Ok, here. Enjoy some more. Posting the last part tomorrow. Then they talk alright? Geez you're making me feel guilty about the filler chap :P But I प्यार you, deeply cause you're just as crazy and madly in प्यार with those two as I am <3 and आप keep reading, which is rewarding enough.
Robert hung to his own threshold slightly open-mouthed for a good couple of seconds.
He eventually got over the initial dismay and shut the door tight wondering all the same though why one hearth madness had set herself into chasing him घर today. He must have pissed some ancient god…karma stuff…he didn’t know.
Hugh hurried on, whirling on him shortly “Shall we go to your studio, please?”
It sounded like he was the one to be blamed for making him wasting precious time now.
Robert rubbed his lips, starting to follow him “Sure….” he said, making a face “but how about…
‘Hi Hugh, what brings आप here?’ He padded along, swaying slightly. Hugh wasn’t even listening to him. ‘Hi Rob…’ he replied in mocking his intonation ‘I’ve really been having quite a rough दिन so far. Mind if I come in? Am, I interrupting something?’
He switched back to his own accent ‘Oh well, we are supposed to catch a for New York in a just few hours….but never mind… it’s ok…you’re a friend. Let yourself in…I can spare a couple of…..”
“Rob…who are आप talking to?”
His voice died.
Gabriella’s head had just poked round the रसोई, रसोईघर door. Her eyes darted around the corridor for a moment. She shot him one questioning look. A vaguely worried expression was on her face already.
He lifted his eyes up and opened his mouth to speak.
He gestured to….well, the empty air.
Hugh had already vanished, so the bare truth was that on balance he was currently looking like the village idiot, standing open-mouthed in the middle of his own hallway, which was clearly deserted, as in addition he talked to himself while pulling faces.
Wonderful.
Gabriella arched her brows.
“There’s…there’s Hugh here…” he stammered, “I…I was just…”
Hugh’s rough voice broke in “It’s me Gaby!!” he shouted. He must have heard them talking “Sorry, need to steal your husband for a moment!!!”
His voice had something faintly feverish in it, though. He talked hurriedly, जुराब, मोजा no pauses between the words and he sounded inexplicably out of breath, as if he had been running till a just a मिनट ago.
It was a picture definitely far from being reassuring.
Even for Gaby who knew any of what might be going on. Lesser than him.
Robert dared to look back at her. He kept his head titled a little bit downward, though “Yep…he…he needs me” he कहा scratching his temple “For…for a moment”.
Gabriella gave him one of her looks then: one of those what-now-looks. She used to veil with faint hint of menace but was also crafted in gilding them with a fake, patient smile curling up the corner of her lips, in the most reassuring manner.
Only after years of marriage all of this was far from being reassuring.
या encouraging, द्वारा all means.
He tried his best “There’s no need to…”
She cut him off “Robert….”
He flinched.
It was a bad sign when she started द्वारा using his full name.
“…what’s happening?” she asked.
She was spacing the words too; another red alarm signal.
Robert casted a quick glance inside the studio: Hugh was keeping himself busy with some relaxing saunter. Up and down their Persian, back and forth between the ends of the room. So restlessly that he must be consuming the fabric of both the parquet and the carpet. He also kept torturing his lips, pinching them alternatively: now the upper, then the bottom lip as he muttered to himself. Like a madman on the verge of a nervous wreck.
He certainly had never seen him so out of himself.
Robert turned to Gaby. Her stare was mendacious. He plunged his teeth inside his bottom lip, caving, “Ehm….we might…ehm…we might need to…waste a मिनट या two here….it won’t take long…” he said, making a grimace that was supposed to be reassuring as much as calculatingly not too much precise in esteeming the amount of time it might require “…it’s nothing really…”
Gaby kept her eyes on him for a moment then glanced towards the studio.
The grandfather clock tickled, rhythmically beating the time.
She dried up her hands down on her तहबंद, एप्रन and sighed out in the end.
“Alright….”
Robert relaxed.
“…then, would आप please stop playing at monologues…”
He gaped “I wasn’t….”
“…and try to solve your playmates’ life issues within sunset at least?”
“I’m not five…he’s not my…”
“Robert…”
He flinched.
“My parents are waiting for us…” she said.
And there was just something in her tone that made him know enough not to reply any further.
He took a silent deep, deep breath then and stepped in thenl a sarcastic smirk on his face, as he nodded knowingly. He put out a finger, “You know…you must have a gift Hugh, ‘cause in just a few मिनटों आप have successfully succeeded in pissing off me, my own wife….and I assume some else who-must-yet-not-be-named if I don’t want to set आप off immediately”
Hugh kept pacing.
“…just the exquisite irony of it is that one of those two is not pissed at आप but at ME now…who are of course a mere victim of this Mad-day of your, so thank you….” he trailed off, tauntingly.
Hugh shook his head. He continued to pace, “I’m telling आप Rob, she’s driving me crazy …I swear…she’s totally, unquestionably, without doubts driving me insane this time…”
Robert gaped. Had his words even reached his ears?
“She’s…I mean…she can’t do like this…”
As evidence pointed out…
No.
He just kept pacing. Frantically. Up and down. Back and forth.
And it was making him nauseous.
He just sighed “Are we talking Lisa?!”
Hugh shook his frantically at her name “You’ve no idea. I mean, I’ve called her dozens of times already…she’s…really…I mean, first she ask me to talk…then she disappears…” he turned his head to him. He had a rolling stare “not that I didn’t sort of disappeared on her as well, but that’s beside the point at the moment, don’t आप think?”
Robert furrowed “Ehm…I…”
Luckily he wasn’t really supposed to answer to that one.
“…then she agrees for lunch…” Hugh snapped “then she…I swear, she’s…” but he trailed off this time clearly struggling to hold his tongue.
Robert puffed. His brain was asking for mercy already. And he had been here five मिनटों at the utmost. Why he did never start from the very beginning so they could have a normal conversation made of simple relationships of cause and effect remained a mystery to him.
He put his hands on his hips “Shall we start from the beginning please?”
“What’s her game? I don’t get it…”
He got it instead. She was clearly trying to drive him nuts this time.
No doubts about it.
But, new mystery: why do they always have to drag him downward their spiral with them? Why?!
“Wait Hugh…just…”
But Hugh kept on talking regardless.
“…I told her I was sorry! What else should I do for God’s sake?”
Robert put his hand out for him to take it down a notch and lower his voice “Ok, Hugh…here. If आप would just sit down for a moment, please before I get a migraine….you’ll wake Elea…”
“…I mean, if she only picked up that DAMN phone already…” he spoke up exasperated as keeping on consuming the bristles of their carpet
This thing was truly pushing him out of his mind.
“Hugh, please…”
“…I would explain it to her!!! But she’s not giving me a chance!!” he added, gnashing his teeth.
“I understand that, but will you….”
“…she’s driving me nuts, I SWEAR!”
“Ok. Hugh, enough!” Robert cried out right there then, “YOU are driving me nuts, alright? Just sit the hell down and chill out….” Hugh looked up at him “And you’re giving me seasickness with this…” he made a face “…restless coming and going you’re doing so please sit down….”
For the first time then Robert scrutinized him.
His eyes lay there, wide open, staring into his. He hadn’t shaved and he was still wearing the same torn pair of he had this morning. He looked ruffled, messed up, as if he had been meticulously rucked up his clothes all over on purpose.
They locked eyes for a while.
Eventually Hugh let himself drop down on one of the armchairs, sinking into it. He was still fuming but all things considered it might helpful considering a less neurotic approach to the matter.
She was just driving him nuts, that was the problem…
Robert nodded, licking his lips “Alright then…that’s much better…. “
He brainstormed to figure out his अगला move. Hugh kept having this frustrated scowl dug on his face in fact and he looked ready to set off again anytime.
He’d better act quickly.
“Now…”
His stare fell on the liquor cabinet. He rubbed his hands together.
“Let’s make आप a drink first and…then tell me what happened, sounds good?”
Hugh took a long deep breath and just sagged on his chair.
He didn’t even know himself. He wished he knew. It was ALL he wanted to know. WHY, for God’s sake. Just one fucking telephone conversation was all he was asking for…
To know why, how…when…what the fuck was happening…
Robert reached out to some glasses “Try to start over from the beginning, please”
The beginning….
Right.
He didn’t even know himself this one either. Where should he start from? Which part was drawing him और out of himself right now? The dozens बिना उत्तर phone calls? The part she had pretended they were good, when in truth she was planning on walking out on him all along? या maybe the one he had showed up at her house behaving like a total idiot only to find out she wasn’t even there and he had no fucking idea where she was, या why, with whom or…
“Dry?” Robert asked.
Hugh made an even और sullen face.
There was no need she held it against him so much; not like this, anyway treating him like an annoying…
“Hugh?”
“No, I need some ice…” he said, sharply “…and make it double…”
“On its way…”
He heard the cubes crackling out of their bucket. They tinkled against the walls of the glasses and the noise clanged inside his head increasing this insufferable sense of annoyance he couldn’t shake off himself anymore.
“You know, Hugh…this is actually the time where आप start talking now….” Robert sneered.
He sagged some और on his सीट and clutch a cushion over his chest instead, ‘cause blood was going back mounting to his head once more. Perhaps instead he should start from the part where he had fell for it like a moron, fooling himself into believing she hadn’t been, in fact, just playing with him.
Robert turned his head back a little “So?”
He broached a bottle. The sound of the liquor pouring slowly into their glasses filled the room. and it was a low, maddening sound. Unnerving.
It just made him feel like mixing up even more.
Robert turn to him. Two full glasses of amber-brow liquid were clutch in his hands.
“You know, I don’t have all night here. And आप haven’t as well I bet. So will आप jusy cut the ‘I’m a desperate, desperate man crap’ and go to the point?”
He didn’t even look up at him,
“I don’t get it….” कहा Hugh.
He rolled his eyes “…maybe might be a good idea skipping the long-winded part where आप give me a long detailed account that includes everything आप think I should know about which I’m sure though it’s not strictly necessary for me to learn right now. My wife’s already rushing off my feet….”
“I don’t get it…” Hugh repeated though.
He handed him his glass, which he fetched alright, but blankly.
Ok, let’s pretend he hadn’t even spoken.
“I called her this morning…We talked…”
Robert plunged the nose into his glass, sniffing the musky and woodsy scent. He’d better enjoy this at least. Smelled delicious. Fifty years aged. A rarity. He wondered whether Hugh realized what he had just….
“I TOLD her I was sorry!!!”
Robert jumped, his nose almost bumbing against his own glass.
“I ASKED her whether she was mad!!! She कहा she wasn’t!!!”
He guzzled half glass in one gulp, then.
Robert blinked.
He clearly hadn’t. He couldn’t care less.
“I asked her twice, not once…TWICE...”
His glass moved in the air spilling out drops of the precious liquid.
Robert shook his head, horrified. “…she कहा she was OK!!!”
Every time he reported what were presumably one of her जवाब his voice went up a decibel.
He’d better numb himself out of it द्वारा savoring it as long as he could.
He could already hear his wife…and it wasn’t a lovely whisper what he heard.
He poured a glass down.
“I asked her out…”
And it went down the wrong way,
“You did what?!” he coughed, giving a small stroke to his chest.
Hugh shook his head. He brought one hand to his mouth rubbing the back on it “I asked her for lunch …it wasn’t a date…”
He lifted up his eyebrows, never looking at him “…long, LOOOONG story…”
Robert scoffed, lightly “I have no doubt about it….”
“No but the point is….” Hugh burst out once more. He quickly pushed himself upright and leaned आगे “that she AGREED.TO.COME” he stressed out as tapping with his index on the मेज का ऊपरी हिस्सा, तालिका के शीर्ष पर “….why did she agree for lunch, fooling me into expecting she was willing to talk about it …when she just wasn’t?!!!”
He asked throwing himself backwards once again.
Robert scoffed knowingly “Well, easy she…”
“WHY downplaying how she felt about it?!”
He was back sitting on the edge now, gesticulating, disbelieving, oblivious. And that was the moment when Robert began to lower his glass, slowly, as staring at him और carefully.
“What for? Making fun of me?! Watching me crawling around?! No tell me…where’s the fun of it? Am I missing something here?!”
Robert had lowered his glass completely द्वारा now. He pressed his lips into a tight sulk, ‘cause he just felt laughing and that wasn’t a nice thing to do दिया the current state of things, but he couldn’t possibly be so naïve, could he?
“Let me get this straight….” he coughed.
He put the glass down onto the तालिका, टेबल and joined his hand, drumming his fingers against each other for a moment.
“…Ok….” He started. He also had to rub his lips, tightly in the attempt to hold the corners of his mouth down “…you made something that pissed her off, yesterday, right?”
Hugh shoved his drink away. He let himself drop backwards for the umpteenth time “Yes….”
“And she was mad at आप this morning….”
Hugh crossed his arms over his face, covering it “Yes…I didn’t call her on time, this is the great, GREAT sin…”
Robert had to smile.
“Friendly advice. Do NOT EVER, EVER downplay the reasons they get pissed at you…” he told him lowering his tone ever so slightly “...you’ll fucking regret it” he admonished.
Hugh टैंगल्ड his arms tighter over his head, muttering something.
Robert stood up “Anyway, if understood correctly…” he कहा as starting to pace with a hand into his pocket “…we are here, ‘cause she DIDN’T in fact tell आप she WAS mad at you”
Hugh made some और mumbling.
“…or better…we are here because she happened to ACT like everything was a comfy बिस्तर of गुलाब when - as a matter of fact - she was just lying to you, unashamedly one could say…”
A sky-blue eye poked through the tangle of limbs, suddenly darting around “Yes, well…there had been signals she…I mean…Perhaps I could have…ok…maybe I shouldn’t have crowed over a victory so early but…” he sighed, disentangling “it’s just out of proportion…It’s…I mean….”
Robert turned to him, a hand covering his mouth. He couldn’t be real…
But he was. And he couldn’t almost keep a straight face for how impossibly unreal he was.
He joined his hands again, tapping his fingers in a very sherlockian manner now “Let’s…let’s just…”
His lips twitched lightly at the corners.
“…let’s sum this up a moment, shall we?”
Hugh swallowed hard, his head always nestled backwards into the cushion, eyes wide-opened to the ceiling.
Robert laughed quietly “…so… let’s just…”
He rubbed his lips.
“let’s just say….let’s say, the woman आप like….is impossibly mad at you, right?”
Hugh’s answered flatly “Yes…”
“…so now you’re asking me why THIS VERY WOMAN, rather than telling आप how she felt, straight out….possibly using harmless and…perhaps flying-passing words - as आप wish she had, not inconveniently of course…” he added making a condescending wide gesture with this hand.
Hugh frowned, mildly, opening his mouth to speak.
Robert put out one hand.
He closed it shut.
“…you’re asking me why THIS WOMAN decided, rather cruelly of course, to get back at you, slowly and painfully, instead. FIRST, द्वारा tricking आप into believing she had forgiven you, THEN….just then, द्वारा waiting for the right time to strike back…aren’t you?”
His voice ranked inevitably up a few notches, so Hugh lifted up his head. His body lay still lifelessly sprawled over the बंहदार कुरसी, कुर्सी but he was gazing at him, questioningly now.
Robert shook his head.
Hugh gaped “What?!”
He smiled.
“You sure you’ve really been married, right?”
“You sure?! All this stuff?! द्वारा the end of the day?”
Lisa stuffed some और clothes in one of the boxes, dragging it over the floor out of the way “Pretty much, yeah…” she said, as the effort change the sound of her voice.
Jess scratched his forehead “ALL…the boxes?” he asked, his accent coming out prominently.
A little smile curled up her lips, unconsciously; when they sounded even just slightly taken aback their intonation always came out so much stronger than usual.
The thought casted a shadow over her face.
She forced it back.
Again.
“Yes…” she answered “all of them…”
Jess opened his eyes wide “Didn’t know one single trailer could contain so many…” he grabbed one of the unidentified pieces of pottery lying at his side. They were already all wrapped up “…knick-knacks…” he said, turning it over in his hands.
Lisa shook her head. The sense of emptiness fade away for a moment “These knick-knacks, as you’re calling them – like the one you’re handling so incautiously right now - comes from Mexico FYI…”
Jess made an impressed face, nodding widely.
It made her smile. And it felt weird. ‘Cause some part of didn’t want to.
“And….why do आप keep them all here, once again?!” he asked arching one brow.
She laughed at his face this time, snatching it out of his hands “I just like having them around when I can’t be home…” she said, still giggling.
And it felt even weirder ‘cause the emptiness was always there.
Her phone lit up on the table, once again.
But it was just a reminder. और than ten missed called. She didn’t even know from whom anymore. But no one had been calling for several मिनटों already, so perhaps she truly had met her goal in the end.
He had stopped.
End of the story.
Far better like this.
….right?
Her दिल shrunk.
“Who’s that?” Jess asked casually as looking through a cylindrical piece of dark clay.
She shoved the phone away “No one….”
She forced a little smile on her lips “…you like it?”
Jess looked down at the object perplexed “Ehm….well, yeah….if only I understood what it’s meant for….” he said, playing the dummy while pretending he thought it might serve as a nose-piercing.
Lisa dropped her head down.
He made an oblivious face “What?!”
“It’s a chillum, आप idiot…” she कहा as bending down to put some sticker all around one of the boxes. She shook her head, still smiling “Hindu monks use it as a pipe…”
Jess pushed his torso up, all of a sudden “Shut up! A pipe?!”
She covered her mouth with the back of one hand, laughing silently.
Jess made an admiring face, looking at her wide-eyed “You little vegetarian pusher, where do आप keep the stuff, huh?”
He started to turn his head from one side to another frantically.
“…where’s your secret stash?!”
She started to laugh then. Really laugh. Like she hadn’t been all day. ‘Cause Jess made her good. He always had and he always did.
And suddenly she realized she would be ok, after all. And the awareness came कड़वा to her mouth like she couldn’t explain herself. ‘Cause one दिन - maybe not tomorrow, maybe not this week - she just would be eventually. It was just the way it went: life going द्वारा and sooner than she expected she would be back being ok. Just like that.
And it felt like having just tasted something incomprehensibly कड़वा indeed. She was leaving behind a consistent part of her life. Just like that.
And it was getting और and और real.
It hurt.
“Lisa…something’s wrong?” Jess asked.
She realized she was standing still then, crouched on her feet, द्वारा the box, holding a felt-tip still clutched, stare into space.
Feeling rocked.
“Sure…” she said.
She turned and smiled up, but it was like she couldn’t see Jess’s face in that moment.
Jess stood up. He took a few steps towards her “You always empty it before leaving? I mean, so much before leaving?!”
He lifted up one of the little statues lying on the table, almost weighting it.
Lisa pushed herself upright too “Well…I might have decided to…you know, put me ahead with some the work this year…”
Jess peered up at her, stealthy out of the corner of his eye.
“…I don’t feel comfortable leaving my stuff around, anyway” she added. She stared down at her hands and rubbed them against each other to shake up the dust of the box “….I know there are always people here, but it feels too private to me….”
Jess put the statue down back to its place, slowly “I see…”
Lisa stared at him “You know, Jess, I didn’t want to be a bother, really. If you’re tired…or just have plans, I can do it द्वारा myself…you can tell me….”
Jess lifted his brows and tightly pressed into a little smile. He put his hands over her shoulders, making her turn “Nonsense. I volunteered remember?” he said, squeezing her He started to walk her आगे and towards her bedroom “Besides...Hugh couldn’t help you, right?"
Lisa’s shoulders tensed under his hands. He sensed it "Yep he was busy..."
He कहा nothing, though.
“…hence, how could I have left such a lovely maiden alone….with all these boxes and no knight at her service?”
Lisa smiled.
“Hence?!” she said, turning her head to him ever so slightly.
Jess walked her past the threshold “It fitted the polished chatting….”
Lisa dropped her head down once again, her smile widening a little more. It couldn’t reach her eyes but it still felt good in a weird, sadly way.
“I’m a tough girl…” she told him “Can be द्वारा myself when I need to…”
She spread the doors of her wardrobe open.
She wished it still felt just as true as she hoped it to be.
She started folding the clothes, absentmindedly. This was the reason she was here for, after all right?
Sweep the board…
Jess leaned sideways on his shoulder, watching her, “You….sure you’re ok, right?”
She forced another cheerful expression on her face, turning “Yes…” she sighed “I’m just tired. That’s all”
Jess kept quiet and shoved his hands into his pockets
“I’ll be good when we’re done with all of this…” she added.
He just nodded, “Ok. I’ll be back later then…I’ll do a first round with the ones you’ve stuck closed already”
Lisa pressed her lips, nodding in turn, the lump in her throat tightening. She didn’t like the idea of remaining alone for too long, but she ought to be द्वारा herself when she needed to.
Everything would have been back being normal again, one day. Perfectly regular. Everything to its right place, where it belonged.
Sweep the board. A fresh start. A real one….
A scraping hushed sound.
Jess was padding along, warily. Lisa lifted up her brows, smiling up, a slightly puzzled expression on her face, “What…what are आप doing?!” she asked, as peering up at him.
But Jess कहा nothing this time; nor did he joke around making fun of her. He didn’t ask या demand for her to say nothing और than she already had.
He simply leaned over and kissed her, giving her a little gentle peck on her forehead, “You be good…” he whispered in her hair “…and call me when आप need my services again….I’ll keep myself available”.
His lisp rested against her skin, caringly for another second.
He squeezed her wrists. And then he was gone.
Lisa remained watching him as he lifted up the boxes द्वारा the door, one after one; as he carried them away and put them into his car.
She watched until he pulled the door closed behind his back.
But she couldn’t say thank to him.
Robert hung to his own threshold slightly open-mouthed for a good couple of seconds.
He eventually got over the initial dismay and shut the door tight wondering all the same though why one hearth madness had set herself into chasing him घर today. He must have pissed some ancient god…karma stuff…he didn’t know.
Hugh hurried on, whirling on him shortly “Shall we go to your studio, please?”
It sounded like he was the one to be blamed for making him wasting precious time now.
Robert rubbed his lips, starting to follow him “Sure….” he said, making a face “but how about…
‘Hi Hugh, what brings आप here?’ He padded along, swaying slightly. Hugh wasn’t even listening to him. ‘Hi Rob…’ he replied in mocking his intonation ‘I’ve really been having quite a rough दिन so far. Mind if I come in? Am, I interrupting something?’
He switched back to his own accent ‘Oh well, we are supposed to catch a for New York in a just few hours….but never mind… it’s ok…you’re a friend. Let yourself in…I can spare a couple of…..”
“Rob…who are आप talking to?”
His voice died.
Gabriella’s head had just poked round the रसोई, रसोईघर door. Her eyes darted around the corridor for a moment. She shot him one questioning look. A vaguely worried expression was on her face already.
He lifted his eyes up and opened his mouth to speak.
He gestured to….well, the empty air.
Hugh had already vanished, so the bare truth was that on balance he was currently looking like the village idiot, standing open-mouthed in the middle of his own hallway, which was clearly deserted, as in addition he talked to himself while pulling faces.
Wonderful.
Gabriella arched her brows.
“There’s…there’s Hugh here…” he stammered, “I…I was just…”
Hugh’s rough voice broke in “It’s me Gaby!!” he shouted. He must have heard them talking “Sorry, need to steal your husband for a moment!!!”
His voice had something faintly feverish in it, though. He talked hurriedly, जुराब, मोजा no pauses between the words and he sounded inexplicably out of breath, as if he had been running till a just a मिनट ago.
It was a picture definitely far from being reassuring.
Even for Gaby who knew any of what might be going on. Lesser than him.
Robert dared to look back at her. He kept his head titled a little bit downward, though “Yep…he…he needs me” he कहा scratching his temple “For…for a moment”.
Gabriella gave him one of her looks then: one of those what-now-looks. She used to veil with faint hint of menace but was also crafted in gilding them with a fake, patient smile curling up the corner of her lips, in the most reassuring manner.
Only after years of marriage all of this was far from being reassuring.
या encouraging, द्वारा all means.
He tried his best “There’s no need to…”
She cut him off “Robert….”
He flinched.
It was a bad sign when she started द्वारा using his full name.
“…what’s happening?” she asked.
She was spacing the words too; another red alarm signal.
Robert casted a quick glance inside the studio: Hugh was keeping himself busy with some relaxing saunter. Up and down their Persian, back and forth between the ends of the room. So restlessly that he must be consuming the fabric of both the parquet and the carpet. He also kept torturing his lips, pinching them alternatively: now the upper, then the bottom lip as he muttered to himself. Like a madman on the verge of a nervous wreck.
He certainly had never seen him so out of himself.
Robert turned to Gaby. Her stare was mendacious. He plunged his teeth inside his bottom lip, caving, “Ehm….we might…ehm…we might need to…waste a मिनट या two here….it won’t take long…” he said, making a grimace that was supposed to be reassuring as much as calculatingly not too much precise in esteeming the amount of time it might require “…it’s nothing really…”
Gaby kept her eyes on him for a moment then glanced towards the studio.
The grandfather clock tickled, rhythmically beating the time.
She dried up her hands down on her तहबंद, एप्रन and sighed out in the end.
“Alright….”
Robert relaxed.
“…then, would आप please stop playing at monologues…”
He gaped “I wasn’t….”
“…and try to solve your playmates’ life issues within sunset at least?”
“I’m not five…he’s not my…”
“Robert…”
He flinched.
“My parents are waiting for us…” she said.
And there was just something in her tone that made him know enough not to reply any further.
He took a silent deep, deep breath then and stepped in thenl a sarcastic smirk on his face, as he nodded knowingly. He put out a finger, “You know…you must have a gift Hugh, ‘cause in just a few मिनटों आप have successfully succeeded in pissing off me, my own wife….and I assume some else who-must-yet-not-be-named if I don’t want to set आप off immediately”
Hugh kept pacing.
“…just the exquisite irony of it is that one of those two is not pissed at आप but at ME now…who are of course a mere victim of this Mad-day of your, so thank you….” he trailed off, tauntingly.
Hugh shook his head. He continued to pace, “I’m telling आप Rob, she’s driving me crazy …I swear…she’s totally, unquestionably, without doubts driving me insane this time…”
Robert gaped. Had his words even reached his ears?
“She’s…I mean…she can’t do like this…”
As evidence pointed out…
No.
He just kept pacing. Frantically. Up and down. Back and forth.
And it was making him nauseous.
He just sighed “Are we talking Lisa?!”
Hugh shook his frantically at her name “You’ve no idea. I mean, I’ve called her dozens of times already…she’s…really…I mean, first she ask me to talk…then she disappears…” he turned his head to him. He had a rolling stare “not that I didn’t sort of disappeared on her as well, but that’s beside the point at the moment, don’t आप think?”
Robert furrowed “Ehm…I…”
Luckily he wasn’t really supposed to answer to that one.
“…then she agrees for lunch…” Hugh snapped “then she…I swear, she’s…” but he trailed off this time clearly struggling to hold his tongue.
Robert puffed. His brain was asking for mercy already. And he had been here five मिनटों at the utmost. Why he did never start from the very beginning so they could have a normal conversation made of simple relationships of cause and effect remained a mystery to him.
He put his hands on his hips “Shall we start from the beginning please?”
“What’s her game? I don’t get it…”
He got it instead. She was clearly trying to drive him nuts this time.
No doubts about it.
But, new mystery: why do they always have to drag him downward their spiral with them? Why?!
“Wait Hugh…just…”
But Hugh kept on talking regardless.
“…I told her I was sorry! What else should I do for God’s sake?”
Robert put his hand out for him to take it down a notch and lower his voice “Ok, Hugh…here. If आप would just sit down for a moment, please before I get a migraine….you’ll wake Elea…”
“…I mean, if she only picked up that DAMN phone already…” he spoke up exasperated as keeping on consuming the bristles of their carpet
This thing was truly pushing him out of his mind.
“Hugh, please…”
“…I would explain it to her!!! But she’s not giving me a chance!!” he added, gnashing his teeth.
“I understand that, but will you….”
“…she’s driving me nuts, I SWEAR!”
“Ok. Hugh, enough!” Robert cried out right there then, “YOU are driving me nuts, alright? Just sit the hell down and chill out….” Hugh looked up at him “And you’re giving me seasickness with this…” he made a face “…restless coming and going you’re doing so please sit down….”
For the first time then Robert scrutinized him.
His eyes lay there, wide open, staring into his. He hadn’t shaved and he was still wearing the same torn pair of he had this morning. He looked ruffled, messed up, as if he had been meticulously rucked up his clothes all over on purpose.
They locked eyes for a while.
Eventually Hugh let himself drop down on one of the armchairs, sinking into it. He was still fuming but all things considered it might helpful considering a less neurotic approach to the matter.
She was just driving him nuts, that was the problem…
Robert nodded, licking his lips “Alright then…that’s much better…. “
He brainstormed to figure out his अगला move. Hugh kept having this frustrated scowl dug on his face in fact and he looked ready to set off again anytime.
He’d better act quickly.
“Now…”
His stare fell on the liquor cabinet. He rubbed his hands together.
“Let’s make आप a drink first and…then tell me what happened, sounds good?”
Hugh took a long deep breath and just sagged on his chair.
He didn’t even know himself. He wished he knew. It was ALL he wanted to know. WHY, for God’s sake. Just one fucking telephone conversation was all he was asking for…
To know why, how…when…what the fuck was happening…
Robert reached out to some glasses “Try to start over from the beginning, please”
The beginning….
Right.
He didn’t even know himself this one either. Where should he start from? Which part was drawing him और out of himself right now? The dozens बिना उत्तर phone calls? The part she had pretended they were good, when in truth she was planning on walking out on him all along? या maybe the one he had showed up at her house behaving like a total idiot only to find out she wasn’t even there and he had no fucking idea where she was, या why, with whom or…
“Dry?” Robert asked.
Hugh made an even और sullen face.
There was no need she held it against him so much; not like this, anyway treating him like an annoying…
“Hugh?”
“No, I need some ice…” he said, sharply “…and make it double…”
“On its way…”
He heard the cubes crackling out of their bucket. They tinkled against the walls of the glasses and the noise clanged inside his head increasing this insufferable sense of annoyance he couldn’t shake off himself anymore.
“You know, Hugh…this is actually the time where आप start talking now….” Robert sneered.
He sagged some और on his सीट and clutch a cushion over his chest instead, ‘cause blood was going back mounting to his head once more. Perhaps instead he should start from the part where he had fell for it like a moron, fooling himself into believing she hadn’t been, in fact, just playing with him.
Robert turned his head back a little “So?”
He broached a bottle. The sound of the liquor pouring slowly into their glasses filled the room. and it was a low, maddening sound. Unnerving.
It just made him feel like mixing up even more.
Robert turn to him. Two full glasses of amber-brow liquid were clutch in his hands.
“You know, I don’t have all night here. And आप haven’t as well I bet. So will आप jusy cut the ‘I’m a desperate, desperate man crap’ and go to the point?”
He didn’t even look up at him,
“I don’t get it….” कहा Hugh.
He rolled his eyes “…maybe might be a good idea skipping the long-winded part where आप give me a long detailed account that includes everything आप think I should know about which I’m sure though it’s not strictly necessary for me to learn right now. My wife’s already rushing off my feet….”
“I don’t get it…” Hugh repeated though.
He handed him his glass, which he fetched alright, but blankly.
Ok, let’s pretend he hadn’t even spoken.
“I called her this morning…We talked…”
Robert plunged the nose into his glass, sniffing the musky and woodsy scent. He’d better enjoy this at least. Smelled delicious. Fifty years aged. A rarity. He wondered whether Hugh realized what he had just….
“I TOLD her I was sorry!!!”
Robert jumped, his nose almost bumbing against his own glass.
“I ASKED her whether she was mad!!! She कहा she wasn’t!!!”
He guzzled half glass in one gulp, then.
Robert blinked.
He clearly hadn’t. He couldn’t care less.
“I asked her twice, not once…TWICE...”
His glass moved in the air spilling out drops of the precious liquid.
Robert shook his head, horrified. “…she कहा she was OK!!!”
Every time he reported what were presumably one of her जवाब his voice went up a decibel.
He’d better numb himself out of it द्वारा savoring it as long as he could.
He could already hear his wife…and it wasn’t a lovely whisper what he heard.
He poured a glass down.
“I asked her out…”
And it went down the wrong way,
“You did what?!” he coughed, giving a small stroke to his chest.
Hugh shook his head. He brought one hand to his mouth rubbing the back on it “I asked her for lunch …it wasn’t a date…”
He lifted up his eyebrows, never looking at him “…long, LOOOONG story…”
Robert scoffed, lightly “I have no doubt about it….”
“No but the point is….” Hugh burst out once more. He quickly pushed himself upright and leaned आगे “that she AGREED.TO.COME” he stressed out as tapping with his index on the मेज का ऊपरी हिस्सा, तालिका के शीर्ष पर “….why did she agree for lunch, fooling me into expecting she was willing to talk about it …when she just wasn’t?!!!”
He asked throwing himself backwards once again.
Robert scoffed knowingly “Well, easy she…”
“WHY downplaying how she felt about it?!”
He was back sitting on the edge now, gesticulating, disbelieving, oblivious. And that was the moment when Robert began to lower his glass, slowly, as staring at him और carefully.
“What for? Making fun of me?! Watching me crawling around?! No tell me…where’s the fun of it? Am I missing something here?!”
Robert had lowered his glass completely द्वारा now. He pressed his lips into a tight sulk, ‘cause he just felt laughing and that wasn’t a nice thing to do दिया the current state of things, but he couldn’t possibly be so naïve, could he?
“Let me get this straight….” he coughed.
He put the glass down onto the तालिका, टेबल and joined his hand, drumming his fingers against each other for a moment.
“…Ok….” He started. He also had to rub his lips, tightly in the attempt to hold the corners of his mouth down “…you made something that pissed her off, yesterday, right?”
Hugh shoved his drink away. He let himself drop backwards for the umpteenth time “Yes….”
“And she was mad at आप this morning….”
Hugh crossed his arms over his face, covering it “Yes…I didn’t call her on time, this is the great, GREAT sin…”
Robert had to smile.
“Friendly advice. Do NOT EVER, EVER downplay the reasons they get pissed at you…” he told him lowering his tone ever so slightly “...you’ll fucking regret it” he admonished.
Hugh टैंगल्ड his arms tighter over his head, muttering something.
Robert stood up “Anyway, if understood correctly…” he कहा as starting to pace with a hand into his pocket “…we are here, ‘cause she DIDN’T in fact tell आप she WAS mad at you”
Hugh made some और mumbling.
“…or better…we are here because she happened to ACT like everything was a comfy बिस्तर of गुलाब when - as a matter of fact - she was just lying to you, unashamedly one could say…”
A sky-blue eye poked through the tangle of limbs, suddenly darting around “Yes, well…there had been signals she…I mean…Perhaps I could have…ok…maybe I shouldn’t have crowed over a victory so early but…” he sighed, disentangling “it’s just out of proportion…It’s…I mean….”
Robert turned to him, a hand covering his mouth. He couldn’t be real…
But he was. And he couldn’t almost keep a straight face for how impossibly unreal he was.
He joined his hands again, tapping his fingers in a very sherlockian manner now “Let’s…let’s just…”
His lips twitched lightly at the corners.
“…let’s sum this up a moment, shall we?”
Hugh swallowed hard, his head always nestled backwards into the cushion, eyes wide-opened to the ceiling.
Robert laughed quietly “…so… let’s just…”
He rubbed his lips.
“let’s just say….let’s say, the woman आप like….is impossibly mad at you, right?”
Hugh’s answered flatly “Yes…”
“…so now you’re asking me why THIS VERY WOMAN, rather than telling आप how she felt, straight out….possibly using harmless and…perhaps flying-passing words - as आप wish she had, not inconveniently of course…” he added making a condescending wide gesture with this hand.
Hugh frowned, mildly, opening his mouth to speak.
Robert put out one hand.
He closed it shut.
“…you’re asking me why THIS WOMAN decided, rather cruelly of course, to get back at you, slowly and painfully, instead. FIRST, द्वारा tricking आप into believing she had forgiven you, THEN….just then, द्वारा waiting for the right time to strike back…aren’t you?”
His voice ranked inevitably up a few notches, so Hugh lifted up his head. His body lay still lifelessly sprawled over the बंहदार कुरसी, कुर्सी but he was gazing at him, questioningly now.
Robert shook his head.
Hugh gaped “What?!”
He smiled.
“You sure you’ve really been married, right?”
“You sure?! All this stuff?! द्वारा the end of the day?”
Lisa stuffed some और clothes in one of the boxes, dragging it over the floor out of the way “Pretty much, yeah…” she said, as the effort change the sound of her voice.
Jess scratched his forehead “ALL…the boxes?” he asked, his accent coming out prominently.
A little smile curled up her lips, unconsciously; when they sounded even just slightly taken aback their intonation always came out so much stronger than usual.
The thought casted a shadow over her face.
She forced it back.
Again.
“Yes…” she answered “all of them…”
Jess opened his eyes wide “Didn’t know one single trailer could contain so many…” he grabbed one of the unidentified pieces of pottery lying at his side. They were already all wrapped up “…knick-knacks…” he said, turning it over in his hands.
Lisa shook her head. The sense of emptiness fade away for a moment “These knick-knacks, as you’re calling them – like the one you’re handling so incautiously right now - comes from Mexico FYI…”
Jess made an impressed face, nodding widely.
It made her smile. And it felt weird. ‘Cause some part of didn’t want to.
“And….why do आप keep them all here, once again?!” he asked arching one brow.
She laughed at his face this time, snatching it out of his hands “I just like having them around when I can’t be home…” she said, still giggling.
And it felt even weirder ‘cause the emptiness was always there.
Her phone lit up on the table, once again.
But it was just a reminder. और than ten missed called. She didn’t even know from whom anymore. But no one had been calling for several मिनटों already, so perhaps she truly had met her goal in the end.
He had stopped.
End of the story.
Far better like this.
….right?
Her दिल shrunk.
“Who’s that?” Jess asked casually as looking through a cylindrical piece of dark clay.
She shoved the phone away “No one….”
She forced a little smile on her lips “…you like it?”
Jess looked down at the object perplexed “Ehm….well, yeah….if only I understood what it’s meant for….” he said, playing the dummy while pretending he thought it might serve as a nose-piercing.
Lisa dropped her head down.
He made an oblivious face “What?!”
“It’s a chillum, आप idiot…” she कहा as bending down to put some sticker all around one of the boxes. She shook her head, still smiling “Hindu monks use it as a pipe…”
Jess pushed his torso up, all of a sudden “Shut up! A pipe?!”
She covered her mouth with the back of one hand, laughing silently.
Jess made an admiring face, looking at her wide-eyed “You little vegetarian pusher, where do आप keep the stuff, huh?”
He started to turn his head from one side to another frantically.
“…where’s your secret stash?!”
She started to laugh then. Really laugh. Like she hadn’t been all day. ‘Cause Jess made her good. He always had and he always did.
And suddenly she realized she would be ok, after all. And the awareness came कड़वा to her mouth like she couldn’t explain herself. ‘Cause one दिन - maybe not tomorrow, maybe not this week - she just would be eventually. It was just the way it went: life going द्वारा and sooner than she expected she would be back being ok. Just like that.
And it felt like having just tasted something incomprehensibly कड़वा indeed. She was leaving behind a consistent part of her life. Just like that.
And it was getting और and और real.
It hurt.
“Lisa…something’s wrong?” Jess asked.
She realized she was standing still then, crouched on her feet, द्वारा the box, holding a felt-tip still clutched, stare into space.
Feeling rocked.
“Sure…” she said.
She turned and smiled up, but it was like she couldn’t see Jess’s face in that moment.
Jess stood up. He took a few steps towards her “You always empty it before leaving? I mean, so much before leaving?!”
He lifted up one of the little statues lying on the table, almost weighting it.
Lisa pushed herself upright too “Well…I might have decided to…you know, put me ahead with some the work this year…”
Jess peered up at her, stealthy out of the corner of his eye.
“…I don’t feel comfortable leaving my stuff around, anyway” she added. She stared down at her hands and rubbed them against each other to shake up the dust of the box “….I know there are always people here, but it feels too private to me….”
Jess put the statue down back to its place, slowly “I see…”
Lisa stared at him “You know, Jess, I didn’t want to be a bother, really. If you’re tired…or just have plans, I can do it द्वारा myself…you can tell me….”
Jess lifted his brows and tightly pressed into a little smile. He put his hands over her shoulders, making her turn “Nonsense. I volunteered remember?” he said, squeezing her He started to walk her आगे and towards her bedroom “Besides...Hugh couldn’t help you, right?"
Lisa’s shoulders tensed under his hands. He sensed it "Yep he was busy..."
He कहा nothing, though.
“…hence, how could I have left such a lovely maiden alone….with all these boxes and no knight at her service?”
Lisa smiled.
“Hence?!” she said, turning her head to him ever so slightly.
Jess walked her past the threshold “It fitted the polished chatting….”
Lisa dropped her head down once again, her smile widening a little more. It couldn’t reach her eyes but it still felt good in a weird, sadly way.
“I’m a tough girl…” she told him “Can be द्वारा myself when I need to…”
She spread the doors of her wardrobe open.
She wished it still felt just as true as she hoped it to be.
She started folding the clothes, absentmindedly. This was the reason she was here for, after all right?
Sweep the board…
Jess leaned sideways on his shoulder, watching her, “You….sure you’re ok, right?”
She forced another cheerful expression on her face, turning “Yes…” she sighed “I’m just tired. That’s all”
Jess kept quiet and shoved his hands into his pockets
“I’ll be good when we’re done with all of this…” she added.
He just nodded, “Ok. I’ll be back later then…I’ll do a first round with the ones you’ve stuck closed already”
Lisa pressed her lips, nodding in turn, the lump in her throat tightening. She didn’t like the idea of remaining alone for too long, but she ought to be द्वारा herself when she needed to.
Everything would have been back being normal again, one day. Perfectly regular. Everything to its right place, where it belonged.
Sweep the board. A fresh start. A real one….
A scraping hushed sound.
Jess was padding along, warily. Lisa lifted up her brows, smiling up, a slightly puzzled expression on her face, “What…what are आप doing?!” she asked, as peering up at him.
But Jess कहा nothing this time; nor did he joke around making fun of her. He didn’t ask या demand for her to say nothing और than she already had.
He simply leaned over and kissed her, giving her a little gentle peck on her forehead, “You be good…” he whispered in her hair “…and call me when आप need my services again….I’ll keep myself available”.
His lisp rested against her skin, caringly for another second.
He squeezed her wrists. And then he was gone.
Lisa remained watching him as he lifted up the boxes द्वारा the door, one after one; as he carried them away and put them into his car.
She watched until he pulled the door closed behind his back.
But she couldn’t say thank to him.
