Page 60 of Driven By Desire
“Sure.
“Use the time to finish packing for college.”
With that he turned towards the door only to come to an abrupt halt when Pooja piped up, “And Max?”
“Yeah, what about Max?” Chirag drawled.
“Yeah, Max.”
Turning at Adi’s addition, Krish asked, “Yeah, Max what?”
Grin faltering in the face of his brother’s formidable scowl, Adi said, “I want her back too.”
‘Why?”
“You smile more when she is around.” When no one said anything for a whole minute, he added helpfully, “It makes life easier on the rest of us.”
Chirag’s muffled laugh had Krish shaking his head in disbelief. “You guys are really annoying.”
“We want Max back and we’re going to keep annoying you until you do.” This came from the runt with the still healing black eye. A black eye that reminded him of exactly why he’d walked away from the most incandescent experience of his life.
“You can’t control everything in life. Accidents happen.” Chirag’s words had him taking a deep breath. “Like I said, you’re not God.”
A tiny kernel of hope he hadn’t completely managed to squash unfurled itself and sent out a testing shoot. “I screwed up pretty badly.”
“That’s true.”
“She probably won’t forgive me.”
“Also true.”
Ignoring the two heads that were swiveling between them like they were at a tennis match, Krish glared at Chirag. “Are you helping me or screwing with me?”
“Both.” Grinning unrepentantly, Chirag continued, “The first step is accepting that you have a problem.”
“And this problem would be?”
“You’re a painfully serious, control freak who managed to screw up the best thing that ever happened to you.”
“Thanks. I love you too.” The dry response had Pooja giggling. “What now?”
“Now we help you get the love of all of our lives back.”
---***---
One whole month. One month of unremitting, ravaging, soul sucking pain. So that’s what it felt like when your heart splintered into a million pieces. It was a lesson she hadn’t really needed to learn. The money had come in to her account withinthe promised week. The man was as good as his word. Of course, now he’d paid her for work she hadn’t done so she was going to have to give the money back. Ask for his account details and give it back. Not a conversation she was looking forward to. Any conversation that involved him was not one she wanted to be a part of. How much longer before it stopped hurting quite this much? Wasn’t a month more than enough? Then why did it hurt as much today as it had on that day at the hospital?
“Deep thoughts.” Her father’s voice broke through her gloomy introspection and had her looking up from her plate of pancakes. “Care to share?”
“Nothing I want to talk about.” Pushing her still full plate back, she pushed back from the table. Her father took in the old, faded overalls, scuffed sneakers and hair ruthlessly pulled back in a tight braid. She was wearing comfort clothes. And if that didn’t clinch the deal, there were the dark circles, pale cheeks and pinched face to go with it. Not to mention the hurt and grief that never quite stopped shadowing her eyes. It was enough to drive even the most peace loving father to violence.
“I visited Pooja yesterday.” He’d been by the hospital and Mehra residence often, while Krish was away at work, to visit the little girl who’d stolen his heart from the first time she’d sat in his kitchen and licked his soup bowl clean.
Heart wrenching with a vicious tug of pain, Max asked, “How is she?”
“Almost completely recovered.” When his daughter didn’t ask any further questions, he added gently, “She misses you, Max.”
“I miss her too.”
