The Wrong Number

Chapter - 18

‘                                                                                     The Honesty’  

“We will talk about it later, now I really want to sleep,” I replied ignoring what she said.

“Okay, I will call you at night,” she answered.

“No, I will call you on my own,” I replied at once while thinking of Neha with whom I used to talk at night.

“Why?” she asked in return.

“I might be busy with my books,” I lied. She didn’t speak for some time.

“Okay, I will wait for your call then,” she said at last. We said goodbye to each other and disconnected the call. I felt a bit relieved after disconnecting the call, which never happened in the case of Neha. I again lay down on the bed and closed my eyes, this time Sneha’s face didn’t come in front of my eyes and I fell asleep.

                            By the time I woke up, the night was almost reached. I checked the time on my phone it was showing at half-past seven p.m. I got up from the bed and went downstairs; mom was back too and was preparing dinner in the kitchen.

“Did Aniket come to do the study?” she asked as soon as she saw me.

“No,” I replied not mentioning that her sister came instead.

“Why?” she asked.

“How can I know mom? I waited and when he didn’t come I went to sleep,” I answered.

“That’s strange; Mrs. Verma was saying that he would definitely go. Anyways are you hungry? It would take a few minutes for dinner to get ready,” she said.

“That’s okay, I can wait,” I replied, sat on the sofa, and turned on the TV.

“Sid, if Aniket was not here why there were two cups of tea on the table?” Crap, I forgot to pick the cups, I thought, and cursed myself. I had to lie and had to do that quite fast.

“One of my college friends came for an assignment today, he stayed for some time so I made the tea,” I replied.

“Your friends usually don’t come here, how that happened today?” she asked while staying in the kitchen.

“Yeah that assignment was quite important and he had to submit that today only, it was kind of an emergency,” I made some stuff from my side.

“Okay, okay,” she replied and didn’t say anything further. I have to be extra cautious from now on, I thought. I watched the TV until the dinner got ready and then went to the kitchen to help mom serving it.

“When dad is coming back?” I asked while sitting on the dining chair.

“Maybe in one or two days, he still has some pending work to complete,” she replied.

“Okay,” I answered and started eating my dinner. After finishing it and placing the utensils back in the kitchen I came back into my room, mom too was a bit tired so she went to her room to sleep. I checked the time on my phone it was showing ten minutes past nine p.m. I was thinking to call Sneha as I didn’t want her to interrupt me during my conversation with Neha but I wasn’t sure what to talk to her about. So, I postponed my thought and decided to talk to Neha only, I was curious to tell her about the whole incident that took place with me. I wanted to take her suggestion too because I was quite in a puzzlement regarding Sneha. I lay down on the bed and started waiting for her call. After a few minutes, my phone started ringing, it wasn’t ten p.m. though. I picked the phone from my side and checked, it was Sneha calling. I sat on the bed, still looking at the ringing phone when it got disconnected. After a few seconds, it started ringing again, I again avoided picking it. I didn’t want to start my conversation with Sneha when there were less than thirty minutes left for Neha to call. The phone started ringing for the third time and I got sure that she wasn’t going to give up until I pick that damn phone. But I still didn’t pick it and then it started ringing again.

“If I’m not picking the call there might be some reason,” I said as soon as I picked the call.

“Are you busy?” she asked.

“Yes, I’m. I told you I might be busy with my study. I have to finish this assignment today,” I lied to avoid any talk with her.

“Okay, I’m sorry,” she replied and disconnected the call. I felt a bit bad to show such conduct but I hadn’t had any other option. I put the phone aside and again started waiting for Neha’s call. My phone rang again at exactly ten p.m.; it was Neha’s call this time.

“Hello,” I said.

“Hello Sid,” she spoke gently, damn I loved the tone of her voice.

“What did you mean by the text you sent me before going to sleep?” I wanted to talk about something else before reaching the topic of Sneha.

“Which text Sid,” she asked.

“That if I was sure my name was Siddharth but not Siddiq,” I replied.

“I asked that because of your appearance, you have some resemblance to him. Anyways I was just unwise to even say that, just ignore that text, and tell me what’s going on with you?” she answered.

“What is going on mean?” I asked in return. I felt like she knew about Sneha and she wanted me to tell her everything.

“I mean what you did the whole day, I’m just asking about your day silly,” she replied.

“Oh, I see,” I couldn’t say any more than this.

“Why are you stuttering Sid. Have I asked a wrong question?” she asked in perplexity.

“No, no it’s not like that. Actually, I wanted to tell you something about my day, about something weird that had happened with me,” I replied. I was ready to tell her everything.

“What is that?” she asked in curiosity. Then I told her about the whole afternoon, about Sneha, her visit, her attempts on me, her talk, and even her threat. She listened to everything in silence and didn’t say anything for some time even after I stopped speaking.

“What are you going to do about it?” she asked at last.

“I don’t know, I was thinking if you could give me any advice on it,” I replied.

“What can I say on this Sid, I mean it’s your life, it’s your decision whether to continue the talk with her or not,” she answered. I was amazed to see how different she was from Sneha. She understood that it was only me who could decide on that, unlike Sneha.

“What about her threat?” I asked.

“Do you think she can be serious about that, I don’t think so,” she answered. Even I wasn't serious about that intimidation but still, I thought it would be better to ask Neha.

“I too think she was just talking crazy nothing else. But I still am not sure whether to talk to her or not,” I still didn’t get the clarity on that.

“I still would say it’s your choice. Do you think you can tell her about me?” she asked. I didn’t answer for some time because I still was not sure about that.

“I don’t know. What do you say?” I asked her in return.

“I think you should if you want to continue your conversation with her. I think you should be candid with her, better sooner than later,” she replied. She is right, I must be honest with Sneha, I thought.

“So it means you don’t have any problem if I talk to Sneha,” I asked.

“Why would I be having any problem in it, it’s not like we are in any sort of relationship, and even if we were still I couldn’t stop you from talking to someone,” she replied. She was quite thoughtful. She knew what her limits were. I had no doubt how well she might know about being or growing in a relationship. She was the kind of a girl a guy must be wanted to have a bond with and I felt content that she came into my life even if she had given me a few sleepless nights.

“Okay, so then it is decided. I would let her know about you and then it would be up to her whether to talk to me or not, right?” I asked.

“Yes, right,” she replied. So that topic got over and I felt comforted that I discussed everything with Neha.

“When can I come to meet you?” I brought the conversation back on us.

“Whenever you want,” she replied. If only things could happen as I wished, I had certainly met her right at the moment.

“How long your vacations are?” I asked.

“It’s there till mid of January, how about you?” she said and asked in return.

“Same here, what if I come to meet you in the first week of January?” I questioned.

“That’s fine with me, whenever it suits you,” she replied. Then we talked more about her village, the things she could show me around and the places where we could visit. She knew every corner of her village like the way I knew about Chandigarh. We had had quite a cheerful conversation that night. She even giggled on a few of my remarks, which had happened for the first time. I too was enjoying that good-natured banter which she was showing. We were not talking on one particular topic instead, our conversation was revolving all around; we were no longer strangers to each other. We shared a few of our childhood moments which made both of us laugh. I could feel she too started liking me, that conversation was leading us somewhere, I could sense that.

“I like you, Sid,” she proved my feelings right by saying that.

“I too like you Neha,” I replied with a smile on my face. We both didn’t say anything else for some time; a pleasurable awkwardness appeared between us.

“I’m eager to meet you,” I said after a few minutes.

“I’m looking forward to the same,” she replied and we both went silent again. We both knew what we were feeling at that moment but were not able to reveal that. I didn’t know whether that was because of shyness or lack of courage but it was happening.

“What if you start liking Sneha too?” she asked. I suspected a bit of anxiety in her tone.

“I don’t think it would happen,” I replied.

“How you can be that sure?” she asked.

“Because I think she won’t talk to me after knowing that I speak with you. She is quite a narcissist I guess,” I replied with a chuckle.

“I think she really likes you, nothing else,” she said.

“Liking a person is one thing but showing such dominance, that can’t be acceptable. Can you tolerate such behavior by some guy whom you don’t even know except his name?” I asked.

“No, I won’t,” she replied and went silent. Even if I had given her assurance still I could feel that she was not much satisfied. I didn’t know why but I was kind of enjoying her worry. We talked about a few other things afterward but mostly it was about our meeting. We both were excited about it. We again talked until dawn and wished each other goodnight when we got fully exhausted. I stayed awake for a while after saying her goodnight, turning off the light, and lying on the bed. I was thinking of our meeting that was going to be held soon. It was almost the end of December and as we decided to meet in the first week of January so not many days were left in between. I was getting quite thrilled even by the thought of it. I didn’t know when I fell asleep while fantasizing about us together, in person.