Off Script Story | ✔

17- Broken rules

Ajay 

I opened the door and waited for her to come when I saw her stepping out of the elevator. Absent-mindedly, she kept on smiling as she hummed a song.

"Miss Maya, you look exceptionally happy." I couldn't help but think it was because of that person who she was holding. 

Her hands held on to her bag a minute longer than they should have been. She looked at me for a while; her smile slightly erased from her face but not entirely. "Of course, Mr Ajay. Do I need your permission to be happy?" 

I sighed and then looked at the gift in my hand. "Take this. You better not call me at midnight. Humans sleep at night unlike you." 

Her smile was completely off her face as she grabbed the gift box from my hands. "Don't worry. Sleep like you are in heaven." 

She turned and was about to ring the doorbell when I interrupted, "When are you planning to take the interview?" She turned and looked at me with her wide brown eyes.

It was clear she didn't expect this question in such an abrupt way.

She spoke after thinking a little, "Tomorrow?" 

"4 pm?" 

"Okay." 

She stared a little and continued after a pause, "Give me your phone." 

I was stunned at her words. Phone? After a little debate with her, I had to hand over my phone. She checked a little and her expressions kept changing— happy, anxious and frustrated. 

"Where is that photo you had taken?" 

I was confused at first but later realised what she was talking about. "I deleted it that day itself. I wouldn't have kept that pic. It is too personal." 

She was dumbstruck and hesitantly returned my phone. "Ah...Okay," she mumbled.

"That's it? You just suspected an innocent and took his phone away. Don't you think I deserve more than an 'Okay'?" I mimicked her half-shaken and mumbling voice just to irritate her.

But what came next was not something I could ever imagine.

"Um...Sorry." Her eyes kept admiring the floor.

"What? I couldn't hear." Sorry, and her —a rare combination to get in this world. So naturally, I couldn't believe my ears when she said it. To me.

"Sorry." 

"What?" 

"Sor— Are you DEAF? " Her voice raised in decibels but soon regained its mumbling voice, "Sorry."

I giggled at her making a small pout with her face red with embarrassment. "Why sorry?" I asked only to see her looking at her feet.

"I… I thought you were going to blackmail me with that picture. I wanted to delete it but you already did it." It was a new thing to see her like this as if she regrets doubting my intention.

"But it is your fault. You should have told me that you deleted it. Idiot," she raised her voice and looked up at me and stomped back inside her house before saying, " I will return the money and the dress. I am not a freeloader." 

I shook my head at her childish attitude and went inside with the same tingling feeling left inside my chest when I got a call.

"Hello, sir?" 

★★★

Maya

That was so embarrassing.