Page 39 of That Same Old Love

It was raining heavily by the time Mahi reached Samrat’s village. It was a little after three in the afternoon when the driver parked Mahi’s car in front of a modest two-leveled home.

The driver told her that he would be visiting his parents’ house and asked Mahi to call him when she was ready to head back to the city. She took his phone number and then got down the car with her bag.

She quickly ran inside a large front yard and rang the doorbell.

Samrat’s mother answered the door and didn’t seem to be surprised.

“Mahi, come inside,” she said and showed her into a living room. “You are soaked. Wait here. I will get you a towel. Would you like something to drink apart from water?”

“No thank you aunty. I… just want to see Samrat now.”

Samrat’s mother smiled. “First have some water. I feel you might need it before you face my son in his current mood.”

After drinking some water, Samrat’s mother took her upstairs and knocked on a door loudly.

“I’m not hungry yet, ma. I’ll come down when I want to eat,” Samrat said gruffly from the room.

“Samrat, I need help with something. The home automation system you installed yesterday is causing issues. I am not able to turn off the fans in the dining room and the sitting room. Can you please check it, since it is wasting electricity,” said Samrat’s mother.

They heard Samrat grumbling inside.

“That’s why I keep saying I will get more solar panels installed on the roof and—” he opened the room door with a frown and froze seeing Mahi standing next to his mother.

“Hey Samrat,” Mahi said tentatively.

Seeing him after seven long weeks, her heart was beating frantically with both happiness and in nervous anticipation.

“Your bag will be in the opposite bedroom if you want to change out of the wet clothes,” Samrat’s mother told Mahi softly.

And then she squeezed Mahi’s arm reassuringly before leaving them alone by going downstairs.

Samrat was scowling. “Why are you here?”

“Well… I was in the neighborhood and you went on and on about your village being so cool. I finally came here to check it out… with an overnight bag. You were right, it is very pretty,” she said softly.

He didn’t smile or respond, and just stared coldly at her.

“Can I come inside? I want to see your room,” she said.

“No,” he said curtly.

“Samrat, I know that whatever I did was pretty horrible, but please listen to me. Let me explain why—”

“Mahi, you made it pretty clear the last two times I tried to find out. I’m not interested anymore. Now, if you’ll excuse me, unlike you I’m rather busy,” he said abruptly and was about to shut the door on her face.

Mahi felt a weird déjà vu and quickly forced herself inside his room and closed it shut.

Samrat looked angry and gave her a quick sweeping look from top of her head to the bottom of her feet.

“You look like hell,” he commented rudely, angry that he was still worried about her.

She smiled at him. “I know. I lost some weight in the last few weeks. I’ve been busy at work… You seem to have lost some weight too.”

His cheekbones looked sharper and his face looked like he hadn’t been sleeping well at nights like her.

She wanted to pull him closer, to hug him, and kiss him all over his face to wipe away his scowl. But his fierce and pissed off expression stopped her.

He would probably pick her up with one hand and throw her out of the window if she dared to touch him.

“I wanted to thank you, for helping out my ex-husband’s soon-to-be ex-wife from an abusive marriage,” she said softly.

He watched her expressionlessly, and shrugged as though he didn’t obsessively hunt her ex-husband down, and run an elaborate sting kind of operation to get him arrested for what he did to Mahi.

“If he was the kind to abuse before, there was more likelihood that he would do it again. And I was right, this time he was even more abusive. He was also being fearless and stupid, thinking that he wouldn’t get caught. And that his second wife will also bear it calmly,” he said.

Mahi nodded, feeling guilty that she hadn’t thought in those terms and maybe could have saved that poor girl from misery much sooner.

Then smiling uncertainly at him, she said, “Quite an adventure the people on the company flight had. I heard everyone made it to safety with only minor injuries.”

His face softened a little. “Were you worried about me?” he asked gruffly.

“Yeah. A little,” she replied.

He was torn.

He wanted to drag her closer to comfort her. But he stayed put, remembering how she ripped out his heart to stomp on it. She left him in pieces for her peace of mind, not caring how he would take or cope with her abandonment.

He looked at her starkly in pain. “Mahi, I can’t do this anymore. I’m so sick of paying for some asshole’s mistakes. I have had enough. I don’t want to get back together. I have moved on like you suggested. So I suggest you do the same.”

“No, it’s not just because of my bad marriage Samrat. Please listen to what I went through with A—” she began, going closer to him and touched his eyebrow scar gently to wipe away the painfully agonized expression.

He jerked and threw her hand away from his face angrily. “No! Don’t ever touch me again. Do you understand me? And don’t embarrass yourself by begging or throwing yourself on me when I’m no longer interested.”

She went closer. “Samrat, just listen to me—”

“Get out from my house, Mahi. I don’t want to hear anything. I’m simply not interested,” he said flatly.

“Samrat—”

“Go!”

“But—”

“Go!”

Mahi was getting frustrated. She knew that he had every right to stay angry, but she had to make him listen to her explanation completely.

“I’m not going anywhere from this house until you listen,” she told him stubbornly, getting unreasonably angry herself.

“I don’t care about you anymore and you are not welcome here,” he said icily.

“That’s fine. But just listen to me. Please Samrat—”

“No! Get. Out. Of. My. House,” he enunciated each word coldly.

Mahi stayed still. And then, “Well… it’s not your house. I won’t go unless you listen to me. So what are you going to do about it?” she taunted him, folding her hands and standing firm.

His icy stare got much colder and she could see his jaw clenching tightly.

“Stop your childish games and get out from my house,” he spoke in a dead calm.

She stared at him. “Make me,” she dared him.

She wanted him to touch her, even if it was to just pick her up to throw her out.

With a furious expression, he opened the bedroom door and walked towards the opposite bedroom around the staircase.

She watched him in confusion and followed behind him. Then realizing what he was up to, “Wait,” she shouted and ran towards him reaching the room the same time as him. “Stop being such a sulky stubborn ass and listen to me just for a minute!”

A maid was changing the bed sheets in the room and she froze when she saw Samrat’s furious expression and then heard Mahi shouting at him. Not bothering to excuse herself, the maid fled from the room.

Samrat saw Mahi’s bag kept neatly towards a wall and picked it up. “I want you out of my house!” he repeated and shoved the bag towards her.

She refused to take it and shook her head. “No! I’m not leaving unless you talk to me!”

“Leave.”

“Not unless you listen to what I have to say. I’m staying in this house forever, if that’s what it takes you to listen to me,” she said.

He watched her stubborn expression and went towards the window with her bag.

“What are you doing? Don’t you dare! Are you crazy? Stop!” she said as she realized he was trying to toss her bag out of the window.

He ripped the mesh layer out of the window and threw her bag out.

The rain had stopped and there were a few workers standing near the courtyard.

They looked stunned when they saw Mahi’s bag flying down towards the ground.

They were also shocked seeing that their normally aloof employer had done that.

She had a pleading expression on her face. “Please listen. I love you and I want to be with you,” she said imploringly.

He had an icy but agonized expression. “I don’t give a damn. Leave,” he said.

Mahi’s heart clenched seeing the proud and controlled man reduced to behaving that way because of her. In fact both of them were behaving like two overgrown toddlers throwing a huge tantrum. Except for their broken hearts that desperately needed a resolution soon.

Not wanting to argue with him or reason with him when he wasn’t in a mood to talk, she walked out of the room and went downstairs dejectedly.

Samrat’s mother looked amused. “Was my son being stubborn and not talking to you in his sulk?”

“He wants me to get out from the house and even threw my bag out. I just wanted to explain to him about my painful phase when I lost my son and that I was scared of losing another child again. And that’s why I broke up with him. I’m willing to try now for his sake and also for my sake,” said Mahi.

Samrat’s mother looked sympathetic. “Samrat has been in a bad mood lately. But that is no excuse to behave rudely or inhospitably. I think you both need time to sort this by yourselves in some privacy.”

Mahi nodded. “I think so too. But short of giving him a tranquilizer and tying him up, there is no way I can get him to listen to me with his current stubborn mood,” she said frustrated.

Samrat’s mother looked thoughtful. “We do have tranquillizers that we use for our cattle, but I doubt my son will appreciate it. I have another idea. Hopefully it works. It did for me around forty years ago… ”