Titaliya

Chapter 13

He couldn't believe what just happened. Imagining what she said was extremely distracting. If only she had really meant it, he didn't know if he would've been able to control himself. It wasn't even what she said that teased him, it was the impish smile that came afterward. She knew exactly what she was doing.

"Pagal," he said to himself, stepping back into his own apartment.

His phone rang for the sixth time since that morning. Even his own sister didn't call him so much. Payal had been calling every hour to make sure that he didn't do anything to her precious sister. What her precious sister did to him was of no consequence.

"Yes, Payal," he said with exasperation.

"Yes, what? Did you talk to her? You didn't do anything, did you? If you did, don't forget Arnavji. I've been cooking since I was a child. If there's one thing I know how to use, it's a knife. That, and a belan."

The threats kept getting more serious by the hour. Arnav kept the phone away from his ear for a few seconds before placating her.

"Yeah, Payal. I spoke to her. Everything's fine. I told her about AR's Bangalore branch. Then she left."

"How did she look? Did she look like she's eating alright? Are the neighbors nice? Chodo, why am I asking you about neighbors?"

He rolled his eyes. "Put Akash on the phone."

He spoke to Akash about how business was going on while he walked onto the balcony. Watering his plants, he didn't even notice Veda pacing the length of her balcony with a jalebi in her hand, muttering to herself about the sadistic nature of the universe.

***

Her Jeeji was the only way he could have gotten her address. More likely, it was a naive Akashji. She kept calling Jeeji, only to get a busy tone. No one was lifting Akashji's phone. She instead called Laxmi Nagar.

"Buaji!" Veda yelled into the phone.

"Hai Re, Nand Kishore! Sanka Devi, if you wanted to yell so loudly, what was the need to use a phone? You're going to drive me deaf," her Buaji complained.

Veda answered, "I miss you calling me Sanka Devi, Buaji."

"Sach mein, you've gone mad," Buaji continued. Veda only laughed loudly, attracting the attention of her neighbor. "How are the neighbors?"

Veda faltered. "That, the neighbors? They're fine."

Arnav cut his call and looked at her.

"I think I'm more than fine!" he yelled to her.

Veda looked up and dropped her phone. Since when had he been there? It was all her Jeeji's fault. If only she picked up the phone. Just then, her phone rang. She looked at her screen. It was her Jeeji.

"Jeeji! Did you know about this?"

Payal was scared. Her sister was rarely ever angry, and when she was... it wasn't pretty.

"Actually, what happened, Khu-"

"It's Veda!" she yelled into the phone before cutting the call.

On the other end, Payal sighed. Now Veda wouldn't talk to her for a few days at the least. She sounded furious. Arnav had lied to them. Something had happened between them.

Payal called Arnav. Like an idiot, looking at his lady love, he picked up without looking at the screen.

"You idiot!"

In the background he could hear Akash trying to calm Payal down, but it seemed it wasn't just one of the Gupta sisters that was insane.

"Payal, listen-"