FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN

The Lunch

She resigned herself to her fates and hoped for the best. She waited for Samar to ger ready and ten the trio climbed up the stairs to the house of Imran and Neel. Manjari's hands were very clammy and she had a sense of foreboding.

They knocked on the door and waited for their hosts to open the door. But there was no response. Puzzled, Manjari knocked again. Still no response. She looked at Samar. Somebody was at home because they could hear the clatter of pot and pans. So why was no one opening the door?

"Maybe they forgot about the lunch", Samar suggested. "I think we should go back". Manjari nodded her head. They turned to go when the doors opened.

"Hi. Please come in. Sorry to keep you are waiting," said Imran. "and you must be Amaira. Hello."

"Hello", said Amaira, hiding behind her mother.

Manjari, Amaira and Samar entered the house and were struck by the cite or shall we say the smell in front of the! The entire house had a smell of burnt food.

At this point, Neel also came out of the kitchen. He greeted Manjari and Samar and then bent down to Amaira's level.

"Hello,", he said.

"Hello", said Amaira.

"That is a pretty dress", he complemented her.

"My mother got it or me."

"Nice. Do you like presents?"

Amaira shook her head vigorously.

"I have a present for you."

Amaira stretched out her hand for the present. Neel handed her a small bag and asked her to open it when she went back home.

Manjari was looking at the entire interaction with bated breath. The future of her relationship was in Amaira's hand and she was touched by the efforts Neel was making. She felt a familiar prick of tears behind her eyes and quickly batted her eyelids.

"So, there has been a bit of an accident....," Imran began to explain.  "We had plans to make rice, but the rice got stuck to the bottom of the pan and the dal is still a bit hard. The potatoes that we had made has way too much salt in them because we both ended up adding salt to it."

Neel cut off Imran by saying, "how does pizza sound for lunch?"

Manjari tried to control her laughter but finally gave in. She laughed and laughed and laughed with tears rolling don her eyes. For some reasons, she found the situation very funny. Everyone was looking at her, like she had sprouted two heads and that made her laugh even more. She looked at Neel and Imran and said, "No pizza". And pointed towards Amaira. "She has been on fast food during her journey. If you guys do not mind waiting, maybe I can salvage lunch".

Neel and Imran looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. Samar also nodded his head. Manjari asked Amaira to sit with her mamu. She then turned to Neel and Imran and asked for an apron. There was no way she was going to stain her dress.

"There are no more aprons", said Imran.

"You can wear a T-shirt over the dress", suggested Neel. Manajri blushed. The innuendo in his suggestion was not missed by her. She hoped no one had noticed her reaction and politely declined his offer and prayed for her dress. On entering the kitchen, she was knocked off her feet by the mess in front of her. Both Neel and Imran jumped to help her. Under her supervision, the kitchen counter was cleaned, and all the burnt dishes soaked in water for easy scrubbing.

She then threw everyone out of the kitchen and got to work. She added a few more potatoes to the potato gravy along with pureed tomatoes and let it simmer.

She scraped off the good rice and began to steam more rice for lunch. She checked the dal , added more tempering and water to it and gave it a whistle in the pressure cooker. She, in the meanwhile, kneaded some dough and cut some salad. She checked potatoes. They were almost done, and the daal was tender too. She decided to let the two vegetables simmer for a few more minutes and began to clean up after her. She was wiping the countertop when a familiar pair of hand went around her.

"What are you doing? Stop it! Someone could walk in any moment".

Neel simply tightened his grip on her and said in a whisper, "I missed you."

"Let go of me this instant", she implored in a low voice.

"After you give me a kiss", he bargained.

Manjari shot him a look of disapproval. With one final tug, she freed herself off him and moved to the other end of the kitchen.

Cocking his head to one side, Neel took a small step back and observed Manjari as if she was the most fascinating subject of study. He noticed the irritation of her face, the swell of breast, her long neck...Manjari could feel his gaze on her and resisted the urge to cross her arms protectively over her chest. His gaze unnerved her. It was as if he could see through her layers of clothing to her bare flesh. Firmly she reminded herself that she was fully clothed. She removes the dishes from the stove and began to add them to serving bowls.

After what seemed like an interminable length to her, Neel started helping her in serving food.

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The lunch was a huge success. Everyone praised Manjari's cooking. After lunch, Manjari, Amaira and Samar came back to their house and retreated to their bedroom for an afternoon siesta. Samar was convinced that nothing was going on between Neel and Manjari. Throughout the lunch, their interaction had been bare minimal as if Manjari could not bear to be in the same room as him. Frankly speaking, he was a bit disappointed, Neel looked like a good man and he would have approved of the relationship.

The next morning, Manjari got Amaira ready for her new school and said her goodbyes to Samar. He was leaving for New York today. Since she would be at work, they would be unable to meet again. After settling Amaira in her new class and meeting her teacher, Manjari made her way to her office. She was surprised to see some of her colleagues celebrating a new grant they had bagged. She went to her office a closed the doors so that she would not be distracted and worked solidly for the next couple of hours. Since she had packed lunch for herself, so there was no need to go anywhere and she continued to catch up on her research papers and readings.

Around 4 p.m., she went to pick Amaira from her school. They went back home. It was nice to have her own space back. It was just her and Amaira so she fixed some light sacks for Amaris as they pinged watched Lilo and Stitch. After an early dinner, Manjari helped Amir get ready for bed. She watched Amaira sleep while she worked on her laptop. After finishing off grading her assignments, Manjari crawled into bed with her daughter and slept off. The entire week went off similarly. Manjari found herself hard-pressed for time sine Amaira had come. Between her classes and work and Amaira's school, there was little time left for anything else. She was happy that Amaira had settled down in her new school and made some friend too but Manjari's social life had gone for a toss. She had not seen or spoken to Neel even once during the entire week. She had never been gladder when Friday rolled in.