"Are you sure...???"
"Yes yes... Very sure... I will always love you, pamper you, make you black coffee in the morning, will take you out on dinners every week, will make love to you-"
"I don't want those details... I got the idea... What about food...?? Or sandwiches..?? I can't cook..."
"I will make it... Daily..."
"I don't know how to manage a house... Cleaning and stuff..."
"I will do it honey..."
"So you will be an ideal husband for me... Right...???" she asked.
"Any day...!!! The best sanskari husband ever... Loving caring understanding submissive optimistic hardworking " he started stating adjectives.
"I will marry you...!!!" She said happily and flung her arms around him.
She finally said to his proposal. The fourth proposal to be precise. This time it wasn't cheesy like the last three times. This time he took her out on a candle light dinner and now they were standing outside the hostel gate.
Meher faintly smiled thinking of the time when she said yes to him and made the best decision of her life. That time was undoubtedly the most beautiful phase of her life. The time she wants to re live but it wont come back now. She was starting to accept it now. The door opened, tarun entered the cabin and sat on a chair with a sad face. He was clearly upset.
"Tunnu..."
"What did you tell jiju di...?? Why is he hurt...?? You must have -"
"Don't talk to me like that... Go home now..." Meher ordered tarun.
"We need him back di... I don't know if you still love jiju or not... But we love him..."
Tunnu said and left the cabin.
"I also need him back tunnu..." Meher whispered and closed her eyes in an attempt to stop her tears from falling.
Abeer never knew what it would feel that great to be appreciatied and supported by his father. Kuber was with him comforting him, giving him advises, but on how to forget the girl he loved and how to start life a fresh. Abeer for the first time saw how much kuber cared for him. It made him happy.
"Abeer you are doing the right thing... You finish off your work and I will make the necessary arrangements... Its better you take some time off and start life a fresh..." Kuber said patting abeer's shoulder.
"Thank you dad... For always being there..."
"You are my only son abeer... Don't thank me..." Kuber replied.
"Meher... Tunnu said..." Suman came to meher's room and said after sitting beside her.
"Maa... I said some terrible stuff to abeer... I broke his heart... He hates me... He isn't coming back..." Meher replied looking anywhere but suman.
"What did you say meher...???"
"Maa its not important..."
Meher looked at her mother and she knew she had to spill the beans now.
"I told him that he helped us only to have me back in his life. He just wants me and he wants to prove he is superior... I should have thanked him but I insulted him..." meher summed up her words carefully.
"Meher apologise from abeer... He will forgive you... Not now but in the near future..." Suman said holding meher's hand.
"He told me last night that he still loves me and I mercilessly broke his heart... He has had enough maa... His heart went through heartbreak twice... He doesnt have the courage to go through it all over again... I know..."
Meher burst into tears, her pain flowing through her tears. Her words haunting her and torturing her every minute.
Everyday, every single day meher saw abeer in the office. She tried talking to him alone but never got a chance. He always kept himself busy with one thing or another, people always surrounding him. Meher would stand at a distance and look at his smiling face. "He was finally moving on... He was happy... But without her" she thought.
It was his last day in 'Groove' channel and it was sickening meher.
"What will I do without him..?? How will I live without seeing him...?? I have to stop him... Last try may be..." Meher whispered and decided she would talk to him at the part that night. His farewell party.
It would be wrong to say that it was all easy for Abeer. No matter how much he wanted to ignore meher and her pleading eyes, he couldn't. Noew all he wanted was to run to her and engulf her in his arms. Forever. He wanted to tell her how angry and hurt he was and how much he still loves her. How he will always love her, irrespective of anything she does. But somehow he couldn't do it, her words hit him really hard that night. They still replay in his mind, every night. As a result he is scared to fall for her again. He doesnt wants his heart to go through another heartbreak, because this time it would not survive. Today was his last day at groove and every minute that he spent here, came running back to him. All those years he worked her, teased people, threw parties, played pranks, and sometimes threw tantrums. But the memories that were making him go weak were the memories of HER. From the very first second when he saw her after years of separation to the minute he saw her today looking at him and smiling.
Nisaar was sitting beside abeer at the bar counter, his head hung low. Rati asked him to be happy for abeer but nisaar wasn't. Sadly. His only friend was leaving him alone and to make things worse, he has no idea why all this was happening.
"Mat jaa bhai..." Nisaar said without looking at abeer.
"Let's not talk about it nisaar... Just promise me you will take care of everything I'm leaving behind..."
Nisaar looked at abeer now.
"The channel..." Abeer clarified.
Nisaar smiled faintly and nodded his head.
Abeer looked around at the happy faces and some sad faces. Sattu sir, nishi mam, loveleen ji and jawahar. His eyes were yearning to see her but she wasn't there. She will not come, he thought. She will come - his heart whispered. Abeer choked on his drink when he saw her in... In the dress...
"Fuchsia pink" abeer said while coughing. 😲
Nisaar looked at abeer getting worried and then his eyes followed his gaze. Nisaar couldn't help but spit out the drink.
"Yeh kya hai..???" Nisaar asked abeer.
Abeer shrugged his shoulders and gulped the lump that formed at the back of his throat, when he saw her coming towards him. He gifted her that dress just to irritate her, not to see her in that skimpy thing. That too in a party with men oogling over her and eyeing her. The dress was way too short for his taste and it highlighted every curve of hers. If it was some other time, he would have enjoyed the sight but here in the party.. No men could take their eyes off her; included abeer.
She stood in front of him and wrapped her arms around his neck, bringing him out of his reverie. Abeer looked at her from head to toe and meher shifted more close to him, leaving no space between them. She leaned forward and dropped a kiss on his cheek. Her lips lingered there for more time making abeer want more.
"Get a hold on yourself you ass... Push her away..." said abeer's mind.
She kissed his jawline and ran her fingers through his hair.
"I love you Abeer..." Meher whispered in his ear and she playfully bit his earlobe.
Her confession brought abeer back in his senses and he pushed meher away. She also did the same, didn't she... He confessed his love for her all over again and she mercilessly broke his heart. What goes around, comes around...
Meher looked at abeer and smiled. Tonight she was ready for everything he might say or do. She would keep her calm and give him a chance to let it all out. It was her last chance to get him back. Who knows, if he ever returns from London or not.
Abeer saw her smiling at him and he got up from the stool. He held meher's hand angrily and took her to a room upstairs. The room he booked thinking he would ask nisaar to stay back and they would think until morning and he would share his sob story with him. Abeer banged the door shut after him as he entered the room. Meher ignored him and sat on the bed waiting for the explosion from her very own angry young man.
"What are you doing in this dress...??? Don't you know this... This dress..."
"What...?? Is it turning you on...??" Meher asked playfully and winked at Abeer.
"I want you out of that dress now..."
"What...??????" Meher asked with shock written on her face and then boldly continued "Baby the party just started.. After party, I promise...".
"I mean you will get changed into sober clothes now... Else you are staying in this room throughout the whole party..." Abeer said with authority.
"Im not changing my clothes... You gave it to me.. Its very special..." Meher said defending herself.
"Cut the crap... You will not come down in this outfit... I don't want men to look at you ike that..."
"Like what...?? Speak up..."
"Mentally undressing you..."
"Are you jealous...?? You want to do it...??"
Meher stood close to abeer this time, just a feet distance between their bodies.
"No... You are a CEO if you remember... Maintain some dignity..." Abeer replied yanking her arms away.
"Don't teach me... I'm single now and I desperately want to find a partner... I want to move on like you did..."
Meher said and was about to leave when abeer pinned her to the door.
"You want to find a new partner... Already... Couldn't wait for a bit more time...at least until I leave..."
Abeer asked, his jealousy taking over him, he pinned meher to a wall.
"So 8 years weren't enough for me to wait... Now that you are disowning me and going away... How long am I supposed to wait, then...?? My whole life...??"
"Says the one who rejected me and my love..."
Meher looked away and abeer forcefully made her look at him.
"Isse humari aakhri baat cheet samajhna tum... Mujhe koi baat nahi karni... Kal main jaa raha hoon... And You know what let's go downstairs... Enjoy this party and bid each other our final goodbye... Because ideally whatever you do with your life shouldn't matter me... I'm no one..." Abeer said and stepped away from meher.
"A familiar no one. Whom I fell irrevocably in love with, the one I married to spend my whole life with him, the one with whom I dreamnt of having kids and raising them together, the one whom I gave my everything, the one with whom I shared every secret of mine, the one who supported me through thick and thin, the one who taught me how to live, the one who made me realise that I also had the right to fall in love and enjoy life as it comes, the one who brought out the best in me, the one who promised he would never let me go... The one who threw me out of his life... The one who disowned me... The one who doubted my loyalty towards him... Yes you are no one..." Meher slid down the wall and hugged herself, tears making her way out of her eyes.
"But you killed our baby..."
Meher looked at abeer, who reminded meher of the thing she was trying to forget from the past 8 years. Never did he say a word about that incident but now he voiced out his opinion.
"Killed...??? Its called a miscarriage..." Meher whispered, her hand involuntarily on her stomach, where she once had their baby.
"You were careless... You never wanted it meher..." Abeer slowly sat on the bed and closed his eyes. It was hurting him. Thinking about it and revisiting it all over again.
"I was only 23 and we were struggling hard that time. What did we had back then..?? A one bedroom flat, very less income and my part time job. You were the one who was living in a dream world of yours. You failed to understand that we needed a lot more in life... Your passion for music was not leading us anywhere and you needed to be realistic. Practical. You chose to ignore the reality instead. I was the one who bore the burden of your failure and immaturity abeer... Completing my college degree, studying, doing a part time job, giving job interviews. fulfilling my wifely duties - be it physical or emotional... And in amidst of all this, I lost my child. I wasn't able to take care of it because I had a lot more to take care of... Honestly I came to know of its existence, the day I lost it... Only if you were responsible, we could have survived... My baby would have survived..."
She yelled at him and cried her heart out.
Kabhi Neem Neem Kabhi Shahad Shahad
