One More Time

47

As soon as Romy left,Ria started checking her facebook, a smile appeared on her lips as Snigdha had sent a friend request. She instantly sent her an emoji,accepting the pending request. Then usual stocker in her searched for her pictures, majority of which consisted of Himadri and her kids.In the meantime, Romy and Nabila started to fill her phone's notification panel,thus Ria got sure of Romy's reaching home. Feeling a bit exhausted, she lied down and hoped of reading some romance novels and eventually dozed off.

Koustav found Tuhin still sitting alone in the hall. His parents were not in his sight. "So....what did you buy?",Tuhin asked in a taunting voice. Koustav passed him the plastic bags and ran upstairs for some stationary . He had nothing here,so he decided to steal some from his wife.

Her room's door was open and she was lying with the phone still in her hand's grip. He was confused to find what and where. Making no sounds, he tiptoed to her cupboard. Awkwardness started to fill in his mind.

Her groggy voice came,"Finding something?"

For the first time in many years,Koustav felt the thrill of surprising someone."Nothing, just a black pen. Do you have any? I needed it."

Before lying down again she replied,"Open it and find it....it must be there somewhere."

As her light snoring sound could be heard,Koustav's tension somewhat subdued. He quickly opened and found her pens and markers, soon he left her room.

"Why are you sweating all of a sudden?",Tuhin could not get any reply from Koustav as he made himself busy in packing the novels. Tuhin took the books up, tried smelling the perfume from the outer carton and lingered there for awhile, then left to buy lights and crackers for the diwali 2 days ahead.

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On the opposite, Romy got inside her room. She was happy as neither she had to face Ujaan nor the caretaker. Without changing,she came to the adjoining balcony. Seeing Nabila online too,they started to chat in their whatsapp group. Being busy there, she was unaware of one pair of eyes noticing her each and every posture- from her limbs, to her fondling with her hairs. As no reply came from Ria, they stopped too. Turning back Romy noticed Ujaan sitting in the adjacent room,staring at her direction. Gingerly she went back to her room. She was sure,if she had even smiled out of courtesy,he would have started talking. Her best friend's birthday was tomorrow and she did not have any intention of hurting herself emotionally.

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Dinner went as usual, Soma and Abir ate with them too. "Everyone left quite early today.Isn't it? You are okay, right? You have started eating less thesedays. I just noticed today!",Ria scrunched her eye brows. Koustav was burping. She had no idea, how Koustav and Tuhin had devoured the delicious chocolate muffins brought by her parents.

Soma literally had to stop them from attacking her daughter's favourite choco-truffle cake. Soma got the chance of celebrating her birthday after almost 4 years. She could not believe even, how she became of 22. Before coming back home, she went to Koustav's house. Ria's parents-in laws beamed in joy. They planned that Ria would have lunch at her paternal house and would come back at her in-laws as Diwali and Kali pujo are on the next day.

"Yeah....I'm ok. Just had some acidity. ",Koustav's eyes reached for the time in his phone. Time was passing very slowly today.

"Okay, then sleep.",she tried faking an yawn. He paid no attention and continued to read in his phone.She was confused inside that he knew or not."Are you not going to wish me first?",came her puppy voice from inside. "Do I know his birthday? What was it? Did his mother tell me ever?",her inside snapped again. She reached for her phone and called her MIL. Koustav was watching his wife  calling someone and slowly going towards the balcony. He continued reading until he heard the words 'his birthday' reached his words. Almost after trying very hard, he was sure whom had she called. He chuckled and made himself serious again as after talking for awhile she had returned to the bed.