Five Weeks

Chapter 4

Her grip on the plastic handle fortified as she looked around. Her inquisitorial eyes sluing around to segregate the expected person among the concourse of passengers. Agitated, she so swiftly as wind, fished out her cellphone and punched the number she's mugged upon. Flapping her eyes ubiquitously and chewing her lips deadpanned, she pressed the cellphone to her ear, listening the annoying rings that had begun to churn her up.

"Hello? Mukund! Where the fuck are you?" She hissed as the call got received and unabashedly ignored the surreptitious gasp fell on her ears. "I'm, like an ass, standing here on the platform and there's no sign of you. Just tell me where have you reached?"

"Anu....baby, I can't make it. I'm stuck somewhere." Flouncing like a leaf, Mukund's quivering voice reached through her ear, paralysing her almost. She missed a heartbeat at that instant, the picture of future she had envisioned started to distorting. She assembled herself and asked with an unsure voice, "What does that mean?"

"I said I can't make it. I'm really sorry baby." This time, Mukund repeated himself loud and clear, riling her up in the process.

"Are you bloody out of your mind, Mukund? I'm here with bags in my hands and you're saying that you can't come." She yelled, unable to keep her down and earned collective glares from many pair of eyes.

"Do you think it's some kind of joke? It's my life, you fucking dog!" The judgemental look and penetrating stares of people didn't swerve her from blowing up. The deafening silence from another side managed to get under her skin and she seethed, "I ran from my home because you asked me to and now you're leaving me passing some shit."

"Anu...baby-"

"Don't baby me!" Her knuckles turned white as she forcefully dragged in the trolley, striding outside the suffocating junction. "Do you think you can play with my life just like that? Listen to me very carefully Mr. Mukund Acharya, if you're so much just as thinking of hoodwinking me, let me make it pretty clear to you that I'll head to the police commissioner and will lodge an FIR against you. Understood?" She snarled wading through the crowd and waltzed out.

"Anahita, Will You Please Listen To Me Once Before Going Mad?" Mukund yelled back and without providing her with a chance to counter, he continued, "I was to come to you and trust me, I'd done all the arrangements but suddenly at eleventh hour, my HOD called up a meeting. It was very important and I couldn't say no. I was informed there that I have to go to Bhopal. It was mandatory, else I could've lost my job. That's why I couldn't defy babe."

"Done feeding me lies?" She scoffed, running a hand through her mahogany hair that were chopped to laser cut. Her eyes brimmed with tears, ready to flow as he finished.

"For God sake Anahita, I love you. Why would I feed lie to you? I did this for us, if I had refused I would've lost my job." He timidly tried to put his point.

"And you chose that fucking job over me? Over your love even when you know what's happening here?" She retorted in broken voice.

"Anu...I have not chosen anything over you. Trust me! If I lose this job how would I feed you after our marriage? How would I manage our expenses? How would i make our ends meet?" He argued, trying to sound reasonable.

"Marriage?" She snorted, "Forget about marrying me Mukund, you know it in spades, that what's the situation. I'm getting married to Yuvraaj today and that's why I decided to succumb into your insane plan of eloping and now when I've done my part, you're backing off."

"Stop being cry baby Anahita, you know whatever I'm saying is reasonable. Then why are you behaving immaturely? You can deal with it." Mukund had gotten irked by now.