18-07-2025, 07:19 PM
Monday Late Morning – Neetu’s Thoughts
By 10:45 AM, the morning had returned to its usual routine in Flat 401.
Vamsi was already out on a grocery run, and Sirisha was in her room, supposedly attending a class online but more likely scrolling through memes or planning her next reel.
Neetu sat at the dining table, flipping through the newspaper, the rustle of pages echoing in the silence.
But she wasn’t really reading.
Her thoughts drifted far too easily.
They kept looping back… to last night.
To that wicked little chat window she’d closed and reopened a dozen times.
She had deleted all the messages like she said she would.
She always did.
But the words hadn’t disappeared from her memory.
And neither had the tone.
Or the way he looked at her during dinner.
Not like someone stealing a glance, but someone memorizing her.
That rattled something deep inside.
It had been years since someone made her feel… truly seen.
Not as Vamsi’s wife. Not as the responsible vodina. Not as someone who cooks, serves, smiles, and holds polite conversations.
Ravi hadn’t looked at her like she belonged in a box.
He looked at her like she was the box, the whole treasure.
“What else did you notice about me?”
She smiled now, involuntarily, her fingers playing with the edge of the newspaper.
Her gagra from a few nights back still hung folded neatly on the side table in the bedroom.
She’d caught herself staring at it twice already.
Neetu shook her head and stood up. She didn’t want this.
But a part of her did.
And that conflict simmered under her skin like the quiet hiss of a pressure cooker, waiting.
Waiting for just one more word, one more message, one more moment from Ravi to justify her slipping.
A soft ding from her phone snapped her attention.
It wasn’t Ravi.
Just a delivery notification.
But her heart beat a little faster anyway.
She tucked the paper aside, glanced at the hallway mirror as she passed it, and adjusted her hair.
She didn’t need to. But she did.
He called me a queen.
“Only because you looked like one,” she whispered under her breath, barely audible.
She didn’t notice her own smile in the mirror.
But it was there.
-- oOo --
By 10:45 AM, the morning had returned to its usual routine in Flat 401.
Vamsi was already out on a grocery run, and Sirisha was in her room, supposedly attending a class online but more likely scrolling through memes or planning her next reel.
Neetu sat at the dining table, flipping through the newspaper, the rustle of pages echoing in the silence.
But she wasn’t really reading.
Her thoughts drifted far too easily.
They kept looping back… to last night.
To that wicked little chat window she’d closed and reopened a dozen times.
She had deleted all the messages like she said she would.
She always did.
But the words hadn’t disappeared from her memory.
And neither had the tone.
Or the way he looked at her during dinner.
Not like someone stealing a glance, but someone memorizing her.
That rattled something deep inside.
It had been years since someone made her feel… truly seen.
Not as Vamsi’s wife. Not as the responsible vodina. Not as someone who cooks, serves, smiles, and holds polite conversations.
Ravi hadn’t looked at her like she belonged in a box.
He looked at her like she was the box, the whole treasure.
“What else did you notice about me?”
She smiled now, involuntarily, her fingers playing with the edge of the newspaper.
Her gagra from a few nights back still hung folded neatly on the side table in the bedroom.
She’d caught herself staring at it twice already.
Neetu shook her head and stood up. She didn’t want this.
But a part of her did.
And that conflict simmered under her skin like the quiet hiss of a pressure cooker, waiting.
Waiting for just one more word, one more message, one more moment from Ravi to justify her slipping.
A soft ding from her phone snapped her attention.
It wasn’t Ravi.
Just a delivery notification.
But her heart beat a little faster anyway.
She tucked the paper aside, glanced at the hallway mirror as she passed it, and adjusted her hair.
She didn’t need to. But she did.
He called me a queen.
“Only because you looked like one,” she whispered under her breath, barely audible.
She didn’t notice her own smile in the mirror.
But it was there.
-- oOo --
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