Chapter 50: chapter 50

Chapter FiftyIf there was hell on earth, surely this was it? Yash sat in a corner of the large hall at Il Cuore and watched Aakash and Maya laugh and chat like they were best friends while his mother sat like a despot on steroids in a chair and tried to incinerate them all with her death glare.Yash poured himself another whiskey, hoping against hope that this one would be the one to numb his senses. Because being in the same room with Maya and being unable to hold her, to talk to her, to laugh with her…it was worse than hell. Especially after last night.He drained his glass and slammed it back on to the table, his vision blurring as the whiskey burned its way down his throat. Karam came to stand beside him, his gaze on Maya and Aakash. As they watched, Aakash slung his arm around Maya’s shoulders and they clinked glasses in a toast that the rest of the room couldn’t hear. “What the fuck is that all about?” Karam wondered aloud. Yash shrugged. Damned if he knew. “Isn’t it amazing?” Aayushi gushed, appearing from nowhere and startling the shit out of him. He slopped whiskey all over the front of his white t-shirt. He was still dabbing at the spreading stain when he felt the hush in the room. He looked up to see Maya and his mother in conversation on the other side of the room. A chill slid down his spine at the sight of their two heads so close together. He put his glass down and strode across the room. He was halfway there, the bloody room was the size of a football field, when Aakash intercepted him.“What’s up bro?” He slung his arm around Yash’s shoulder and forced him to a stop.“Let go,” Yash told his friend, tersely. He tried to move but Aakash stopped him with a tighter, almost painful, grip on his shoulder.“What the fuck are you doing?” he asked his friend. Clearly, the man had lost his mind.“You need to let them talk,” Aakash said, apparently not even ironically. “That is my mother and Maya,” he said, enunciating each word so his obviously drunk or temporarily crazy friend could understand. “I know.” Aakash waggled his eyebrows at him.Aakash waggled his eyebrows at him. Yash was starting to feel like he had stepped through a portal into another universe. And then he heard Maya laugh. He turned his head slowly to look at her. Maya was laughing while talking to his mother. This was definitely a parallel universe.“Yash,” his mother spoke for the first time in the evening, approaching him. She looked strangely hesitant. “If you want to be with this girl,” she said, her hand waving towards Maya who promptly wiggled her fingers in reply. “I won’t object.”“That girl,” Yash said coldly. “Is called Maya. And I don’t need your permission. Your objections or lack of them make no difference to me.” Aakash sighed heavily. “Dude, you’re ruining all my hard work. I had to promise my mom that I would meet eligible girls to marry in return for her convincing Kamini Aunty not to pull all the hair out of Maya’s head.” “And I really like my hair,” Maya chimed in. “And if you don’t care about what she thinks why did you throw me out of your bedroom this morning with all that talk about things not working out because of family and blah blah.”“Wait. Roll that back a little,” Kanak said. “You were in his bedroom?”“You didn’t notice she wasn’t in yours?” Ved asked her in return.“I was sleeping off a hangover.” She glared at her friend before adding, “Don’t distract me.”Maya put two fingers in her mouth and let out a piercing whistle. “Everybody shut up. Yash is talking to his mother.” Then she looked at his mother who looked a bit constipated. “Please continue.” “If you want to be with her,” she forced out again. “I have no objection.” This was clearly a rehearsed speech, Yash thought bemusedly. “Like I told you, it was never about your objecting or not.” Yash looked directly at Maya as he spoke. “It was about the fact that I couldn’t risk you hurting Maya in any way, emotionally or otherwise. No schemes, no plans, no doing things or making decisions for my so-called good.” His mother looked a little sick, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. “I won’t do that.” Yash looked at her cautiously before patting her awkwardly on her shoulder. Please God, don’t let her cry.“BB, I mean Aunty Kamini,” Maya corrected hastily. “Will not do any of that in the future.” “And how exactly did this miracle come about?” Yash looked from Aakash to Maya who’d clearly been tag teaming him. “I was telling Aunty Kamini about the ancient condom you used last night. I mean seriously, that thing wasn’t just past its expiry date. It had literally expired, as in dead as a doornail. So, if she wants to meet any future grandchildren or be a part of their life, she needs to not kill their mother or nine months incubation carrier as it were.” Karam started to laugh somewhere in the background. The rest just stood in fascinated or horrified silence, Yash couldn’t tell. A dull flush crept up Yash’s cheeks as he met Maya’s laughing gaze. He cleared his throat, feeling strangely lightheaded, “If you’d all excuse us, I think the incubation carrier and I need to talk in private.”He grabbed her hand and yanked her out of the room before she or anyone else could object. He towed her along in his wake all the way to his room in silence. When the door finally shut behind him, he turned to face this woman, the love of his life and the most annoying pest he’d ever come across, all rolled into one irresistible package.“So, Aakash and you are doing stuff together now?” It was the first thing out of his mouth. Maya grinned and held her hand up, two fingers crossed. “We’re like that, my new BFF and I.” Yash snorted, adoring her beyond all reason. “Maya, this isn’t going to be that easy.” She stopped grinning like a devilish imp. “I’m not stupid, Yash. I know it won’t be easy but it will be worth it.” She stepped closer, twisting her fingers in the fabric of his t-shirt and pulling him in for a hug. “You are worth it, Yash Malhotra. You are worth everything.” He looked at her, beaming up at him, joy spilling out of every pore and he softened, the last of his reservations melting away. “We are worth everything,” he corrected, finally giving in to the urge to wrap his arms around her and hold her close, right next to his heart. Where she should have always been.“So, can I say it now?” Maya bounced a little, headbutting him on the nose as he was leaning down to kiss her forehead.“Say what?” Yash groaned, his eyes watering from the pain. “That I love you.” Maya bounced again. She lit him up, inside and out. “I LOVE YOU.” She screamed the words this time, her arms thrown out. One hand caught him in the groin making him double over with a gasp. “Oh shit.” She bent at the waist trying to see his face. “Are you okay?” “Expired condom or not,” he gasped. “There may be no children in our future.” Maya grinned. “I don’t care. As long as I have you.” He didn’t care either. Yash straightened slowly, grabbing her and tossing her on to the bed. Maya was all he wanted or needed too. Nothing more. Nothing less.Epilogue“UFF!” The warm, lean body he’d collided with cursed like a sailor on shore leave. Aakash stepped back the minute he heard her voice. He didn’t need to look to know she was scrambling away from him too. It had always been like that between them. The dislike was instant and intense. As was the desire. His hand still tingled and zinged from the seconds of contact when she’d crashed into him.Kanak tossed her multicoloured hair and glared at him. “Can’t you look where you’re going?” she demanded, picking up something she’d dropped on the floor.“Is that a box of condoms?” he asked, his gaze on the hand she was trying to keep out of his line of sight. Kanak grumbled something he didn’t catch. “What the hell do you plan to do with a whole box?” he asked, both appalled and aroused. And with whom…but he kept the second part of the question to himself.“It’s not for me,” she groused. “It’s for Maya and Yash. Those two need to do better on the protection front.” Aakash grinned. Kanak took a startled step back. He didn’t blame her. He didn’t think he’d ever smiled at her before. “Same idea,” he said, flashing the condom packet in his hand at her. She stared at the packet and then back at him. “You know how to smile,” she said, slowly. His smile disappeared. He’d forgotten who he was talking to. They stared at each other, endless seconds, trying to figure out what to say to each other that was not rude or abrasive.“I should go,” he said, finally. “You can give these to them from me.” He held the packet out to her. She took it, her fingers grazing his, just the tips but it felt like she’d scorched his hand. He pulled his hand away, dropping the packet in the process. Kanak bent down to pick it up. “Chocolate flavour?” she said, her voice sounding raspy and hoarse. “You have strange tastes, Mr. Thakkar.” She looked up at him, still crouching on her haunches in front of her, the packet in her hand.He stared back, a churning inferno building inside him as he looked at her, his nemesis. And then they were lunging for each other. Their lips met in an awkward crash, teeth clacking against each other, tongues desperately duelling in a bid to taste the other. Kanak slammed him against the wall, her hands fisting in his shirt, fingers digging into his skin. He turned them around so her back was against the wall, wrapping her legs around his waist and hitching her up so he had her wet warmth flush against him. They groaned at the contact, the sound disappearing into each other’s mouth. In that moment, all that mattered was her warmth, his need and the devastating blaze of need they’d ignited. Aakash ground himself against, hard and without any of the finesse he was normally known for. Kanak only moaned and wrapped her legs around his hips tighter. Aakash felt like every second, every moment of his life had been leading up to this moment, to this woman…And then a loud crash sounded through the hall, breaking the moment. He tore his lips from hers, resting his forehead against hers, their harsh pants and gasps mingling. Aakash finally looked down and to the right to see a vase lying in pieces, splintered like his composure. Kanak slid her legs to the ground and stepped away from him, her ragged breath still sounding loud in the silence that surrounded them.“Fuck,” she muttered, her fingers going to her lips. “Fuck!” He couldn’t agree more…