All Aboard!, page 15
She looked at him, intent on his plan of getting them to their destination, and smiled. His eyes blazed into molten chocolate in response and his grip on her hand tightened.
‘Are you sure you want to do this? Your . . .’ she paused delicately, ‘. . . friend and Naina might not like the idea of being left behind on the excursion bus while you come away with me on this . . .’ She waved her hand weakly to indicate the line of taxis waiting outside the rental agency for tourists to hire them.
‘It doesn’t matter, I’m doing what I want to do. I’m not keen on trudging through a tour of perfumeries with forty other people I have no interest in being with when I could be seeing a town I want to visit instead and spend time with you.’
Rhea gasped but he gave her no time to continue the conversation that gave her heart a flutter, and moved ahead to find them a taxi from amongst the line-up. She stood where she was, watching him have what seemed like a long and complicated discussion with a driver, involving a lot of shrugging and hand movements and rapid fire French. She was impressed that he spoke like a native, or at least well enough for a native to understand him. And voila! They found a driver who was willing to take them to St Paul de Vence and back and would throw in Antibes as well. All in good time!
‘Have you agreed to pay a king’s ransom for this?’ Rhea whispered into Kamal’s ear as they settled themselves in the taxi, acutely aware that sitting in the back seat of a taxi with someone so devastatingly handsome, and in such close proximity, was bad for her self-control.
‘Yes,’ he laughed back. ‘But it will be so worth it.’
‘I can’t even begin to thank you enough . . .’ she began, but he silenced her by putting a finger on her lips and taking her hand in his.
‘Don’t. Let’s just enjoy the rest of the day.’
Rhea felt a warm feeling wash all over her. But the very next minute her body tingled with the awareness of each of his movements. Had it been a good idea to get away, alone with him? It was just for a few hours, how dangerous could it be, she rationalized, and hadn’t she just been telling herself that she needed to be impetuous?
The taxi took them along the Mediterranean coast to the seaside town of Antibes, a resort destination for the rich and famous. They stopped briefly at the harbour to check out some of the world’s biggest, sleekest and most expensive yachts at Billionaires’ Quay. From there, they drove through the picturesque Provençal countryside with sunlight glinting hard off the green of the hills. The fortified village came upon them from the distance, high on a rocky spur in the countryside with its city wall ramparts standing out against the green of the hillside it was located on. The sight took her breath away.
‘It’s beautiful!’ she exclaimed as the driver announced they were at St Paul de Vence. They checked in at the tourist office and got themselves a guide to take them through the village. As they walked through the narrow, cobbled walkways and arches, they realized that much of the village, with its stone walls, ramparts and archways, had remained the same since it was built centuries ago. The only discordant note, if any, were the throngs of tourists. That, however, did not deter their spirits as they visited art galleries in the medieval section of the town, climbing steep stone steps and lunching on a cheese sampler, goat cheese salad, lasagna, French onion soup and some rose wine. Rhea was careful to keep from gulping down the wine this time and sipped slowly to avoid getting into yet another episode of All Men Are Bastards that she had already played out with Kamal a couple of times before.
‘So, all I know about you is that your fiancé ditched you,’ he said over lunch. ‘And that Soni ma’am is your aunt. Tell me more about yourself.’
‘There’s nothing to tell really. I did my post graduation in English honours, did a media course and landed a job in a publishing house as a copy editor which was hours upon hours of bone numbing copy checking work on technical manuscripts. I quit a few months before the wedding because I thought I would need time to set up my home and then get back to a regular job. In that period I took up some freelance assignments to keep body and soul together.’
She smiled at the memory of those days of worrying about not being able to pay the rent since she moved out of her parent’s on a whim after her father started grumbling about her late working hours.
‘And then, of course, my fiancé ran away to Bali with another woman on the honeymoon I was supposed to go on with him. So here I am, broke and heartbroken . . .’
‘Are you really heartbroken?’ he asked looking deep into her eyes, with an expression she could not fathom.
‘Why would you say that?’
‘Your body does not respond like that of one who is heartbroken,’ he replied without breaking eye contact. Her cheeks flamed again, and she looked down at her plate, embarrassed.
‘Let’s not go that way,’ she pleaded. ‘I told you we should not, this is crazy and . . .’
‘But whatever is crazy is always so worth it,’ he replied, taking her hand again and making slow circles on the inside of her wrist.
She pulled her hand away. ‘This isn’t going to work, Kamal,’ she said ruefully.
His face shuttered down as he replied, ‘You aren’t letting it work.’
She looked away and they ate the rest of their meal in a silence that was strained by words they did not dare to utter, words that would have shaken the fragile equilibrium of them being together in a place without sparring.
‘Tell me about your work,’ she ventured. He promptly launched into a detailed description of the start-up he founded with a couple of friends which began with online hotel reservations and had now ventured into food on demand through restaurant aggregation across the country. ‘So now, if you are driving through a place, you could check the nearest restaurant on your route, place your order and pick up the parcel as you drive through, or opt to have it delivered to you if you are taking the bypass route around the town. All the restaurants we feature on our app are vetted to our standards of hygiene and quality by our own restaurant reviewers who have personally been there.’
‘It seems like a fabulous idea,’ she said, feeling proud of the man she had fallen for.
After lunch, they did the Marc Chagall tour. The twenty years he lived there resulted in a series of vivid paintings which were all about love. ‘Which is why St Paul de Vence is a good place for lovers like you to visit,’ their gentle guide said with a twinkle in his eye.’ Kamal did not correct him and Rhea found herself rolling the thought in her head, over and over again. ‘Lovers like you.’ At the end they went to the Saint Paul de Vence cemetery. It was a simple white tomb, bare except for a blaze of wildflowers someone had placed on it.
‘Good grief, it’s almost 4.30 p.m.!’ Kamal suddenly said looking at his watch and they sauntered down towards where their taxi was parked.
‘We should make it back in time,’ Rhea said hopefully, ‘It took us less than an hour to reach, remember?’
As they sat in the taxi, the weather which had been so wonderful and bright all through the day, suddenly darkened into sulky and stormy angriness. A cutting wind began whipping through the road and with a wall of heavy rain the visibility dropped to barely a few feet ahead. The traffic dropped to a crawl as the road became a blur. All of a sudden, the car sputtered to a stop. The driver swore, begged her pardon for using intemperate language not suited for delicate ears, and then continued swearing merrily. He got out of the car, put the hood up and started tinkering around with the insides.
‘Won’t start,’ he informed them through the storm. ‘I’m calling for it to be towed to a garage. We have to find you alternate transportation.’
The hands on her wrist watch showed it was 5 p.m. She pulled out her phone to call Rina Maasi about the delay and saw a dozen missed calls from her. Some hand of God had put her phone into silent mode which is why she didn’t hear her phone ring. In addition to the missed calls, there was also a spate of increasingly annoyed messages from her aunt. Rhea was sure Rina Maasi had fire and smoke coming out of her nostrils.
She took a deep breath, dialled her aunt’s number. It was answered on the first ring.
‘Where have you been, Rhea?’ Rina Maasi yelled, making no attempt to mask either her anger or her relief. She was sure anyone standing in the immediately vicinity would have had their eardrums ruptured. ‘Why aren’t you here yet? We’re already on the ship!’
‘We’ve just left and have a slight problem with our taxi. But we should be there soon. Hold the boat for us,’ she said, trying to sound chipper than she felt.
‘Make it snappy, I’ll let them know you are on your way.’
Rhea looked at her watch. 5.15 p.m. Her heart sank. Her stomach went fluttery and her palms went cold and clammy.
‘Isn’t there any way he can get this fixed?’ Rhea asked Kamal, noticing his jaw getting tighter and grimmer and his discussion with Julien in the native tongue getting more and more clipped as he went out with him and fiddled a bit under the hood.
‘Looks like this taxi is not going to get going until we get a mechanic here or take it to a garage. And we just have a quarter of an hour.’
The dark shadows of the surrounding made the entire scene rather ominous. Rhea almost burst into tears thinking that this was the result of sashaying off with another woman’s man and defying the authority of her good aunt. Now she would be left in the French Riviera with not even a toothbrush or a change of undergarments and dangerously low funds on her already maxed out debit cards. A strangled half sob escaped her.
‘Are we going to make it back in time?’ She felt her face crumple with panic.
Kamal stared down at her, a perplexed smile creasing his face as he leaned back through the window of the taxi. ‘I didn’t think you would get scared so easily, Rhea. Don’t worry, I’m going to get us back to the ship, in time and safe and sound. But probably not dry.’ She laughed seeing his hair plastered to his head. No hair plugs here, she noted. His thin linen shirt was wet and clinging to his broad shoulders and chest and despite the situation they were in, Rhea reached out a tentative hand to touch it, feeling the searing heat of his body through the wet fabric. It was all the permission he needed. He pulled her to him and kissed her gently, not bothered that he was getting her soaked through her T-shirt. His hand reached out and cupped her breast, a thumb lazily caressing her nipple before pulling away and breaking the kiss abruptly, but gently, as she leaned into him for more.
‘Don’t stop,’ she whispered.
‘As much as I would like to continue, we need to find an alternate way back to the quay without getting left behind,’ he said softly, pulling away and opening the door. Taking her hand, he pulled her out of the dry interiors of the taxi to the furious pelting rain outside where the driver was doing his best to hail down every passing vehicle that roared past, unheeding.
Within two seconds of stepping out, Rhea was drenched to the bone and felt the beginning of a shivering chill.
‘Our only option is to take a lift or get an alternative taxi, which . . .’ he looked up and down the almost deserted road, ‘. . . seems highly unlikely.’
The shiver going through Rhea’s body was now more from fear than the chill. Kamal understood, and, drew her briefly towards him, giving her a brief, comforting hug. As they continued to wait in the rain, a pair of headlights closed in on them and stopped after their frantic waving. A quick conversation ensued between Kamal and the taxi driver of what turned out to be a van with some indeterminate cargo. Kamal paid the taxi driver and after some back slapping bonhomie, they clambered into the front of the tiny van. The driver, apparently lured by the promise of more than twice the amount of money he would normally make for a regular trip up and down the route, took on himself to drive at F1 lap speed to the pier. Rhea stuck to Kamal all along, his comforting arm around her.
Finally they reached, rattled, white and shaken, and scampered to the pier where they had a speed boat waiting to get them across to their ship. A frazzled crewmember who was holding their names on a placard breathed a sigh of relief. They made it just about five minutes before the 30 minutes extra allotted for late arrivals.
‘Just made it,’ Kamal said as he helped Rhea into the boat, the storm having strangely dissipated and the Cannes skies being once again clear and turning gloriously orange by a brilliant Mediterranean sunset. ‘By the skin of our teeth,’ she responded and they both smiled. He was gorgeous, she thought, and savoured the memory of the kiss in the taxi. The pounding rain, it seemed, was like a wall, keeping out the rest of the world. But now they had breached that wall and were back. Not that Rhea regretted it. The alternative of getting left behind was scary. They would have had to find a way to meet the ship at its next port of call. And more scarily, it would have involved spending more time alone with Kamal Shahani, risking her hormones to take over her sensibility.
On the boat, Kamal held her hand like it was the most natural thing on earth for him to do, and she letting it rest in his, like it was meant to be there, never mind the hazel eyed, alabaster skinned Sonia waiting for him on deck of the Aqua Princess.
‘And so, the day comes to an end,’ he said softly, looking into the distance where their liner awaited them.
‘Thank you,’ Rhea began, her voice strangely husky, wondering if their together moments were truly over. ‘You were very kind to take me to Saint Paul’s . . .’
Her voice caught some more on the jagged edge of some emotion that she couldn’t place her finger on. ‘God, I’m always either thanking you or apologizing to you. Why am I always misjudging you?’
He looked down at her, his expression tender, unfathomable. ‘I misjudged you too, Rhea. We have both misjudged each other. You aren’t what I thought you were . . . you are very different from most of the women I know.’
She looked out at the sea, hoping he wouldn’t be able to see the tears pricking her eyeballs. A lump began to form in her throat which would definitely impede further conversation, so she was thankful of the choppy waters that put a stop to it. Nevertheless, it made her regret the overindulgence at lunch.
As they hopped on to the mothership, Rina Maasi, who was waiting, perched precariously over the railing, hurtled her way to them and hugged Rhea.
‘I expected better from you, Kamal,’ Rina Maasi began in a tone which had been sharpened to perfection over years of sharp speaking to errant adolescents. ‘We were so worried, I’m sure my blood pressure has shot to the skies, what if both of you had been left behind?’
‘Soni ma’am, you didn’t need to worry, I would have ensured Rhea reached you safe and sound, no matter what.’
‘It’s a good thing Rhea’s father isn’t here, or he would have asked you about your intentions towards his daughter, and to declare them honourable.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous Rina Maasi. It was very kind of Kamal to volunteer to take me. And he made sure that I returned safely despite the storm and the broken-down taxi. You should be thankful.’
Rina Maasi fixed them both a stern eye. ‘I will. And I am grateful. But, my dear, his motive wasn’t all that altruistic as you make it out to be.’
Kamal grinned naughtily but from the corner of her eye Rhea saw Sonia stare at them. Her face was grim, her eyes cold.
THIRTEEN
The cruise was almost over. The next morning they would dock at port, stand in line, get their papers stamped, and disembark, travelling to Rome, the city they had arrived in, in what seemed now a lifetime ago, where a hotel awaited them and a couple of days later, a flight back to Delhi. Rhea’s eyes opened with the rays of the morning sun streaming in through the porthole. She was surprised to see Rhea Maasi already up and sipping tea.
‘Good morning, Rhea,’ she said as she noticed movement beneath the covers and a still sleepy Rhea sitting up and rubbing her eyes.
‘Good morning, Rina Maasi,’ she mumbled before fleeing into relative privacy. Spending weeks with another person in a confined space was restricting, she realized, especially after getting used to her own little studio apartment.
She splashed some water on her face, brushed her teeth and looked at her reflection in the mirror. Why did Kamal kiss her the way he did? It was like a jigsaw puzzle but the trip to Saint Paul de Vence, the kiss, and all the tenderness didn’t quite fit with the piece about the ex-girlfriend who had joined them midway. She examined herself and saw what she saw every day—an average looking face, a tall, lean torso, lesser cleavage than what she would have liked, and a stubborn jaw. What a stranger would have seen was a tall, leggy, lissome girl with golden skin, beautiful hair, and with the keen gaze of someone with more questions than she had the answers to. But having been brought up by parents who didn’t believe in paying compliments, Rhea found it difficult to see herself as beautiful. People around her assumed her introversion to be snobbishness, and refrained from complimenting her.
Breakfast was a dreary affair, with a sudden pall of gloom seeming to have descended on the ship. Email addresses, phone numbers and other contact details were exchanged by those who wanted to stay in touch when back in their native lands.
Kamal was not to be seen anywhere and Rhea did not dare call him on his cabin phone. ‘If he wants me, he knows where I am,’ she told herself. It was unseemly to chase a man, she thought, and yet she wandered around the decks in hope of bumping into him. Still not spotting him anywhere, she wondered if he might have called her at the cabin. They still hadn’t exchanged phone numbers. He knew her cabin number and could contact her if he wanted to. In a bid to distract herself, she pulled out her phone and went through the photographs they clicked during their trip to St Paul de Vence. She stopped at the one a store owner took of them together. The way they stood exuded a comfort which belied the fact that they hardly knew each other. We look like we belong together, Rhea thought. He was smiling and open faced with his arm on her shoulder while she had her head tilted into his chest.
