Young and successful Kayal had everything in her hands, a job that she's passionate about, a great bank balance to get her business kick-started, the right
clique of close friends, parents who love her more than anything and her convenient husband...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
It's been a couple of days since the lockdown was implemented and it was finally the weekend. This meant sleeping in for Kayal. She had been extremely exhausted with the extra work that she had been doing ever since work from home had started. Whoever said that work from home is a bliss, they were clearly lying. She had never been as much as answerable to people as she had been in the last two days. Thanking her lucky stars that Saturday isn't a work day in her company, she snuggled further into her warm whale plushy.
"Hmm... this is heavenly!"
"Hold that thought!" Her quirky brain interposed all of the sudden when she heard some countinous rattling of pots and pan from below, in the kitchen. A guttural groan escaped her throat as she quickly pulled her hair into a high bun and marched down the stairs.
"Hi, good morning! You're up so early!" Reyansh beamed while pouring a cup of steaming coffee.
"Dude, you were so noisy for the past fifteen minutes. Do I look like Lady Khumbkaran who would have slept through all the pots and pan clutter?"
"Well, now that you're awake, why don't you have this coffee first?" He grinned. He bloody grinned. She was furious at him, but damn, did he have to display the perfectly aligned teeth.
"Wipe that stupid grin of your face! I'm very much angry at you, Reyansh Mehrotra! Keep that stupid coffee, drink it yourself or pour it down the sink for all I care! Just let me sleep in, would you?" Kayal admonished him and was about to walk away when she heard him.
"It is already eleven hours in the morning. You still want to sleep in?" She was quick to turn around in surprise. Did she really slept that long? Nearly 12 hours?
Noticing the way she was shuffling mindlessly to and fro, muttering some incoherent words, perhaps in Tamil, Reyansh called her out and showed her the time in his phone.
"I had actually slept for almost 12 hours!" Her wide-eyed realisation made Reyansh's lips to tug upwards as he slowly made his way towards her.
"Dude, relax, you had been working really hard these few days. You were tired and your genius brain needed some rest. Here, have your coffee. I tried to make it the way Tai had taught me, but if it doesn't meet your expectation, then you can be honest to me, alright?"
Kayal nodded as she took the handle of the white mug from his grasp. The steam coming from the mug brought the aroma of the South-Indian blended coffee to her nostrils. Immediately acting as a booster to wake her. Just the aroma alone was enough for Kayal, but when she took the first sip of the coffee, she knew she was in heaven. It tasted perfect! Even better than what Tai used to prepare for her. It was just like the one from hometown.
When she cited the same to her husband, he was evidenly delighted and had taken the responsibility to prepare her coffee for the next fortnight, until the end of the lockdown. Elated with the turns of the event from what she had thought was going to be a rough morning, into this peaceful situation, Kayal excused herself to freshen up.
