UBC Day 21 - the other side - 19

Continued from Day 20 - Affair

In coming weeks, Priya could see Deepti sinking in. She didn’t want Deepti to get into the phase where she was six months ago. The girls met over drink one day, and they couldn’t discuss anything but Deepti. Priya strongly felt that Deepti should move out and had voiced the same.

However, She tried to talk to Harsh over lunch one day. After a while of trying to avoid the conversation, Harsh started with a detailed account of their relationship and the current situation. He explained that they were two very different people and Deepti herself acknowledged the same. He admitted that he wasn’t one of the easy people to live with and he understood Deepti’s efforts to try to live up to his expectations.

He explained his liking to his colleague and confessed that the gossip was more than what was true. He agreed to support Deepti in whatever way he could and it would be solely her decision to move out or stay back. He promised that he wouldn’t cross his limits till she was there with him and he would try to work it out between them once more.

The humility and sobriety on Harsh’s part confused Priya. Each time she tried to put the situation in black and white and thought about Harsh’s wrong, his clear arguments and determined commitments to his relationship stood strong, leaving her confused about him.

Determined to help her friend, Priya called Deepti to her place on a Saturday for a night stay. Deepti agreed.

Priya decided to order some great food and put Navya to bed early. With only weekends at her hand, she was so busy with her daughter and her parents that when she picked up the phone there were several missed calls, out of which most of them from Sushant.

She called him up to find his number switched off. Then she called up Deepti to check the time she was arriving. She was on her last call, when Sushant called again.

Before she could even say hello, Sushant started, “Hey, I have been trying to call you since morning. I have just reached India, now give me the address to your house otherwise I will have to go to search for a hotel.” Priya stood listening to what he said, trying to make sense of it all.

A minute later, it all came back, the mail that he wrote explaining that he was coming to Delhi for some work and since his parents no longer lived in Delhi, he needed her help to find accommodation for a week or so, and she had written him an elaborate reply, scolding on searching for an option when he had her house to stay at. He had asked her for the address, and she forgot to reply.

Sushant voice bought her back, “So madam! What happened? Are you giving me the address or you are coming to pick me at the airport?” She smiled at his joke and gave him the address and direction.

Priya didn’t know how to handle this new problem. Sushant was excited to see her and Navya, and Deepti was stressed. How would she manage it? She thought of asking Deepti to cancel, but that wouldn’t be right.

As usual, her mother came to her help. She calmed her nerves and explained her to let it be, maybe it was happening for a reason.