Nachiket was making coffee when Ragini entered through the front door.
"Coffee?" He asked from the kitchen. Like every other day, Ragini came into the kitchen, hugged him from behind and placed a small kiss on his back, "Sure! I'll be out in a minute". She went into the room to freshen up. Nachiket was waiting for Ragini in the living room with two cups of coffee when she came back. She was again behaving normal. Like nothing happened! Sitting across from him on the chair, she talked about the approaching winter season. She was telling Nachiket about upcoming weekend's shopping trip when he interrupted her. He had prepared a whole speech of what he would say to her, and what actually came out of his mouth was different than that, but he wasn't surprised. Ragini brought out this off him. He bared his heart before her.
"I was being a jerk, Ragini. I'm sorry. I don't think you should stop talking to Sameer because of me," He started speaking. Ragini stopped talking about the weather and her face went emotionless again. Nachiket didn't like being blocked out by Ragini. He continued, "It was foolish on my part to think that you give more importance to your friendship with Sameer than your relationship with me. I shouldn't have reacted the way I did. And I wanted to hate that guy, but I couldn't. In fact, I'd like to know him more. You shouldn't lose him,"
Nachiket waited for Ragini to speak. Few minutes passed without either of them uttering a word. Nachiket looked down at his hands dejectedly, and then he heard her, "Sameer's wife died while giving birth to their child. He loves me Nachiket, but I am not the love of his life. And when I told him about you after his proposal, it didn't take him long time to understand," Sameer's grinning face came to Nachiket's mind and he couldn't believe the sadness his smile was hiding. Ragini continued, "Both of us knew what the other one was going through, but still, we couldn't help each other even if we wanted to. Neither of us wanted a shoulder to cry on. Sympathizers were in abundance. We both were angry. I, with you and he, with god. We needed someone who would listen to our rants, not someone who would sympathize with us. We could never be more than friends, but then, neither could we find a better friend than each other" A lone tear escaped Ragini's eye. Nachiket's eyes were moist too. He went to where Ragini was sitting and took her in his arms, kissing her hair over her head. "I'm sorry". Ragini rested her head under his chin, "I know. Its okay"
The coffee went cold but they stayed in the same position for a long time, seeking comfort and strength from the embrace. And then the doorbell rang.
"I'll take it" Nachiket kissed her forehead before going to open the door. Ragini took the still full coffee cups into the kitchen and rushed back to the living room when she heard her name being called loudly.
"Sameer?" A shiver of fear ran down Ragini's body as she looked at him. She had never seen him like that. He was enraged. Nostrils flared, hands in fists, he came towards her. Involuntarily, she took a few steps back. "You!" He pointed his finger at her, "I want to throw you out of the window of your own home!" Ragini had thought Sameer would understand when she told him she could not talk to him anymore. She wasn't expecting this reaction. On the other hand, Nachiket was confused. He had met Sameer in the morning and he seemed fine, he couldn't understand why he was reacting like this. But seeing his wife threatened, he came to stand before Ragini, shielding her, "Dr. Sameer, step back. You are threatening my wife," Nachiket said to him, but Sameer's eyes were trained on Ragini's.
"Stay out of this Dr. Khanna. I am not talking to your wife right now. I am talking to a woman who used to be my friend," his eyes were still trained on Ragini, "And I want to ask her why she had agreed to marry Aman!"
Nachiket felt himself pushed aside as Ragini came forward and took Sameer's hand, the one that was being pointed to her, in her hands. She turned the hand, it was bruised, "What happened to your hand?" She asked.
"Mooh todke aaya hu Aman ka!"
"What?" Both Nachiket and Ragini shouted at the same time.
"Boss h vo mere!" Ragini couldn't believe what she was hearing, "Sit here!" She pulled him to the sofa in the living room, "Nachiket bring the ice pack please," Nachiket brought the ice pack and Ragini brought the First-aid box.
"Dimag kharab h kya tumhara?" Ragini started cleaning the wound.
"You haven't answered my question yet! Chodo mera haath. Kar sakta hu main ye khud!" Sameer snatched his hand from Ragini's. He was still furious. Ragini clenched her teeth, "A lot of things were going on at that time," She started speaking, took his hand back in her hands and started arranging the ice pack over the knuckles which had started swelling, "Dr.Aman had helped me a lot. I thought I could never repay him for all the kindness, so when he asked me to marry him, I said yes!"
"If you were going through a bad time, you could call me at least once!"
"I called you but your phone was unreachable," Ragini defended.
"So, because my phone was unreachable, you decided to go ahead and marry that idiot!"
"I didn't marry him, now did I?" Ragini pressed the ice pack hard on his hand, making him wince in pain.
"I hate that man!" Sameer took the ice pack from her hand and she opened the first aid box to put the ointment.
Nachiket was silently witnessing the conversation and he was finding it amusing. He would be thanking Sameer later for punching Aman. How he had wanted to do that!
"Why do you both hate Dr. Aman so much?" Both Nachiket and Sameer looked at Ragini with the same expression. "That's a rhetorical question, Ragini" Sameer replied dryly. Nachiket shrugged in agreement. Ragini concentrated on wrapping the bandage around Sameer's hand.
"You'll have to find a new job though," Sameer said in a small voice. Ragini looked at him with an expression, Oh, there's more!
"He fired you."
Both Ragini and Nachiket were shocked to hear it. Ragini never thought Dr. Aman would fire her without talking to her. She didn't even get a chance to explain herself. Her face went sad.
"Well, I knew you wouldn't quit. So, I threatened him to fire you or I wouldn't let any doctor from Delhi visit his hospital," Sameer gave her a small innocent smile. Nachiket couldn't stop himself from laughing anymore so he cracked up. Sameer was grinning too. Ragini stared at both of them, too shocked to speak. As Nachiket sobered down a bit from his laugh, he said to Sameer, "Thank you Sameer. I was buying a whole hospital for her to run so that she didn't have to work with that man. I can't stand him!" The men high-fived. Ragini couldn't believe what she just heard. She threw the nearest cushion on Nachiket, "I thought you wanted me to teach Ranbir!"
"That was the father in me talking. The husband in me wanted his wife to stay away from Aman!" Nachiket said and Sameer agreed with him. Ragini threw an angry glare in Nachiket's direction.
"Kids are downstairs, Nani is there too. Why don't you go and meet them? We'll join you in some time. And its almost time for dinner. We'll have it together," Nachiket didn't want Sameer to go just yet. He liked the man. Sameer started to refuse the dinner, "Stay for dinner, Sameer," Ragini gave him a small smile, "I'll try to make the worst possible food," she joked. Sameer chuckled and agreed. Nachiket saw him to the door.
"You are in trouble!" Sameer murmured.
"I seem to be getting in it a lot these days," Nachiket replied, not daring to smile.
"All the best," Sameer tried to say it in a straight face, not wanting to rile Ragini further.
Nachiket took a deep breath as he shut the door. He turned around to face Ragini. She was standing in front of him, arms crossed on her chest. She shook her head as he started speaking and went into the room. Nachiket ran behind her, apologizing profusely.
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
