Matters Of The Heart--A PaNi FF

Chapter 5

"Ready?", Shashank called out in a loud voice, bringing the entire set to attention and ending the low murmurs of conversation going on all around. He looked at the cameraman, and on getting his nod of readiness he called out," Action!"

I let out the breath I had been holding for a long time as I finally looked up into Parth's eyes. I relaxed my hands that had been balled up into tight fists up until then. He gave me a reassuring smile, the chocolate in his eyes melting, and took hold of my hand in his. That was enough for by heart beat to accelerate and my breathing to turn uneven. He looked deep into my eyes, as if telling me, "I am here. Don't be afraid".

As he slowly descended his lips towards mine, I felt a rush of excitement shot through my veins and I automatically closed my eyes. I was prepared for the sweet torture that he had subjected my lips to in our last encounter, excited and nervous in equal parts, but his lips just lightly brushed against mine, like a feather light touch and all too quickly it ended before I could even register anything. It was nothing like the heaven he had made me experience a few moments ago, but nevertheless I couldn't slow down the speed of my beating heart. I knew my face had expressions of hurt and disappointment spread all over and I quickly wiped my face off it. I looked up at Parth, trying to hide the turmoil that was going in my heart and found him smirking at me. Smirking! His expression clearly indicated that he hadn't missed my initial reaction to the kiss and his smile grew mocking, and his eyes turned playful, as if silently daring me to challenge him. I stared back at him in annoyance, annoyance that he had gauged my reaction so easily and was now apparently teasing me about it.

"That was good guys. Let's wrap it up for today", Shashank called out, finally having some pity on me. I turned away from his gloating face that was absurdly handsome which irritated me to no end. I wanted to punch his face. I literally ran back to my vanity, away from him, to the safe insides of my sane world, where I could avoid him like the plague.

I opened the door and jumped inside, heading straight for the sofa and crashing on it. I started rubbing my fingers on my temples and forehead, over and over again, hoping to drive away the memory of the kiss, and along with it all the feelings that he had so easily evoked in me. He was dangerous to my sense of mental stability. I concentrated on getting my breathing to normal, driving all thoughts of him away from my mind. I quickly got up and changed, gathered my belongings and was ready to be out of here, away from his influence in under five minutes. I was about to get off the vanity when I saw Disha, climbing through the other door, which was Parth's half. In the two months that we had been shooting, I had only heard her mention once, on that fateful day, and Parth himself never cared to share anything about his personal life. She never visited the sets or socialized with the cast members. So his girlfriend, showing up at the set on a day when we were shooting such an important scene was surprising, to put it mildly. I could recognize her only because Charlie had once shown me her picture in one of our endless sessions of gossiping and I couldn't help but agree that she was indeed beautiful. It doesn't matter why she is here, I scolded myself and continued to climb out of the vanity.

I would have continued on my merry way had I not heard my name being mentioned in a high pitched female voice that stopped me right in my tracks. I turned around in shock and stared at the revolving door connecting the two halves of the vanity, as if it would magically open and I could find the reason behind my name being brought up in a personal conversation between a couple, I knew nothing about. But unfortunately, the rest of their conversation was in a muffled tone and I couldn't hear anything. I knew it was not my place to listen to their conversation, but they were talking about me! After a couple of minutes of absently staring at the door, I felt disgusted at the whole situation. Here I was trying to listen into a personal conversation, what was I doing, this was not me. I quickly ran out of my vanity, burning with shame, heading straight for my car.