The Runaway Bridegroom (10 page)

Sixteen

   Ranveer stared in fascination as the colour spread on Chanda’s cheeks. She looked so beautiful and so young! A spontaneous smile broke on Ranveer’s face as he continued to look at her.

  
He realised that he was behaving like a boor, not uttering a word. After all, he had brought her home to spend time with her; to get to know her better. And how could that happen if he hid himself behind the newspaper? But Ranveer had been quite disturbed by the sleepless night he had spent thinking about Chanda. He had got quite scared by the depth of attraction he felt for her.

  
Ranveer folded the paper that he had been reading and decided that some sort of an apology was due. His smile turned sheepish as he said, “I’m sorry I got carried away reading the paper. I very rarely bring anyone home and—,” he shrugged, letting his gesture speak for itself.

  
Chanda wondered at what he said. He rarely brought anyone to his home. How come he had invited her here then? It was on the tip of her tongue to ask, but innate shyness stopped her from uttering the words.

  
“And so, how do you spend your weekends? Do you guys go out a lot, catch the movies, go clubbing, or—?” asked Ranveer, genuinely interested.

   Ch
anda swallowed her coffee before saying, “We have a lot of projects that we tend to do in the weekends. I love watching Bollywood films, but none of my roommates are keen to go to the theatre and watch them. They prefer DVDs. I don’t enjoy watching films on the small screen. There’s nothing to beat watching a movie in 70mm, don’t you think?”

  
Ranveer nodded his dark head, caught by her enthusiasm. Ranveer enjoyed films too, but was not exactly a Bollywood buff. He caught an occasional one, maybe 3-4 times in a year. Due to Dave’s influence, Ranveer had gotten used to watching Hollywood films. To begin with, Dave ensured that there were subtitles available so that Ranveer could understand. Slowly, over time, Ranveer had acquired a taste for English films, as he began to understand the language and the many accents as well.

  
“I s’pose so. And who’re your favourites? Wait, let me see, Shah Rukh, Salman, Aamir, or,” his brows drew together as Ranveer tried to recall the names of actors other than the Khans. “Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham?” Ranveer’s right eyebrow went in query.

  
Chanda smiled as she said, “You’ve forgotten Hrithik Roshan. He’s quite a hunk and I think he’s a great actor.”

  
Ranveer decided then and there that he didn’t like Hrithik Roshan. He vaguely remembered reading news about some film where the actor had played a paraplegic. His lips curled in disgust, but he quickly managed to hide his expression.

  
“I think Deepika Padukone’s sexy,” he said, hoping to make Chanda jealous.

  
Chanda’s smile turned into a wide grin as she replied, “Oh yeah! I quite agree with you. Deepika’s absolutely hot.”

  
That shot in the dark hadn’t worked, much to Ranveer’s disappointment. “Do you play any sport?” he asked next.

  
‘What was this? Twenty questions?’ wondered Chanda as she looked at his handsome face. His velvety brown eyes were watching her as he waited for her answer. Chanda couldn’t believe her luck as she answered him. She pressed a surreptitious hand to her heart as if to calm its rapid beat.

  
“I love to play football.” She raised a hand in defense as he was about to interrupt. “Yeah, I know it’s basically a guys’ game. But that’s what I got to play with four brothers at home,” said Chanda.

  
“Oh, not cricket, the Indian favourite?” grinned Ranveer, enjoying the conversation. He wasn’t too fond of cricket either, another influence of the Americans who had brought him up.

  
Chanda shook her head, her black eyes shining with mischief. “Not cricket. It was war getting someone to bowl while each one waited for his turn at batting. Football was taken up as it’s best for warriors,” she winked at a startled Ranveer. “We could all fight dirty. And during the rains,” Chanda’s eyes turned inward as she recalled the games that she played with her brothers, “we used to play like crazy. Mamma gave up on us while Pappa used to egg us on.”

  
“And you, how’d you manage to play such a rough game with boys?” asked Ranveer, having missed out on his life with siblings. He could still remember playing with his elder brother Jeetendra. But then, Jeetendra had stopped playing from the day he got married. Ranveer recalled playing with Jaggi and other friends throughout the day. He so missed those days although he had deliberately left it all behind.

  
Chanda’s dark eyes glowed. “Oh, it’s such fun. Ram, Lakshman, Bharat and Shatrughan are my brothers. A couple of their friends also usually turn up for the game. My girlfriends thought it wasn’t very feminine and never joined us. They called me a ‘tomboy’, but,” she shrugged slender shoulders, “I wouldn’t have missed the fun for anything. Yeah, it was rough and I used to tumble very often. What’s with a few knee-scrapes? We had a ball. Even now, we play a few games every time I go home during the holidays,” she reminisced. Chanda stopped to take a breath before asking, “What about you? Do you play cricket or football?” she asked.

  
“I’ve played a lot of football and some cricket. Nowadays, it’s squash at the gym and I like table tennis. We have a table at the office, in the gym room. You do know that we’ve a gym, right?” he asked, quite proud of the facilities that he had set up at his office.

  
“Oh! I didn’t,” squealed Chanda in delight, quite surprised to hear that. “That’s simply awesome. And I’d love to play TT. Not that I know how. But I can always learn. I’m sure someone—”

  
Ranveer interrupted her in a hurry. “I can teach you,” he offered, not at all keen that she learn the game from someone else.

  
“Wow, thanks. That’ll be nice. You’re sure that you’ll find the time from your busy schedule?” she asked, a small frown puckering her eyebrows.

  
Chanda knew that Ranveer was a busy man. She had heard the other girls complaining that he never had the time to even give any of them a second look. They couldn’t believe that it was simply because he wasn’t interested. It was true that Ranveer worked hard and long. But he always found time for doing things that he liked. He did take adequate breaks and while on holidays he made it a point not to touch his laptop. In fact, he had an ordinary cell phone that he used for making calls and sending rare SMSs, despite being a techno-geek. He liked to keep his private and work lives separate. Actually, the first time he broke that rule was in bringing Chanda home, if one didn’t count accompanying Shikha to her friend’s wedding. That had been a mistake, Ranveer realised. He had been hoping to escape his attraction for Chanda by spending time with Shikha. He had been aware deep within that it was never going to work.

  
Ranveer nodded. “That’s not a problem. My work is very well organised and I can manage some time every day,” he smiled, looking forward to teaching Chanda TT. Right now, what he wanted most was to spend time with Chanda and get to know her more.

  
“So, do you want to go to a film today?” Ranveer asked. He hoped it would be interesting.

  
“Hey, that’d be lovely,” said Chanda as she took the newspaper from near him to check out what was showing.

  
“Well, there are no Hrithik Roshan releases,” teased Ranveer.

  
“No Deepika Padukone films either,” came the pat reply as Chanda smiled at Ranveer. “Shall we go to see
Kahaani
? Mamma saw it last week and simply loved it. I’ve been so wanting to go.”

  
“Okay,” said Ranveer. Before he could say anything else, Chanda said in a hurry, “Vidya Balan is the heroine and I think she’s the only main character. It’s a thriller and I’m sure you’ll like it.” She kept her fingers crossed, keen to watch the film.

  
Ranveer could see that the main attraction was the film itself and not him. Not having much of a choice in that, he hoped that spending more time with Chanda would make her find him more interesting.

  
What he was unaware of was that Chanda’s heart was ready to burst forth from her chest with the sense of anticipation that she was feeling. Twenty four hours back, she had never imagined that she would be spending so much time with Ranveer. Now, she was in his home, having made his breakfast; he had plans to teach her Table Tennis and over and above all that, they were both going to do something that she loved the most - watch a Bollywood film. She was having a difficult time controlling her excitement.

  
Ranveer got up from the breakfast table. “Okay, lemme organise the tickets on the internet. There’s a show at 12 noon. We should be able to catch that. Are you okay with that?” he asked.

  
Chanda turned towards him, her black eyes brilliant with happiness and nodded. “Absolutely!”

  
It was a glorious day and Chanda just knew that she was going to have the time of her life.

Seventeen

  
Chanda had thoroughly enjoyed the film. While she had been totally aware of the man sitting beside her, she had still been able to lose herself in the screenplay.

  
Ranveer had found the movie quite absorbing but his companion even more so. He found himself watching her from the corner of his eyes quite often. Chanda’s face was very expressive and he enjoyed that experience more than watching the film.

  
They got out of the theatre and reached the car. Ranveer waited for her to get in before seating himself behind the wheel. As he started the ignition, he asked, “Do you’ve any preferences for lunch? Oh, by the way, do you eat non-vegetarian food?”

  
Chanda shook her head vigorously. “No, just eggs. Do you?” she asked.

  
Ranveer nodded. He didn’t want to think about what his parents and grandparents would have to say about it. They would probably kill him. But then, living with Dave and Jane, he had got used to that quite easily.

  
“So, where shall we go for lunch? Hmm—let me see. You game for Italian cuisine? Or Chinese? Do tell me if you’d prefer Indian.” He gave her the choice.

  
“I love Italian food,” said Chanda, her eyes glowing. That would be an amazing treat indeed - having an Italian lunch with Ranveer. She had been counting the minutes as the film was coming to an end, believing that she would be saying ‘goodbye’ soon. It looked like they were going to spend some more time with each other.

  
“Let’s go to Nirula’s Potpourri at Connaught Place. Have you been there before? The food’s yummy.” Ranveer moved the car out of the parking lot as he said that.

  
Chanda shook her head as she replied, “Nope! I’ve been to very few places in Delhi for a meal.” She didn’t elaborate as she felt that Ranveer might not be interested in hearing more.

  
“Okay, I keep forgetting that you’re not from here. So, how long have you been here?”

  
“Almost three years, since I joined college.”

  
“And do you like it here?” he asked.

  
“Hmm—yes, the bit I have seen of it. I love the metro.” Chanda’s face became animated and Ranveer had a tough time concentrating on his driving. “It’s simply awesome. I’ve been doing some sightseeing whenever I get time. There’s so much of history attached to this place.”

  
The history of the place had always got to Ranveer too. In fact, he had so got used to Delhi that he felt that he could never live anywhere else now.