Waltzing in the shadows

This is a continuation of the fiction under the label: Meghana

Continuation after this

Meg continued to look outside. The green pastures were interlaced with the cheery yellow squares and the distant mountains at the backdrop made the scene picturesque. The intermittent houses seem to spring up from nowhere, each looking like a fairy cottage, with bold shades that were very uncommon. She concentrated on the music, breaking the notes one at a time, forcing herself to listen to the chords of guitar at one moment or the beats of drums in the next moment, a sort of tiring exercise and a throb in her head, anything to not dwell on the next few days. Her thoughts swarmed her head, each emotion engulfing the brain waves, the sea of emotions threatening to be a cause of embarrassment. She refused to acknowledge that emotion, forcing her mind to think of something else. She started multiplying a random number with another random number. Soon the music became a back ground score and the mind started rushing past numbers. She knew that this would soon be futile too. She is good with numbers, that she knew. This was an exercise she did for a long time, that distracted her to an extent, but soon those calculations would also become a back ground, just like the music. She needs to start another exercise and wondered how long it would take before they reached the place. She started on divisions and challenged her brain to reverse count the numbers. A new challenge, a failure will put her mind to concentrate more. She failed couple of times, losing the count of division once, as she decreased the counter and losing the counter once as she tried dividing. She sighed in frustration, as she started again, tuning the mind to reverse count and fell into a rhythm, where that count became a tally board and she started the division of a random number with another random number.

Abhinav tried to gather his thoughts. He was studying his wife, but was comfortable to let her be. He could probably just touch her and bring her out of that trance she seemed to be in and then talk something to her. For some reason, he felt that this silence was important to her. He might not really understand the reason of her silence, but he did read about the anxieties of a newly wedded girl and he did not want to push her anxiety level to a high. Despite the suggestions in those articles that a few soothing words would help, he felt that his wife would prefer silence to words. He heard a sigh and turned to watch her. Her eyes were closed and there was a frown on her forehead and she was taking slow deep breaths. He wondered what she did to calm her nerves. He was nervous too, but, he has charted out the plan and he was confident of executing it. It did not take much – a quite time and a few hours with her and few conversations, that will give them enough time to be comfortable with each other. He was not worried about that. He could calm her nerves by speaking his mind, but she shut everything off and from experience, the best way to deal with people who shut out everything would be to let them be. They are now fifteen minutes from their destination. They already entered the resort premises. Their's was a private villa at  the back of the resort. Abhi always took the same villa and when he requested for a reservation, the staff was only too happy to comply. After all, he was one of their oldest member and he introduced many new members to their private resort. He got the most experienced chauffeur, compliments of the Resort and a pick up from the airport, as part of their welcome.

The chauffeur proceeded past the estate plantations and stopped in front of their villa. Abhinav got down the car and went around and opened the door for Meghana. He touched her slightly and her eyes opened in an instant. “We reached”, he said and Meghana got down the car and stood beside him, while he closed the door behind her. The chauffeur picked their luggage and took them into the villa. Meg looked around the place, that looked like an independent house, proud and aloof. Secluded amidst the trees with the background of mountains and a river flowing near by, this looked as though it was constructed as an afterthought. As though, the architect could not resist the scenic beauty from that vantage point and decided to build an isolated roof, that has the most soul searching vision of its own. She stood transfixed at the scenery infront of her. She has to give him points for this. He has an exquisite taste about beauty and serenity. She looked at him with a smile and he returned one. She gave me a smile, he thought. He felt the pride run through his veins, as he felt the appreciation in her. Surely, she likes the place, if she gave a smile. So, they have some mutual tastes, he thought and that made him happy.

The villa was a duplex, with an open kitchen and living room combined. The living room had a large TV and the shelf next to it had racks full of DVDs. The couch in the living room was a good ten feet from the TV and the stand next to it held a miniature flower pot, made out of marble. Behind the couch were the stairs to the first floor. The kitchen looks like it is out of some designer store – electric stove, oven, coffee maker, refrigerator, mixer, shelves with utensils and glass plates. It had a glass view to the outside porch and a door that opened to it. It had a small divider that separated it from the dining room. The dining table looks sparkling. Mats were arranged on two sides, with plates on them and the cutlery beside them. It had a glass jar with water and a bowl of fruits. She took in those things, while Abhi moved up the stairs, followed by the chauffeur along with the luggage. Meg followed them behind.

The top floor had a bedroom, a patio and a lavish bathroom. Meg walked onto the patio and looked around, already lost in the quietness of the place. The ripples of the water reached her ears and the wind tousled her hair. She stood there, for some time, looking at the distant mountains. This place soothed her taut nerves and she felt herself relax. Abhi leaned on the door to the patio and looked at her… She looked relaxed. Her hands held the railing and she leaned forward, gazing into the mountains. Her hair waving behind her at the slight breeze that was moving around. He wanted to smell that hair and tangle his fingers in it and play with it. He wanted to pull her into him and watch the mountains along with her. However, he did no such thing. He took a couple of steps forward, when she turned around and looked at him.

“I'll go to the reception and will be back in a few minutes. Make yourself comfortable. I shall also order our breakfast. Do you want something fancy or coffee and biscuits would do?”, he asked.
“I just want coffee”, she said.
“OK. I will be back in another fifteen minutes.”

She nodded and he started down the stairs. She heard the door and the car. She decided to freshen up and headed to the bedroom. She removed the luggage from the cub board and picked a comfortable cotton beige trouser and a white top and took out her vanity purse and headed for the shower. Though she appreciated the beauty of the lavish bathroom, she wanted to be quick, just in case he was back. The idea of her in the shower that had no bolt scared her enough to complete the ritual in record time. She was applying a lipgloss when she heard the door open and she was spraying the perfume when she heard his voice calling her down. She took a deep breath and went down the stairs to see him pouring coffee into the cups.
“Do you want milk and sugar?”, he asked. When she nodded, he added milk and sugar into one cup and stirred it and pushed the coffee across. He pushed the tray holding biscuits towards her. She ignored it and took a sip of coffee. It was good and she felt the freshness creep in.
“Do you like your coffee?”, he asked.
“Yes. It’s very nice, thank you. Do you always take your coffee black?”, she asked.
“No. I am just a bit tired and want the adrenaline in my blood for the day ahead”, he said, winking at her.
She processed the answer and though it made her nervous, she ignored the bait.
“You like rock music? I am surprised that a simple soul like you has such vibrant taste”, he said.
She looked at him quietly, contemplating a response and decided that she might as well give him a straight answer. “I listen to music based on my mood. I prefer soft tunes over metal, any day.”
“So what is different about today?”, he asked, probing further, with an easy smile on his face.
She wondered if that smile was as easy as it seemed. She is having a nervous breakdown with every word that she uttered and he seemed to be completely at ease. And he had the nerve to ask what was different about today. She pondered over that.
"Yes, what is different today? Apart from this being a culmination of me", she thought.
"I am now stuck with having a company for life, the company I know nothing about. I am now answerable to you– the drawbacks of being married. I am no longer free to do as I please, eat as I please, wake up as I please. The demands of another person in my private place should be answered and I am  having a tough time digesting that", she thought vehemently.
"Aside from the obvious you mean?", she asked. He laughed and said, "did that help your mood?"
“I listen to rock when I want to stop the thoughts from drowning me. The complicated music does not let me concentrate on thoughts, mostly”, she said.
He nodded, digesting this. “What happens if that does not succeed in drowning your thoughts?”
She helped herself to another cup of coffee and while stirring sugar and milk, she responded, “I exercise my brain.”
“How?”, he asked intrigued.
“I do calculations, like multiplying or dividing random numbers or recollecting the vehicle numbers that passed me or doing multi tasking. Like, recollecting state capitals and doing multiplications at the same time, something like that. If that doesn’t help, I randomly picture a board with squares and play checkers.”
He was looking at her, a little bemused. She surprised him alright, “multiplying? Dividing? Playing?”, he thought.
“What were you doing today?”, he asked.
She looked at him questioningly.
“You let out a sigh and looked as though you were concentrating”, he said.
She blushed and responded, "I was dividing random numbers and reverse counting at the same time and I missed couple of times”, she said.
She felt as though she has been a laboratory bug all along, when she ignored him completely, he dissected her. It annoyed her to no extent that he is observant and that she rejected her natural instinct of scrutinizing him, because he scared her.

“You look good and smell good”, he said suddenly. She blushed again.
His wife is shy, he noted. Here he was, sitting unabashed, looking at his slightly flustered wife and he suddenly wanted to embrace her in a hug. He moved his hands slowly, looking at her eyes. She looked at his hands and kept looking at them and he noticed the trepidation. He caught hold of her left hand and rubbed his fingers across her knuckles. She was still looking at his hands, eyeing the movement, focusing on keeping her breath even. She could feel his eyes on her. She refused to look at him, worrying about what her face would convey. She read enough romance books and she knew that he was trying to be nice. He is someone she needs to be acutely aware of and he is making sure of that. The subtle talks, the meeting of eyes, the rubbing of hands – honestly? He is playing the game by the book and she is falling for it.

“I would go and take bath”, he said, very quietly. She nodded and thought, “Why isn’t he going?”
He still continued to rub her knuckles, when she raised her eyes questioningly.
“Care to join me?”, he asked and winked.
She looked incredulously at him.
He laughed at her expression and said, “Guess not. May be some other time” and let go of her hand. She left it on the table in the same place deliberately.
From under the table he brought out a small bunch of white tulips tied with a ribbon and gave them to her.
“For you”, he said, with a smile still playing at the corner of his lips. She took those flowers, the light fragrance bringing a smile onto her face. “Thank you. These are beautiful”, she said.

He walked up the stairs, thinking of his wife’s incredulous look and thought, “Round one is mine”. He knew she loved orchids, but he decided to go with white Tulips, they described her perfectly. Sensuous, bright and warm and today, she looked the part. He completed his shower and wrapped himself in a towel and looked around the bathroom noticing her vanity purse. He caught the hint of her fragrance and on an impulse, opened it and he was not ashamed to do it. He took the perfume out and smelled it, recollecting the fragrance off his wife. It smelled divine. He shut the vanity purse. He slipped into jeans and T-shirt and went down. He saw her sitting on the couch, watching some animation movie, her fingers touching the flowers he gave her. For some reason, that small gesture filled his heart with a glow that he could not explain.