Part 2

It’s almost 8 in the evening now, and I’m starting to get anxious. I need to get home, but the rain just isn’t stopping. I keep checking the balcony, then the office kitchen, hoping the rain has finally slowed down. Arbaaz Sir is doing the same. Every now and then, he goes to the balcony to check if the rain has stopped. But for some reason, it feels like the sky has completely opened up that evening. The rain just won’t stop.

“Why isn’t this rain stopping?” I say.

A voice comes from the other side, “Because a ghost has caught the rain. That’s why it isn’t stopping.”

I laugh. Actually, we both laugh.

For a moment, everything feels completely normal.

Then he tells me that he’s hungry and is going to order pizza. He asks me if I want some too. Of course, I say yes. It’s already late, and I’m hungry too. He orders the pizza.

Then he asks, “Can you make tea?”

I laugh a little. “Of course. Why not?”

He goes to Sir’s cabin, brings two packets of green tea, and asks me to prepare it. I walk straight into the kitchen. He comes and stands near the entrance and then asks me if I’m comfortable.

I tell him yes. Of course I’m comfortable.

The last time I had actually felt uncomfortable around him was a few days ago, when the fire extinguisher was being installed at the office. There was no one else around at the time, and he had come over and started asking me personal questions. Even when I asked him to leave, he stayed. That time, I had asked Arbaaz Sir for help, and he had actually helped me.

So yes, I trusted him.

I make the green tea and bring it back. We sit and have our tea together, and by then, the pizza arrives. There is some electrical work going on on the floor above us, so people keep coming and going. Some of them seem to look in our direction too.

Arbaaz Sir notices it.

“Let’s go to Sir’s cabin. If someone sees us like this, they might misunderstand.”

I think about it for a moment. He has a point. You never really know what someone might think. So I agree.

We go into Sir’s cabin.

He asks me, “Would you mind if I play some music?”

I’m confused for a second. “Why would I mind? You can play it.”

He says something about how it would be better if the girl initiated the song.

Something inside me shifts.

For a second, I stop. But then I immediately try to calm myself down.

No, Aashruti. You’re getting him wrong.

He just wants to play a song. That’s all.

I tell myself not to think too much about it.

Then he says he’ll play the song, but the sound might go outside, so he’ll lock the door.

I don’t even remember whether I said yes or no. Maybe I just nodded. I swear, I don’t remember.

But something inside me is screaming, What is he doing?

I’m fighting with my own thoughts. Is what I’m thinking actually true? Am I misunderstanding him? Am I making this worse in my head than it actually is?

He comes back and asks me again to play the song.

This time, I say, “You play. It’s okay.”

He looks at me.

“What?”

That one word is enough.

Something inside me goes completely still.

And suddenly, I know.

I wasn’t imagining it.

I wasn’t misunderstanding him.

What I was feeling was real.