Second Chance

Chapter 13 His Promise

 'Oh! That's my husband!' exclaims Mahi in an excited voice, seeing Dev open the door. Dev sees the 3 women on his door. He couldn't help but notice the happy yet drunk expressions on Mahi's face and a little pissed off on the rest of the two ladies. She is drunk clearly. 

'Aww! You guys are so nice and responsible. You got me to my husband,' says Mahi squeezing Ekta and Shruti in a side hug. Then she takes a step towards Dev and puts her hand on his chest for support. She continues seeing Dev up close,' Oh! you are tall!' And she wraps her hands around him in a hug as she rests her head on his chest, nuzzling close to his neck, closing her eyes. Dev reflexively holds her, wrapping an arm around her. He looks at Ekta and Shruti questioningly. 

Ekta turns her head towards Shruti for an answer. To which she replies,' She drank 3 bottles of wine. All by herself.'

'What!' says Dev in surprise. 

Mahi opens her eyes and looks up to Dev, keeping her head on his chest. Dev looks down to meet her eyes. 

'Hi,' says Mahi smiling sweetly to Dev.

Dev smiles at her innocent face and replies in a gentle voice,' Hi there.'

Dev sees Mahi changing her sweet expression to a concerned one. He asks,' What's wrong?'

'I need to pee,' says Mahi straightening up. 

'Here, I'll show you to the bathroom,' replies Dev, not taking off his protective hand around her. 

'I can go by myself. Just show me the way,' says Mahi in a little confident and yet slurred voice.

'You sure?' asks Dev, simultaneously looking at the ladies for help.

'We'll come with you,' asks Ekta, understanding Dev's looks.

'No!' says Mahi, turning around to reply to Ekta. Then she speaks to Dev,' Yes, I am sure. I am not a baby.' With this, she turns around, walks off unstably towards the bathroom.

Dev comes back to the door and asks,' What happened? I have never seen her like this.'

'Neither have I. For as long as I have known Mahi, she never gets drunk. She drinks but never drunk. We were supposed to meet up for dinner today. However, she called me up early, after lunch or so. That too here,' says Shruti.

'Here? You guys were here?' asks Dev in disbelief. And he was thinking where she might be this whole time. He also becomes little pleased listening to Shruti about her dinner plans with Mahi. 

'Yes. Since 4 o'clock or something,' replies Shruti. She continues,' I don't know what's wrong. But, she seemed a little upset. She didn't tell me even when I asked her, I don't know how many times.'

'It's alright. It's someone else's headache now,' says Ekta putting an assuring hand on Shruti's arm. 

Shruti exhales, relaxing a little as she says,' I called up Ekta for help when it was becoming a task to get her home. She came down immediately and told me you were here only. So the rest you know,' says Shruti quickly. 

'That's good,' replies Dev, actually feeling glad that she brought Mahi to him. 

'Also, please don't tell Arjun that I let her get drunk. He'll be really pissed,' says Shruti to Dev.

'Yeah! Even I would have been the same. Only if you hadn't brought her to me,' replies Dev becoming a little serious as he means it. 

Shruti lets out a nervous laugh. Then she says,' We should take your leave now.'