Circle of Trust

Chapter 11

Naina parked her car outside Tej’s apartment complex in one of the posh localities of Pune. Tej’s house was an hour away from her home and the long drive had calmed her frayed nerves.

Naina had wanted to bury herself in her study surrounded by books to forget the look on Varun’s face – mistrust. Better yet, she wished she could cry herself hoarse into the comfortable couch. But, the three years in therapy had taught her not to wallow in self pity and to take action away from the problem.

What better distraction than to tackle another issue that had been eating at her brains since yesterday? The mail Tej had forwarded with the request for revisions did not make sense. Was it just her or did Tej smell something fishy about it too.

She needed to know if she was being over sensitive about the whole thing. Writers did tend to have a chip on their shoulders about their work. Revision requests had a way of beating out the crazy in them.

Naina considered herself fairly open to suggestions but this was more of a demand to redo her entire story. Taking away a crucial plot point was akin to removing a card from a card pyramid – the entire structure would tumble. Here, they were asking her to remove not just one but a few important cards placed in key positions. Moreover, it was not ‘just another story’ she had written. She was emotionally invested in this one and was in no position to compromise.

She rang the doorbell a fifth time and looked at her watch. It was past 10; Tej should have been up by now. She fisted her hand to knock; when the door flew open.

“Get lost!” said a blur before slamming the door shut.

Naina blinked, her fist poised in mid air. Was that Tej? That giant mass of dirty brown curls could belong to no one else.

“Tej, open the bloody door. I swear I’ll break it down.” Naina banged on it.

“Go away,” came a muffled cry from inside.

Naina shook her head. She glanced at her foot and the door. Nope. It wouldn’t work.

“I’ll make the change. Your suggestion, remember?” she said and waited.

There was no sound from inside for an entire minute. 60 seconds. She counted. Then she heard footsteps and grinned.

The door opened to reveal a wrecked up version of Tej in black tank top and a red and white checkered night shorts. It was practically impossible to look at her face through the maze of wild curls hanging around her.

“You will?” Tej asked surprised almost hopefully and opened the door wider.

“Nope,” Naina said after stepping inside.

The door banged shut behind her.

“Cheat!” Tej mumbled, walked straight to her living room couch and fell on her stomach. She turned her head towards Naina and peeked through her curly fringes. “I told you to go away. I could’ve been totally doing someone right now.”

Naina chuckled looking around her. “They look done now,” she said holding up four empty beer bottles. “Party?”  She found an empty bag to put the bottles in.

Tej groaned and shut her eyes. “Never again,” she mumbled stuffing her face into the orange cushion.

The living room mirrored a tornado hit zone – it would take a week to sort it out. The place stank of alcohol and stale food. Half eaten pizzas were strewn around. Was it a teen party? She would puke if she didn’t let the stench out, so she drew the blinds and threw the French windows open.

“How come I wasn’t invited?” Naina asked, crossing her arms after drawing in large gulps of fresh air.

Tej glared at her. “Don’t even!”