Desire ✔️

Part 10 - Day 3 PM : Yeh Hai Meri Kahani ( This is My Story)

Raman worked on his project for most of the afternoon.

As she busied herself in the kitchen with her recipe books and the ingredients for a pasta sauce, Ishita could hear him stamping about in the living room, yelling at Mihir and his other colleagues over the phone.

"Kitna gussa hai" she shuddered. "Ab aaya na Raavan mode mein".
(Such anger. He sure is back in his Raavan mode)

She wondered how he would take her attempts to talk to him about Ruhi.

He would probably yell, she decided, but she couldn't let that put her off. Ruhi loved her papa, and now she knew that Ruhi's papa loved her, she was determined to make him acknowledge that and help him see that he needed to work on his relationship with his daughter.

"Well, he will certainly be in a better mood if I feed him well, so this pasta had better turn out right" she murmured to herself, as she re-checked the recipe for the umpteenth time.

Ishita knew that she made good South Indian food and she could even make passable Punjabi and other North Indian food, but Italian was totally nouvelle cuisine for her. But now she knew he loved Italian,  and fortuitously the recipe book had some vegetarian recipes, so she was determined to make him his faviroute cuisine.  She crossed her fingers and sent up a quick prayer, hoping her efforts would be rewarded with something edible.

Prayer concluded, she smiled as she put some vine ripened tomatoes in a colander to wash.

He may have been shouting and screaming over the phone at his hapless co- workers now, but she knew he had enjoyed her company this morning.

She had seen her own contentment reflected in his face as they had worked together. Now she just had to get him to open up, to talk to her about Ruhi. She did not know why, but she felt she had to get to the reason behind his anger, his tears - this could be their last evening together, and her last chance.

For Ruhi's sake, she had to try. Sirf Ruhi ke liye.

But no, she had to be honest with herself. She wanted to know the reason for his pain, so she could help him. She wanted to soothe away the anguish from his brow, wanted to see him smile, wanted to see him happy. And that was not for Ruhi. No, that was not just for Ruhi.

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Raman frowned as he turned off his laptop.

He had needlessly screamed at Mihir and his entire office just as the workday was starting in India. Poor Mihir would have just stepped off the plane, would not even have had the opportunity to go through the concepts that Raman had emailed, yet he had made him into a scapegoat as well.

"Scapegoat for what Raman" he asked himself. "Just what is going on with you?"

He had so enjoyed this morning with Ishita.

After his breakdown last night, and when she had started to ask probing questions this morning, he had been afraid that she would be piqued by his silence on the subject, would withdraw into herself.

But no, she had read his mood, had stopped enquiring, and had followed his lead and shared light hearted anecdotes with him instead.

Except for his family and work colleagues, his encounters with women over the past six years had been for one purpose only - sex.

And before his divorce - well, Shagun had been beautiful, but she was an airhead. He could discuss nothing of any substance with her; her conversation had always been about Shagun - her make up, her clothes, her figure, her complexion. When she talked about other people, it was to engage in vicious gossip. Since his blinkers about Shagun had fallen off, he had come to realise what a vacuous empty woman she was, and how lucky his Ruhi was not to be influenced by her, brought up by her.