Red

No, this is not about Click - Red. It is, well, the title of a short story. Short story? In a food blog?

Well....

I have always liked writing stories. Some get torn (deleted) before I show them to anyone, others get shared with family. And for some reason, I want to post them here.

Again, yes, this is a food blog. So - the stories will be interspersed with references to food and yes, there will be recipes linked to the story.

I hope it goes down well with you guys. So fingers crossed and here we go....


Red

The little blue line confirmed her worst fears. The weird food cravings - just last night, she had gobbled down 2 slices of cake, the nausea, the morning sickness...and the delayed period. She didn't need the little blue line to confirm what she'd had suspected all along.

As she lay on the bed staring at that blue line, Arva weighed her options. The baby wasn't part of her plan - she who did everything in her life as per a proper plan - well not at least for the next couple of years. She was doing very well in her job and baby would apply the brakes on her progression, she thought. And yet, in a weird way, she felt happy. Raghav, she knew, would be elated - how she wished he were here to share the moment. Maybe she should have the baby after all.

She had a meeting scheduled with her boss this morning - who would be in a good mood considering the last project she had handled had been praised immensely by the client - no better time to discuss her situation with him!

However, the meeting didn't go off quite as she had planned it. In fact, she had not said anything that she had planned to, on the contrary, she left the meeting feeling quite dazed....She was offered a prestigious project - the one a lot of her colleagues were vying for - literally on a platter. But accepting it meant that she would have to relocate to Kenya for a year. And accomplishing it would catapult her career into an entirely new dimension.

No, there was no way she could have this baby. Not now. No way. She was amazed at how her mind had oscillated from feeling happy about her pregnancy to now being absolutely against having the baby. She had worked very hard to get where she was today in her job and didn't want to throw it all away just when she was starting to reap the benefits of her hard work.

"We are ordering lunch," said Divya, interrupting her thoughts. "You want to order anything?"

But all she could think of was the baby. It all seemed so unfair, she despaired. If only she could have the baby and do the project as well. But she knew that was not going to be possible. It was either the baby or the project, she knew she had to decide and very soon. And Raghav? He, who had been so supportive about her work - she knew how heart-broken he would be at her decision. She would convince him, after all, she was still young, the time for having a baby would come later.

"Lunchhhh," Divya repeated again. "Where are you lost today?"

"Lunch? Yes, pass me the menu please, " she answered. Maybe, she thought, I should order a raw papaya salad. After all, wasn't raw papaya supposed to induce abortions?

"Divya, can you order....


end of part one. Any guesses anyone on what recipe I am going to post?