The Forbidden Chase To Soar

19.Failed and Defeated

The security lights flicker before I reached my car as I pressed on the keyfob. The door slammed close once I hopped on the driver's seat, veering the engine with life and the tires skidded out, navigating through the bustling roads.

The tyres screeched, halting abruptly, the impact almost throwing my body flailing forward if not for the seatbelt gripping me.

I stepped down from the car, pulling out a note of five hundred and pushing it in the palm of the infuriated parking attendant. "Bas do minute, bhau."

(Just two minutes, brother.)

He beamed at me, waving off his disapproval about my car being at the wrong spot. Meanwhile I rounded the corner, looking through the glass walls, eyes searching for the midnight curls.

And then my eyes caught the sight of her, glowing the entire cafe with her charismatic presence, the golden lights above her head dancing on her skin like gilded glitters.

Head lolling back, she burst into laughter, supposedly on a joke her friends cracked. Just imagining the melody of her laughter, even only for a moment, dimmed the abrasive voices in my head.

Not able to restrain myself, my hand reached for the device in my pants pocket and in no time it was pasted to my ears. My eyes followed as she picked her phone, gaze lingering on the screen for a brief and then she excused herself from her friends.

And the call connected.

"Hii!" her dulcet voice breathed out from the other side.

The call was made so involuntarily that I couldn't gather words to speak.

After a fleeting second, her voice reverberated again. This time softer than prior, laced with concern, "Aap theek ho ?"

(Are you alright ?)

My throat twitched when I gulped, a lie in the form of No just waiting at the tip of my tongue. Nonetheless, I altered the lie at the very last second, "What makes you ask that ?"

I watched as she caged her lower lip between her canines, pulling the phone away from her ears just for a moment, watching it with a frown on her face.

"You are awfully quiet," she muttered softly. "Is anything wrong ?"

"I just needed to listen to your voice."

I couldn't really make out her expressions since she had turned sideways. However, I didn't fail to catch how instinctively her hand reached for the scarf around her neck that was hiding my engravings on her skin from the world. Even after four days of her leaving the penthouse, the mark remained as new. I made sure of that.

One day.

There would come a day when I would be announcing to the world about how bewitched I'm with her. That it's me she belongs to. That it's her I've oathed to devote my life.

Wanting to assuage her, I further said, "Don't pressurise that chhotu-sa brain of yours. It's just office issues."

"Pakka na ?"

(You sure ?)

"Pakka."

(Positively.)

Ahead of her sensing my sombre mood I disconnected the call, telling her to enjoy the evening with her friends.

"Mr. Somani," as soon as I pocketed my phone back, a familiar sounding voice diverted my focus from my beautiful rose.