An unusual beginning...

"What do you want me to know? That you aren't really happily married? That, there are dried tears at the length of your synthetic smiles?? That it really isn't as it appears, on the surface???"

















I couldn't believe, he just said them!!













For the first time in three decades, someone had read my silence...





To be continued...

Thus began the long drive...

"I do."










Lazier streets. Liberal traffic. Subtle music. Good company. A long drive at hand.











I couldn't help feeling good.










"Avishek, I think I should tell you something. Wanted you to know it, but didn't really get the chance."






To be continued...

The meeting...

We did meet.











The lazy timekeeper screamed 2100 hours!











We headed for an early dinner.









"What next?"


"Airport!"


"I don't know the way!!"





To be continued...

The plan...

He was 23. I was 31. Enough said.













"What are you up to, this weekend?"


"Nothing much, frankly!"


"Long drive. What say?"


"I don't really have an issue with that!"


"Sounds good. You're a sport, Priyanka!"












Saturday morning. Plans said so!





To be continued...

The unseen blisters...

The blisters of my tainted marriage hadn't dried yet.














My marriage was a known thing but, the gradual advance to a divorce wasn't.











For Avishek, I was happily married.











Our conversations just grew lengthier across the days.




To be continued...

And it grew...

He looked, straight in the eyes, spoke with conviction, and had something magnetic about him.













He wasn't an everyday.











Hellos grew to conversations, advancing to engaging discussions.












Avishek, it seemed, was a bad habit.




To be continued...

The first glimpses...

Priyanka :




The first glimpses, the proper ones, of Avishek were, at the Diwali party.
















It was almost a month he had joined, and we were speaking for the first time. Our subjects were different. So, that wasn't really unexpected.
















For the first time in years, I felt like a friend, and not a colleague.





To be continued...