Hello Everyone...! 

A warm evening with this 7th episode of the story-Disguised.

Episode7:

           “Hello!! Mr. Sandesh, lost somewhere?” Adhya shook Sandesh’s shoulder and succeeded in bringing him back from his dreamland.

“Oh!! Hey!! Hello!! Sorry, I was just thinking...”

“Thinking what?”

“Ah! Forget it. What took you so long to reach here?”

“Nothing. Had some work”

“Work?”

“Family work”

“Oh, okay”

Adhya’s mind went back to that moment in her home and her facial expression changed suddenly. A cute, lovely smile which was on her face just a minute earlier had started to fade away. Sandesh interrupted her with his sudden outburst of joy.

“Anyways, welcome to your first year end party at Microsoft. Forget all about work and just enjoy the party. C’mon, don’t waste time by standing idle here. You’re already late. Let’s move in”

“Sure”

Before she could say that, Sandesh dragged her inside. He stopped in the central hallway, thinking where to begin. Then, he turned towards Adhya and asked,

“Do you want anything to eat?”

“Oh yes, please. I’m starving”

“What’ll you have?”

“Mmmm... Ice-cream”

“Ice-cream!? Don’t you want some solid food first?”

“NO. An ice-cream would be just fine”

“Ohk”

He took her to the same counter where he had taken Prapthi few minutes earlier. On seeing Sandesh back at the counter, the counter boy asked him with a broad smile,

“What shall I give for bhabhiji, now?”

Hearing this, both Sandesh and Adhya shouted in unison, “WHAT?!”

“Just few minutes back you had brought your cute daughter and took a Khulfi stick for her, right? Now you’ve brought bhabhiji. Do you want the same Khulfi or shall I give something else?”

Sandesh corrected him in a hurried tone, “No no no no. you’ve mistaken. That wasn’t my daughter. She’s my manager’s daughter. And, this’s not my wife. We’re just...” he couldn’t complete his sentence. He didn’t know what to say. He thought to himself, “What’s Adhya to me? Girlfriend? Just friend? Or still a stranger whom I love madly?” Adhya completed his sentence by adding “friends” at the end of it.

“Oh!! I’m sorry!” exclaimed the counter boy.

“It’s okay” Adhya replied with a smile.

“So, what’ll you have?”

“I’ll take...this one” she pointed at an average sized cup on the menu.

“This one?” asked the boy pointing at the same picture to confirm the order. Adhya nodded.

           He stuffed two scoops of vanilla flavored ice-cream on the bottom of the cup which covered almost half of the cup. Then he sprinkled some dry fruits making a thin bed over it. And the other half of the cup was filled with chocolate flavored ice-cream, peeping a bit above the mouth of the cup. He closed the top of the cup with dry fruits cap. He then dripped strawberry and orange syrup above it so that it flows down like lava. It looked like an erupting volcano.

“There you go. The Volcano for the young lady” said the boy, handing over the over flowing cup which was wrapped with a tissue paper. Adhya started eating it as soon as she got hold of the cup. Sandesh smiled watching her eat like that. She really was hungry. Adhya noticed Sandesh staring at her, smiling. She poked him with her elbow and asked,

“What’re you smiling at?”

Her teeth were covered with ice-cream; some with strawberry, orange syrup and the rest with chocolate cream. Her teeth seemed to be made of pure, dark chocolate, decorated with tiny particles of dry fruits. Sandesh felt an urge to taste it. But, he somehow suppressed that thought immediately. Then he spoke, covering his feelings,

“It looks like the volcano has burst out inside your mouth and the lava is flowing down your throat”

“What do you mean?”

Sandesh clicked her photo with his cellphone and showed it to her.

“Ewww!! I look horrible”

“You look wonderful”

“Please, Sandesh. Delete that pic”

“Nope. I’m gonna keep it”

“PLEASE!! Don’t keep it. Delete it before someone sees that. Please please please please”

“Okay, okay. I’ll delete it” he paused to see Adhya smile hearing his words. Then, he continued, “After uploading it on Instagram!!”

“Noooo...” Adhya shouted and dropped her face.

“C’mon, Adhya. Cheer up. See, I’m deleting it” he deleted that photo showing her while he did it. Adhya smiled again.

          After finishing the ice-cream, they started their journey around the party site. They played all the games set up to cheer the people gathered. They both made similar temporary tattoo on their arms. Then, they went to the auditorium where live concert of Krishnakumar Kunnath (KK), Bollywood playback singer was about to start. It was 07:20pm and the bar counter had been opened. Everyone had gathered around the counter to collect their beer tins. Watching them, Sandesh asked Adhya, “Do you booze?”

“Nah!!”

“Not even beer?”

“Nope. But, I’m gonna try it today” she winked at him saying that. Sandesh smiled broadly and got up to collect the tins. After a while, he brought two tins of beer and held one in front of Adhya. Seeing its size, Adhya exclaimed,

“Oh my god! I don’t want this much. I’ll just have a sip or two. Just to taste, that’s all”

“Have as much as you want. I’ll finish the rest”

She took the tin shyly and took a sip, closing her eyes tightly. It was chilled and a bit bitter for beginners. It’s bubbly lather went through her throat, energizing her taste buds. Then, she took another sip, this time trying to feel its taste, adopting herself to its effects. She looked up at Sandesh’s face who was still standing in front of her, watching her expressions.  She smiled at him and said,

“It’s nice. A bit bitter though”

He smiled back and sat next to her sipping from his tin. By the time Adhya had three more sips, Sandesh had finished his beer. The concert started at 07:40pm. KK entered the stage and started entertaining the Microsoft employees with his voice. People danced around the stage to his tune. After two hours, the concert ended and KK vacated the stage for DJ Raghav. The DJ successfully brought out every droplet of beer consumed by the youth around him through their sweat. They kept dancing to the beat ignoring the sweat dripping down their wet T-shirt. Watching everyone dance, Adhya got enthusiastic. She got up all of a sudden and started dragging Sandesh off his seat, repeatedly saying,

“Come. Let’s dance”.

Sandesh was startled by this action. He shook his head violently saying,

“NO no no no. I don’t know to dance”

She forcefully made him stand and took him on the stage. The stage was already crowded with many couples. Adhya moved to the center of the stage and started dancing, still holding Sandesh’s hand tightly. For a while, he stood watching her enjoy dancing. Then he started dancing, copying steps from people around him. They danced, danced and danced. Adhya was so much involved in it that she had forgotten she has to stay on the ground. She lost balance and fell over Sandesh. He quickly grabbed her in his arms. After realizing what had happened, Adhya laughed aloud, buried her sweaty face in his chest and hugged him tight. It took a couple of minutes for Sandesh to understand the situation. He then slowly wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him. Even the DJ’s loud music failed to break that moment. Sandesh was enjoying every second holding her. Once the effect of alcohol started to drop, Adhya opened her eyes and slowly got separated from him, ending that moment. Her face dropped. Watching her face changing emotions so quickly, Sandesh flinched. He came close to her and asked, lifting her face slowly,

“What happened?”

To which she smiled wryly and shook her head saying, “Nothing”.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. Yes, I’m fine. I need some fresh air. Shall we go outside?”

“Sure”

Sandesh took her out. There was total silence outside, accompanied by romantic moonlight and cool breeze. They went and sat on nearby steps which lead to a vast playground. They sat there silently. Of course, their minds were irritating them with billions of questions; silently.  Sandesh had to make sure that none of his actions were the cause for her silence. He opened his mouth, hesitating.

“Adhya?”

“Hmmm?”

“Did I hurt you in any way?”

“Hurt?! With what?”

“Don’t know. You turned silent all of a sudden. And, I don’t have any idea what might’ve happened...”

“It’s nothing, Sandesh. I was high with beer. I didn’t know what I was doing”

“What did you do?”

“Nothing” she said with a broad smile. Then, they both fell silent. Sandesh thought it’s the perfect time for him to express his feelings for her; if not now, then never. Gathering all his strength, he got up, turned to face her and came down on his knees. Adhya’s face violently changed expressions; surprise, confusion, smile all were mixed up and were displayed on her face which was impossible to understand for any living creature. She asked,

“What’re you doing, Sandesh?”

Sandesh, who was looking down at the concrete floor, thinking where to begin, lifted his gaze and smiled at her. Then he started,

“I’ve wanted to do this from the moment I saw you”

Giving a small pause, he took her hands in his and continued.

“I lost myself to you the very second I saw your face. I didn’t know what to call that feeling then. When I saw you again in the office, it sprouted and began to grow bigger and bigger with every moment spent with you. I can neither make fake promises of presenting you moon and stars nor say filmy dialogues. All I can give you is myself; every bit of it. This tree has grown big and strong now. I don’t want to bring it down to earth for no reason. I wasn’t to pour more affection and care to it, instead.... I love you, Adhya”