Adultery Priya Didi

[shailu4ever]

Tuesday Morning – The Knock on the Door
 
The night had been endless. Ravi had sat in the darkness of Flat 205, long after the world outside had gone quiet. The fan whirred above him, a dull, rhythmic sound that only deepened the emptiness.
 
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw their faces, Neetu’s bright smile, Sirisha’s soft laughter, Vamsi’s easy confidence. They floated in and out of his thoughts like ghosts, too vivid to forget, too painful to hold onto.
 
He had finally drifted into a shallow, restless sleep sometime after 3 a.m., the tears dried on his cheeks, his mind still heavy with disbelief.
 
When the knocking began, it took him a few seconds to realize it was real. A dull, hurried series of knocks, followed by the shrill ring of the doorbell. He stirred, disoriented, his body stiff from sleeping awkwardly on the couch.
 
Then, his phone started buzzing on the table beside him.
 
He squinted at the screen, Amit calling.
 
He picked it up, his voice still rough with sleep.

“Hello…?”
 
“Ravi!” Amit’s voice came through, warm, familiar, and unexpectedly full of life. “Open the door, man, we’re outside!”
 
For a split second, Ravi froze. It took him a moment to register the words. Then he sat up abruptly, glancing toward the door, still processing what he’d heard.
 
“You’re... outside?”
 
“Yes!” Amit laughed on the other end. “Come on, before Priya kills me for making her wait in the corridor with the bags!”
 
The words took a moment to sink in. For a brief second, Ravi forgot what day it was, then everything snapped back. Amit and Priya.
 
It had been days. Their arrival had been on schedule, they had mentioned it on the phone, but the reality of it felt unexpected, too jarring against the weight of everything that had happened.
 
Ravi stood slowly, blinking as though waking from a long sleep, his legs stiff.   Ravi scrambled to his feet, still dazed, still half in last night’s world. He ran a hand through his hair, straightened his shirt, and walked to the door  and opened it, the bright light of the morning hallway flooding in.
 
There they were, Amit and Priya, standing outside, luggage beside them, both looking tired but alive, their faces still carrying the faint trace of travel fatigue.
 
There was a strange comfort in their presence, a return to normalcy that Ravi wasn’t sure he could handle yet.

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