Javed naam hai mera phir se

Chapter 14

Anjali was yanking her seatbelt and the thumping noise it made was meant to represent her frustration. Not with Javed and his persistent intrusion in her life only… but she couldn't vent her anger at Namrata or Italian supplier at the moment. So Javed had to take the fall.

Lavanya was almost worried for both of them but not enough to get her distracted from sleeping on the backseat – the comfort of Javed's car reminded her of how tired she was from that flight and Lavanya fell asleep the moment her head touched the leather cushion.

Being aware of a sleeping girl behind her Anjali tried to hush down her irritation but it only made it worse – not she was hissing on Javed. He gulped trying to conceal both his annoyance with Anjali's sudden hysterics and his amusement with the way she was going about this whole situation.

- Javed-ji, why do you keep doing this? I'm not a child to be handled like this! If I remember correctly, I'm one year older than you!

Javed just couldn't resist the temptation to catch her on this one:

- Yes, you are… older. Consider it to be public service - me helping… the elderly part of the family. After all, I took Nani-ji to shopping the other day – why can't I help you out?

- What. Did. You. Just. Say?! – Anjali was pausing for every word trying to collect her breath and cool down before she'd exploded all over this pompous big-headed snarky piece of…

- You! You boss me around and treat me like a baby-girl! I'm not your little sister, Javed!

Anjali was so emotional she'd forgot to use her ever-present polite "ji" that went with everything she said. She'd also been too invested in her own emotions to overhear Javed's comment "SubhanAllah for that!"

As much as she'd tried Anjali could not get a proper fight from Javed who seemed to be more interested in his rear view than in what she had to say. So Anjali resided to silent pouting (she'd hoped it would look dignified and not childish at all) and concentrated on the outside view. She was trying to memorize her way to the production facility as it may become handy later. They were out of the city already and there were much less buildings or passing cars to stop her gaze on them. Anjali checked a rear view mirror to her left to see if there was anything worth her interest. She kept watching it for a while to make sure… and then said nervously:

- Javed-ji… Is it me or is this car following us?

By the way Javed grinded his teeth and clenched his fists on a steering wheel she knew he'd seen it too – they were followed by black SUV.

…

- Thompson, we are in my car heading out of the city on 24th, just passed Rahul Vihar. We are being followed. Send somebody to pick us up… Now!

Anjali screamed at Javed:

- What do you mean, "followed"? By whom? Why?!

Anjali's scream woke Lavanya up and when the meaning of her words reached Lavanya's sleepy brains she span around to see the vehicle driving close behind them. She turned back and grabbed Javed's shoulder:

- J, what's happening? Who's that? What do they want with us?

Javed moved his shoulder to free himself from Lavanya's grip and snapped at her:

- Let go of me! Not helping, Luv! Sit straight and buckle up your seatbelt, dammit!

Lavanya nodded responding to despair in his voice. If Javed was scared… then it must've been bad… really bad!

Anjali was not subdued so easily – she kept demanding answers she wasn't getting:

- Javed, who is that? Why are we being followed?