Specks Of Love They Hate...

Nine

"Atirek!" Shailja called out to her eldest son. Atirek stopped and turned around to look at his mother, only to find an annoying girl standing beside her.
"Yes, ma." He answered his mother, while glaring at the girl wearing his sister's borrowed clothes, eating cookies.

"Can you come home early tonight?" She asked him. "I've been meaning to take you to an astrologer for a while now."
"You know I don't believe in all that, ma."
"I know you don't, but I really want you to settle down." She answered him. "Especially now that Raghav has decided to get married to Kalyan Rathore's daughter."
"That is more of a political decision, ma." Atirek replied to her in exasperation.
"And that is exactly why I don't want my other son to remain unmarried, so that he can be a pawn in this game too." She reasoned with him.

Atirek looked at the curious girl standing behind his mother and gently pulled the older woman forward, away from her earshot.
"Ma, I cannot endanger someone's life like that. She would not be safe outside, but even that I can manage... The problem is, she would not be safe inside this house either."
Shailja felt her eyes moisten at that, knowing how true that was. Everything Atirek ever held close was taken away from him by his own father, until all he had left were lessons, pain and regret. Over the years, he had learnt to hide his emotions and had stopped letting people in. Because every time he got close to someone, Danish would make sure that it wouldn't remain that way for long.

"Um, excuse me, can you get me peanut butter on your way back?" Vanya popped her head between the two.
Atirek stared at her like she'd grown two heads. What did this girl think? She was here on a vacation?
"I'm leaving, Ma. Maybe when we're really ready, we can go to that astrologer."
Shailja nodded, not feeling worried anymore. Instead she was trying hard to hide the smile which was beginning to make way to her face, upon seeing the way Atirek had reacted to this bubbly girl.

As Atirek got into his car and left, Shailja turned around to face Vanya.
"Come inside, help me make a list for the household staff. Maybe we can add all the stuff you want as well."
Vanya laughed at that and followed the kind woman inside.

***

Eshana stepped out of the hospital, feeling nostalgic. She had studied and worked in the same government hospital for six years now and had just handed over her notice to leave for the sake of further studies.

Her Visa for the UK had been approved and so had her application for admission. However, since she wanted to start in the earliest batch, she was running on a tight schedule. In just a month, she was supposed to join.
She was lucky to have such supportive and well connected brothers, she thought somberly, being aware that a lot of unfortunate students didn't get these kind of opportunities despite being more talented than her.

"Eshana?" A voice brought her to the present.

She turned around to see a handsome young man in suit and glares. He took off his sunglasses and she immediately felt as if she had seen him somewhere. But she couldn't recognise him.

"You're Eshana Thakkar, right?" He asked her again.
"Yes." She spoke carefully, taking a quick glance at the security guard just a few metres away from them. "I'm sorry I didn't recognise you."

She thought she saw a dangerous glint pass through the man's eyes but it was gone too soon for her to be sure.
"Ofcourse, you don't." He let out a deep chuckle. "I'm Gautam Nagpal, Atirek's best friend and business partner."

"Oh!" A smile made way to Eshana's face, accompanied by a sheepish expression. "It's been so long since I've seen you."
"You still shouldn't forget old friends, Eshana." Gautam told her with a blank face, making her feel uncomfortable, but she brushed it off.
"You should've come to visit regularly, if you wanted me to remember you." She replied cheekily. "Since, you left us to study in Delhi after high school, in fact. You never even called."
"I stayed in touch with Atirek." He replied vaguely.