Cold Love (6 page)

“What happened? What are you
looking for?” Riya inquires but Arjun doesn’t respond; while he is searching on
the table at the other end of the room, Riya notices a laptop next to the
pillow. She hides the laptop under the pillow and sits on the bed next to it.
Arjun turns around that very moment to sense the mischief.

“Where’s my laptop?” He
starts to walk to the bed from the other end of the room. Riya jumps on top of
the pillow. 

“No Arjun, please! No
work!... Please!”

Arjun is about to move Riya
by grabbing her from behind, but hesitates as he notices her soft smooth white
back, as her veil has dropped off on the bed. Her blouse reveals a beautiful
back through the crisscrossing threads. Arjun does grab her by her arms to move
her, but she clings forcefully on to the pillow and the laptop. After a playful
tussle on the bed as the two wrestle to get the laptop, Riya eventually emerges
with the laptop in her hand. Arjun is not amused and stretches his hand out, in
a gesture asking for his laptop. Riya stops her giggles and smiles eventually.

“OK, take it!”, she extends
the laptop from behind her back but the moment Arjun tries to hold it, she pulls
the laptop back. Riya laughs loudly and dodges him again as they try the same
routine. However, Arjun on this second instance grabs her by her wrist.

“OK…take it!  Uff! Crazy!”,
she twists her wrists with a large grin on her face, having won this round of
the battle. Riya is enjoying the pranks and mischief with Arjun. She suddenly
realizes that in the tussle on the bed, a few knots of her blouse at the back
have come off. She comes near a mirror to look at her back. In the meantime,
Arjun has already started the laptop, and is typing quickly.

“Arjun! Will you please tie
these for me?” Arjun ignores her and continues working. “One minute… Hello… I
am talking to you!” Riya gestures with her eyes to her back. Arjun eventually
walks over to her. Riya removes her long hair, revealing her bare white back.
Arjun gently ties the threads, nimble with his fingers, conscious not to touch
her smooth skin. Riya smiles to herself as she sees Arjun’s reflection in the
mirror, sensing his shyness in tying the threads on her seductively beautiful
back. He returns immediately to his laptop.

“When will you come
downstairs, Arjun? Everyone is waiting for you.”

Arjun doesn’t respond and
continues working on his laptop.

Riya responds with a deep
sigh, “Uff! You are just impossible!”

She pulls a chair by his
desk, puts her chin on her palms and blandly stares at Arjun, smiling gently.
Arjun turns his face to look at her, but ignores her, continuing his work. Riya
continues to stare at him for some time, until Arjun shuts down the laptop with
a big noise.

“All right! C’mon let’s go!”

“Yes! ...Should we go
downstairs please! So you are not angry with me anymore?”

Arjun couldn’t help but shake
his head. Riya smiles cheerfully and grabs his hand to lead him downstairs.

The events earlier in the day
had immensely perturbed Arjun. But Riya’s sweet playful ways had calmed him
down. Just like good old times, they had always fought with each other, but
always held hands subsequently to move on. Today was just another day in the
saga of their friendship.

After coming downstairs,
Arjun joins the festivities, forgetting all about the incident. Guess it was a
stray incident after all to be put behind for good.

The Picnic

It is early morning just two
days prior to the court hearing day. The houses of the Sinha and Saxena
families are buzzing with activity. Puja and Riya have organized a picnic to a
nearby resort. A few other family friends also plan to join them directly at
the venue.

After a couple of hours’
drive, they eventually reach the picturesque picnic spot. Long stretches of
green grass, rolling hills and a distant waterfall adorn the beautiful
landscape. The elders are seated on the grass and chairs, while kids have
already got up to their games, playing badminton and other ball games. Arjun,
his childhood friend Rakesh and a few others lie lazily on a grass mat enjoying
a cold beer.

“OK, listen everyone!” Puja
suddenly shouts out to get everyone’s attention, “We are now going to play the
next game - treasure hunt. All those who want to participate can you please
come over here?”

Everyone starts coming
closer. Arjun is still lying on the mat on the grass with his hat on his eyes
to cover the sun. Puja throws a ball that knocks his hat off as she gestures to
him to join in. Arjun nods and moves slowly to join the others.

“What are the rules and
what’s the treasure, Puja?” Rakesh asks inquisitively.

“OK. Listen everyone! There
are five routes to reach to the top of the waterfall up the hill. We will have
five teams and along each route there are clues. At the top of the waterfall
there is a treasure box that can be opened by the code from the clues.
Whichever team gets there first and opens the lock wins. Simple? The teams’
selection will be done by chits and we will group one guy and one girl in each
team. OK?” Everyone nods and chuckles eagerly to try the new game.

Riya, standing next to Puja,
gently whispers in her ears, “Puja, can you please get Arjun and me in the same
team?”

“Aha! Why is that?”

“Nothing… Just like that!” Riya
tries to act casual, though Puja mockingly raises her eyebrows. She obliges her
best friend though, gently putting a wrinkle along Riya and Arjun’s names
before entering all the chits into the lot to draw them out. No surprise that
after announcing the names of the teams, Arjun and Riya are paired together for
the treasure hunt game.

“Which route do we take? Look
we’ve to win! OK?” Riya is extremely excited.

“Listen. People come to a
picnic to relax!” Obviously Arjun is in no mood to participate seriously and
prefers just to take it easy on his day off.

“Arjun, please!” she
continues, “Look here’s our map! We will go through this jungle here up the
mountain, across the stream and finally up to the top of the waterfall. Yes?
Should we?” Arjun gestures for her to proceed first.

Both continue walking up the
trail on a lovely hiking route up the hill.

“So Arjun, tell me, what else
did you do in Switzerland and California?”

“Completed my studies!” Arjun
responds, rather dryly.

“No I mean besides studies?”

Arjun stops in his stride,
“You mean girlfriends?”

Riya is embarrassed, and
meekly responds, “No! I didn’t mean girlfriends!”

Arjun continues, almost
ignoring her faint response, “Yes, I had a very busy time ummm.. lemme count.
About a dozen; one for each month of the year!”

“Very funny! I meant what you
did in your spare time? Like on weekends…sports…or music?”

“In my spare time…. Hmmm… Of
course, plenty of sports… specially adventure sports like rock climbing, horse
riding, surfing and power-gliding.”

Riya is impressed; they
continue walking and chatting along the route to eventually reach a small
stream, having traversed through a pleasant trail up the forest.

“Wow. It’s so beautiful isn’t
it?”

Riya hops on to the river
bank and lowers her legs into the shallow stream, enjoying the clear blue
crystal water flowing over her legs. Arjun comes and joins her on one of the
rocks. They sit there for a moment, enjoying the beautiful scenery and the
chirping countryside noises. Riya bends low to feel the water through her
fingers. Suddenly, she splashes a few drops on to Arjun’s face.

“Hey!”, Arjun responds with a
stern look.

“Oh! Such an angry face at
just two drops! It’s just water Arjun; you won’t melt, OK!” She playfully
splashes him again. Arjun has a shocked look, and is not impressed. Teasingly,
Riya wades knee deep in the stream and splashes a huge spurt on to him again.

“Riya, what are you doing?
Stop this childishness… You’ll be really sorry if I start splashing you as
well!”

“Then who has stopped you?”
she laughs, tempting him, “First catch me if you can!” She spurts a large
splash of water onto Arjun again, sticks her tongue out in a mocking playful
gesture and wades away further into the water. Arjun decides to jump in and
follows her. Fun and frolic unfolds as Riya continues to splash Arjun until he
is completely drenched. Arjun holds back, conscious not to wet her clothes too
much. He is mostly dodging her continuous splashes, but finally decides to
catch on to her, suddenly lifts her from her waist and then into his arms.

“OK, now tell me, should I
drop you right in?”

“Arjun, no!”, Riya shrieks
out loudly.

Arjun lowers her gently down
as her hair touches the water. Riya screams, curls up and wraps herself around
Arjun’s neck.

“All your bravery has
vanished in a second, Riya!”

“But don’t wet my hair!” 
Riya had painstakingly spent a long time setting them straight today. Arjun is
least bothered and teasingly lowers her again close to the water. Much to his
surprise, Riya lets go off her hand around Arjun’s neck, as he stretches his
hand instinctively to further grab her from falling down into the water.

“All right! Go on drop me….
I’m not afraid of the water! I know you will never let me go!” Riya smiles,
challenging Arjun further. Arjun gently lowers her very slowly. Riya on the
contrary deliberately arches her back closer to the water. This leads Arjun to
retract, as he instead pulls her back still holding her inches above the water.
They stare into each other’s eyes for a moment, as if frozen in that beautiful
forest.

“What happened, mister?” Riya
giggles with a mischievous smile. She sprinkles a few drops on to his face from
her finger, as Arjun is staring at her, suddenly mesmerized by her beauty and
her playful loving pranks. Arjun decides to carry her back to the ground and
lowers her gently.

“Look! Defeated you, haven’t
I!” Riya smiles, raising her arms in the air victorious.

Arjun’s clothes are
completely drenched, thanks to Riya’s splashing. He takes off his wet t-shirt,
wrenches it to squeeze water out and puts it on a tree branch to dry.

Riya teasingly whistles at
Arjun “So this is what you did as a pastime abroad- getting your six packs!
Huh!” She splashes another few drops of water hitting Arjun’s perfectly shaped
muscular abs.

“Hey… Miss… Behave now will
you!” Both laugh as giggles and laughter continue in their extremely slow
progress up the hill. Not a surprise that Arjun and Riya were not the first to
reach the top of the waterfall. Guess Riya never wanted to be a winner at that
game. But she has of course been a winner today in her tryst to be closer to
Arjun, her long lost childhood friend.

All through the day, abuzz
with numerous activities and games, they get a wonderful opportunity to come
closer to each other. Dusk creeps on slowly over the beautiful landscape as the
group is now ready to get on to the cars to drive back home. Riya opens the
door of a car and finds Arjun on the back seat.

“Oh I’m sorry. Can I sit in
here too?”

“Yeah sure, come on in.” Arjun
slides further in to allow her to squeeze in.

Everyone is now on-board and
the cars get moving. The sun has almost set by now and it’s dark and misty on
the roads. The guys and girls are playing antakshari, a game of singing
Bollywood songs. Riya and the other girls are particularly enthusiastic, while
guys like Arjun have been dragged in as reluctant participants.

After a while, Shanti calls
out to everyone “Kids, can you please stop the game now and lower your voices.
Rohan baby is already asleep in my lap.”  

A gentle hustle bustle
continues, though hushed now, as it’s been a long day that has left everyone
extremely tired and exhausted. Arjun has already closed his eyes, relaxing as
the car continues to speed past a jungle. Riya has drifted asleep too and slips
in her sleep on to Arjun’s shoulder.

In the peace of the beautiful
evening drive through the jungle, Arjun thinks of his journey over the last few
months since returning to India. His mission is about to reach its pinnacle
soon. The world will see the true face of Pakistan as a terrorist state when
the court convenes in a couple of days’ time. He knows it has been tough for
his family. On a personal front, it has been an amazing journey that has led to
his re-acquaintance with his old friend, Riya. He opens his eyes to look at her
beautiful face on his shoulder. He notices a couple of strands of her hair
strewn carelessly over her face.

Arjun and Riya have always
shared a special friendship even as children, and that friendship has taken on
a new dimension with recent events. He can only thank Riya enough for all her
support towards his cause. She has been a true friend, standing by him at the
time of his most important mission. While Arjun is lost in his thoughts, Riya
in her sleep suddenly puts her legs up onto Arjun’s lap. Arjun feels
self-conscious and shuffles a bit, as he notices that Riya’s skirt has moved
all the way up, revealing her smooth legs. Arjun moves his hand to adjust the
skirt on Riya’s legs but clenches his fingers shy of touching them. He looks
around, to check that no one is looking; fortunately for him it’s quite dark
already and everyone around is nodding as well. Arjun looks back at her and
notices a tuft of her hair getting onto her eyes; this time he gently moves her
hair slowly conscious not to wake her up. Wow… she is looking so beautiful, he
tells himself.

The car races on with Arjun
and Riya in it together, up and close to each other.