Truly, Madly, Deeply- a Devakshi story.

It's not about me.

Sona was getting really irritated. She had hurried from her hospital, come home and got dressed as if she was going out on a date, badgered her daughter into eating an early dinner and packing up her bag had left for Dev's apartment. Though they hadn't really planned the evening she had assumed that he meant to spend it together. But here she was, Soha in bed, dinner laid on the table, servant packed off, carefully dressed in a carmine colored, slightly risqué backless severely tailored top she had picked up in San Francisco last year at Old Navy,  worn with a Crayola silver flouncy skirt in translucent fabric. It was late and with no word from him she did not know if he was stuck at work or if there was fresh trouble with the merger. She wondered morosely how she was meant to behave, when at heart it felt like a new relationship and yet they had been married for seven long years with a baby to prove it. Neither could she behave as a much married woman nor could she behave like a newly married one. " I need to talk to Dev", she muttered. " Am I supposed to get angry that he didn't inform me he was going to be late? Or am I supposed to behave as if its okay, I wasn't waiting for him."

When at last he did come in, she was busy in making notes on her cases; he stood at the door of the living room just watching her. The low lighting spread shadows around the room and she sat on the floor cushions under the sole floor lamp, working at her laptop.Her deep red blouse reminded him of their marriage day, because it was similar to the color of the saree she had worn on their wedding day. Her long legs sheathed by the silvery colorless folds of the skirt, leaving her lower legs bare. And her cascades of hair carelessly flowing around her face. The expression on her face was unusually serious and preoccupied, but as he came and sat down next to her on the floor, her expression softened.

Dev(very softly): Hi

Sonakshi's irritation and waiting all vanished as she replied to the eager yet quiet hello. A small bubble of happiness grew in her. His coming back to her, suddenly seemed so meaningful. He hadn't come back to her for so many years. She realized she had been scared he wouldn't come back, that the last two days were not important for him . But he had. And that is all that mattered right now to her.

Sonakshi: " Hard day?"

Dev: " Surprisingly great day. We managed to recover a lot of ground. Now a day or two and we should have the merger back on track. But I wasn't delayed at work, I had gone home to meet Maa."

Sonakshi looked at him with barely concealed tension. Did his mother say something? she wondered silently

But Dev was already distracted by her legs and had turned towards her looking hard at her, making her blush. She smiled and pushed him away as he leaned in a bit.

Dev: " You look lovely you know. I somehow never imagined you could look so gorgeous in skirts, but you do."  He held her hand as he slid closer to her sitting against the sofa playing with the simple white gold eternity bracelet that she wore. " Sonakshi, thanks for coming back tonight. I am sorry I didn't tell you I will be home late. It has been so many years since I bothered to tell anyone when I will be back that it completely slipped my mind." He put his arm around her and realized that her back was bare. He leaned back and ran his fingers in a feathery touch across her bare back down her spine, which made her shiver with anticipation.

Sonakshi :" Stop it Dev. I am ticklish.you know that!"

Dev: " Ticklish and provocative too! I was just admiring what you so thoughtfully exposed. Your taste in clothes is quite something now. Either you are dressed from head to toe in sarees or you just look like a nun from the front and then I see your bare back. And you expect me to keep my hands to myself."