Prithvi... [Vol 5]

Chapter 132

Nandini came out of a reverie and realised she had been standing in the kitchen for longer than necessary. She had to return to the living room or Prithvi would wonder what she was doing in here...

A tremor of disbelief ran through her again.

Prithvi was here...in this house...he had returned. And she was holding a cup of the coffee he had prepared for her...for the first time in their lives.

She wanted to be immersed in the sweetness and joyousness of this unforgettable moment, and live...really live...for the first time in years.

However, the only thing she could truly believe was that he was physically present in the house. With respect to everything else, he seemed to be a...a familiar stranger...

Yes...everything about this meeting felt untrue, Nandini thought uneasily. It was as if she had unknowingly stumbled onto a stage where a strange drama was unfolding. Even the hot cup in her hands, incredibly precious as it was, felt like a prop in a play, or more accurately, an item conjured by magic, which had no basis in reality and could disappear any second.

Nandini clutched the cup tighter. She was soon going to wake up to a reality that would break her. But until then, just for a few moments, she wanted to savour this time when her mind was nearly empty of thoughts and her heart was full.

However, a deep foreboding was already trying to puncture the fragile bubble around her.

She didn't want to leave the kitchen. But she had to...

With a sharp rise in nervousness, Nandini turned to walk out of the kitchen, then stopped in dismay on noticing some dirt marks on the floor. They were very faint, but very much present. Her stomach sank as she recalled that she had forgotten to wash her feet before entering the house. If she'd been alone in the house, she would have cleaned up the floor before leaving. But it would look ridiculous to do that now, Nandini thought miserably. Then she wondered in horror if she had left marks on the stairs and the first floor too...

She shuddered to think about it. But she couldn't do anything about it now. Moreover, she had already laid bare her feelings through her actions...the marks on the floor were just extra proof, she thought with the despair of defeat.

Then just before entering the living room, one more chilling thought occurred to her, and she started to pray desperately that he would have chosen to sit at the dining table...

But Prithvi was not at the table.

He was seated on the sofa... on which they had sat together for some devastated moments on a quiet afternoon years ago...

The cup of coffee was on the centre table. He was gazing at it with a preoccupied air.

He glanced at her suddenly.

There was a ripple in the thick miasma between the two individuals in the room.

He ceased to be a stranger to her for a fragile moment. And the momentary glimpse she caught of the emotions in his eyes nearly made her retreat in shock.

But the curtains fell back into place almost instantly.

Prithvi concernedly asked, "Is there a problem?"

Shaken, Nandini gazed at him for a few moments, then quietly said, "No."

Seeking to divert her mind from the state of her heart, she tried to focus on the terrible pain in her legs and feet as she walked to the couch on the opposite side and sat down.

"Is the coffee okay?" he asked solicitously.

"It's wonderful," Nandini murmured, staring at the short table between them.