Chapter 84

The voice on the other end was sweet and cuddly. She guessed that must be her son and asked him what his name was. He asked who she was and who did she want to speak with and within minutes Sara was on the phone. They exchanged greetings and the chit chat continued until she had reached home. They spoke about when and where they were going to meet since Sara was in town, and Diya was surprised to hear that she had moved here just yesterday and was very eager to meet her.

After changing her cloths and when she got between the blankets, she remembered her school days. She remembered Sara, John, Maya, Arjun and being a teen and her sweet sixteen party and a whole lot. She and Sara were the best of friends; both were shrewd, and smart and competitive. She was more competitive than Sara, or anyone else. Sara was a cheer leader and Diya was in the cultural organizing committee. Cheerleading never appealed to her; she always felt that was degrading women; cheering at other people when others should be cheering at you, for your achievements; they both disagreed on that.

Starting from her teens, she and John were rivals, they were always on the opposite side, weather it was a debate, or academics, whatever it was they just had to outwit each other. The teachers tried teaming them up on science fares hoping that would help, but in vain. Sara had a crush on John but kept it as a secret for a couple of years until Diya accidentally found her scribbling his name secretly. After a fight, they didn’t speak to each other for a couple of days and in the end Sara agreed that Diya’s friendship was more important to her that her crush on John. Diya never told Sara that John didn’t feel the same way about her and she didn’t want to break her friend’s heart with the truth.

Chapter 83

She reached for the nutri-bar and took a byte but she could hardly take a couple of bytes. For some reason it didn’t taste good. She pulled over at a fast food restaurant, ordered a sandwich and walked over to her car and started eating it. By the time she had finished her sandwich, it had turned dark and the traffic had relatively subsided when she merged onto the highway. She noticed that her phone was blinking indicating she had a voice message.

She had five messages, two of them were from Pryag wondering why he hadn’t heard from her and requesting her to spend the long weekend with him and his family. The other two messages were official, calls she had placed regarding the shipment problems. She made a note in her mind that she had to follow up on these issues based on the information she had received as soon as she gets home, if not the first thing tomorrow.

She called Pryag and spoke with him and he seemed worried that he hadn’t heard from her in the past three days. She apologized that she was caught up in her work and was too busy and forgot about everything else. Chari cam on the line and asked her to spend time with them over the weekend. He didn’t have to say why, but she knew, of course he loved her as a daughter, he felt a strength especially when Pryag will be in surgery the following Monday, he definitely wanted her to be there. She immediately agreed and ended the conversation. She noticed she had one more message on her phone and that message excited her, something she had not expected. She was thrilled and immediately call the number back and her eyes were all lit up with enthusiasm.

Chapter 82

The weather was erratic, it was supposed to be winter and it felt like spring. Some leaves were still holding on to the branches and the grass still looked greener and kids were playing outside without their jackets and coats on. Some were even riding their bikes and she was busy in her work, not realizing what the time was. Her mind was busy thinking about the account sheets not tallying and the shipment that hadn’t arrived on time, all these had been keeping her occupied over the past few days.

Lisa pretended to cough to get her attention without disturbing her and it worked. She looked up and Lisa’s question didn’t register in her mind and she had a puzzled look. Understanding her look, working with her for the past five years, she had known not to repeat the obvious and sometimes when she is busy with something, she may catch up a bit later and she usually does. “Have you made any plans for the long weekend? Have a Good Evening”, and she left.

“Long Weekend”, she picked up the calendar in a hurry and looked at the date and realized that this week was the week of thanks giving and Pryag’s surgery was scheduled the following Monday. She looked at the time and it was almost six thirty and she was hungry. She hadn’t realized that earlier and had skipped lunch, actually forgotten lunch. She felt a piercing headache, walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed a glass of water and decided to leave for the day.