Plainly With A Twist!

Face-off

3 days passed since that night. Even though Meera had normalized the situation by her antics, she herself was still nursing the wounds of his words. Meera knew that Eshaan was aware of her attraction towards him, but he misunderstood her intentions. To find out what he was analysing it to be and why he was disgusted by it, required that Meera directly questions him. but Meera just couldn't muster the courage to do it. she instead chose the easy way out and suppressed her desires. Even though she was behaving normally with him and everyone else on the surface, she had actually built a wall of formality around him. she no longer touched or hugged Eshaan, even when he initiates something, she just lets him do what he wants but never reciprocates.

Eshaan was oblivious to her plight, he believed that Meera understood her mistake and was on a journey of self-realization.

Today, Eshaan's conference meetings ended and tomorrow they would be leaving for their actual vacation. Meanwhile, Aditi and Anish were going to leave for Bangalore directly. Being the last day together, a plan for lunch is made. Meera absolutely loathes hanging out with Aditi, but she agrees for Eshaan's sake.

As expected the lunch demarcates the isolation of Meera from the group. This time, however, she doesn't feel bad, she quietly accepts her fate and concentrates on her food. At one point, she gets up to go to the washroom. Once Meera leaves, a few moments later even Aditi goes after her.

Meera was washing hands when Aditi enters the washroom.

"so how are your hormones feeling now?" Aditi taunts Meera.

"excuse me?!!" Meera turns to her shocked.

"well, we all know about your teenage hormones whenever you are around Eshaan," Aditi tells her with a sneer.

Hell breaks loose in Meera's mind. so, this bitch was the reason behind the storm in her life!

" do you now? Interesting! may I know when and how?" she replies her voice cool and steady as fury unfurled in her eyes.

"oh, you shouldn't drink so much if you can't remember. But you didn't answer my question, could you quench your raging hormones that night?" Aditi continues to mock her, unaware of the wrath she was inviting.

" oh, so you heard." Meera answers her amused, not caring to answer her direct question, whilst the fury in her eyes raged on.

"you have got a naturally amplified voice, everyone in the bar heard you that night"

"yes, and you heard it" Meera simply repeats.

"what do you mean? I just told you everyone heard you!" Aditi too repeats herself exasperated.

"hmmm vohi toh main bhi bol rahi hu ki tumne sunna! Uss bar mein bahaut log the, toh obviously bahauto ne sunna hoga aur sunke unsunna kar diya hoga. Par Tumne na sirf sunna but you also spread gossips about it", she now replied with her voice hardening.

"excuse me! Tum mujhe blame kar rahi ho? Listen main tumhari tarah paheliyo mein baat nahi karti. I felt you were doing something wrong and I exposed it. baki mujhe logo k kaam mein interfere karne ka shauk nahi h!" Aditi retorted angrily.

"hmm shauk nahi h fir bhi tumne chugli ki meri, mere husband k saamne and created a rift between us even though you don't know the full story behind our relation.", Meera voice now hardened completely and mirrored the cold fury in her eyes.

Aditi continued to defend her actions, by saying that she knows everything as she is Eshaan's friend since college days. She made every attempt to blame Meera and make her feel guilty but in vain.

Meera listened to her accusation with a steely expression and waited for her to finish with her rant before unleashing her final weapon at her.

"Okay, I still don't understand what you will gain if Eshaan and I separate. There can be only 2 reasons behind this: 1) you wanted Eshaan for yourself but by not getting him, you now want to ruin us out of spite. Or 2) this has nothing to do with Eshaan all together but your own personal vendetta against me.

Well whatever it is, I would advise you to shut it and stop wasting my time."

"Are you threatening me?"

"what for? You are not worth my time and attention. You would have known that if you really know me from college days as you just claimed." Meera left Aditi with these last words and a derogatory smile thrown her way.

Aditi fumes after Meera. Somehow Meera always outsmarted her. even after all these years when she was much more stylish and successful than Meera, she still couldn't match her charisma and that bruised her ego immensely. She was going to get even with Meera, no matter the price.

***

the guys sat talking casually oblivious to the storm brewing around them. Meera came back and took her place and even Aditi joined a few moments later. While Meera's demeanor was calm and composed, Aditi was burning with humiliation.

To get back at Meera, she steers the conversation towards teasing the newlyweds about their honeymoon. What starts as a harmless joking session, soon turns into a derogatory mocking session directed towards Meera as Aditi starts taking digs at her. She is careful to not sound too personal and direct and always covers up her snide remarks, with fake laughs and some other harmless comments. The boys do not understand the deeper meaning of Aditi's jokes and remarks, but their effect is not lost on Meera. She knows exactly what Aditi is doing but being a wise person, she decides to ignore her, however, her tolerance quickly wanes, when Eshaan gets on the bandwagon.

They were talking about who is more approachable amongst the two of them when Eshaan quips in:

"I would say: me. Yeh toh hypocrite h aur split personality disorder ki patient h! I mean she is so childish most of the time to the extent of being irritating but when something is not her way she turns into the ultimate khadoos and the most acid tongued person ever.

I mean poora time cheezy romantic movies dekhegi and aww karegi for the most senseless scene, but then when it came to arranging a pre-wedding photoshoot for our marriage, her tantrums and aversion were out of this world. Uss time isne photographer se le kar sab relatives ko jo sunaya tha to cancel that photoshoot was just insane!

Madam ko romance chahiye, she wants to be pampered but baby bolo toh murder karne ki dhamki deti h...."

"AISA KAISE CHALEGA MADAM?" Eshaan and Anish cheer in chorus and then break down into splits of laughter.

Maybe some other time Meera too would have found these jokes funny, but right now with Aditi's irritating smirks, this was an appalling afternoon.

"that was funny and I can see what you mean. zara dekho isse, yeh kaise dur baithi h hum sabse! It looks like she is sitting with us only because there was no other table available in the restaurant. She definitely doesn't look like a part of our group!" Aditi adds to the joke.

Meera had had enough of this humiliation now, grabbing her purse she stands up and makes a gesture to leave, not before giving the group a deathly glare.

" you are right! I do not belong to the group and hence it would be better for me to leave now. Thank you so much for tolerating me all this while.

And by the way Aditi, a word of advice for you... it would do you good if you cling less to Eshaan and pay more attention to your fiancé, otherwise, Anish's girlfriend might need to interfere in the future to guide you about his importance." Saying this Meera stomps off from the scene while the other three sit there shocked unable to say a word.