Not A Simple Engineer Boy! | ✓

080 • bitter sandalwood | three

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Scrollstck- Suganthi Lakshminarayanan

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Xavier had always enjoyed cooking. It was a shame that he'd lost interest in mundane activities as he aged. Living alone for so long had made him quite self-reliant, learning all the basic chores to survive.

After Krithika's appreciation, he started cooking, at least breakfasts and some Tamil dishes for himself, with the help of Ponnamma. She was generous when it came to teaching, constantly speaking in her broken English and Tamil, while he struggled to pick up bits and pieces of the latter language. It had been a month now, and he had started to get the gist of Ponnamma's attitude towards cooking.

She was very disciplined and probably hated when he made a mess of her instructions. Like then, as he was trying to make his lunch, and she almost screamed, "Dei thambi, what you do!" She chided, "I say manjal, that is yellow. You do kothammali thool..."

He looked at her, flabbergasted, "I don't know what that is, you please point out." He waved his hand, pointing at the masalas on the counter. He wanted to make Morkolumbu, something he'd had at Satya's place and enjoyed. It had a feel of Kadhi Chawal with an aftertaste of coconut.

"Muruga!" she sighed. "That thool." Her index finger pointed to the turmeric powder.

"Okay," he grimaced slightly.

There was a call at the door, and she motioned him to continue. "I go see," she said as she rushed out of the kitchen.

He stirred the yogurt-based mix and sighed. "Muruga," he murmured involuntarily. A smile immediately found its way onto his face as he realized how Ponnamma's and Krithika's Tamil was rubbing off on him.

"Still fancy cooking?" The voice was like a blade, piercing straight into his heart.

He swung around, knocking the salt shaker off the counter. It fell with a loud thud, scattering salt all over the floor. He glared at the face of the owner of that voice. "What are you doing here, Subhadra?"

Ponnamma entered the kitchen, slipping past Subhadra, and her eyes fell on the floor. "Thambi, I cook. You go," she requested, her hands wringing the edge of her cotton saree.

He nodded, his eyes still trained on her.

"Yeah, let her take care of the mess. We can leave your state-of-the-art kitchen that you just ruined," she smirked.

Sarcastic as hell.

They both walked out of the kitchen, him walking past her, his steps leading to the living room. He heard her heels clicking fast, rushing towards him. "Xav, why are you running?" she called out.

He stopped in his path, his mind registering that he had started running, almost trying to get rid of her. He turned around and crossed his arms over his chest. "What are you doing here?" he barked.

She stood a few feet away from him and frowned. "Visiting you," she added. "I guess, checking on you."

"Checking on me? My mother died when I was five. Even if I need one, you would be the last person on the face of the earth to take that place," he scoffed. "Don't act like you care, just stop with your crap already."

Her face scrunched in worry. "We aren't archenemies, Xav," she said, walking toward him. "We used to be friends before we started dati—"

"Stop it. Fucking. Stop. It," he flashed his left palm to stop her in her tracks. "Whatever we were, it's in the past. Now we are nothing but just two strangers, and I want to keep it that way."

Her hands clenched together. "Xavier, you... You hate me?" Her voice trembled.

He continued glaring at her. "No, I don't. I don't have any emotions or feelings for you; it's blank. I've cried enough over my heart that you so artfully slashed," he stared at her eyes. "I won't allow myself to be fooled by you."

Her eyes glazed, and she gave a sad chuckle. "Wow," she shrugged. "I'm not here to mend our failed marriage. I just...wow," tears escaped from her eyes.

His body stiffened as he saw her crying. Was he being unnecessarily rude? Maybe. Was it necessary for him? Yes.

He was moving on with his life, and he wanted to close a few doors forever. Subhadra was one of those rooms he never wanted to open again, a room full of misery that had poisoned the depths of his heart.

It wasn't about her; he didn't want karma to be a bitch to her. He wanted karma to be kind to him because he wanted some peace in his life. And knocking on that particular door with the nameplate of his ex-wife wasn't the wisest choice.

There was another call at the door, and a few moments later, he heard his guest's mellifluous voice filling the living room. "Surprise Xav, I brought you yummy fish fry that I m—"

Krithika stopped dead in her tracks as she saw them, her wide grin slowly dropping.

Do tell me what you feel about this and the upcoming chapters, always open to positive criticism.