The Choice

Chapter-17

Kajal stretched her body awaking it from the deep slumber. Rolling on to her tummy, she rested her head on her palms over the pillow , a sweet smile on her lips. She recalled the moments she had spend with Tarun. Life felt beautiful, she was happy that he was taking baby steps towards strengthening their bond. She wanted to him to give her the words she had been looking for soon , waiting to start her life with him was becoming painful for her now. She was not happy about putting Tarun through this test, but she had to. Though he had shown all signs of having a soft corner for her, still she wanted to hear it in words.

She took a deep breath, she had made a mistake before when he approached her for wedding. She had mistaken his politeness to be his liking towards her. She was now aware that Tarun was a calm, polite and well behaved man. It was in his nature to be good with all, this time she wanted to be sure before taking a further plunge.

''Aren't you going to get up today.'' Sheela asked standing at the room door

''I feel lazy mom, will sleep for some more time.'' Kajal replied pulling the duvet over her.

''Sleepy or dreamy?'' Her mother teased

Kajal kept her expressions neutral, ''Mom, let's not derive conclusions as of now. I am not ready for a heart break.'' Sheela lifted her palms in defeat, ''Are you going to work from home.''

''Yes, and if anyone calls over the line number tell them I am not home.'' Sheela nodded and closed the door behind her. Kajal was now regretting sharing her wire-line number with Robin. His calls had increased since last few days and it irritated her. She had never crossed the boundary between them and had maintained a professional friendship, which Robin seemed to have forgotten.

She was avoiding being rude to him till her project ends but with every passing day it was becoming difficult. He would call her for stupid reasons and ask silly questions. Though, all were directed to her work, she felt irritated answering them again and again.

Throwing the duvet off, she quickly moved to freshen up. She ruffled her wet hair to untangle the knocks slowly. Her eyes met that with that of her reflection , she smiled. The small affectionate peck on her forehead came back to her, she still could feel the warmth on the forehead. Kajal touched the soft spot gently, her smile turning into a blush. Lunging at her phone she quickly started typing a message to Tarun, her fingers froze as her mind accused  her of being  desperate. Curling her lower lip she kept the phone aside, she didn't wanted to look desperate. After a minute her phone pinged, it was a watapps message from Tarun. She blinked, was their mind connected or something. She frowned at the contents, it was just 2 question marks. She quickly replied, 'What does that mean?'

'Why didn't you send the message you typed for approx 15 secs?' Her jaw dropped reading his response . Kajal stared at the message for good time, was he expecting her to message him?

'Were you staring at your phone whole night expecting me to message you?' She asked

'yes I was. ' His reply shot the blood to her head, her heart rate increased. She had just joked and he had readily accepted it. She didn't know what to reply now, just then another one popped up, 'Can I get that message now?'

'If you were waiting for my message, why didn't you ping first?' She asked. There was no response for few seconds. The ticks had turned blue , she was wondering if she had asked something offending. Just when she had run out of all conclusions, her phone pinged

'.......I was scared you might feel me getting nosy..' She laughed rolling over the bed, 'you make me appear like some witch.'

'You are too beautiful to be a witch, it's just that....I don't know.' His reply was honest, she smiled staring at it. He was confused and he  accepted it. She liked it, 'What plans for today, you must be ready to leave for work?'