She said it again for good measure
"Aap ne jhoot bola..."
For some reason, this irked the so far pretty calm Omkara a bit... the sort of disbelief he heard in her voice was hitting somewhere deep once again. The same part of him that had hurt a bit at her wondering what he wanted from her because he was polite to her... pricked once more at the disbelief that ran rampant in her voice at the fact that he'd fibbed a bit.
"Haan to?"
Those two tiny words contained the hurt he was trying to conceal... something Gauri realized even in her dazed state at finding that he'd lied for her sake. The man who'd prided himself on being truthful no matter what, had fibbed because he wanted to talk to her... for no other reason, just that he wanted to talk to her. To her knowledge, he'd told little white lies before, but they were all either to protect his own ego or to protect a family member. He'd never done anything of this sort for her.
"Aap... jo hamesha se hi sach ke pujari ban kar rahe hain, jinhein jhoot bilkul nahin pasand... aaj aap ne hi jhoot kaha... bhale hi kitna chota kyun na ho, aap ne humein yahaan laane ke liye Rudy bhaiyya se humein jhoot kehelvaaya... to hum kya sochein?"
For pretty much the second time in their relationship, Omkara Singh Oberoi didn't have answers. But apparently, his not-really-wife wasn't waiting for them either.
"Uske upar aap hum se aise shaant hokar, soft waale awaaz mein baat kar rahe hain aur aap ne kaha ki aap ko hum se baat karne ke alaava aur kuch nahin chaahiye. To Boliye Omkaraji... hum kya sochein?"
She waited for a scant couple of seconds before continuing
"Humein pata hai ki aap ke paas humare sawaalon ke jawaab nahin hain. Hum aap se jawaabon ke umeed rakhte bhi nahin Omkaraji... aap bas humein ghar waapis le chaliye."
By now, Omkara was starting to get more than a bit frustrated both with himself and Gauri. He hadn't for the life of him gotten the right words out in time for her to understand till now and she had lost hope way too early in his opinion. Of course, he'd said some truly terrible things to her during their so-called relationship but of late, during and after the Bua Maa fiasco, Omkara felt he'd tried his level best to make Gauri comfortable... as part of the family, as a trusted member of the extended family, as a valued guest. Not as his wife though... not yet at least.
But he was trying to change that. He'd asked her to stay... maybe not entirely for reasons she'd hoped for but he'd taken the step and extended his hand to her. He'd actually made a convoluted plan... a plan that Rudy would've praised for its degree of filminess, only for her. The makers of all these impossible plans in their drama loving family, were all the others Shivaay, Anika, Rudy and best of all Gauri... they were the ones with perpetual blockbuster plans that always ended in disaster. He always went along with everything in the name of damage control but Omkara couldn't remember a single time in his life that he'd himself made one of these godforsaken plans where nothing seemed to go right and everything was done flying by the seat of the pants style.
And here he was, attempting the same thing for her, with a bit more refinement and finesse if he said so himself... but here she was, losing hope and giving up so soon after he'd stopped her from leaving. Knowing that trying any further until they got this first misunderstanding out of the way, he pulled over at the side of the road and turned to a surprised Gauri.
"Gauri jab maine kaha ki mujhe tum se baat karni hai to obviously mujhe tumhein kuch bataana hai aur tumhari baatein bhi sunni hain. I want to give you some answers you need and get some clarifications from you. Humare beech mein bohot saari galat fehminyaan hain jinhe door kiye bina hum aage nahin badh sakte."
She finally seemed to be getting used to the gentler tone, able to see beyond it to what he was saying. And she understood that her Nandi was really trying here. He'd had a lot of issues with her but if he was willing to try and make things right between them, there was no way she would stand in his way when they both wanted the same things.
"Hum aap ki baatein sunne ke liye taiyyar hain... aur apni baat aap se kehne ke liye bhi. Hum bhi wahi chaahte hain jo aap ne abhi kaha. Waqt aur haalaathon ki wajah se humare beech mein bohot badi aur bohot saari galat fehmiyaan paida ho gayi hain. Hum apni taraf se poori koshish karenge ki hum aap ke saare sawaalon ka jawaab de saken... Magar humein bhi kuch jawab chaahiye..."
"Sounds fair... tumhein jo poochna hai tum pooch sakti ho..."
"Abhi?!"
"Haan... aaj kare so ab. When is a better time than now?"
Gauri thought for a moment before shaking her head no to his surprise.
"Hum pehle aap ko poori kahaani sunana chaahte hain... uske baad jab aap ke saare sawaalon ke jawaab aap ko mil jaayenge, hum aap se apne sawaal pooch lenge."
Omkara could find no fault with her logic and nodded in return, before pulling out of the shoulder back on to the road. The rest of the hour-long drive was spent in relative peace and quiet, the pending conversation hanging over both their heads like the sword of Damocles. Though both of them were looking forward to clearing the air between them, neither was too happy about the process of it, which would involve wading through months of misunderstandings and unhappy occurrences.
"Agar hum Sultana se milne nahin jaa rahe, to hum kahaan jaa rahe hain?"
"There's a house I own... I mean, mera ek ghar hai Aamby Valley mein, jahaan main kaam karne jaata hoon kabhi kabaar. Wahin jaa rahe hain... Kal tak waapis aa jaayenge"
"Oh... ek minute. Agar hum aap ke ghar jaa rahe hain wo bhi poore din ke liye to hum kya karenge?"
"Kyun? Kya hua?"
"Humare paas to change karne ke liye kapde bhi nahin hai. Hum to bas Sultana ke baare mein sunte hi harhaarike bhaagte aa gaye... ghar par bhi kisi ko bataaya tak nahin. He Shankarji! Ab hum kya karenge?"
Even in the midst of her worries and complaints to her Shankarji, Gauri couldn't help but notice the smug smile on the jatadhari's face.
"Aap aise has kyun rahe hain? Hum yahaan itne pareshaan hain aur aap ko mazaa aa raha hai? Pehle to aap ne jhoot bulvaa kar humein kidnap kiya ghar se aur ab jab hum pareshaan hain, aap ko hasi aa rahi hai. Shankarji... aap hi sambhaaliye apne Nandi Singh Oberoi ko. Hum se aur nahin..."
His smirk just evolved into a full on smile that dazzled Gauri for just a moment before she forcibly turned away in case he noticed the effect he had on her. But to her misfortune, Omkara had already noticed how she'd trailed off at the end when he'd started smiling and stored that little nugget of information away to think about later. Now, he had a cute but incredibly upset chiraiyya on his hands and he needed to focus on making her comfortable.
"Gauri... itna pareshaan hone ki koi zaroorat nahin hai. Hum donon ke bags gaadi ke boot mein packed hain. Koi problem nahin hai. Tumhari saari cheezein tumhein mil jaayengi. Aur agar kuch nahin bhi hai to hum khareed lenge."
"Aap ne humari bag pack ki?"
"Karne ki zaroorat hi nahin thi. Tumhara bag to hamesha se hi pack kiya hua hi rehta hai na?"
Again, a sliver of hurt showed through and Gauri found herself thinking about just what went through this complicated man's mind. Till now, most days had been spent with him yelling at her to leave the house and his life. But now, here he was, being patient with her, making her feel comfortable, feeling hurt because she wasn't yet ready to stay... This mental 180 was making her confused and leaving her without a way to navigate these unknown waters with this man.
Though he'd told her that he wanted to clear the air between them and try to get beyond the ton of misunderstandings between them, Gauri had no idea just how that talk was going to proceed or what his reactions at the end of it might be. If there was one thing she knew, it was that she was in a big danger of losing herself to this man... she'd already lost her heart and was in the process of losing her mind when it came to him. If he decided not to believe her after she'd told him everything, whatever could be built between them would be lost. Truth was the only weapon she had and if it failed, Gauri could see no way of rebuilding anything between them, let alone rebuilding herself from the wreck that he would leave behind.
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