LOVE AND BETRAYAL

Chapter 3

I still smell like the pungent floor cleaner which is used to scrub floors in my operation theatre, patience is not a trait that my personality constitutes off, hence the scrubs I am wearing. When Vedangi texted me that she has landed and will meet me at the museum I just could not wait to change clothes and make her wait there. 

And now I am staring at my newly adopted baby, taking in its beauty, crafting ideas on how I will carve it into my dream and convert it into the reality. People must be thinking what a crazy girl I am, smiling at a building. But when you are an owner of the most Execusite location, all the craziness dissolves.

"People might think you are crazy Raavi." Comes a voice close to me and the familiar smell of comfort hits my nose. I turn around and there she is, my sister, my sailor, my anchor and every good adjective used to define a good person. I don't think about the sweaty smell coming from me because I was operating on a cancerous tumor on an old horse for 10+ hours and give her a tight hug and hope she wouldn't object stinking like a cocktail of floor cleaner and sweat. 

My sister is a big hugger (totally opposite of me on how I show affection), but I am meeting her after a long time, and I was yearning for that homely air of affection in this foreign country and believe me she gives the best hugs, she often says " Who hugs you first, should be the one to decide when to let go of the hug."

"I missed you" I say with a softened expression and caressing my face, she holds my hand and admires the building. "This is beautiful Raavi, right now I don't have words to describe this piece of architecture and how much I am proud of you, but all of this is amazing Choti Rajkumari". I am not fond of this nickname very much but every now and then she drops it in the conversation to tease me.

"Now take me home, I am hungry. The airlines didn't do a good job pampering this Princess" she says pointing at herself dramatically." And we hail a taxi laughing about something completely random and unhinged. We talk about ma and baba, how our mother has stuffed her suitcase with innumerable jars of pickles and sweets which I like and miss eating.

While exiting the taxi she tips the driver generously and he looks at her both in disbelief and a thankful expression which he hasn't mastered yet, " I wish I was the taxi driver!" I say jokingly punching her arm to which she wittingly replies," Not my fault you evaporated your trust fund on the museum." She says with a straight face which means a lecture about using my resources correctly and at right place is on the way. "Can we please skip the financial bracket of the conversation?"

We were binging " Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara" an Indian film revolving around three friend's and how time and their respective works has shaped their personalities and their dynamics with each other, we called our mum and let her narrate the recipe of shahi paneer which we were craving for, loading the dishes in the dishwasher she calls out from the kitchen." You probably should call Veer too." The name hangs around in the air and I search for a good and valid reply, but nothing comes out of my mouth.

Veer Singh was or is my best friend with whom I haven't talked to in two years, last time when I was in India, he confessed his feelings for me which he was harboring for a long time, I still remember his face washed with the evening sunlight and his golden-brown eyes waiting for an answer, but I dint knew what I felt about him So I fled the scene without quenching his thirst of an answer and never talked to him, there must be a thousand texts and calls from him since then and I haven't had the guts to hear his voice and reply to his feelings. 

But I do feel a void since his absence from my life, we have been friends since our childhood and there is a small part of me that only blooms in his presence, is that love or just being extremely comfortable around someone?

 I don't know yet.

I would have shared my dessert with my sister because she doesn't press me further on this topic, but I don't, it's okay being selfish sometimes when you have a bowl of Ras Malai in front of you.