Chapter 43: chapter 43

Chapter Forty ThreeNothing holds more value for me than you. Nothing.Maya wondered if she was destined to live the rest of her life with those words ringing in her ears. After his simple statement, she’d walked away from him without saying a single word. She couldn’t have said anything even if she’d wanted to. Too much had happened between them and too little had been set right. And yet, she heard his voice in every beat of her heart. Desperate to still the confusion and grief swirling through her, Maya leaned her head against the car door and gazed out at the road as Karam drove them to Il Cuore. “Remind me again,” Karam said conversationally. “Why I am doing this?” “Because I promised you my first born child,” Kanak muttered from the seat beside Maya.“I don’t want your first born child like I told you when you offered it to me.” “And why not?” Kanak demanded. “Because nobody wants Satan’s spawn,” Karam deadpanned. Ved, sitting in the front passenger seat, laughed and even Maya cracked a smile at Kanak’s screech of outrage. “I’m not the one kissing other men’s fiancées,” she retorted, effectively wiping the smile off Karam’s face.“Only one fiancée,” he murmured. “First and last time I do that, believe me.” “Maya Papaya.” Ved turned to look at her. “What’s going on in that busy brain of yours?” “Nothing,” she answered, unconvincingly. “Yash Pash,” Kanak singsonged. “Yash Pash?” Maya arched an eyebrow. “That’s the best you could come up with?” Kanak grinned. “At short notice, yes but I’ll do better soon.” Karam went over a speed breaker at full speed and had them all yelling at the bone rattling impact.“Oye, race car driver.” Kanak smacked the back of his head. “Do better.”Karam only growled in response, his eyes on the road. “What the fuck is the point of this weekend?” he asked now. “We’re all going to sit around and sing kumbaya or some shit while we hold hands?” “Kumbaya? Even your song choices are as sad as you.” Kanak snorted. “First, none of us want to hear you sing anything. That’s worse than listening to a frog with a sore throat. Second…there is no second. Just, please for the love all that’s holy, don’t sing.” Ved laughed again.“What the fuck are you in such a good mood about?” Karam asked, genuinely curious. But Ved only shrugged, not answering the pointed question Maya noticed. She continued to stare out of the window as the road wound its way closer to the place it had all started at. Closer to the place where it would end, one way or another. “Karam, I need to pee,” Kanak announced. Everyone groaned in unison. Kanak and her bladder were a standing joke, or would that be a crouching one? She insisted on drinking gallons of water claiming it was the secret to good health and dewy skin and then peed her way across the world. Karam pulled up at the next convenient stop with lots of trees and they averted their eyes as Kanak stomped off behind a tree to do her business. After several seconds, they heard her shriek.Maya was the first out of the car. She hurried towards where they’d seen Kanak disappear, the guys trying to run along while averting their eyes in case they saw more than they should. Kanak was hopping on one foot, her underwear tangled along one ankle and her skirt hiked up around her thighs, screeching like a banshee. “What? What?” Maya asked, screeching a little herself.  “A frog jumped into my panty,” Kanak wailed, still hopping like a lunatic. Ved and Karam turned their backs on them but even then Maya caught the low snigger. She grabbed for Kanak’s underwear searching for the adventurous frog and found the little bugger happily doing a little hop in tandem with his new found love. She tossed him out and got Kanak to right herself before ushering everyone back to the car. Like the stress of the upcoming weekend wasn’t enough, she now had a sulking friend and her two tormentors to mediate between. Luckily or unluckily, depending on your perspective, Maya supposed, Il Cuore came into view only fifteen minutes later. The mansion was gorgeous and stately as ever and the grounds that spread out around it like something from a fairy tale.And like all good fairy tales, this one too had the dragon guarding the stoop. Aakash Thakkar stood on the porch, his arms crossed over his chest, a formidable glower on his brow. By his side, Aayushi smiled and waved, pretty as a picture in denim shorts and a simple, white t-shirt. Maya’s gaze searched the entire idyllic seating but she saw no one else. Her chest tightened, disappointment a tight lasso that seemed to steal her very breath. Karam drew their battered Honda to a stop and a valet appeared like magic from around the building. They stepped out of the car and made their way over to the front porch where their reception party of two, the Beauty and the Beast, waited.“You guys came.” Aayushi launched herself off the porch and into Maya’s arms. Maya stumbled back but a steadying hand from Ved helped her regain her balance, her gimpy leg stabilising with the little support he offered. “We did,” Maya confirmed, smiling back as no one else in her group seemed to be in the mood to talk. “Thank you for coming.” Aakash’s gravelly voice broke the awkward silence, his gaze on Karam who looked back unflinchingly. “All of you.”And with another nod, he stepped back gesturing to them to precede him. Maya hung back, her eyes wandering back to the distant car park, looking for a certain someone’s BMW but not spotting it. “Maya?” Aakash called out. She started, realising she was the only one still hovering outside. Heart heavy, she stepped forward just as someone stepped out. She saw the shiny, perfectly polished black shoes first and then the crisply ironed jeans. There was only one person she knew who would iron jeans!Her eyes flew past the pristine white formal shirt tucked perfectly into those jeans with their military sharp creases. His remote gaze framed by those pale gold rimless spectacles met her own. And for the first time, in hours Maya felt herself take a breath. Feeling flooded through her, colour washing through the scene around her. He was here. It was enough.