‘It doesn’t really matter. What matters is us staying away from each other,’ she said.
He took a step towards her. She sucked in a breath as he came closer.
‘Why are you afraid to be around me?’ he asked.
She took a step back.
‘Are you hearing yourself? We’re married on paper. Whatever we felt back then is gone. We’ve moved on. You can’t just walk in here like nothing happened and expect me to fall into your arms.’
He folded his arms and rocked back on his heels.
‘I know you. You want to fall into my arms.’
‘Neel, I don’t know why you’re here, but I don’t want any part of it,’ she replied.
‘Oh, but Mrs Naran, you’re already a part of it. You’re one half of Mr and Mrs Naran,’ he said cheekily.
‘Stop that. Just tell me what you want from me!’
‘You. For one month.’ His answer was firm and clear. His voice didn’t even quiver.
‘And if I don’t agree?’
He turned around and looked out the ceiling-to-floor window. It just didn’t fit in Rally, but who was he to say what suited a town that he knew nothing about?
‘Listen Kaavi, I’m not here to threaten or force you and I’m not going to demand that you give me even an hour of your time. You made it pretty clear when you left that you didn’t want that. But I’m staying in Rally for a month. I’m not going anywhere.’
‘What’s the point of that?’
He turned back to look at her.
‘When the month’s done, you’ll never hear from me again.’
Kaavi didn’t respond. What could she say? She didn’t own Rally. She couldn’t exactly run him out of town. His plan made no sense at all; she didn’t know what the endgame was.
Firstly, he wanted to ‘see and talk’ to her for a month and didn’t even put up a fight when she halfheartedly refused. But now he wanted to stay in town.
‘I’m going to go now, but you’ll see me around. And no, that’s not some sort of threat. It’s me saying I’m not leaving town.’
He moved towards the door.
‘Neel?’
He turned to face her.
‘My family … no one knows about us.’
As he opened the door, he said through gritted teeth: ‘It’s okay Kaavi. I’ll remain your dirty secret.’
He walked out of the apartment and didn’t look back. The door shut behind him.
Kaavi instinctively wiped her palms on her dress. But her palms were not sweaty. There was no pounding in her chest. Why did she think she was having a panic attack when she wasn’t?
Neel had always made her feel safe. In fact, her panic attacks started long after she left him. She sat down on the couch and thought about their marriage. Everything had happened so fast: they went from dates to a two-day engagement to marriage.
She thought about the marriage proposal. Even now, it made her smile, despite all that had happened.
They were lying in bed after a night of passion.
