Lady Enigma

Chapter 6

"Stop it!" Kiran says — commands — while banging on my table, startling the hell out of me.

"Shit! You scared me" I clutch my heart. "And stop what exactly?" I ask in return.

"You are ignoring me." She complains.

Ever since she left my mother's place after the Durga pooja, my family claimed her as my unofficial girlfriend. And hence, I made myself busy with work and cut the chai pe charchas (the meetings over a cup of tea) with Kiran.

"I was not ignoring you. I was just busy." I say, averting my eyes to anything but those deep brown orbs, trying to suck that life out of me.

"Busy? Seriously? One calls "not responding to a normal greeting" ignorance. Not Busy." She argues, ember playing at a dangerous rate in her eyes.

Fucking Lawyers...

I never thought I'd see this state of her. Anger. Disappointment. And most importantly, hurt. She was hurt.

What else do you want her to feel, you idiot!

"Look Kiran, I-"

"It's okay. Today might not be the best of your days. I understand. But, I just want you to know, a cold shoulder for one week was not what I was expecting from our friendship." Saying that she exited the office.

I've been ignoring her for only one week? 

Damn! That's felt like years.

-—-—-

"Come on, Vijay! You know better than us. Why do you want us to revisit this.. uh.. this Ramabai's case?" Adhvaith complained — no — whined as I mentioned my purpose of meeting him.

"I do. If you guys have not restricted me from him, I would have taken care of all this mess." I say as I squeeze his shoulder in encouragement.

Adhvaith is the personal assistant of the State home Minister, and before that, we were of the same batch during IPS training. There he was attributed with a dislocated shoulder rather than medals, that suit his merit.

He left the training then itself and focused on the bureaucratic businesses the job generally poses. Whenever a case is stuck, he is the one that gets it to the ear of ministry, and voilà! The case is as good as done.

This particular case we're talking about was not about some low-level pick pocketer. He was the most notorious corporator, who has handled many illegal trades in the name of the government.

"I know where you are coming from, Vijay. Honestly, I do want to help, but.. you are forgetting the core reason to strike the case off. Many politicians are part of it. And if that comes out, things are going to be so dirty, that I can't explain." He says with a straight face.

I mean, I can't say he's wrong. And if there is internal chaos, he will be the first one to get his ass whooped.

Which gives me no choice, but this.

"Anna..." He stopped what he was doing "Vijay.. don't use that card.." he warned, way too cautious.

"Anna, didn't we promise each other that we'll help one another if it comes to preservation of law?" He could see that I'm blackmailing him. But, it was a promise for fuck sake.

"Vijay!!" He groaned, throwing his head back. His brain playing a game of tug-of-war.

"Please, brother. I wouldn't come here if I had a choice." I plead with total honestly.