Page 100 of That Same Old Love

Samrat’s mother smiled. “First have some water. I feel you might need it before you face my son in his current mood.”

After drinking some water, Samrat’s mother took her upstairs and knocked on a door loudly.

“I’m not hungry yet, ma. I’ll come down when I want to eat,” Samrat said gruffly from the room.

“Samrat, I need help with something. The home automation system you installed yesterday is causing issues. I am not able to turn off the fans in the dining room and the sitting room. Can you please check it, since it is wasting electricity,” said Samrat’s mother.

They heard Samrat grumbling inside.

“That’s why I keep saying I will get more solar panels installed on the roof and—” he opened the room door with a frown and froze seeing Mahi standing next to his mother.

“Hey Samrat,” Mahi said tentatively.

Seeing him after seven long weeks, her heart was beating frantically with both happiness and in nervous anticipation.

“Your bag will be in the opposite bedroom if you want to change out of the wet clothes,” Samrat’s mother told Mahi softly.

And then she squeezed Mahi’s arm reassuringly before leaving them alone by going downstairs.

Samrat was scowling. “Why are you here?”

“Well… I was in the neighborhood and you went on and on about your village being so cool. I finally came here to check it out… with an overnight bag. You were right, it is very pretty,” she said softly.

He didn’t smile or respond, and just stared coldly at her.

“Can I come inside? I want to see your room,” she said.

“No,” he said curtly.

“Samrat, I know that whatever I did was pretty horrible, but please listen to me. Let me explain why—”

“Mahi, you made it pretty clear the last two times I tried to find out. I’m not interested anymore. Now, if you’ll excuse me, unlike you I’m rather busy,” he said abruptly and was about to shut the door on her face.

Mahi felt a weird déjà vu and quickly forced herself inside his room and closed it shut.

Samrat looked angry and gave her a quick sweeping look from top of her head to the bottom of her feet.

“You look like hell,” he commented rudely, angry that he was still worried about her.

She smiled at him. “I know. I lost some weight in the last few weeks. I’ve been busy at work… You seem to have lost some weight too.”

His cheekbones looked sharper and his face looked like he hadn’t been sleeping well at nights like her.

She wanted to pull him closer, to hug him, and kiss him all over his face to wipe away his scowl. But his fierce and pissed off expression stopped her.

He would probably pick her up with one hand and throw her out of the window if she dared to touch him.

“I wanted to thank you, for helping out my ex-husband’s soon-to-be ex-wife from an abusive marriage,” she said softly.

He watched her expressionlessly, and shrugged as though he didn’t obsessively hunt her ex-husband down, and run an elaborate sting kind of operation to get him arrested for what he did to Mahi.

“If he was the kind to abuse before, there was more likelihood that he would do it again. And I was right, this time he was even more abusive. He was also being fearless and stupid, thinking that he wouldn’t get caught. And that his second wife will also bear it calmly,” he said.

Mahi nodded, feeling guilty that she hadn’t thought in those terms and maybe could have saved that poor girl from misery much sooner.

Then smiling uncertainly at him, she said, “Quite an adventure the people on the company flight had. I heard everyone made it to safety with only minor injuries.”

His face softened a little. “Were you worried about me?” he asked gruffly.

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