Living In Oblivion

07

It was almost evening when Avanti walked out of her room. The day had already started to darken as the sky turned greyish, spreading its cold wings to capture all the warmth. Birds returned to their homes silently, some with food and some with hopes of finding food the next day. It was a fine winter day, and Avanti was sure that the night would turn colder, possibly with a drizzle tomorrow.

Divit was engrossed in his laptop when she walked out, yawning loudly. He looked up for a second and then refocused on his work. "Hello?" she chirped, sitting beside him and leaning her head back on the sofa.

"Hello?" Divit frowned. She had been with him an hour before, dancing and screaming like a loose nut when India won. Divit was certain at that time that she had a fit, and before he could run to his room to get a dirty sock, she went back to normal and left for her room, patting his shoulder and saying that she was going to take a nap.

He looked up and nodded at her, but she ignored him. Her gaze wasn't on him but on yawning again, stretching her arms, and closing her eyes. "What are you doing?" she asked in a hoarse voice, folding her legs up on the sofa.

"I am writing," he answered without looking at her, fully focused on his task.

"Writing?" She blinked.

He looked up. "Err... forget it."

She ignored him and continued prying. "As in fiction or something? Or like some office work?"

"Don't you have your own work to do?" he asked slightly irritated, tilting his head sideways and audibly huffing.

Once again, she ignored his response. "Or an article or some news report?"

"News report? Madam, I work as a senior software engineer including R&D, in case you've forgotten."

"Yeah, yeah," she waved it off. "Then what are you writing?"

"English."

"Very funny," she laughed mockingly at his face.

He cocked an eyebrow at her tone.

"Very funny, Divit sir," she continued in the same tone, adding 'Divit sir' just to make him feel like a senior. She had heard before joining that seniors were cranky that way. They wanted their juniors to suffer the same way they did, and the cycle never ended. It was almost like bullying, except real bullying is a crime or could lead to one.

Divit controlled himself, trying to stop the smile that wanted to spread on his lips. He found his breath stuck in his throat and his heart pounding loudly in his chest as he watched her scrunch her nose and half shut her eyes in an attempt to mock him. She looked so cute doing that, and he quickly looked away, focusing on his work.

A few minutes passed with no exchange of words between them, and the silence wasn't awkward for Divit. He was glad for it, but it was hellishly awkward for Avanti. She found it itching every pore of her body.

"Hell with it," she murmured to herself and then sighed, "Are you always this boring?"

"Are you always this excited?" Divit responded, laughing out loud.

"I am not excited. I am like that. But look at you, you are always so sullen, so lazy, so boring, and so weird," she babbled more to herself than to him.

Divit laughed, amused by her complaints. "Excuse me, Madam. I am not sullen or weird. I am like that, maybe a bit lazy and boring, but sorry to disappoint you. You are always so high on energy that I can't match your vibe."

"I know, right," she pouted, agreeing.

But the next moment, something crossed her mind, and her face lit up. "Divit sir, Divit sir!" she squealed, making him jump in his seat. "I forgot. I bought new jar blades and nut bolts. Wait, let me get them."

"But I could have taken it to a repair shop or bought a new one," he said, only to be unheard as she was already running to her room.

Fifteen minutes later, they both sat on the floor with the mixer grinder between them, each part open. Divit held a screwdriver in his hand, rotating it to loosen the rusted bolt of the grinder. He watched Avanti as she carefully tightened the blades, her large glasses resting pointedly on her nose, and a few strands of hair falling carelessly, caressing the sides of her round face.

He looked away and focused on his task.

They continued working in silence, but Divit was confused in his own mind. Avanti's presence irked him, but at the same time, it was soothing. It irked him to see the joy, satisfaction, and excitement on her face, which never seemed to fade away, even for a second. And it was soothing because she had so much positivity in herself that it radiated charmingly around her, unapologetically and in its rawest form.

How can a person be both amusing and irritating at the same time? Divit wondered. His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he slid it out. It was his mother calling. He sighed and put the phone on silent, planning to call her back later.

"It's done," he exclaimed, placing the pot on the floor.

Avanti looked up, nodded, and then went back to her work.

"Should I help you?" Divit asked after a few seconds of silence.

"No, but you can talk to your mother now," she stated.

His eyes crunched in confusion, and he realized what she was referring to. "Oh, you saw that. Ermm, no, it's fine. I'll do that later."

She nodded.

"Did you talk to your maid?" she asked, examining the blades to ensure they were tightened equally.

"She didn't come today."

"So when will she come?"

"She comes four times a week: Monday, Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday. Since tomorrow is Sunday, I'll talk to her then."

"But today is Saturday, right? Why didn't she come?"

"Well, she should have, but you know, our flat was magically locked, so she couldn't enter," he answered with a straight face, though Avanti didn't miss the tease in his tone and the smooth sarcasm conveyed with a little shrug of his shoulders. She could bet he was smirking when she didn't look up at him.

She controlled her smile and her quick tongue, which really wanted to utter something clever. Divit surprised her with his behavior. He wasn't a random, outgoing guy, she had concluded that in the past two days. He wasn't overly sweet, nor was he stern. He played his role in life somewhere between the lines. The lines looked sharp and clear, but Avanti detected some blurriness and knots in them.

But she couldn't point it out. It would be wrong on her part. Everyone needed their own space in life, and she understood that well. Moreover, this guy had helped her a lot by allowing her to stay with him on such short notice. She didn't want to intrude.

"Yeah, locked magically so nobody would rob our house," she rolled her eyes and cocked her head to look at him.

"You could have woken me up?" he suggested.

"I didn't want to invade your privacy," she answered.

He sighed.

"And that reminds me," she started, sliding her phone out. "I need your number."

They exchanged numbers, and then Avanti got busy finishing fixing the damn thing up.

"Okay, I'll just check this now," she said, holding the pot and grinning at her work.

"I'll be back in a minute," Divit told her and went into his room. He was almost done when he heard a sound. Something vibrated loudly, followed by what seemed like someone choking, and then a loud blast that ended with a few clinks of metal against something hard.