Winner of Wattpad India Awards 2020 (Judge's Choice) in the New Adult category.
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"The lights are cheeky, you can't live without them, and yet if you get too close, they'll blind you. Darkness? Well it doesn't cheat. It's cool and soothing. It's r...
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Dawn was peeking through the cream satin curtains.
Madhulika stirred on the plush chair beside her coffee table. She had risen earlier than the sun, ditching her bed when it became impossible to get any shut eye.
She wanted to slap herself for being so affected by Roshan when it never bothered her earlier. In fact, it was convenient. She could get all the good parts of a relationship without taking over any of the responsibilities. But then her heart got involved, and with love came guilt.
He started marking every place she could call home. Her apartment, her room in her father's house and even her office at her father's firm. She couldn't go anywhere without her feelings haunting her. This suite in Jasm Inn had been her home for the past month, she could be at peace here, away from those stifling thoughts, at least until yesterday.
Madhu unwound herself from her cross-legged position on the chair. Plugging in the coffee maker, she inhaled the comforting smell of crushed coffee beans, smiling for the first time after hours of crying. She was usually a chai kind of person but today she needed a stronger source of caffeine.
The hour hand of her wristwatch pointed at five when she finished her coffee, feeling much less drowsy. She had three more hours to kill before breakfast with her father. The time, she decided, would be best spent cleaning.
It was therapeutic, going over the mindless motions of folding clothes, scrubbing dishes and dusting the furniture. She could've called room service, but Madhu had always been uncomfortable with servants, she just couldn't give out orders.
Her mother had been the same.
It took about two hours to go through her entire suite. By the time she was done cleaning, it was seven. She hopped in the shower stall of her enormous bathroom. There was a bathtub too, but for some reason, she was not in the mood for a bath.
Her Nokia was buzzing on the bed when she came back from showering, her father's number displayed on the screen.
"Pranam Papa," she mumbled, holding her cell between her shoulder and head as she pulled a denim pant over her long legs.
"I've just had an idea Madhu!" Mahesh Lal didn't bother blessing his daughter first. "Get here right now!"
"Here" could only mean his office at the firm. "Weren't you supposed to come down to the hotel for breakfast? You insisted on me treating you for some reason."
"Oh, you still owe me that treat, but you'll have to pay it in another way." There was an underlying smile in his words, whatever this idea was, Madhu figured it was something he was immensely proud of.
His excitement was contagious. "Okay, I'll meet you in thirty."
He hung up as soon as she said that. That man couldn't, for the life of him, learn the need to say "bye" to signify the end of a phonic conversation. It was one of the many regular things her father deviated from.
