Page 25 of Love Locked
‘Who’s that?’ Kabir asked, distracted.
“There are multiple texts from your Dad. It appears that the current climatic conditions are trending in the media, and everyone is concerned about us.” Simultaneously, she read the messages on her phone and winced. There were a crap load of messages from her family and in the group chat.
“That is a given. Can you give my father a call? I’ll inform him we are safe as my phone is connected to car Bluetooth.”
“Sure.”
As she was about to call Kabir’s father, his phone rang, and Kyra accidentally answered the incoming call. The entire thing happened so fast that she wasn’t even aware of it until a disgruntled female voice spoke, making her want to throw the phone out of the window.
“Hello… Kabs. I heard there’s a snowstorm near you. How are you, honey-pie? Why did you go there in the storm? Why didn’t one of your brothers go?”
“Raina...” Kabir mumbled distractedly. Suddenly the car swerved, and he cursed, expertly getting it under control with his fast reflexes.
“Watch out, Kabir,” Kyra screamed, and Kabir held out his hand in front of her chest to make sure she didn’t crash on the front.
Kabir was so shocked to hear Raina’s voice after so long that he lost control while driving. Surprisingly, he didn’t feel the slightest bit hurt about his breakup. All he felt was a trace of irritation at Raina’s tone and assumption. He felt relieved that nothing had changed. Raina was still the same.
Hearing the exchange, Kyra wasn’t sure if she should be listening to this conversation because Kabir looked uncomfortable as hell. She didn’t want him distracted while driving, let alone allow him to tangle in a phone call designed to do just that. Reaching safely at their destination was more important. So, she made the conscious choice to intervene and put an end to the call.
“Who was that? Are you with some woman? Kabs...answer me...” Raina sounded annoyed.
“Raina, this is Kyra. Kabir is with me and is driving. He will call you later. Or maybe never.” She hung up without waiting to hear her furious answer. She dismissed the horrible knot in her stomach at the mere thought of Kabir calling her back. Or worse, rekindling their relationship. However, she felt more empowered as she responded to the bitchy Barbie Raina before throwing the phone against the dashboard.
“I had no idea you were in charge of me,” Kabir spoke with a calm yet steely low voice. He swallowed hard, ignoring his body’s reaction as he again found Kyra’s commanding manner, tinged with sternness, ridiculously hot.She is off limits, idiot!The sensible part of his brain was chanting this mantra.
“Well, I am. At least until you are driving us to our destination in this dreadful weather,” Kyra spoke with authority again, her hands folded across her chest.
He didn’t say anything; he just nodded because she was not wrong. Not about reaching their destination, at least. “So, what does the weather say now?”
“What does it say?” Kyra asked, baffled over the sudden change of topic as she unlocked his phone and read it to him. “They’re forecasting a lot of snow and an icy storm. Roads are closed as well.”
Kyra, who was becoming increasingly worried, felt disappointed at his change of topic. He always stopped when she thought it was getting interesting. She scoffed at her stupidity for wanting to argue with him. God. She was not normal.
After some time, Kabir finally turned into a narrow street lined with tall blue galvanised fencing sheets on one side and a vast sloping, green valley on the other. They stopped uphill in front of a large sign that read, ‘Uprise Snowtop’.
Kyra rubbed her palms together to warm them up when the tall blue gates of the construction site opened. A burly security guard dressed in a jacket, snow cap and muffler saluted them as they slowly drove past the signboard.
Kabir zoomed along the curvy driveway leading to the outhouse. Their meeting was on site, and they decided to freshen up in the outhouse before attending the meeting. Afterwards, they would go to the neighbouring resort Adil had booked for the night.
“Thank God we won’t be unloading luggage in this weather,” Kabir said to himself.
“Yeah. I’m just happy we’ve arrived here safely despite the unwanted distractions,” Kyra muttered, still upset about Raina calling him. She knew it was unreasonable of her to taunt him like that. But she couldn’t help it. She was jealous, and she needed to get a grip.
With an icy glare directed at her, Kabir stopped. “I swore I wouldn’t let anything happen to you, Kyra. And I honour my word. Keep that in mind.” He exited the car, slamming his door behind him.
That minute, Kyra sensed their relationship might always be riddled with discord. She gazed listlessly out of the window at the sky and closed her eyes. Breathing in the air, she reminisced about the evening he was with her while she enjoyed her first glass of wine. How kind he was to her. Even then, he was a sexy gentleman. But now, that man seemed to vanish when it came to her. She recalled the way he snapped at her and shivered, not knowing if it was the cold or his effect on her.
Finally, she got out of the car and muttered an expletive. Compared to the inside of the car, the outside was literally freezing. She turned to observe the surroundings and saw that the ground, trees and outhouse were covered in a white sheet of snow. She was amazed by how calm everything was, except for the roaring of the wind. The only sound she could hear was her sneakers crunching through the snow. The air seemed clean and crisp due to the scent of moist pine trees. Suddenly, the snow started to crumble violently from the sky, and the wind picked up speed.
Kabir yelled over the howling wind, “Kyra... You’ve done enough roaming around. I don’t want you to get sick. We need to head inside.”
“I’m not roaming. Stop scolding me like I’m a child.” She stomped angrily towards Kabir.
Outside the cabin foyer, a middle-aged man with greying hair and a handlebar moustache approached them with folded hands. “Welcome, Sir. Madam, Welcome. Myself, Shyamlal, the keeper of this facility. Come inside, please.”
“Shyamlal kaka, don’t call me sir. Sir is my father. Call me just Kabir.”
“But you’ve now grown into a big man, baba.”
