Trouble Has a New Name (11 page)

‘Really?’ she whispered as the passion flared in his eyes. ‘And what would that be?’

She got her answer when his lips possessed hers. Every thought fled from her mind and she melted into the heaven of his arms under the twinkling canopy.

Milee’s Big Day dawned bright and clear. The fusion beach wedding was scheduled for the morning and the resort staff had been up well before daybreak to get everything ready. Neel surveyed the arrangements—the pictures that the wedding planner had shown him of the wedding
mandap
had come to life on the beach. The bright orchid blossoms on every table provided a splash of colour to the elegant white-and-gold upholstery all around. The
mandap
was decked with strings of ochre marigold. The rich red silk covering the canopy—to protect the bride and groom as well as the guests from the elements—fell to the plush gold-and-white carpeted platform in soft folds and was tied back with gold strings. The furnishings provided a regal touch—complete with intricate Rajasthani motifs. Flowers spilled abundantly from decorative terracotta urns placed near the
mandap.

Satisfied, Neel turned to Shiva and said, ‘It’s perfect. Well done, Shiva!’

Shiva brushed off the compliment with a shrug. ‘Let’s hope the weather holds up.’

Neel’s smile widened. ‘I’m sure you have a Plan B just in case something goes wrong. You know it doesn’t
usually rain this time of the year. So stop being such a worrywart, will you?’

‘Man proposes, the guy upstairs disposes.’ Shiva grinned back, pointing up to the sky. ‘Until the event is over, I don’t want to say anything that He might take offence to.’

Neel’s throaty laugh caused Shiva to look at him with surprise. This was the first time in years he had seen his young boss so relaxed. As far as he was concerned, Neel worked too hard and, despite his calm and confident manner, Shiva knew it hadn’t been easy for him.

‘Right. Got to check on Chris and see how he’s holding up. By the way, Vijay Tandon needs to get to Havelock to meet up with an important business client. So get somebody to fly him down, please,’ Neel instructed.

Shiva went off to make the arrangements for Tandon, the media mogul who had already made a couple of sorties in and around the islands. Neel was happy things were going smoothly. He was surprised at his own upbeat mood. Frankly, he hadn’t felt so
alive
in a long time. After years of holding back, keeping himself under rigid control, denying his emotions, something inside him had changed. Rayna had swept away all the barriers he had built around himself. She could turn those thick-lashed eyes on him and singe his soul. She made him only too conscious of the ache of loneliness in his heart. All these years, he had relished and guarded the barrenness in his soul. He had found solace in the emptiness. Not any more.

As he walked towards Chris’s villa, his eyes fell on Rayna—she looked stunning in her maid of honour gown that showed off her perfectly bronzed shoulders and slender neck. Her hair was pinned up in a soft rumpled
retro hairdo at the nape of her neck. Long earrings dangled at her lobes. She took his breath away and his libido was up and zooming as he imagined all the things that he would like to do to her right here and now. For a fleeting moment he wished he was the one tying the knot with Rayna today. The thought made him freeze in his tracks.

Rayna was lost in thought as she hurried down the pathway towards Milee’s villa. Neel and she had spent half the night out on the beach. They had talked about everything under the sun—no, under the stars!—and it was like nothing she’d ever shared with any other person. But now, in the clear light of day, she realised she had waded in too deep and was in danger of being swept away by a vortex of emotions.

She spotted Sid walking down the path towards her, dragging a stroller suitcase behind him. He looked like thunder.

‘Hi, Sid! Leaving already?’ she asked sarcastically.

‘Yes, I’ve had enough of this place,’ he said grumpily. ‘Not my style. Too isolated.’

‘Really? I thought it would have been perfect for you and the love of your life.’

Just for a fleeting moment he had the decency to look shamefaced. ‘Look, I meant to say this before, but…well…we had outgrown our relationship and it was best if—’

‘Stop.’ Rayna raised her hand. ‘Stop right there, Sid. I have no intention of discussing this with you, now or in the future.’

‘Oh, of course, now that you have a fiancé and a rock
on your finger… By the way, were you two-timing me all this while?’

‘Why should it matter to you? That’s what you like, don’t you? Easy come, easy go. So—me one day, Karisma the next! Two can play the same game, Sid. Or does that hurt your ego?’

Sid was gobsmacked and she felt a thrill of pleasure at having had her say. But he recovered soon enough. ‘As far as I remember, you were the one who didn’t want to commit to a relationship. And yet, days after our break-up, you have a ring on your finger?’

‘“It’s over”! That was what you said in your text message, right? No discussion. Only a declaration.’ She waved her ring in his face. ‘I don’t owe you any explanations either. So just get
over
it.’

The irony of the situation was not lost on her. Yet she was a bit sorry for Sid, who seemed totally unprepared for her attack. ‘Sid, I don’t think we were meant to be together. And there’s no point in doing a postmortem now.’

‘Wow, you seem to have matured overnight. Wonder if that’s what happens when you meet a super-rich guy? Does it become easier to make a commitment? I didn’t realise you were such a money-grabbing—’

‘Sid!’ Rayna clenched her fists as she controlled the urge to slap his smug face. ‘Instead of hurling insults at me, why don’t you reflect on your own behaviour? Don’t you get it? I didn’t trust you enough to commit to a relationship with you. That’s the bottom line. Now, if you’ll excuse me, Milee is waiting for me.’

T
HE BEACH WEDDING
added a special lustre to the ceremony, which was a fusion of Hindu and Western customs. It was a sensory feast of sorts. After exchanging fragrant floral garlands—
jaymalas
—Chris and Milee took the
saat pheras
or seven steps around the holy fire as a
pundit
chanted auspicious mantras. To round off the multicultural ceremony, the bride and groom exchanged rings and personal vows they had specially written for the occasion. The women swooned at Chris’s flair for poetry while Mi lee’s eyes shimmered with tears of joy and love. The bridesmaids, all attired in Western-style gowns of cream-coloured chiffon laced with a dash of gold and purple handcrafted Indian embroidery, burst into loud applause, screaming, ‘…And now you may kiss the bride.’ Chris acted upon the demand with great gusto, leading to hoots, shouts and ribald comments.

After the rituals came the feasting and raising of toasts to the young couple. As friends and family members shared bittersweet anecdotes, the smartly dressed waiters piled their plates with delicately spiced canapés and filled their glasses with champagne. The lunch spread featured a wide array of mouth-watering Indian
and European gastronomical delights to gladden the heart of the fussiest of gourmets.

Neel felt like a misfit at the celebrations. The occasion stirred nothing but deep restlessness in him. His eyes strayed towards Rayna—yet again. She was resplendent in her chiffon gown and jealousy stabbed him in the gut as she threw her head back and laughed at some innocuous comment made by the good-looking man seated next to her. Inhaling sharply, he pulled his gaze away.

She was an extremely attractive woman and it wasn’t surprising that he had been drawn to her from the moment he’d met her. None of the other women he had known intimately had messed with his feelings like she did. The metaphorical steel armour he wore to protect himself was enough to keep them at bay. Rayna had slipped past his defences. Behind the glamorous persona she presented there was a lost little girl who had still not conquered her insecurities. She was an intriguing mix of strength and vulnerability, sophistication and honesty. Last night, they had shared an intimacy that went beyond hot kisses and sensational sex. They had shared something that touched his soul. He wondered yet again what it would feel like if this feast was being held to celebrate his marriage to Rayna.

A jolt of shock ran through him. All these toasts about finding eternal love were definitely addling his brain. True, this was the closest he’d ever come to sharing his deepest secrets with anyone—but
this
was not love!
He didn’t do love!
The only time he had risked it, he had been scarred for ever.

That evening was still vivid in his memory as if it had happened yesterday. A few months after the wedding
fiasco, he had persuaded Meera to venture out of the house. They were finishing dinner at one of her favourite restaurants when she glanced at a couple who had just entered. He followed her gaze and froze in shock.

As soon as he saw them everything fell into place like the last missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Self-loathing and disgust roiled through him. He had been such a besotted fool he had missed all the signs. Pia and Manish. Her ‘cousin brother’ who would accompany her everywhere like a faithful bodyguard. Tonight, his arm was draped around her shoulder and, from their body language, one thing was clear as daylight: they were lovers. What kind of a sick woman would take her lover along for a date with another man? As for Manish—what sort of a guy could happily watch while his lover flirted with someone else?

He struggled to control the bitterness that rumbled through him like molten lava. He barely heard Meera’s anxious voice pleading, ‘Neel, let’s go.’

Ignoring her, he walked right up to them. ‘Hey!’

Pia’s guilt-ridden look was a dead giveaway. ‘H…hello, Neel.’

Manish dragged his arm away from Pia and avoided Neel’s piercing gaze.

Neel didn’t miss the
sindoor
in her hair and her armful of red and white bangles—symbols of a newly wed woman—and said, in a voice thick with sarcasm, ‘Congratulations. Who’s the lucky guy?’

Pia gulped nervously. ‘Uh…Manish and I got married last month.’

Neel relished her discomfiture. ‘Manish? Your
bhaiyya
? So it was all a big lie, huh?’

Meera tugged at Neel’s sleeve as some people began to shoot curious glances at them. But he couldn’t care less. He wanted answers from Pia and he wouldn’t budge until he got them.

‘What I did was wrong. I admit it,’ said Pia tearfully. ‘But I was too scared to tell my father about Manish. We don’t belong to the same community and you know how conservative my parents are. They would have been livid if I’d told them I wanted to marry Manish. I had decided to forget all about marrying him, but on the day of our wedding…I realised I couldn’t go through—’

A vice-like grip squeezed at his chest. ‘Why did you make up that cock and bull story then, about how you wouldn’t be able to live in the same house with my mother and Meera if we got married? Did you both preplan the entire drama?’

‘No, nothing was pre-planned. Please believe me,’ urged Pia. ‘I didn’t want to hurt you or your family. But I couldn’t think straight and I blurted out the first thing that came into my head.’

‘Why didn’t you talk to me and tell me the truth? Did you think I would force you to marry me, regardless of the fact that you loved another man?’

She looked away, trying to hide her tears. ‘I’m sorry.’

The decibel level in the restaurant had gone down a couple of notches as people strained to hear their conversation.

Meera, who had been watching the exchange, suddenly screamed, ‘You bloody bitch! You turned our lives into hell. I hope you and Manish rot in hell too.’ Tears streamed down her cheeks as she pushed away from them and hurried out.

Meera’s outburst had come as a shock but for the
first time Neel realised just how hard his little sister had taken Pia’s betrayal. He stared at the woman who he’d believed he loved and was at a loss for words. All emotion had drained out of him and the hollowness echoed in his voice. ‘I’m glad it worked out for you in the end.’

He turned away to leave as she said, ‘If it’s any consolation to you, neither Manish’s relatives nor mine have accepted our marriage.’

He wasn’t surprised her words left him cold but right now he needed to take care of his distraught sister. Neel raced out to find Meera walking away from the restaurant, unmindful of the people who jostled against her. She seemed to be in a daze. Neel’s heart went out to her—he knew he shouldn’t have let her witness the confrontation. But he had been thinking only of himself and it made him cringe. He hailed a cab and, after much cajoling, Meera finally got in. He tried to console her but she wouldn’t stop sobbing.

‘I am sorry, I am so sorry,
Bhaiyya
,’ she kept repeating over and over again. ‘I thought you had done something which made Pia back out of the marriage. I blamed you! I will never forgive myself!’

He and his mother tried for days to cheer her up but with each passing day Meera kept sinking into a morass of depression. As her condition deteriorated, Neel moved her into Dr Banerjee’s institution. The doctor warned them that her emotional turmoil, combined with her dysthymia symptoms, would make Meera’s treatment a painfully long one.

Damn!
He was supposed to have called Dr Banerjee yesterday and it had completely slipped his mind. He pulled out his phone—the battery was dead.
Bloody
hell!
He pushed back his chair and excused himself with a muttered apology.

Storming into his office, he headed straight for the landline on his desk and punched in Dr Banerjee’s mobile number. As the phone kept ringing for a while he heard his heart thud loudly in his ears. Guilt gnawed at his insides—how could he have forgotten about Meera? For the first time ever he’d failed to make his weekly call to the doctor. At long last the doctor’s deep Bengali-accented voice wafted over the line.

‘Hello, Doctor. I’m sorry I didn’t call yesterday. Is Meera all right?’

There was a brief pause—barely a couple of seconds—but Neel knew his worst fears had come true.

‘Neel, we tried to connect with you several times. But your phone was switched off.’

His heart beat hard, ready to burst out of his chest. ‘Doctor—what’s wrong? How is Meera?’

‘Not good, Neel. She is under heavy sedation. Yesterday she nearly…went over the edge.’ The slight hesitation in Dr Banerjee’s voice was indication enough of the gravity of the situation.

Neel leaned against the desk and gripped the phone savagely. Battling against his frustration, he resisted the urge to fling it at the wall as the doctor explained how Meera’s condition had taken a turn for the worse. She had been like a raging wild animal and it had taken several doses of strong sedatives before she had fallen into an exhausted sleep.

‘Neel, you have to get to Delhi as soon as possible.’

Trying to dislodge the lump in his throat, he croaked in a hoarse voice, ‘Yes, of course.’

Pain burnt a searing path in his gut. How had he
forgotten that when it came to women he simply just couldn’t get it right? He had let down his little sister again. In his fantasy-drenched obsession for Rayna, he’d forgotten all about Meera. God forbid, if anything happened to her, he would never be able to forgive himself.

As for Rayna…the truth was he had fallen hard for her. He had done exactly what he’d vowed never to do—fall in love. He cursed himself for discarding his own rules. He had let the idyllic setting, the romance of it all get to him. He had begun to fantasise about turning their fake engagement into a real one. Raking his fingers through his hair, he tried to sweep away the thoughts.
He didn’t do love!
And even if she was interested in something more real he was certain to mess it up. The irony was that his love for her would destroy any relationship that blossomed from it. Sooner or later he was bound to shatter her trust in him. She had had more than her share of loss and grief already…and he could not add to her burden.

After the sumptuous wedding feast the guests retired to their villas and Rayna was called in by Milee for a gossip session. Milee quizzed her about the ceremony, wanting to know every little detail of what she’d missed while she’d been busy chanting mantras and getting married. While she took her friend’s incessant ribbing about her fake engagement in her stride, Rayna couldn’t help but wonder what lay in store for her and Neel. Would it be a ‘great-knowing-you-have-a-wonderful-life’ goodbye or dared she hope they had a future together? The thought made her shiver at the implications. No, she definitely wasn’t considering a happily-ever-after
with him. He was far too dangerous for her peace of mind.

She hadn’t seen him since he had abruptly left during the feast—probably busy with arrangements for the reception the next day. But she was bound to find him at the beach, where the crew would be doing the final shoot. With the ceremonial part of the marriage all done, Julie had decided to use the free time to wrap up the last of the filming.

After a quick shower, she changed into a summery dress, strapped on a pair of sandals and was heading out when she came face-to-face with the man she couldn’t stop thinking about!

His hair was tousled and his jacket a bit askew—he didn’t look his usual calm and collected self. A vague undefined emotion made her heart lurch as she looked at him anxiously.

‘We need to talk,’ he announced. Striding towards the plush settee, he waited stiffly for her to be seated. He took a position near the large bay window looking out to the ocean.

‘Rayna, have you decided how you’re going to announce our break-up to your family and friends?’

‘Is that what you want to talk about?’ Stunned, she scanned his face for some indication of where this discussion was heading. Clearly, there was something else on his mind that he wasn’t telling her.

‘You need to think it through. I’m OK with whatever you decide. Since I’m leaving for Delhi tomorrow, perhaps you could just say—’

‘You won’t stay for the reception?’ She cut him short. ‘Why the sudden change of plan?’

‘Something has come up and I have to get to Delhi
ASAP. The airport at Port Blair shuts at 2:00 p.m. or else I would have left by now.’ He paced the room, raking his already tousled hair some more. ‘I suggest you wait for a few weeks before letting everyone know that we have called off the engagement. Otherwise you will face a lot more gossip.’

She stared at him, totally at a loss for words, even though a thousand thoughts flashed through her mind. She had known it would come to this but she wasn’t ready for it. Not yet.

He eased himself into the settee next to her, inches away from her, but it was almost as if they were on different planets.

‘It’s best that we say our goodbyes now.’

His words delivered a knockout blow to her solar plexus. And yet wasn’t this what she had wanted right from the beginning? A no-strings-attached liaison to tide her over the crisis with Sid? A face-saving solution to present to the Agra gang? Mission accomplished! So why did it feel so wrong? Why did she feel as if the rug had been pulled from under her? She couldn’t fault his logic, but whatever happened to all that passion? Where was the hot desire he had felt for her? All burnt out already? Where was the guy who had eased her fears and treated her like the most desirable woman in the whole universe? Was it all just a figment of her fevered imagination—a fantasy she had dreamed up one magical star-studded night? Well, the dream was finally over and reality had come crashing back with a vengeance. This was the practical, no-nonsense Neel reminding her that the deal was done.

She inhaled deeply. ‘You’re right. But tell me something
first. Didn’t last night mean anything to you at all?’

He sucked in his breath sharply and turned hungry eyes towards her. For a brief moment the haunted look in them made her heart lurch with hope. But it was gone in a flash. He caught her hand in his and stroked her palm with his thumb. ‘It meant the world to me, Rayna.’