To Love or Not To Love

Chapter 4

The other person in the room, who had also followed Khushi Kumari Gupta all the way to her house did not believe it was tough luck. He genuinely felt miserable about what Khushi Gupta had faced and wanted to apologize for it. Although he had voted against scaring the girl into a confession, he was still a partner in crime. 

Holding a bunch of white lilies in his left hand, he got out of his white BMW and slowly made his way to the door of the Gupta household when he heard Shashi Gupta's colorful vocabulary describing the person he could put a name to - ASR. He stopped. This was not a good time. He would have to come back another time. 

*****

Khushi Kumari Gupta was gazing at the glow-in-the-dark stars that hung from her ceiling. Whenever she missed her parents, she would look towards these stars, visible even during the day.  She had showered and changed into a casual baby pink salwar kameez. With her damp hair dripping water, wetting the back of her kameez, she sat on her bed, absentmindedly doodling on her bedsheet with her index nail. Her thoughts, however, were wandering in a different direction.

"Amma, from high up there, where you are, you can see everything. And you know why everything happens. So tell me, why did this happen to me? What did I do? You know, ever since that night, how afraid I am of dark spaces. And yet that horrible man kept me locked in a dark room for two days. Why did you let this happen to me Amma?"

She knew she would get no answers. And even if she did, Khushi didn't have the energy to listen to it.  She was physically and emotionally exhausted from all that had recently taken place in her life.  Propped up against the headboard of her bed, Khushi fell asleep.

*****

The Sheesh Mahal was seeing a flurry of activities. Lights were being set up, event managers paced up and down shouting directions into their headphones, caterers were busy setting up the food, art directors laying the stage and ramp. And Lavanya Kashyap was busy, painting her nails for the 20th time. This time the red apparently looked too dark.

"I don't like red anymore ASR", she chirped. "I think I am going to try teal for the party tonight. And then I might go crazy and try on a yin-yang nail art with a black and white dress on the day of the show".

ASR was busy barking instructions into his expensive Bose Bluetooth headpiece. He hardly heard what she said. Once upon a time, Lavanya Kashyap's inclusion of the words yin and yang into her sentence would have impressed ASR. But he had gone beyond that now. He had taken all that Lavanya had to offer and now felt nothing for her anymore.

"ASR, are you listening to me", Lavanya prodded, in a gentle almost timid tone.

"No", came the clipped answer before he got on another call to bark some more at another poor unsuspecting soul on the other end of the line.

Lavanya sighed and went back to painting her nails. She was used to this by now. ASR was never interested in what she did or wanted. All he was interested in was what she could give him. In her initial days as his live-in Business Developer, Lavanya felt as if she was the center of his attention. Now he barely gave her any. The signs were clear. ASR was done with her. She could bow out on her own with her dignity intact, or ASR would end it in his own brutal way. She chose the former.

Lavanya Kashyap might have been many things, but she was no fool. She knew her time would be up one day. People like ASR never fell in love. And she preferred to still keep her self-esteem intact, whatever was left of it after being the mistress of India's youngest and richest casanova for a year. While painting her nails, she slowed, curious as to who would fill her shoes. A part of her almost went out to the new unknown girl, but she soon snapped out of it.

Now that ASR was done with her, she had to look for a real job. After all, she had a mother to take care of. Better leave the country altogether, she mused, before dabbing some nail polish remover on a blob of cotton and working to remove all the color from her freshly painted nails. Red was last season. What color was it going to be it be this season?