Never Let Go!

Chapter Three

Sooraj

Life in this city was much the same, I had to admit that truth to myself, everyone here had the ability to be busy, and moving around for something or the other. As for me, I had a very tiring day at office today, I had to admit that. There were back to back meetings and presentations by clients, and I was stuck at the conference hall throughout. Somehow after all these years I was glad that I'd managed to keep my personal life and professional life separate right from the beginning. There were no awkward glances and sympathetic looks targeted at me at office. Somehow I realised I was happy to be there. But life as a financial manager was tough. I glanced at my watch before walking towards my car in the parking lot. It was 9 in the night. I raised my brows exhaustingly as I punched the button on my key to unlock my car. I switched on my rap music as soon as I slid onto the driving seat and started manoeuvring the car through the deserted area of our office. I realised this area somehow resembled the Wall Street in New York where the street got packed in the morning, with thousands of employees getting attracted towards the large magnetic buildings but as soon as dusk set in the magnet ended up releasing 'these elements' back, deserting the entire place. I smiled inwardly at the analogy.

Wait! That was definitely a similar face, but somehow I couldn't recollect the name. I reversed my car and halted it right in front of the damsel who definitely seemed to be in distress right now. I closed my eyes in frustration as I realised who the face belonged to, it was none other than Siya. But I guess the reaction was quite similar because I could see her frustration bottling up on her face, her expressions giving it away. I looked around to find the road completely deserted and I realised I couldn't end up leaving her just like that. I decided to get out of my car and help her.
'What's the matter?'
she glared at me for an entire minute before firing, 'I have no intention of standing here all alone on a deserted road.' And then just because she felt the need to elaborate further she added, 'My car's broken down.'
I smiled at the way her voice toned down when she realised I was probably the last help she'd ever get here.
'How about I drop you home and let the car be here. We'll get help first thing in the morning.'
She seemed to be judging me because she took a long look at her car and then at me before she murmured a small okay. Chivalrously I opened the passenger door for her to slide in and once I was assured that she was fine I walked down to the other side and we started our journey back home.

The rap music was a definite breaker to the awkwardness that was settled inside the car.
'You could've at least sent back a smiley when someone welcomes you.'
A smiley? What was she talking about? She seemed to have guessed from my confused state that I had no idea what she was talking about.
'I welcomed you to the group. On WhatsApp and since I had promised Rohit, I am actually wanting to start afresh and let go off whatever happened yesterday.'
Honesty. That was a new from the feminine gender, definitely. 'Well, one I haven't really had time to open my phone let alone hangout on WhatsApp, you can check it out, your message would still be unread out there and two what did actually happen yesterday?'
It was her turn to raise her eyebrows shocked at my explanation, which one I had no idea.
'Okay let's discuss the first point first because one and two keeps me confused. Are you so busy in life that you don't check your phone during office hours?'
'Ha-ha, not usually, today being Monday plus it indeed was a busy day.' She nodded at that as if that statement clearly made sense of it all.
'So getting back to yesterday, what did happen?'
Now that got her angry, again, 'Wow! You really don't know anything about the way your behaviour ends up affecting people do you?'
I had to stop the car at that, now that was getting a bit personal. My behaviour affecting people? Like who? She seemed to notice the intensity of the conversation increasing, she looked around to make sure we were stopping somewhere safe but she continued her argument as she locked her eyes with mine, 'I'm not talking about myself here, but the gang especially Rohit was tremendously happy to see you after so long and you didn't seem to care, you just left off abruptly. How could you do that? Especially to someone you call your best friend?'
I looked away, I couldn't believe the aftereffect was so bad, and especially someone new could judge the scene so clearly. I couldn't help but wonder about what else could that sharp mind have possibly grasped from the situation when she cut that trail up, 'I cannot come up with a solution to that question if I have no idea about the situation. But that was downright rude even if it was at a gunpoint.'
I chuckled at that intelligent and humorous judgement, definitely a dangerous combination.
'It was something to do..' I just couldn't manage to tell her, it wasn't like I didn't want to at that moment but I just couldn't. Somehow her judgement about me seemed to matter a lot. She placed her hand on my left one gently, 'I know something in your past is tormenting you but unless you decide to let it go it's not going to stop. The key to that is in our mind you know.' I looked at her, this woman here next to me, there was definitely something about her that made me want to hold her in my arms and maybe if it weren't for the mess I was in, I would've even done that. I closed my eyes and looked away so that the feeling would somehow disappear.
'The way she left me is just something I'm stuck with.' I could feel her smile inwardly at that. As if she'd just found a solution to the greatest problem in the history of mankind. 'Oh so it's about a bad breakup! Everyone goes through that!' I looked at her in the eye, 'It's a bit more than that.'
'It's okay Sooraj, we're all here for you whatever it is. Just don't be rude to someone.' She added the last sentence quite mischievously I noticed. I turned on the engine of the car and started making our way home, quite satisfied that the initial ice was broken between us.

'Thank you for the ride home Sooraj!' I nodded at her with a smile on my face. 'So do you want to talk about her?' What do I say to that? What did she want to know? I guess these thoughts kind of delayed me in answering because she continued, 'I guess not. I'm sure she must be beautiful, but you'd definitely find someone better than her. And you know what we'll help you find one.' I furrowed my brows together, where was she leading the conversation to? Finding a girlfriend for me was probably the last thing I'd want after Shruti. Shruti had managed to damage me entirely. But I wasn't going to get into that, 'Goodnight Siya.' I decided to end the conversation and right now I didn't care if it seemed abrupt to her.