Page 82 of That Same Old Love

“No Anu, it’s not Sidhu. Someone else,” he replied loudly and then, “Just some crazy neighbor talking to herself again,” he said softly.

Ananya sighed, “Oh” and went into the guest room downstairs.

Samrat still stood blocking the doorway. “So you haven’t answered me yet. How can I help you? Are you here for anything specific?” he challenged Mahi.

“I’m here to talk to Ananya… to clear a misunderstanding.”

“And?” he prompted.

“What do you meanand? Just that. So if you’ll move aside.” Mahi was getting irritated by his silly behavior.

Samrat watched her tapping her foot impatiently. “And what about the fact that we are together and Anu doesn’t know it yet? Do you plan on telling her that or should I do it now?”

“No… I told you already we should wait. We have a lot of time—” she broke off with narrowed eyes. “Sayhito Samrat whenyou see him.Youmade Sidhu pull that trick a while ago, to force me to meet Ananya, and to get the dialogue started. You… you… ,” Mahi was fuming.

Samrat smirked. “So all those mystery and thriller movies that I made you watch with me have finally paid off.”

Mahi wasn’t amused. “You think this is funny? Ananya already hates me and now she will have more reason to loathe me. What you did was juvenile and the plot was more in terms of a bad television soap opera rather than a mystery.”

He pulled her inside the house and closed the door. Cornering her on the wall, he trapped her by placing his hands on either side of her.

“Are you crazy? Your sister will see us,” she hissed trying to escape from under his arms.

But he moved closer, much closer, almost touching her everywhere from her shoulders to legs. “Youdrove me to that bad television soap opera scheme. And Anu needed a reality check on how she would feel if her husband actually contemplated cheating on her. Sidhu and I were hoping that she would confront him. She is refusing to talk to him or meet with him from the past three weeks,” he growled.

She placed her hands on his chest to keep him at bay, just in case his sister came out from the guest room.

He didn’t budge.

He glared at her. “And you. You have been stalling for a while, and I’m sick of keeping our relationship a secret from my family like I’m ashamed of it. They will find out eventually from some source of gossip, but I would like to be the one to inform them first.”

She looked guilty and uncertain.

His face softened. “And I miss having you in my house, to hold you, to kiss you and then to—” he broke off when Mahi placed her fingers on his lips.

He licked her finger with his tongue, making her giggle at the ticklish feeling.

“I miss my messy house, now that you aren’t here… I have too much time left in my hands because I’m not cleaning up after you,” he said and grinned when she whacked him.

She took a deep breath through her mouth. “Okay. I’m going to talk to Ananya now. Call her out, and let her know that I’m here to talk about something important,” she said nervously.

Samrat lifted her off her feet and leaned down towards her neck to kiss her.

“Stop! You maniac! I know you love going all vampire on me, but I don’t want to be caught with freshly made bruises on my neck when I’m speaking with your sister.”

He hugged her. “Relax, my sister doesn’t bite,” he soothed and then, “whereas I do, but then you love my vampire bites. You moan and ask me to—” he broke off laughing when she punched him on his arm.

“Go and get her,” she hissed as he lowered her to the ground.

“Okay, okay, I am. And those kick boxing classes at the work gym must be really good.” he said rubbing his arm while walking towards the guest bedroom.

Mahi couldn’t hear the conversation going on inside. She hadn’t exactly plan a speech, since she didn’t think the day when she would have to give out her deep felt apology would be anywhere close by. Maybe it was a good thing that Samrat had forced her hand even though she would never admit that to him.

Soon Samrat come out from the bedroom followed by a mutinous looking Ananya.

Samrat looked at Mahi and winked at her saying, “Okay, I’m going to leave you both downstairs since I have some work to take care of. Try not to kill each other meantime.”

Mahi felt awkward being left alone with Ananya. She tried to break the ice by starting with an apology. “Ananya, I just want tosay that I’m sorry for how I behaved with you during our college days. I was really mea—”

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