Heartbeats And Halos

Chapter 20

• P a l a k •

I slowly and awkwardly turned around to face him. He wore a navy blue shirt and jeans, his hair was looking a little messy today in a good way, a few strands of it touching his forehead making him look irresistibly hot and handsome as always.

Because of his height, he was towering over me. We weren't standing very close or very far. I visibly gulped taking in his appearance but then immediately looked away not wanting to look like a creep and stare at him for very long.

"Hi," I simply said stealing a glance at him.

"Hi," he replied in his deep masculine voice. "Umm, how are you feeling? Are you and Ragini okay?" He then asked.

"Yes, we are fine now," I assured him and he nodded.

"Oh and by the way what were you doing?" He asked the question I was dreading for.

"I--" I gulped nervously and suddenly my throat felt dry. "I--was I mean I was--looking for for..." I mentally slapped myself for shuttering like that. "I was looking for Abhinav yeah," I said the first thing that came to my mind and he raised an eyebrow.

"Abhinav?" His voice came out as a rasp.

"Um yes to give him chocolates." I made an excuse. He blinked a few times and then nodded.

"I will send him to you." He stated and I nodded positively. "But don't give him too many chocolates." He instructed exactly how a father should in order to protect his child from tooth decay. I mumbled a small yes and ran to the kitchen.

I bumped into Ragini Making her scream.

"Ohh my god!" She exclaimed. "Why are you running like that?" A big frown was plastered on her face and a big apple was in her hand.

I put a hand on my chest and sighed gravely.

"Nothing," I muttered. She gave me a suspicious and weird look before she went away munching on her apple. I entered the kitchen where I found Diya, bhabi, mumma, and Chachi. I didn't see Trisha Masi anywhere which was worrying me.

She is up to no good! We have to keep our eyes open.

Hopefully, Ragini went outside so she must be searching for her if not doing something stupid.

I entered the kitchen and the exquisite smell of spices hit my nostrils. I inhaled deeply already guessing that they were preparing Dal Makhani. Gaily I wished everyone a very good morning. Bhabhi and Chachi replied with big smiles and asked about how I was feeling, the worker aunty did the same while Mumma completely ignored me.

Why? Is she angry?

I went up to her. She kept her head down and looked very upset. She was looking at the boiling milk in front of her absent-mindedly.

"Mumma" I chirped and she glared at me so hard that I flinched and took some steps back. "What's wrong mumma?" But she walked past me not replying.

"Mumma" I grabbed her arm and she stopped abruptly. "What's wrong? Did I do something wrong? Please talk to me" I asked again desperately. I hated it when people I loved ignored me or didn't talk to me.

If anybody was angry with me I wanted them to scold me, scream at me, and do whatever they wanted but the silent treatment was just unbearable for me.

"Don't talk to me." She pushed my hand away and I flinched.

"Why?"

"Because you don't care about me enough to take care of yourself!" She replied angrily and I instantly knew what she was talking about. It was about last night. Mumma must be worried about us.

"I am really sorry mumma" I replied in a gloomy tone.

"Why? Why are you girls so reckless?" She confronted me and I lowered my head. "You both have no idea how worried I was last night." She said in a trembling voice and I immediately embraced her in a tight hug.

For a moment I forgot how much our distress pains her. Last night she must have been worried sick, well anyone would have. Ragini and I were in a very bad state and did nothing but throw up.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled while she sniffed a little. I kept patting her back and pouting like a baby whenever she scolded me in between. Then Ragini entered again at the wrong time and also got badly scolded by Mumma.

Apparently, Ragini hadn't noticed Mumma's gloomy face before.

Yep, bad timing sister.

Trisha Masi was still nowhere to be seen. This worried me more, we should keep our problems in front of us so there is no danger of backstabbing but since my problem was nowhere in sight I had to be prepared for anything.

"What do you wanna eat?" Diya asked me pulling me out of my trance.

"What's on the menu?" I asked casually. It wasn't every day that there were so many dishes but since we had guests I knew there would be a lot of different cuisines.

"Aloo ke parathe, Idli and Sambar, Tomato sauce pasta and there is also bread and butter if you wa--" but I interrupted her.

"Tomato sauce pasta!" I chirped and she took it out for me.

"Did you eat?" I asked her and she shook her head negatively.

"I'm not hungry." Of course, I wasn't buying her shitty excuse so I made her sit with me and feed her. She didn't eat more than a few morsels though and I was worried. But she insisted that if she eats more she will puke so I didn't force her.

After eating, I washed my hands and that's when Abhinav came to me with a big smile on his face. He seemed very enthusiastic. I gave him lots of chocolates, even after his father's strict warning, and told him to hide it somewhere.

Then he whined that we play hide and seek so I dragged Diya and Ragini with me to play with us. After all who could say no to such an adorable little boy? We played inside the villa, laughed a lot and enjoyed.

After which Bhabhi called all of us down. Abhinav went back to his father but not before kissing my cheek.

Diya and I entered the kitchen and saw Bhabi preparing puris. Ragini went away saying she'll be back, I suspect it was to meet Rishabh.

"Hii" I greeted Bhabi and she smiled. She was getting the masala paste down from the grinder.

"So nanad ji time to talk about your final decision!" Her smile turned a bit sly and I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

What?

"What are you talking about?" I asked her. She shook her head and handed the masala jar to the worker kaki before coming near me.

"Don't play dumb with me." Bhabi laughed making me even more confused. Diya then nudged my arm with a suggestive grin on her face.

"Arey she is talking about your decision regarding the marriage proposal!" Diya squealed and my eyes widened.

Ohh oh.

"So?" Bhabi raised her eyebrows and shook my shoulders playfully.