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“It’s just a new route Ganesh.” Agastya smiled, the curve of his lips feeling strange and foreign to him. “You’ll adjust to it.”
And so would he. Adjust to his new reality. One in which it would seem he was madly in love with his own wife. Talk about surprises.
Thirty
Veda
“AGAIN!”
Veda bit back the groan as sweat poured down her face. She took her position, standing in Muzhumandi and waiting for the music to begin. The beautiful notes filled the hall and her male counterpart swung into his opening sequence. The music swelled and she launched into the intricate steps that heralded her entry.
They ran through the sequence four times more before Guruma finally called it a day. Veda’s legs quivered as she held the final position a minute longer before Guruma allowed her to release it. She staggered back, colliding with the wall behind her and gratefully sliding to the floor in relief.
Parash, one of the male leads in their performance joined her on the floor, swearing under his breath.
“What’s gotten under the old bat’s skin?” he murmured, pitching his voice low enough for only Veda to hear him.
She had, Veda thought. Guruma seemed to resent Veda’s marriage to Agastya, using every opportunity to needle and taunt her with it. Maybe, after this performance, it was time for Veda to move on. There were plenty of dance companies that would grab her if she approached them. That wasn’t vanity, it was simple confidence in the professional reputation she’d built over the years. If Guruma didn’t want her, someone else would.
But for now, she would dance her bloody legs off if her mentor asked it of her. She hadn’t built that damn professional reputation with nothing.
“Tomorrow morning at nine,” Guruma announced and the whole room sighed, the weight of it seeming to compress the very air surrounding them.
Veda pushed herself up to her aching feet and walked out of the room, not waiting to bitch and moan with the others. One week to showtime. And then she would leave. She refused to work in a space that didn’t respect her marriage and the man she was married to.
Her bodyguard fell in step beside her and she made it to the car before falling into the seat with a complete lack of the grace she was known for. They had almost reached home when she was hit by a pang of homesickness for her family and she leaned forward to instruct the driver to change directions.
When Veda walked into her maternal home, she found Ram Anna talking agitatedly into his phone, his black lawyer’s robes billowing as he paced the living room.
“Vedu.” His face brightened when he saw her hovering by the couch. He snapped at the person on the phone again in a torrent of Telugu before disconnecting abruptly and walking over to hug her.
“This is a pleasant surprise,” he said. “How did you escape Kodela jail?”
She laughed, smacking his arm. “Don’t be mean. They’re being very nice to me. Where’s everyone?”
“Amma is out shopping. Nanna is probably at work. Raashi is out with friends but she will be home soon.”
“When is she going back to the US?” she asked her brother, already missing Raashi with a fierceness that never lessened.
“In a week,” he replied, shrugging out of his robes and unbuttoning the top button of his pristine white shirt. He rolled up the sleeves and slapped his hands together. “What can I get you to drink?”
“Nothing,” she groaned. “I’m not drinking until I finish this performance. Anna, ask the helper to get me an epsom salt foot soak please.”
Ram winced as he caught sight of her abused feet and gestured to a helper and relayed Veda’s request.
“So, how goes it over in royalty world?”
She smirked. “You can’t let it go, can you?”
Ram raised a shoulder in a careless gesture. “Are you happy Chinna?” he asked, swirling the whiskey and ice in his glass before taking a sip.
Veda thought back to the roller coaster ride that the few weeks of her marriage had been. “I am,” she said cautiously. “But it has had some less than fun moments.”
Ram went rigid. “If he’s being a dick to you…”
“No. NO.” Veda hastened to calm her irate brother down. “He’s good to me.” When Ram only continued to glare at her furiously, she added, “He really is. Trust me.”
“I do trust you,” he told her. “But I also know that you give the people you love a really long rope. Don’t do that here, Veda. Ask for your share of happiness, your share of respect, and your share of love. Shorten the rope and demand your rights.”
