by Jyoti Singh
‘Do you want me to pick it up?’ Tanya offered.
‘Yes… no… you can’t tell him about the baby,’ she vacillated.
‘Should I or shouldn’t I? Make up your mind… and why would I tell him about the baby now…? You will have to do it. That’s why it’s important that you take his call.’ Tanya was getting impatient.
It stopped ringing. Niki let out an audible sigh of relief.
‘The next time he calls, I am picking it up,’ Tanya said, making the decision for Niki.
And she did. Niki heard only Tanya’s side of the conversation and she was surprised that she sounded so gracious. She had thought Tanya would have given Sid an earful but it seemed as though she too thought that the conversation was best had face to face.
‘He’s coming over,’ she said as she disconnected the phone.
‘What did he say?’ Niki was curious as to how Sid would have explained his absence.
‘Nothing much, other than he had to go to the US to complete some work and has just got back… He did sound desperate to talk to you, though,’ Tanya said.
Since it had been a long conversation and Tanya had spent a lot of time listening, Niki knew there was more to what Sid had said.
‘You’re not telling me everything, T…’ Niki complained.
‘No, I’m not… Go freshen up—he should be here in another half hour,’ she said, pulling Niki up from her chair and pushing her towards the stairs.
Niki made an extra effort to dress up but didn’t want it to show. She wore black cropped trousers with a matching vest and wrap. The smell of her perfume made her want to retch so she avoided her usual spritz. There was inexplicable excitement in her heart. She was actually looking forward to seeing Sid, despite the past weeks of anger and disappointment. She wanted to know what he had to say. Only then would she tell him about their baby. If he showed any signs of hesitation, Niki reserved the right not to tell him. She had said as much to Tanya. Surprisingly, Tanya had agreed.
She heard the timbre of his voice from below before she left her room. She took a few deep breaths and mustered up all the courage she had to walk down the stairs. Tanya had taken him to the terrace, so she found herself retracing her steps to join them.
There was a slight chill in the air now that winter was approaching. Niki pulled her wrap closed as she stepped on the terrace, her arms naturally folding across her chest. She was glad because the moment she saw Sid standing with Tanya on the far side, her heart somersaulted. She had not expected to feel this way. He sensed her and turned. Even from a distance, Niki could see a light leap in his eyes. He automatically stepped forward as if to take her in his arms, then checked himself and waited for her to come up to them.
‘Hello, Niki,’ he said politely, his voice warm.
She nodded her greeting.
‘I am sure you two have a lot of catching up to do…’ Tanya excused herself and left them.
Alone, neither said anything for a moment. Then both spoke together.
‘When did you…?’ Niki started to ask.
‘I just had to…’ Sid started.
They both stopped. It was awkward. Sid smiled and said, ‘You go first.’
‘When did you get back?’ Niki took the cue.
‘Early this morning,’ he replied and continued, ‘I couldn’t wait to see you.’
‘Why? You waited for the past… what is it… nine weeks?’ Niki didn’t hold any punches.
‘Niki…’ Sid began to remonstrate then changed his tone. ‘You told me to take the time to sort things out…’
‘You sure nine weeks were enough? Do you need more time?’ she asked sarcastically.
‘I understand your anger, Niki…’ he said placatingly.
‘Do you? You made no attempts to call or communicate… it was like you dropped off the face of the earth and now you just waltz in here… What do you expect?’ Her voice rose.
‘I didn’t come with any expectations, Niki… only an explanation. All I ask is that you hear me out.’ Sid put a tentative hand on her shoulder. Niki shook it off. She did not want her brain to be addled by his touch. It was hard enough to realise that she still loved him. More than ever.
‘Go ahead… I’m listening,’ she said in a flat voice. She sat down on a chair, arms folded and legs crossed. Sid noticed her body language.
‘Bear with me, Niki… I know those calls from Gauri did not look good and, like I told you, it was a lapse in judgement on my part. You have no idea how sorry I am,’ he began.
‘Tell me something I don’t know, Sid. We’ve been over this,’ she said, interrupting him.
Sid took a deep breath to keep his equilibrium, ‘Gauri manipulated my emotions before and I missed the signs this time. It was really stupid of me to get drawn into her game. I want you to know that it was at Anjuna that I spoke to her for the last time…’
‘So you’ve not spoken or been in touch with her since? What about those calls from her the next morning?’ Niki asked.
‘I didn’t say she hasn’t called—I haven’t spoken to her,’ Sid clarified.
‘Just like that?’ Niki’s tone was doubtful.
‘You didn’t take my calls today—what do you think?’ Sid volleyed back.
He’d made his point. Niki drank in his sincerity. It was taking a great deal of effort on her part not to just forgive him and let things go.
She couldn’t stop herself. ‘But that doesn’t explain your silence for these past weeks…’
‘That’s the hard part… When we were flying back from Goa, I wanted to reach out to you but you shut me out. Coming on the heels of Gauri, it was a bit much for me to handle. Then you walked away from the car and didn’t even look back at me… It hurt after all that we had shared. I’m not good with emotions, Niki, so I took the easy way out by going away. I thought it would help get a better perspective, but…’ Sid said honestly.
‘But?’ Niki prompted, her curiosity getting the better of her.
‘But all I could think about was you…’ he said.
‘You have a funny way of showing it.’ The snark was back.
‘I couldn’t make sense of how I felt, Niki… I was angry with you. I thought you were being irrational but I could also see why you were upset. If I were you, I would be too. None of my usual tactics worked. I tried distracting myself with coding but it was a non-starter. Something had happened when I saw you walking on that beach in Anjuna… and it took me a while to figure it out,’ he said.
‘What?’ she asked.
‘I had just got sudden clarity about Gauri. She was the past, gone and buried. Seeing you against the setting sun, walking in the waves, your joy palpable… I felt as if my heart had expanded to fill my chest. She’s with me, I thought. Of all the people in the world… she’s with me…’ His voice softened.
Niki felt hope rising but she quelled it—she needed the words that mattered to her; without them, this was just a story.
‘You believe we techies are all logic, no heart—it’s not true. We have heart. Only problem is, our logic rules our hearts. Emotions are not tidy, Niki, and I like things to be tidy, neatly wrapped in logic—all of this was too confusing for me.’ He sounded frustrated with himself.
‘I get that you needed time… I would understand a week or two…’ Niki felt herself softening.
‘What can I say? I guess I take a little longer than most,’ he said self-deprecatingly.
‘What is it that you figured out… in the nine weeks?’ Niki couldn’t get over the time he had taken. So much had happened in her life in the interim and she couldn’t really wrap her head around his use of the time. She hadn’t had the same luxury to wallow.
‘I love you, Niki… I think I fell in love the moment you fell into my lap in the elevator but was too blind to see,’ Sid said simply as he squatted next to her knee. He looked up at her, his eyes pleading, all warm, gooey chocolate.
Niki’s heart soared but she was not in a hurry to ease his disc
omfort; he had some more explaining to do. ‘And how did you come to that conclusion?’ she asked, keeping the happiness out of her voice.
‘I realised that this almost insane need I had to be with you had to have some reason… Why do you think I asked Samar to let you work with me?’ It was a rhetorical question. ‘I found myself doing things I have never done before… I have never got involved in any of my investments. I used every excuse in the book to see you…’ he continued.
Niki’s joy was growing with every passing moment. ‘So why not even call or message in all this time?’
‘You have no idea how many times I picked up the phone to call… or went through our text messages… but I didn’t want to make a bigger mess of things because I wasn’t clear about what I wanted to say or even how.’ He looked regretful. ‘It was only in these past two weeks that I finally realised that it didn’t matter what or how… I need you in my life. It has no meaning without you—you are my life, Niki.’
‘You are such a fool, Sid.’ Niki finally relented, as she reached down and cupped his face in her hands. ‘You can’t even imagine what you have put me through…’
‘I am truly and deeply sorry, Niki… Please forgive me,’ he said simply.
It was Niki’s undoing; she leaned and placed a soft kiss on his lips. It sparked a fire in her heart. He loved her. His life meant nothing without her… She was in heaven. They rose together and Sid gathered her in his arms. They embraced silently until Sid said, ‘I feel like I have come home.’ Niki felt the same.
‘You haven’t told me if…’ Sid said after a beat, his chin resting on the top of her head.
‘What do you think?’ Niki wanted to prolong his agony for just a little bit longer.
‘I’ve been such a fool. I really don’t know what to think any more.’ Sid was honest.
Niki moved her head to look into his eyes. ‘Remember the night in Kasol?’
‘How can I forget? It was the most beautiful night of my life,’ he replied.
‘It was a gift given in love, Sid… I realised that afternoon that I had fallen deeply and irrevocably in love with you… All the confusion just cleared and there it was, staring me in the face,’ she said tenderly. Sid sealed her confession with a soul-stirring kiss. It was like setting fire to tinder, the flames of passion rose to engulf them. It consumed the deprivation and angst of the past weeks.
It was Sid who broke the kiss, his heart pounding, his breath heavy. ‘Niki, Niki, Niki… I want you so much, But…’
‘I know…’ Niki said with a similar desperate urgency.
Sid sighed and said without ceremony, ‘Marry me, Niki.’
‘Wow! You really have a lot to learn, don’t you?’ She looked at him as if he’d grown two heads.
‘What do you mean?’ he asked innocently.
‘It’s not a declaration or an order, Sid—you have to ask…’ she chastised.
Sid freed himself from their embrace to drop on his knee and he asked with utmost formality, ‘Niki Vora—beautiful, amazing Niki—will you please do me the honour of marrying me?’
Niki leaned forward and rested her hands on his shoulders. ‘Much better… Yes, Siddharth Shetty, I will.’
They laughed together. It was their thing, after all. When Niki got her breath back she said, ‘I have something to ask you.’
He rose and dusted his knee. ‘Anything, sweetheart!’
Niki felt a surge of warmth at the term of endearment.
‘Do you want to be a father, Sid?’ she asked.
‘I want to make beautiful little babies with you; fatherhood is incidental,’ Sid replied with a warm glow in his eyes. ‘But, if it’s all right, I would like to wait for a bit… I want to enjoy some unfettered time with you first.’
Niki was not prepared for this answer. It was the one option she had not considered. Her mind spun with how she would break the news to Sid now. Then she stopped herself from jumping to any conclusions. She was pregnant. He needed to know. He had said he loved her. So she said simply, ‘How would seven or so months do for unfettered time?’
Sid looked befuddled. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘We made more than a memory in the sea that night, Sid,’ Niki clarified.
‘What do you mean?’ Sid asked before realisation dawned. His eyes widened as he gave a whoop of joy, lifted her and spun her around.
She laughed as she said, ‘Stop! Please stop… I’ll throw up.’ With Niki, it was not only possible but very likely.
Sid immediately put her down gently. ‘When did you find out?’
‘About two weeks ago… I have been in hell wondering how I was going to tell you… then karma worked its magic and here you are.’
‘I love karma. I love you.’ Sid was exuberantly happy.
‘I love you too… Dad.’ Niki shared his exuberance and smiled as only a woman who loved and was loved in return could.
They had made another memory. Sid sealed it with a heart-stopping kiss.
‘You knew.’ Niki looked accusingly at Tanya when they entered the living room to join her and Tushar.
Tanya’s eyes danced with mischief. ‘Of course I did—Sid told me.’
Niki turned on Sid. ‘What did you tell her?’
Sid put his hands up in surrender. ‘You Vora sisters! How do you survive with them around, Tushar?’
Tushar guffawed loudly and said, ‘You learn, my dear man, slowly and sometimes painfully.’
Laughter resounded in the room.
Niki wasn’t one to let go. ‘No deflection, Sid—answer my question.’
‘Okay, okay… I told her I had been an idiot. That there was only one woman for me – you. That I loved you and couldn’t live without you and asked if she was okay with my asking you to marry me,’ he admitted.
‘You knew all this and didn’t tell me?’ Niki wasn’t really upset but she let Tanya think she was. Tanya looked bewildered.
Niki went up to her sister and hugged her. ‘Thank you! It was so much better to hear it from Sid… I love you, T.’
‘Love you too, sis.’ Tanya smiled and hugged her back.
Niki looked around the room. It was filled with love. She felt like the luckiest woman alive. She put her hand on her belly and looked at Sid. His gaze was fixed on her. He mouthed ‘I love you’ silently and her heart swelled with happiness. What more could she ask for?
‘Do you think we will ever get to sleep again?’ Sid whispered, while rocking their three-month-old son in his arms.
They were sitting in Tanya’s living room. It was a Sunday. The air conditioning hummed in the background. It had been a hot July and their son, Shiv, named after her father, had been irritable for the past week.
‘I don’t think so,’ she whispered back.
‘Oh! Stop whining and give him to me,’ Tanya said stridently. It took some effort for her to rise off the armchair.
Sid and Niki shushed her together.
Tanya waddled over to Sid and put her arms out. ‘You both go and take a nap. I’ll take care of him.’
‘But…’ Niki hesitated.
‘March!’ Tanya ordered. Sid handed over their little bundle, careful to mind Tanya’s pregnant belly. Then he walked over to Niki, took her hand and led her up the stairs.
Niki flopped onto the bed in her room. ‘Tanya has no clue as to what she’s in for.’
Sid lay down beside her, pulling her towards him, and said, ‘The wonderful miracle of life.’
‘It was a miracle—Tanya had never expected to get pregnant again… I am so happy for her.’ Niki suppressed a yawn.
‘She’ll be a great mother, just like you are.’ Sid ran his hand soothingly over her shoulder.
‘Hmm… and Tushar an awesome father, like you,’ she returned the compliment.
Sid put a hand under her chin and tilted her face to him. He placed a soft kiss on her lips. Niki felt a tingle go up her spine and responded with a deepening of the kiss. Sid rolled her over and Niki found herself unde
r him.
‘How sleepy are you now?’ he asked with a glint in his eyes.
‘Not at all,’ she said, smiling.
ISBN-13: 9781460383728
Temptation in Paradise
Copyright © 2014 by Jyoti Singh
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