the sun that burned bright , high up in the sky and also with the temperature that was realtively high especially after a heavy downpour the previous day.
                                       Pallavan sat inside his cabin , his work pushed everyother thought from his mind and he continued to work on his computer from morning to the early afternoon without any idea of the time and the happenings around him. After long hours of working without taking his eyes off of the computer screen Pallavan sensed his concentration slowly drifting away and his head throbbed with a splitting headache . He leaned his head against the headrest of his chair and closed his eyes for a few moments , after giving his eyes a few minutes of rest he felt somewhat better and so he stood up from his chair and went outside his cabin to check on his team members .
                                         As he came outside , he saw that most of his team members were not in their seats and when he looked around the room he found that most of the developers from other teams too were missing from their seats , seeing this Pallavan looked at his watch on an instinct and it showed as half past three in the afternoon , only then did he realise that it was almost closing time for lunch in the cafeteria and just then his stomach reminded him of how hungry he was , so deciding to have a quick lunch before the cafeteria ran out of food , Pallavan walked towards the stairs to go to the cafeteria.
                                        He entered the cafeteria and saw that the cafeteria was crowded with every other employee of the company who sat in groups and tried to rush their conversation within the short time they had and their voices mingled together as one single loud noise which filled the large lunch hall. Pallavan looked around the cafeteria to see if there were any empty seats so that he could finish his lunch as fast as he could and get back to his work as soon as possible. As he looked around the lunch hall , he saw a few empty chairs here and there among the groups of employees .
                                        Pallavan hesitated to sit next to someone he was not so familiar with , just then he saw Vasudha and Rahul sitting at one corner of the lunch hall chatting casually while having their food , he also saw a vacant chair beside their table , feeling a bit relieved Pallavan started to cross the various tables along the lunch hall to reach the table where Vasudha was sitting . As he was walking he suddenly heard someone shouting  out his name which cut through the loud noise of the lunch hall , for a moment every other noise died down and when Pallavan looked in the direction of the voice he saw Thara raising her hand and shaking it in order to get his attention , noticing that he had seen her Thara stood up from her chair and walked towards him.
                                         Now , Pallavan stood almost in the middle of the cafeteria and Thara's sharp voice caught almost everyone's attention , when Pallavan looked around he realised that everyone was looking at him and Thara with surprise evident on their faces . Not knowing what to do Pallavan paused in his tracks and looked at Thara who was making her way towards him. Pallavan got irritated at Thara for taking his name so loudly in front of everyone but he knew not to show the irritation on his face , because that would botch up his plan completely , so plastering a smile on his face Pallavan waited for Thara to reach where he was standing .
                                        On reaching where he stood Thara said , " Pallavan... ! Thank God ! You came out of your cabin atleast now . If you hadn't come any sooner I myself would have dragged you out of your seat to get you to eat something. Come on , now ! We have a seat vacant there , have lunch with me Pallavan !" Thara said to Pallavan like a concerned girlfriend.
                                      " No... Actually Thara ...! I thought of sitting ther...." Before Pallavan could finish his sentence Thara interjected , " Ohooo , Pallavan ! It's getting late . There is no time for you to think , the food will get over before you could even make a decision ... Come with me !" saying this Thara wrapped her hand around Pallavan's arm and dragged him towards the table where she and her friends were sitting .
                                       Surprised by Thara's sudden gesture , for a moment Pallavan didn't know how to react , as his legs walked in the direction in which Thara dragged him along with her , his heart urged him to look in the direction where his wife was sitting . As he turned around , he saw that just like every other person in that lunch hall , Rahul too was looking at him with his eyes widened in surprise but it was the look in Vasudha's eyes that caught his attention.
                                        Her eyes had a surprised look in them , as her eyes travelled down to where Thara's hand was wrapped around his hand , a shocked expression crossed her face , fury replaced the shock in her eyes in lightning speed , he felt the immense effort it took for her to keep herself composed. As he walked further away from her , he saw Rahul turning towards her and he started saying something to her , Pallavan saw his wife plaster a small smile on her face instantly and started listening to what Rahul was saying without sparing another moment to even look at him.
                                       Pallavan sat along with Thara and her friends , even though casual conversation was afloat , Pallavan sensed something simmering beneath the surface , an unknown kind of excitement mixed with tension in the people who inhabited the table . Somehow Pallavan felt that there was a very big chance for the conversation among the people becoming awkward , so in order to avoid being struck in that kind of a situation Pallavan tried to keep up with their mundane conversation , however his concentration was solely on his wife . He was able to see her from he was sitting , every now and then his eyes stole a glance at her but she never even tried to look in his direction ,  even more so there was no evidence of her preventing herself from looking in his direction and this irritated Pallavan more and angered him to the core but somehow Pallavan managed to control his anger for the time being .
                                         After a few minutes he saw Rahul and Vasudha getting up from their chairs and heading towards the hand washing area , Pallavan thought for a moment about following his wife , he didn't know why he wanted to do that , just some unknown urge to be near her but he didn't have any excuse to get away from Thara and her friends .
                                        Just as he was trying hard to find an excuse in his mind , the bell rang announcing his order , taking that as an excuse Pallavan rose up from his chair and announced , " Excuse me , ladies ! I guess that's my order. You guys should carry on , I'll be back in a minute ." saying this Pallavan walked away from the table , he didn't bother to wait for anyone's reply but the moment he stepped away from the table he heard the conversation among the ladies turn into hushed tones of excitement and whisperings of congratulations to the woman who dragged him all the way from the middle of the cafeteria to her table.
                                        Not paying much attention to the questioning eyes of the people sitting around . Pallavan made his way to the kitchen counter , Pallavan informed the person behind the counter that he would pick his food on his way back from the washroom.
                                        As he walked towards where the washrooms were situated he saw Rahul coming out , not wanting to run into him , Pallavan waited a few seconds for Rahul to leave the cafeteria. As Rahul stepped out of the lunch hall Pallavan walked towards the restroom and realised that Vasudha was still inside the women's restroom , so Pallavan walked further and waited near the balcony for his wife to come out .
                                      A few minutes later Pallavan saw Vasudha coming out , she walked straight towards the lunch hall , in order to stop her Pallavan pulled her into the balcony . Before Pallavan could open his mouth to say anything , he heard a loud smack on his left cheek and he only heard a loud ringing in his ear for a long moment , it took some time for Pallavan to understand what had happened , it was only after a few seconds did Pallavan felt the pain of the slap that Vasudha had given. Reflexively , Pallavan raised his hand to his cheek  , he felt the warmth of the slap spread across his cheek and partly on his ear and his mouth yelped in pain , " Oh God ... !! Why the hell did you do that Vasudha ...?" As he looked up at his wife , he saw her covering her mouth with both her hands , her face pale with shock and embarrassment.