Silently Falling in Love: Race (THE EDITED VERSION)

Chapter 43 - Surprises

Anjali: September 1996

It was Saturday morning and my apartment direly needed cleaning. After Katherine's wedding, I couldn't afford our apartment on my own, so I moved into a smaller one-bedroom apartment on my own. Which meant I was also the only person responsible for cleaning. I didn't enjoy living on my own. I missed having Katherine as my roommate.

I played the CD Arjun had just given me. A British Indian guy named Bally Sagoo had taken Hindi songs and remixed them with a modern beat to them and western influences from disco to reggae. I figured the music would help motivate me with cleaning and laundry.

I tied my hair back in a scarf, put on my sweats and a t-shirt, and began the horrendous job of cleaning.

I began with stripping my bed sheets and dumping the towels from my bathroom in the laundry basket. By the time the sheets were washed and dried, I'd have finished sweeping, mopping and vacuuming.

I increased the volume of the stereo as I jammed and swept up the dust balls to Chura Liya.

The sweat trickled down my face as I cleaned and jammed; I barely heard my phone ringing with the loud music and the vacuum running. I turned off the vacuum, lowered the music and ran to the phone.

After several rings, I picked up the phone and panted into the phone, "Hello."

"Anjali, is that you?" The other person asked.

I gulped down air before answering, "Yes."

"What are you doing?" Raj asked worried.

"Sorry, I'm cleaning the apartment and I ran to the phone, I'm out of breath."

"You're cleaning your apartment?" Raj asked.

"Well, yes, and dancing to music so the cleaning doesn't feel so painful. Why, what did you think I was doing?"

"You sound like you're having sex. Do I need to call back?"

"It would be hard to have sex by myself," I said back.

"Well, I can always offer my services to help you with that," Raj said.

"Are you back in town?" I asked, my breath finally calming down.

"No, but you could fly out to see me. I have a beautiful hotel room with a wonderful view, it would be more enjoyable with you here."

"As tempting as it sounds, there are two problems with that," I responded.

"We can fix those problems," Raj said.

"I can't fly out to London on a Saturday and be back by Monday morning and even if by some miracle IF I could, I thought we agreed to wait until we were at least engaged. I don't think either of us wants to spend a weekend in a beautiful city and in a glamorous hotel being platonic."

Raj groaned on the other of the line, "Call in sick and stay for the week and as soon as you get here, I'll buy a ring, put it on your finger and both problems will be fixed."

I laughed, "You want to get engaged without our parents being present!"

"Yes. I have no desire to do all the pomp and circumstance, do you?"

"I don't need it either, but you know that's what's expected of us and if we don't do it the way they want, then hearing the bitching about it will be more painful than actually going through the formal engagement ceremony."

Raj laughed, "Unfortunately, I agree. The aftermath of getting engaged without the parents would be worse than the actual ceremony. That leaves two options, we don't have to wait until we get engaged or we can call our parents now to say we're ready to get engaged."