Mixed Masala

Chapter 20

The night after leaving Kavitha's, Meera had gone straight home and collapsed into bed after a quick shower but although she had been exhausted, her mind had remained restless. She had kept tossing and turning for most of the night, drifting in and out of sleep.

She was awake well before her alarm clock went off in the morning but she remained in bed for some moments after that simply staring at the ceiling. Kavitha's words kept ringing in her ears.

"If you love him, don't let him go."

And here she had always thought that it was the other way around. What was that saying again? ... If you love someone, let them go and if that someone loves you, they'll come back to you."

Or something like that ... or perhaps nothing like that.

There was so much she just wasn't sure about ... and yet, she knew that she was sure about the one thing that actually mattered. She was sure that she loved Suresh.

And that's when Meera decided to ignore her head ... and listen to her heart.

I have been such a fool, she said to herself as she got dressed for work. She scolded her reflection in the mirror and then burst out laughing at how ridiculous she was behaving. She stood before the mirror for some moments and stared at herself then slowly her mouth set in a determined line. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and whispered to herself, "This is it. You have to do it."

Her first big step was to contact her parents. Above all else, Meera respected them too much not to tell them what she planned to do. Jayashree had more than once indicated that both her father and her mother approved of Suresh ... that they more than approved of Suresh. Still, she wanted to hear it for herself.

And once she had her parents' blessings, she had her second, even bigger step to take.

Meera made it to Suresh's office building just before five o'clock, parked her car in the guest car park and then walked across as quickly as she could to the employees' parking area. It would have been pointless for her to go up to his office at this time. Chances were that he was headed home already. But maybe ... just maybe, she could catch him just before he left.

She turned a corner and was relieved when she spotted his Toyota Altis still parked in its designated space. Good, he hadn't left yet. Meera headed towards it and was almost next to the car when she heard voices and footsteps coming from the vicinity of the lift lobby and headed her way. She quickly ducked behind a pillar.

Now why did I do that? she wondered ... I've just turned into a stalker.

Meera listened carefully and recognised one of the voices. How could she not? ... She took a tentative step forward, but then stopped in her tracks as she saw the person Suresh was talking to. Whoever she was, she was definitely not his colleague.

The girl was young and quite attractive. She had on a pair of tight black jeans and a pale green silk blouse that complimented her dark wavy brown hair (the L'Oreal type, definitely not henna). She had a round face and semi-sharp features. Her eyes were perhaps a little too small and her mouth, which at that moment was displaying a perfect set of white teeth in a big smile, was perhaps just a little too wide.

"I really hope you don't mind. It's just that the LRT gets so crowded this time of day and I remembered that your office was close by ..." the girl was saying, her voice apologetic.

"No problem. I'm glad you managed to catch me before I left. Besides, your place is on my way home anyway ..."

The girl laughed. "That's what I thought ..."