Aditya halted the car in front of his house, with a screech. He had never been this reckless with driving or anything at all, really but he had already crossed so many boundaries the night before that this didn't seem like a big deal.
He took a deep breath and placed his arms on the steering wheel while crossing them one over the other, as he rested his forehead in between.
Least to say, it had been a very stressful day. With waking up to a realisation that he had cheated on his wife, to hiding the used condom as he tried to act normal in front of the oblivious wife and being an absolute failure at his work that day, he just wanted the day to end. But even if the day ended, facts wouldn't change, what he had done would still be reality and it troubled him that every single day from then on, would be nothing but him trying to cope up with his own self.
On the work front, he had decided to not let this interfere with his professionalism and was absolutely prepared to have just another day as a pilot. But alas, only if things were that easy. Aditya had been so distracted the whole time, he hadn't greeted anyone, missed a meeting with the head pilot and also completely blanked out when he was being explained the route to his destination. It would've been an easy flight if it were another day because he had travelled the same route multiple times, but today, he acted like a kid lost at a fare. The staff and everybody around him was surprised and Aditya decided to just chuck it and head home, which wasn't easy for him either but it was better than staying idle at the airport since nobody could trust him with life of so many people in his current state.
It was like Aditya was walking on this narrow bridge, where either side he fell, he would end up in hell.
He chose the option where he would at least get a chance to salvage his wrong by making it up to his wife, even though he knew there was nothing he could really do to make up for what he had done.
Still, he tried. He straightened himself and got out of the car, locked it and walked straight into the house. He only had one thought in his mind,
Pooja is my wife and I owe all my time, attention and love to her only.
His mind constantly stressed at the word only, trying to forget the women who had given him a night of please and a lifetime of guilt.
"Pooja?" Aditya called out his wife's name as she was nowhere to be seen the house. He looked in the kitchen and the living room, where he would usually find her. He continued his search while calling out her name a couple more times as he walked towards his bedroom.
He held the handle of the door as he opened it and looked around, "Poo-" and his voice froze. He saw a candle lit room with Pooja sitting in a rather... let's just say it wasn't her usual pose. She sat there, on his bed, in a black satin nightdress. Aditya quickly figured out what she was trying to do.
Still, he asked. "Pooja, what do you think you're doing in the middle of the week and in the middle of the day?"
As if they had done anything even on the weekends or any night in general since the last 6 months. Aditya almost wanted to facepalm himself.
Pooja listened to his question and got up from the bed slowly continuing her trajectory by walked towards him.
"I wasn't there for our anniversary, this is my way of making it up to you."
Little did she know, she wasn't the one who needed to make up for something. Aditya smiled, nonetheless because he appreciated her attempt to try and bring the passion back in the marriage. He held Pooja by her waist as she traced her fingers across his chest and started unbuttoning his uniform. She pushed off his jacket and tightened her grip around his neck.
Aditya leaned in to kiss Pooja and as he inched closer to her face with closed eyes, somewhere from within, a sort of hesitance started taking over his mind.
Why am I being hesitant? I wasn't hesitant last night when it was actually required, for god's sake!
He guessed that Pooja had gotten the hint since she took it upon herself to make the night special and even though Aditya had paused, she continued to lean in. Her lips brushed his, ever so slightly and his head clouded with flashbacks.
A face, a very beautiful one, with soft wavy hair and big doe eyes appeared in his mind's eye. It stayed for a second and was quickly replaced by flashes of today's morning, the moment he realised his biggest mistake.
That's when Aditya jerked Pooja's hand away and took a step away from her. He couldn't do it. He just couldn't make love to Pooja with another woman's face in his head and a blanket of guilt enveloping him. He wanted to curse himself for disappointing Pooja and her shocked expression made it even worse for him to look her in the eye.
He murmured, "I umm... I am very tired, sorry." And walked off with that statement. He didn't have the courage to look back at Pooja's reaction because he knew he had broken her heart, just like he had broken her trust.
He proceeded out towards the balcony through living room and laid down on the lounging chair that was kept there. It was a spot for him to unwind and relax but in that moment, he could hardly do that.
As he was seeking to just lie down on the chair, he heard the notification bell of his phone. It was a message from his brother, Arjun, asking him to send any pictures he had of them together from the night before, at the party. Aditya really didn't want to look back at anything from the night before but he knew that Arjun would be after his life until he sent him the pictures so he decided to open his gallery and scroll through the camera roll to see if there was anything there.
As soon as he opened his camera roll, he saw the same face he had visualised before. Aditya jerked up, realising it was a video of the woman he had spent the night with. His mind ran through the possibilities of what part of the night could be in the video. With trembling hands and a breath held in, he tapped on the video.
Sounds of giggles rang in his ears as the woman laughed in the video. It seemed from the angle, like Aditya was on top of her when he made the video. She laughed like a little kid and it was definitely one of the most adorable things Aditya had ever seen.
The woman in the 10 second long video, looked up at Aditya and asked in what seemed like a tipsy voice, "What are you doing, Adi?"
A smile made its way to his lips listening to her voice and seeing how genuinely beautiful she looked. She was naked, although the camera captured her only till her shoulders. Aditya noticed that and ignored it since he was more interested in her how cute she was acting.
"Do you know how beautiful you are, Zoya?" Aditya heard his own voice in the video. "Oh wait, it's a video" and he heard himself joining her in the laughter. The video ended within 2 seconds of him saying that.
"Zoya," Aditya remembered her name and said it out loud, thanks to the video. The smile grew for a second looking at how gorgeous she had been but it faded away quickly as the memories of what exactly had gone down the night before came rushing back to him.
And that's how he remembered...
________
Zoya sat on the bed listening to Yash talking about his work as her mind wandered in her own inner turmoil. Ever since, Yash had come home, Zoya had been aloof. She was sure he noticed but chose to engross in a conversation so he could get her to talk, probably. But she was busy trying to recollect what had happened.
"Pooja, Aditya Hooda's wife? Zoya, you obviously remember her... right?"
That pulled her out of her vortex of thoughts. The names of Pooja and Aditya Hooda were almost painful to hear now.
But Zoya managed to respond, "What about her?"
Yash looked at her, surprised. She guessed it was probably because of her sudden reaction.
"My vendor managed the decorations for Pooja's event also. He got to know that Pooja had to stay in Goa till pretty much early morning. Apparently, some conflict broke out among the hosts of the exhibition and it was a whole money related drama she had to deal with." He came towards the bed and sat down in front of Zoya as he held her hand before continuing, "I'm glad you made it back in the evening so I could spend time with you. I'm sorry about what happened last night."
Zoya looked up at Yash with an odd expression. The information that seemed new in the moment also gave her a dj vu. She had heard this before. Somebody had told her this story before, but who?
Aditya Hooda, it was definitely him.
One thought led to another and slowly, their conversation and all the missing pieces started coming together.
That's how she remembered what had happened the night before...
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