The Choice

My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is A Reader's Take, where everyday I will be picking out a novel title corresponding to that day's letter and write my post based on it. To make it more challenging, I have decided to write a serial story. The novel I have selected for today is 'The Choice'

Leave Me Never

Chapter 20

(Find the series index here)

Kayra was feeling on the edge the whole day. She wasn't able to concentrate on work. To be honest, this never was her calling. Given a choice, she would never have chosen this life style. But I wasn't given a choice – a dark thought crept inside. She suppressed it soon. She wasn't given a choice didn't mean she had to accept whatever came her way. If she really wanted to do something, then she had to fight her way through it. Life never was easy. She was just 21 when her life was robbed and from then, she had just lived the life for the sake of it. Yes, she loved Ansh and whatever she did, it was for him. But what about her dreams? Had she ever given them a chance? The choice was easy to make. She was chosen for a new project which required working night shifts. She was guilty of not spending time with Ansh as it is and now this? She turned in her resignation letter. It felt good. She didn't know what she would do next but she would figure it out soon.

Ritwik saw Kayra leaving early and walked towards her. He was shocked to find out she had resigned. But the more he thought about it, the more obvious it seemed. They had become friends after that scare incident, when Kayra had returned to apologize and he had put across the condition that he would accept it only over a cup of coffee. That is how their friendship had bloomed – slow but certain. He had heard Kayra complain many times about the schedule and it wasn't a surprise she had resigned. He offered to drop her home. “I might not get to do this again, you know” he said when he saw that she was about to protest.

The drive back was quiet, both lost in their own thoughts. Ritwik wanted to know what she would do next but he sensed that she needed some time. She looked like she was fighting a battle with her own mind. He still didn't know what her secret was. It was the reason he had first started talking to her but as their friendship grew, it became unimportant. As they reached her place, he got down and put his arms around her, saying it will be alright. She cringed lightly but didn't pull away. As they walked towards the gate, Ritwik saw a Porsche parked in the neighborhood.

“You didn't tell me you have a cool neighbor who rides a Porsche” Ritwik’s voice pierced through Kayra’s thoughts. “I don’t” she said and turned to look where Ritwik was pointing and she froze. No, it wasn't her neighbor and it definitely was not the car that shocked her. But it was the person behind the wheels, who had standing with jaw dropped. Suddenly she realized that Ritwik still had his arms around her and Ansh had come running as soon as she opened the gate!

To be continued...

About today's novel: The choice is a novel by Nicholas Sparks. Read more about the novel here.

PS: Linking this post to A to Z Challenge 2015. If you are participating too, please leave a link to your blog in the comments, so that I can visit you :)

Until the next post,

Keep Smiling :)

Love,

Swathi :)