Walking over to the white bench, she slowly sat down and a few seconds of contemplation, taking off her khussas she laid down. No one was around here in this secluded corner of the back garden. She wrapped her pashmina around her tighter, as the breeze picked up. Even though, it was the beginning of Spring, she felt chillier than usual. Looking upwards, she spotted the branches swaying in the glow of the fairy lights which were wrapped around the trunk and branches giving the space around her a lovely glow. She still felt faint and feverish as she kept looking up, her vision blurred giving away tears and her eyes burned. Sighing, she grabbed her phone from the circular little table beside her pressing the home button on her iphone to check if she had any missed calls or message.
She had been calling Mahi for the past hour and it had been going straight to voice mail and then she had called mummy ji land line & she had told her that she'll tell mahi to pick her up. Now an hour later, there was still no message or missed calls. Annoyed, she felt weaker by the minute and she just wanted to go home asap and rest. From the past two days, she had been on her feet non-stop, running around the clock stressed with nerves trying to make this wedding perfection after what the mishaps on the mehndi. Since her hospital incident, she left the next morning mid-afternoon too stressed about the mehndi event if she wasn't there, what would happen. She couldn't repeat another mistake, and yet mistakes were the only thing on-loop and nothing positive was on her side anymore.
It was getting harder and harder to remain cheerful and positive anymore and yet she kept leading herself on. She had to. She had no other choice. It was like she was an auto-pilot mode rigid, stoic, numb. Dead. Trying to over-consume herself in work was her only choice so far to not think about all the mess surrounding her life. She bit her lip from trembling as her eyes kept watering and she used her end of the palm to wipe her tears and yet tears wouldn't stop. Using all her willpower, she tried not to delve into her thoughts. Due to insane amount of stress, nerves, and over-working herself right after her incident with no amount of rest since she would go home late at night. Even when mummy ji told her to come home early, she had to deny since she couldn't afford any more faults and had to make sure tomorrow's wedding event goes smoothly.
This contract was her life-line at the moment which she couldn't afford to lose at any cost. She's giving her life, sweat, and tears to this and this had to worth it. She had to save her company. Yash's company. And now here she was lying on this bench, trying to calm her frail feverish self. Since this afternoon, all she had was a little bit of lunch consistent of pasta which she threw up half an hour later. & that's how Bella found her coming out of the stall to gargle her mouth, hearing her throw up. & she had to tell her not to worry after tons of assurance that it was just a bad lunch and nothing to do with after incident strain overwhelming herself and not giving herself the desired rest. She kept on going not paying attention to herself, multi-tasking a million things at a time, since she couldn't afford to sit. An hour so later, she felt herself draining slowly, bit by bit, getting shaky on various occasions dropping a full basket of roses that she was carrying ashamed and feeling awful she had to order another full basket and saving fresh roses from the top of the pile- to tripping over the carpet, and couldn't keep looking upwards to give stage/mandap instruction of floral decoration, lighting, and fairy light that still had to go up half the garden yard due to instant dizziness and throbbing of a headache forming. She borrowed an advil from one her assistants five hours back and yet her headache barely held on, developing into migraine and severe weakness. Now she held onto additional fever exhaling a hot breath. & Picked up her phone to call for a taxi, which would take 15 minutes at least. She couldn't wait anymore.
-
"Hey, have you seen Zoya anywhere?" Adi inquired one of the assistant's about Zoyas whereabouts. It had been two hours since he hadn't spotted her. He had a few pointers he had to ask her about - each of the few times he thought about going over, something else would come up. It was 10:00 pm now and event planning had almost come to end. There were handful of technicians just left and rest of the assistants were gone home, since it was late. He had to ask her before he'd forget lest she went home. He tried calling her just once to see where she was & madam, wasn't picking up. Great. Gotta give to her for not picking her calls, when you needed her to. He couldn't let another rooftop incident occur - which to some extent was his fault. He felt internally guilty and tried conveying his apology physically mostly & a bit vocally. It's been two days since the incident and yesterday, he cornerd her during lunch telling her he was sorry for the extreme outburst and unintentional door jamming. While her eyes were hooded towards the ground, not meeting his vision - he left without hearing her response. She looked shaken when he mentioned the incident and he didn't want to recall her bad memories. He still hadn't told her about rescuing her. & he had no intention to. He wanted to leave that part out. He didn't want her viewing him differently. He was still the worse in her eyes more so after mentioning his apology and he wasn't looking to gain pointers, rather they both decided to be civil for the sake of the event and not getting in each other'a way. They were getting past trying to create hurdles in each other's lives, mostly him due to his furious hatred towards her, which he realized wasn't a sane thing to do and realized after the incident, how wrong it was to throw at his accusations and pent up poison towards the person who was going through the same shit and yet bravely, coping with it differently by letting it all out. She was an open book to some extent. He was misdirection his anger and actions & as much as he hated to admit, her incident shook a little. Heart jumped more likely as he closely though about it and decided not to use anger as his outlet and just concentrate on this event a log of steps at a time. He was in charge of tech - for lighting, to speaker connections/ wireless, stage rotation, dj, etc. There was still tons of shit to be taken care of. They still had a day in between before the wedding event hit. Couldn't be room for faults. He had to tripleave check everything Tom.
"Sir.. I saw her going towards the back garden supervising the decor. Not sure now." Nodding, Adi decided to check anyway since back space would be used for dinner arrangement.
"Um, 'scuse me sir."
"Yes, Akash. Now what?" Adi sighed focused on his iPhone opening up an app and jotting down all he still needed to get done for Tom. There were still a million things running up in his mind as he typed out the most important ones hurriedly. Not hearing a response he looked up, prodding for him to spit it out already.
"Um, sir-rr. Z-Zoya ma'am.. ma'am. Clearing his throat due to consistenthe fumbling, he jumpled out rest of the sentence. Sir could be quite intimidating all the times, but more so when it was time to leave. He took a chance. "She Um, wasn't feeling well today. Sania asked me to tell you since she left home early. She saw ma'am fumbling and stumbling while carrying stuff, fitigued, & even asked her for advil. She overheard Bella telling Rohan about Zoya ma'am throwing up " he rambled quickly. "If you see her-r, you can tell her to come in late since we got it mostly covered for Tom." Getting a nod, he scurried away.
In the midst of typing, Adi reached the back & as if a million pointers weren't already running in his mind, he was all jumbled with this new info. No wonder he hadn't seen Zoya even if they decided to cordially mind their own business. Thoughts pricked his mind if what aKash said was true. He looked up & saw trees lit with fairy lights & couldn't make out the decor in the dark. Walking up to the large banyan tree which caught his attention, back of the garden looked nice in the soft lighting. As he got closer, the white bench caught his attention and more so, the figure lying. part of hair was hanging of the bench, swaying with the breeze as she was turned on her left side clutching her midnight blue shawl and rest of the hair sprawled on half her face. She was crouched in a fetal position wearing blue patyala and white Kurta. Dead silence. Except her faint breathing and her iPhone vibrating with an incoming call which ended.
"Zoya?" He wispered- called out faintly touching her shoulder. "Zoya?" He called out to her a little more louder, shaking her shoulder a little more. She was dozed off. Third time with a more emphasis, she jolted awake, almost falling off the bench in shock. "Easy there. Relax "
"Huh?"
"It's me. Adi." Holding her from her upper arms as she almost stumbled, he made her relax on the bench. One hand was his holding her own is when he realized her hand was chilled and he could feel heat eliminating from her upper arm, where his hand held her sup porting her. Her shawl had slipped off when she almost doubled over as he caught her in the process sprawled behind her. Her hair had come forward covering half her face which was lowered, her eyes scrunched close, tightly. Gently putting off her hair behind her shoulder to have a closer look at her.
"Tum, theek ho Zoya?" He asked. Few seconds later, she shook her head as a no. Unsuredly, he touched her forhead lightly, and realization hit him. She was heating up which will lead to her burning up soon.
"Zoya, tumhe toh bukhaar hai." He called out, shocked.
For few seconds, there was no response except her scrunched eyes. Trying to get her bearings, she wispered so low, it was even hard to hear sitting beside her. "Did you say something?" Wondering, as he brought his face closer to hers.
"Paani" She wispered a tiny more audible, hoarsed voice. She felt so dizzy, her mind jumbled up from an abrupt awakening & vision blurred - opened her eyes to get her bearings. She was heating up but could even feel the chill running down her back and around her ribs. Two temperatures, polar opposite playing fire n ice within her. She crouched, putting her elbows on her thighs bending forward and holding her head within her hands she massagd her for head over to temples. Her throat felt clogged, dry... possibly soar. Adi spotted a case of water bottles a table ahead.
Uncapping, he held to her as she brought her hand towards to hold it to her mouth and midway her hand trembled, her musclea weakening from the lack of strength. Adi realizing her faltering, brought his hand placed half on top of hers and rest supporting the bottle. Viewing her up close, she didn't look too good he realized as he frowned.
"Bas" she voiced, still hoarsed. Placing the bottle back on the table, he turned his attention back to her. Realizing her position, he picked up the sprawled shawl he spread it around her. When that didn't help as she sat stoic, he took off his fav leat her jacket and helped her put it on slowly - taking off the shawl first as she winced due to cold, quickly and gently her arms through one by one crouching on his knees to adjust and close the zipper. Her nose ring glinted in the faint glow of the fairy lights surrounding them in semi darkness. He brought the shawl around her snuggling it around her petite frail frame. Her eyes downcast all this while, trying to feel sorted but failing nonetheless. She was officially out of her mind. He tried.. hell he flippin' tried. But couldn't even understand even if he tried. Anger resurfaced back as he focused on her face as she was clearly having a hard time wondering how dumb could she really get. She has got to be kidding me!
"What the hell were you thinking Zoya? Why the hell haven't you gone home yet? Time dekha Hai dammit! It's 10:15. You were supposed to be long gone or I thought you were. Apni halat dekhi Hai? Yahan back garden mein kya kar rahi thi akeli, woh be is waqt when no one is around. Mein nahi ata, toh? Do you even realize you're burning with fever, you fool! & on top of that, you dozed off for god knows how long." He yelled. & waited for her to say something. Anything. "Well?!" He clenched his teeth and with held from saying any else as she drew back, wincing with unshed tears in her eyes. From the glow behind us, her hazel eyes made contact with his for two second, before she focused back to her lap.
Looking on his side to regain patience and calm the hell down down, he exhaled and looked over to her tear streaked face, sniffing. Hesitantly, faintly touching her chin to meet eye contact with his, he tilted her face a lil upwards to meet his own. Dammit.
"Kya Hua Hai, Zoya? Kuch toh bolo. Please." He questioned with a softer tone.
"I came to lay down after the prep were done. 9:45 shayad. I wasn't feeling well. Chak-Chakar arahay thay aur weakness bhi. I had been calling Mahi since 9 to pick me up and mummy ji said she will since she- she's not answer my messages or calls. Kaha 10 baj ajai gi.. since she might be stuck in traffic taking her longer. Waited till 10 to call for taxi. He said 15 minutes. In between, I had dozed off not realizing until you woke me up." She narrated slowly and weakly as she met his eyes.
"Zoya." He took a breath. He felt awful. Why couldn't she just as for help from anyone? They were all friendly and understanding. "It's okay to ask for help. To need help. Kuch Kaha toh hota. You would've been home by now. Screw Mahi. Woh bilkul reliable nahi Hai. Please samjho." She started to but in but he cut her off.
"Abhi tak ayi Hai Woh, huh? Kahan Hai? Mujhe dekh nahi rahi." He looked around. Sighing, "Zoya, Woh tumhari parwa nahi Karti. Usse sirf paison se Matlab hai. She doesn't give a shit about you. "
"Aisa nahi hai-"
"Aisa hi hai. You'll see." Zoya always saw the best in people, no matter how deceiving they turned out to be. Excuses and sweet, sickly behaviour were their fort. Like this manhoos Mahi. Sighing, "Chalo, choro. He stood up looking down at her offering her his hand.
Taking his hand, meekly with hesitancy, she stood up shakily gaining support. "Look Mahi bilkul nahi anay Wali. & neither is the taxi which you missed. Chalo, i'll take you home."
"N-nahi, I'm okay."
"Zoya. Zoya, for god's sake - stop being childish dammit. Your health is detoriating. You need to start taking caring of yourself. Insan jitna bhi strong banne ki koshish kare- sometimes it falls weak. Behas mat Karo, I'm dropping you home. Chalo." He sterned gaze softened looking at her frail self, barely standing . "Chal sakti ho?" Her confidence was really low at the moment as she barely said anything while he supported her by the elbow.
Few measured steps later, she tripped forward and Adi caught her by her upper arm and she lightly bumped into his grey polo clad sweat shirt. Softly gasping, she stepped back hurriedly, tangled in her own feet. "Relax Zoya." Coming closer to her once more gauging her reaction. "Just put your bit of wright on me while I hold on. Okay?" Nodding, he put his arm around her waist, supporting her weight as he led on. "Just a few more steps, car is around the corner." After a few secs, "i'm surprised your mother in law hasn't called me yet." He wondered out loud and realized what he gave away. Shitt.
Zoya, concentrating on her step, didn't notice his spill. "She's gone out of town to Delhi to meet her sister. She's in the hospital. Since yest."
"What? Seriously?"
"Yeah, Mahi was barely home last night. She was out all night and came back around 1"
"What were you doing up that late?"
"Couldn't sleep alone. Fell asleep and woke up again to her yelling and banging her door. She banged my door... yelling she- she hated me.."
Halting by the passinger door, Adi held on Zoya while took his keys to atomically unlock his bmv. She held on lightly clutching his sweat shirts end. Opening the door, he wondered what a piece of shit Mahi was. "Ab samaj mein aya, mine kya Kaha. Remember in the beginning after we met, meine Kaha tha Mahi is just using you for her advantage and nothing else. Usse bas paise chahiyain. She hated you before and she hated you now. Nothing has changed. I told you to keep your eyes open. Mahi Jaime log kisike nahi hotay. No one goes on a hatred rampage to sweet the next day. You need to be careful." He looked over her head bended down contemplating his words and a drop of a sec later, looked over at him as he held on to her waiting for his words to sink in. He met her hazel eyes, full of exhaustion and droopy - full of innocence & naivety. Too trutworthy. Strong willed. Passionate. Brave. She wondered what he said could be true. She needed to start thinking head on. She wanted to start to trust him. She remembered telling him how good his heart was. How he wasn't what he seemed. Though she was exhausted and vulnerable, he was here. Right beside her. Holding on to her. Giving her support and holding her gaze without a doubt. Softened expressions. No more raw hatred swimming within him. He was moving on bit by bit. Letting go of his anger. Offering support.
"Did she try harming you." He wondered after a beat. Cuz hell, he'll punch the hell out of her himself. She shook her head. "Thank you." She convayed, wispered after a beat.
"For?" He wondered with his arched inquisitive eyebrow.
"Aise hi." She hinted the tiniest of smiles, her dimples slightly peeking in the lamp post light.
He couldn't refrain from hinting a smile too as his heart hammered suddenly and he held on to gazing at her a moment longer than intended.
"Chalo betho" clearing his throat, he helped her in. "Change of plans" he uttered as he took his seat starting the car, meeting her gaze once more for losing count of the number he couldn't remember.
Cont'd.
Personal Finance
