Nice to Meet You Again

Mere Sang

Parmita was sleeping when her phone rang. "Hello!" Parmita's voice was hoarse.

"Paro!" Brishti was breathless on the other side of call, "I need you. Dad's in danger. Come ASAP to our home."

"W...what happened?" Parmita jolted out of her bed but the call was disconnected.

"What a mad girl she's! At least she could tell what happened," Parmita muttered to herself, "Well, she is Mahi's daughter. What else was I expecting?"

Parmita grabbed her bag and ran in her nightsuit and slippers after locking her house door.

Parmita was out of her breath when she rang the door of Mahaswin's penthouse repeatedly.

It was Mahaswin who opened the door. He was in a plain black T-shirt and dark blue trackpants.

Parmita hugged him and said, "You know how much I was scared when Brishti called me?" Then cupping Mahaswin's face between her hands, she said, "Are you OK, Maahi?"

"I'm more than fine," Mahaswin said, the puzzled expression not leaving his face.

Parmita peeked behind Mahaswin only to find Tanya sitting cross-legged in an uncomfortably short shimmery silver bodycon with two glasses of wine on the table with rose petals spread on the table.

"What the..." Parmita blurted.

"Hell? F***?" Say whatever you want because that's the same question I'm asking myself ever since this creature barged into my house," Mahaswin completed Parmita's sentence.

"So this was the danger Brishti was talking about," Parmita said in a Nancy Drew-like tone.

"Danger? What danger?" Mahaswin's lips curled in a smirk, "In fact, I'm enjoying it. What better way to end my night then to see my ex-wife who abandoned me for a wealthy man now throwing herself at me just because I have thousand times more money than her boyfriend?"

"You're enjoying it?" Parmita pushed Mahaswin aside, gnashing her teeth, preparing herself to confront Tanya.

"Why?" Mahaswin whispered in her ears from behind, "Do you have any problem with Tanya attempting to woo me?"

"Whatever!" Parmita scoffed and say in front of Tanya across the table.

Tanya looked at Parmita in disdain, "What is this behenji doing here?"

Parmita couldn't even manage to give dagger eyes to Tanya in response, when Mahaswin replied, "The thing with Paro is that, unlike you, she never abandons her ship even if it has hit the iceberg."

"Are you calling me an iceberg?" Tanya was furious. She clutched Mahaswin's Tshirt.

"Of course, baby," Mahaswin get Tanya's hands off his Tshirt as if she was a housefly, "There was a time I really found you hot but now you seem to me as bland and frozen as an iceberg. Such a shame that my older self had such a horrible taste."

"You don't find me hot now?" Tanya said, moistening her lips with her tongue, and getting up only to sit on Mahaswin's lap and staring him deep into his eyes, "Remember how you went on your knees, your face streaked with tears and snot, only to plead-Plea...please Tanu, don't leave me! How will I survive without you? How can you abandon our daughters? They're not even able to speak now?-Remember Mahi, when you were nothing-just a loser..."

Suddenly Tanya felt a jerk on her wrist and found Parmita forcibly making her stand up.

"I haven't seen a more shameless creature than you," Parmita was trembling in anger, "He was a seventeen year old kid dammit when he broke his dream of becoming a cricketer with own hands, left his home and parents, didn't even complete his twelfth grade just because he didn't want to leave you alone in that situation. He sacrificed everything at the age when we kids were having the best time of our lives enjoying ourselves like there was no tomorrow just because your dreams and ambitions were fulfilled. You are such a leech...a disgusting parasite..."

Tanya tried to punch Parmita in the face when her hand was stopped midway by Mahaswin. Tanya tried to free her hand but Mahaswin put pressure at a particular point on Tanya's wrist with his thumb.

"Leave, Mahaswin!" Tanya screamed, "I'm getting hurt."

"As if I care any more," Mahaswin hissed, "But remember Miss Tanya Arora, you try to hurt my woman and I promise you, you'll find yourself in a hell thousand times worse than you can imagine."

"F*** you!" Tanya walked away, stomping her heels.

"Same to you, darling," Mahaswin cooed.

Mahaswin took a deep breath when Tanya was out of his sight and flopped on the floor beneath sofa.

"I know it's so difficult for you," Parmita sat beside Mahaswin on the floor, "Why don't you just get this evil woman out of your life?"

Mahaswin turned towards Parmita, and sighed, "Sometimes your heart is too full to let go of what it carries, either it's love or hate. You know it better than me, Paro."

"I understand your need for revenge, Mahi," Parmita said, "But on seeing Tanya, you are living those moments of pain again and again and I can't see you getting hurt again."

"Tanya Arora needs to understand what hell is," Mahaswin's expressions became harder, "For what she did to my daughter Drishti. As a husband, I may have forgiven her but as Drishti's father, I cannot let Tanya go without ensuring her a lifetime of suffering even if I myself get burned in that hellfire."

"You won't burn, this time, Mahi" Parmita combed through Mahaswin's hair with her fingers, "I'm with you and I won't let you burn."

"I want to sleep, Paro," Mahaswin said.

Parmita slowly placed Mahaswin's head in her lap, and patting the side of his head, started humming.

Mahaswin's eyes closed and after years, sleep came to him and there was peace on his face.