Only Yours - THE VOW | ✓

Chapter - 28

The luxury estate area had a lot of villas and bungalows scattered around. Luckily their abode wasn't in the middle of it but on the eastern side where there was a more hustle bustle and the market wasn't far enough. 

Maithili quietly listened to him talking business with a client over the call. From the sound of it, there was going to be a collaboration between their company and Mr. Brian, the caller’s company which was in LA.

Nikshit had told her about this collaboration long ago, but it had completely slipped out of her mind. Now that she heard the arrangements for a meeting, it was clear that Nikshit would be leaving for a few days or perhaps weeks of time. Vidhart has had a plan of expanding their work overseas more and now that Nikshit has been handling things here, he has to take the tours and measures needed.

Maithili isn't a part of the business team working with their branch abroad from here, instead Maithili would sub in as a support to the sub-in namely Utkarsh Ranaut, for Nikshit’s absence who has been Vidhart’s most trusted aid over the span of more than ten years.

They've been here for about a month already, ten days down in August and it's been smooth sailing so far. She'd admit she missed home a lot but not as much as she used to think she would once upon a time. Acceptance of the present made it much easier perhaps.

Talking about business, she has developed a great bond with her team members. This time though, she hasn't crossed the border of professionalism and maintained the boundary of not getting too friendly with anyone at work. Letting people indulge as much as they want, she didn't want to repeat the mistakes again.

The phone call was connected to the car's Bluetooth, and Maithili was bored as hell on the way back home listening to them talk. Her eyes lazily lingered over the city lights, her mind empty with no thoughts taking in the view outside. It was pretty and very different in culture from what she has grown up surrounded with, from a mere look.

There were people selling flower garlands by the side of the road which caught her attention. Maithili let the window down and got a whiff of fresh Jasmine and rose mixed in together, it reminded her of the evening walks she used to go on with Kaushiki and Neelam in the garden outside their house.

She asked Nikshit to stop the car for sometime by the side and got down, making her way towards the small shops by the roadside. She heard the door closing behind herself but she didn't turn around to take a look but felt his hand slipping into the grooves of her fingers as they crossed the road together.

Too excited to buy some, Maithili took a mental note of buying one for Sarla as well. The sight of flowers piled up in different colors was bewitching. The smile on her face was bright and Nikshit stood there admiringly helping her clip on a gajra around her braid while standing behind.

“How does it look?” The excitement in her voice faded when her hand reached back to touch the flowers on her hair and she turned back and then around again. There were no flower garland shops and no Nikshit by her side. Maithili looked at her empty hands, there were no flower beaded bracelets on her wrist anymore.

Like waves on the calm surface of water, the sudden sound of tires grinding against the tar was harsh to the ears. Her heart that had been thumping in excitement and anticipation was now accelerated so much that it hurt and made it difficult to breathe. She started sweating like there's no tomorrow, panicked.

“Get in the car.”

Maithili found herself surprisingly standing outside the office building, all alone. She didn't know this person who spoke to her robotically after rolling down the window. Wasn't Nikshit just here by her side? Weren't they just buying gajra together?