Asad regretted coming here. The ocean, the beach, the sunset, the nature were all her domain. How was he supposed to keep her thoughts at bay? How was he supposed to relax here. He wished he hadn't made the impulsive decision to come here. Even after 20 years just her thought had the ability to turn his world upside down.
His schedule at the conference had been gruelling. In addition to being the key note speaker, he had attended countless meetings, had been wined and dined by clients and suppliers, signed a number of new contracts and more. He was completely and utterly beat. His business had grown tremendously over the years, Najma played a big role in running the business and was quite capable of taking over and reducing his workload but he preferred to remain completely immersed. Otherwise what was he going to do with himself? It was the business that had helped him keep his sanity, during the time when "she" run away with Ayaan, his brother, the night of their nikaah. And the business continued to keep him sane even today. The two people that mean the world to him had betrayed him to the core of his existence. Then Tanveer had begged him to save her from her ex-husband and marry her to give her child a name. He had done that but she too had betrayed him and run away with her lover and left him to raise her son. She had been lying to him all along. He and his friendship meant nothing to her. Turned out she was never married and her boyfriend had left her when she became pregnant. But when he came back she had no problem leaving Asad. Their divorce had been a relief and her son, Zaroon, a blessing that gave him a reason for going on when he had nothing left.
His flight back to Bhopal had been cancelled and while he was re-booking it at the travel agency, he had seen a brochure for this place and on impluse had booked a weekend trip here. And now he was at a beach front cottage, over looking a view that "she" had made so real, that coming here was like he was coming back to a beloved place. He could imagine her walking on the beach, the gentle breeze carressing her sun kissed skin, her hair blowing around her beautiful face, her toes delibrately digging into the sand as she walked. As if she could hear him she turned around and started walking back towards him. She smiled as if they had done this countless times before.
Suddenly she stopped in front of him and yelped, "you!"
He blinked to come out of the dream but she was still standing in front of him and he whispered around the frog in his throat, "you?"
Zoya couldn't believe that he was real, "Are you really here?"
Asad was equally shocked to see her, "you...you look exactly the same."
Zoya quickly looked down at herself to ensure that her shorts and loose t-shirt were covering her bikini clad body. She sighed in relief and said with a raised eyebrow, "hardly, it has been 20 years."
"I know."
"You didn't answer my question. Are you really here? and what are you doing here of all the places in the world?"
"I could ask you the same question. My flight got cancelled and I was free this weekend so decided to come here." He continued when he saw the familiar impatient look on her face.
"How is Tanveer? and your child? children?" She looked down as the question gave her a stab of pain.
"Son, his name is Zaroon. He is at university now. How is Ayaan?"
"He is great. They are looking after my daughter, Sara, she is 16."
Asad knew that she had married Ayaan but seeing the smile on her face when she mentioned her family still had the power to hurt him deeply. He realized that he had never recovered, the pain was as fresh as if everything had happened yesterday. He shouldn't have come here. He never expected to ever see her again let alone here. He should go home, he couldn't go back to the same black hole that he had fallen into after she left him.
Zoya couldn't believe that the thought of Asad and his family still had the power to cause her pain. She had forced herself to move on and put away all memories of him and his profound betrayal. Only she knew how deeply it had hurt knowing that Asad didnt love her enough, that he didnt trust and believe her. The person for whom she was willing to do anything, even die, put someone else ahead of her. Why was he here at her special place? Did he bring Tanveer here? She couldn't allow him to do this to her. She now knew that their relationship had been toxic, he had been abusive towards her, he would hurt her and then give her gifts and apologize. She would forgive him but then the cycle would start again. She had worked too hard to get over him and move on in life to allow him to bring her down. She had come here to rejuvinate not relive a dark part of her history.
Maybe it is good that he is here ... maybe it is a good test of her strength. It is only two days and after which she will be able prove to herself that she has actually moved on and she no longer felt anything for Asad.
"Well, enjoy your time here. It is beautiful. Goodnight." With that she quickly walked back to her unit and locked the door behind her.
"Goodnight". Asad frowned. That was it? Like strangers. The person who was the cause of him losing everything in life could treat him like he was nothing. If she can do it he can do it as well. It was only the weekend...only two days. He stood there watching her closed door for a while then slowly walked back to his unit.
Veer Hanuman
Anupamaa
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