Truly, Madly, Deeply- a Devakshi story.

A few days later

The flight was almost full and ready to takeoff. Dev was already absorbed in his work on his laptop, hoping to utilise the two hour flying time to Mumbai. He could vaguely hear the air-hostesses welcoming the last, delayed passenger who was obviously running late. The aircraft doors were closed and the engines fired. His concentration was jolted when the air-hostess murmured, " Here Dr Bose, yours is the aisle seat." And he heard Sonakshi's husky tone, thanking her and apologizing for the delay. He turned back and in the diagonally opposite seat Sonakshi was belting herself in. At that very moment, she too saw him. They both said startled hellos and Sonakshi realized that the seat next to Dev was vacant.

"Oh no, she thought, this is going to be a difficult flight. "

He thought, "All right, this is going to get weird. She is going to act uncomfortable and will also make me equally uncomfortable. "

Wryly she thought, "here is my friendship challenge chance—let's see if I have the guts to do this. Sure I have. Cheers To friendship!" She turned to the air-hostess and asked to be put next to Dev, unbuckled her seat-belt, and moved to the seat next to him, even before, he could react. He wasn't expecting her to, so he took a bit of time to recover. Sona instructed herself " Good going Sona. Now keep it light, funny and friendly. No deep talk, no past talk, just let it flow as  if he is your collegemate you met after years."

Sona: " Hello. Off to Mumbai? I have a bit of crisis I need to deal with in the Mumbai clinic."

Dev:" Yeah, I have a few days of meetings."

Dev: " Will Soha be fine without you?"

Sona: " Yes she will be okay. She is used to my absence. Though I try to avoid it . Let us see. maybe I can fly back tonight and if not, then, definitely tomorrow. I keep calling her often. Maybe you can call her too."

Dev: " You know if you had told me you wouldn't be around I would have made sure to stay in Delhi. Maybe we can do this in the future. Just tell each other if we are planning to be out."

Sona: " Relax Dev. First of all, I came to know today that I have to fly out. And secondly, Soha is able to deal with my absences. It dosent traumatize her." And she smiled mischievously."And what would you do anyway? Try and set up camp at my home in my absence? Thank you but I would rather not come back to the third world war unleashed between you and Baba."

Dev laughed,"Oh is Mr Bose back? I was hoping Kolkata would tempt him for longer."

Sona laughed too,"Oh Now Delhi is too small for the both of you to co-exist in peace? He did give you a breather of three weeks. More than that he cannot survive without his wife." She didn't realise that Dev sobered up at her last sentence.

Dev thought "yeah, evidently, I could always be expected to survive without my wife...... But that's a little unfair, I cant blame him totally. I also didn't make any efforts."

Sona continued without realising why he was put off " This time, Dada and Ronita, his wife, have also accompanied him back so there will be more people at home."

She noticed he wasn't saying anything, but couldn't think why he suddenly looked put off.

Sona: " How long are you away for?"

Dev: " Er... maybe three days, maybe four. "

Sona: trying to keep it light-hearted " And where will you be staying.. Oh do you also have a "friend's " home in Bombay, like in Delhi?"