The office was empty except for one person...it was only yesterday that Zoya had successfully finished an assignment and they still had one more to go later this week. Thankfully it was not a very big event that would stretch for days but an exhibition of a very renowned painter...
When Adi had been told that they had an art exhibition in their upcoming events he had fallen eerily quiet. Zoya knew the reason...Pooja was a painter and a prolific one at that. The whole event was bound to bring back memories. She had seen Yash's painting by Pooja and Zoya was unbiased, she had to admit... Pooja had been a rare talent.
She knew this would affect him but she also knew this was business and she would have to go through with it...The money involved was huge and the goodwill such an event would bring would do wonders for the company. She was alone in the office, sitting at her desk jotting down points and things that had to be done when she heard a loud crash at the coffee counter...she stood up startled, no one was supposed to be in the office...
But then she realised, Aditya had been sitting in the conference room on the upper floor an hour back...he must still be here...
She made her way to the cafeteria weary of his volatile mood and saw him sitting on his knees ,crouched on the ground, his back to her...
Now that she was all alone with him there was every chance that he would unleash his wrath on her...
But she was amazed herself, at how she always felt safe in his presence.
"Aditya?" she called out...
He stayed put without even acknowledging that he had heard her...
She inched a little closer...
"Aditya?"
She stood at a distance now undecided on what to do.
Though she still steered clear of his path more often than not, it was compelled by his irrational behaviour , but she could never leave him when she sensed his vulnerability like she felt it now...
It was uncanny how she had become attuned to him...
Something about him drew her in... always. She enjoyed the verbal spars with him fully knowing he would lash out...it triggered a sense of excitement...
Aditya was so unpredictable she had no idea how he would react...
She frowned curious...Why was he so quiet?? She looked around hoping to find the source of the crash but there were no signs of anything broken...
She went near him and peered.
There he was, meticulously picking up the glass pieces of the cups that he had deliberately smashed , she was sure, with his one hand and placing the pieces in the palm of his other hand.his shoulders hunched, eyes down...but his hands were unsteady, the effects of the alcohol he had downed...
She tried once again...
"Aditya. what are you doing? Be careful ,you are going to cut yourself!!
She started looking around and found a plastic bag lying on the counter...she picked it and crouched beside him, picking up the remaining pieces carefully...
He remained quiet... she hesitated but then held his palm open and transferred the other glass pieces in the packet too...
He looked at her, his red rimmed eyes devoid of the fire that always burnt and sparkled in his eyes...the ire was missing in those pools of grey...
She looked at his face and then realised she was staring, and quickly averted her eyes...
"The project...he slurred...how is it going?"
She knew this was about the art exhibition...
"it's going well...you don't have to worry about it. I will handle it myself...Infact you don't even have to be there." she wondered whether saying all of this now would matter at all now that he was completely inebriated.
He stood up and looked down at her, his brows creased.
"Why? Why shouldn't I be a part of it?'
She stilled in the process of picking the miniscule pieces, an ache for this man child consuming her heart. She sighed.
Zoya knew she had to call Arjun...she did not know how to drive and Aditya could not drive in that state...someone had to take him home...she could only rely on Arjun Hooda.
She stood up and went to the bin to dispose off the packet and Aditya followed her...
When she turned around he was a hair's breadth away from her...reeking of alcohol...
She crunched her nose...
"Aditya! move!" and shoved him lightly her palms flattened on his chest...
He moved to her side and as she moved past him, to get him a glass of water, he held her wrist softly but firmly...
She turned around and looked at their hands.
"Why couldn't you say no to the project?" he asked his eyes drooping, fighting to keep awake.
"Why? It's paying us well and Prahlad Bavaskar is a name to reckon with...it will be good for the company"...
He looked at her and then moved closer, his hands still holding on to her wrist...his form swaying a little...
He tilted his head to the side and tried to remember what he wanted to tell her or maybe ask her...with a frown...
And then he nodded to himself suddenly remembering what he had to say
"Why do you have to be so harsh with me all the time?"
She raised her eyebrows...a wry smile breaking out despite her.
I am harsh with you?!! she wanted to say out aloud...
Instead she looked at him, his eyes red and lachrymose...
His plaintive tone softened her stance towards him..
He always cloaked his hurt in malice ridden words that corroded the sympathy anybody felt for him. But not Zoya, she could see past the facade, those eyes somehow could never lie to her... They had always been brutally honest..
She remembered when they had looked at her with sheer hatred.
She remembered when they had looked at her, smiling and friendly
And ...she remembered when they had bored holes into her, desire brimming in those depths...
She removed his hands from her wrist and guided him to the sofa gripping his upper arm and he sat down with a thud.
She went to the counter to get a glass of water...she was in the act of putting the water in the glass...
"I always thought Pooja painted portraits for me...only for me" he finished while his head lolled to a side...he swallowed and straightened up on the sofa...
She listened while pouring the water in the glass.
He continued...
"You know she always drew random things, she called it abstract painting...I could never understand what all of that was about..." and he chortled...
"But I loved it when she painted me...I had to sit somewhere and I sat anywhere she told me to for two hours at a stretch, well, not always but most of the time and she would paint me...but that was just me...she never painted portraits of anyone else..." and he quietened...
"At least that's what I thought" he said softly...
When zoya turned around she felt such solicitude for him that it scared her...
He continued
"But then I came to ZOSH and right there" he gestured to his cabin...
" What do I see??"
His red eyes hardened into flints, and he looked at her...
She flinched and nearly backed away unable to bear the corporeal suffering that evidenced itself in those gray eyes...
He ambled away in the cabin, his feet unsteady...she rushed after him...
He opened the door of the cabin and started pacing the room...
"You husband on the wall here, on that console table there..." he went near the table...
"And they were not pictures, they were all portraits drawn and signed by my wife" he spat out the word "wife" as if it was a cuss word...
Her eyes followed him...while the raging storm inside him took unbelievable proportions...
"Why did you tell me that other day?"
He went closer to her, the hatred in his blood and soul giving him the strength to carry on even when he was completely drunk...
"That no one deserved to stay with me as my wife? Right"
"Aditya, I really did not mean it." she said softly...
He moved away and smiled...that turn into full blown laughter...and then suddenly there was quiet in the room..
She took some time to compose herself and then looked back at him...the fraught silence in the room flustering her already jaded nerves.
He cocked his head to his side looking at her.
"Maybe you are right, why would she have an affair with someone else otherwise. Maybe I do not deserve to be loved."
And it felt like the energy had suddenly stamped out from him...
He sat on the floor cross legged...and while looking down at the floor he put out his thumb first
"You thought I was responsible for the mishap that happened at Bella's wedding!! That I purposely tried to put so many lives in danger!! You thought i was capable of that..."
He no longer had any coherent thoughts Zoya realised, he was jumping from one topic to another...
He put out his index finger next...
"then, no" he paused and nodded correcting himself " before that..." he continued "you thought I had tried to malign you, tried to prove that you have no character..." he garbled...
She closed her eyes, guilt washing over her...
"Why do you always think the worst of me?" he looked at her as if imploring her... a genuine question in those eyes...hanging in the air...the question affecting her much more than it should have...
because you are horrible to me at times...
She let her tears flow for him and for her...where had life brought them...
Why were their lives enveloped in so much anguish that it always threatened to throttle even the little bit of happiness that success at her work provided...would it ever subside?
She wiped her tears away...
"Aditya?" she came and sat down beside him, hugging her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms round them...and looked at him...
"Aditya you have to let go...this anger, this pain...it will get you nowhere...what can we do? Remember you told me how it was not our fault, whatever happened to us..."
He looked ahead and narrowed his eyes trying to remember and blinked several times and then his eyes widened and he gave a broad smile...
"Yes I remember."
"Then why don't you believe it yourself...?" she said in an agonised whisper...
"I am sorry I said those words to you that day. But I wasn't thinking before I blurted them out. And I definitely did not mean anything of what I said."
It was just her usual banter with him that had hurt him a lot that day, she realised...
He frowned while looking at her an adorable big baby, full of hurt, an affliction that refused to leave him...
"Hmm!!!" he nodded pragmatically...and stared at her, the feelings they surreptitiously harboured in their hearts for each other without acknowledging those emotions to even themselves mirroring on their faces...
And then in a completely unexpected move, he removed the loop her hands had made around her knees and nudged her knee and her legs unvoluntarily fell into a cross legged position...
She stared at him surprised...
He lied down and then placed his head on her lap, both his hands grasping her left hand and he dozed off, her hand languidly resting over his chest...
She stared at his sleeping form and sighed...
She knew he would not remember any of this when he woke up next morning...
She swallowed the agony inside her choking her vocal chords..she looked around for her phone and saw it lying on the coffee table...she stretched and was able to reach it...
she dialled the number and cleared her throat...
"hello Arjun?"
She told him everything and then disconnected the phone...and looked at her hand enfolded in his.
She looked up and sent a silent prayer ,wishing and hoping for their miseries to abate in the coming days...
Hola people!!! This is Juhi...I am back with another OS...I hope you all like it...😊
