Chapter 12 #4
“I am talking about the fact that I came to a place I had no interest in because of you. Then you let me get insulted by your brother. Fine, I took that in stride. But then you have ignored me thoroughly throughout the evening. ”
“What did Rishi do to you now?” Sameer was completely confused by her behavior. Here he was having a great time while Natasha was behaving difficult and ruining a fine evening.
Natasha stared at him for a second before saying, “Nothing. Just leave it. Either you take me home right now or I’ll make my own arrangements?”
Frustrated, Sameer turned to tell her exactly how he felt about her behavior when he heard Raashi’s lilting voice surround him.
He turned back to the stage to see Raashi playing the guitar and singing a slow, love melody, the guitar notes straining in the background, adding to the mesmerizing beauty of her voice.
Sameer stood shell shocked listening to her sing.
She sang about love, about falling in love and celebrating it.
“This rude and impolite behavior is exactly the thing that pisses me off, Sameer,” Natasha said.
His eyes fixed on the stage, he said, “Not now, Natasha. I’m not in the mood for your tantrums. The music is great and I want to enjoy a couple of more songs, so I request you to stay for at least half an hour more.
After that I will take you home, or you can choose to take off on your own, right now. It’s entirely up to you.”
Natasha could hardly believe the cool aloofness in his voice. It was so not like him. She hesitated for a moment debating whether to leave, hanging on to her pride or to just stay on as he was asking, for a little while more.
When Sameer returned to the table with Natasha in tow, Rishi whispered, “Bravo!”
“Back off, Rishi,” Sameer snapped.
“Sorry!” Rishi said. “Just relax and enjoy.”
Sameer concentrated on Raashi’s singing.
Her voice was beautiful. She was beautiful.
Something stirred within him. He tried to silence it.
And tried desperately to avoid listening to that voice inside his head.
But not tonight. Tonight that voice was telling him loud and clear that what he felt for Raashi was more than just an insane physical attraction.
It ran deeper, thicker. He cared for her, a lot.
And while he couldn’t clearly put more words or depth into his feelings for her, he knew he wanted to be with her, spend time with her, hear her laugh more often, see her eyes shine especially for him.
That’s when he knew that this thing with Natasha was over.
It had no future, none whatsoever, since Raashi had come back into his life.
He had walked out of Raashi’s life once, but he was going to move heaven and earth to walk back into it again.
He wanted to be a part of her life. He felt a myriad of emotions for her and he had to figure out what they all meant.
Her melodious voice broke into his thoughts and he clapped with the rest of the crowd as she finished.
For a moment she looked up, straight at him and smiled.
In that one second Sameer made up his mind. He knew what he had to do.
He turned to Natasha. “Let’s go.”
“But you said...”
“I know what I said. I changed my mind.”
He spoke to his brother. “We’re leaving now. What do you want to do?”
“You carry on! I’ll stick around here for a while. Probably catch a cab home,” Rishi replied, sensing the tension between his brother and Natasha. However, the evening had turned out to be a thorough success. Mission accomplished!
Raashi’s heart faltered as she saw Sameer leave with Natasha.
In that one moment their eyes had met and she had stared helplessly at him, until Dheer had snagged her attention back.
Raashi scolded herself. Sameer was with another woman now and she just had to get over whatever it was that she felt for him.
Sameer drove Natasha home in absolute silence.
He was still trying to put in perspective the decision he had taken.
He thought about it and was convinced. He wanted Raashi back.
That was crystal clear to him now more than ever.
How else could he define the possessiveness he felt towards her, the insanity that gripped him when she was in his arms?
Yes, he was right. This was the only way forward for him.
He turned to look at Natasha. She had been silent since they had left the restaurant and he could see that she was extremely mad.
“Natasha...” he began.
She stared straight ahead, ignoring him.
This was going to be tougher than he had thought. He drove in silence the rest of the way and parked in front of her house.
As soon as the car stopped, she unbuckled her seat belt and started to open her door.
He caught her arm and she turned to look at him.
“We need to talk,” he said.
Her eyes widened with rage. “No. There is nothing I want to hear from you, especially after the way you spoke to me earlier.”
Her arrogant and overbearing behavior enraged him. But he needed to remain calm to have this conversation.
“Look, Natasha. I apologize for what happened earlier. But over the past few weeks and especially tonight I’ve come to the conclusion that you and I, we are just poles apart.
We want different things in life and this.
..” he gestured with his hand pointing to the two of them, “...is not working out as it should be.”
Her eyes snapped to his, blazing with rage.
“I can’t believe how badly you’ve treated me today.
You let your brother be rude to me, you ignored me for most of the evening because you couldn’t get your eyes off Raashi and now this.
I only wanted to spend time with you and this is what I get in return.
Thanks a lot, Sameer. You sure know how to make a woman feel special! ”
Exasperated, Sameer scraped a hand down his jaw.
“You’re not listening, Natasha. This has nothing to do with my brother or Raashi or with tonight.
We had a history and I thought because of that we would be able to make a go at a relationship again.
I was wrong. We were done years back and to even think we could resurrect something that was long over was a mistake. ”
“Fine, Sameer. Have it your way for now. When you get bored of that waitress, you’ll know where to find me. It’s not like I don’t know how marrying me will be the best thing for you and your business.”
Saying that, she got out of the car and opened the gate of her house. She hurried away without a second glance.
Sameer watched her as she walked away. He went over their conversation in his mind and realized there was nothing more he could have said to make his position clearer to her. The only thing left was to speak to Jiten Arya directly. He drove home feeling more content than he had in days.