Previously on...
AR roam around Paris.
So much love! <3333333
Chapter 44
"That
feels so good!" Riddhima moaned as the
masseuse gave her a massage.
"I
can't believe you've never had one before," Emma commented.
Riddhima just shrugged as best as she could.
"Massages
can be very good, you know. And in our profession, they are kind of a must. It
relaxes you. And with all the pressure and frustration that's a part of our daily job, we need to relax and unwind."
"Hmmm..."
"I
must say, that man of yours is a sweetheart! Get us a full day of pampering and
all that. Nice."
Riddhima smiled. It was true. Armaan had arranged for the
two of them to spend some time together and getting pampered while doing so.
He'd been doing that since
morning. She woke up with breakfast in bed, prepared by yours truly, of course.
When she was done, a bath was already drawn for her and clothes placed in the
bathroom.
When she asked him why he was pampering her so much, he just
shrugged, kissed her and told her that he loved her. After, her bath, she was
informed that Emma wanted for them to spend some time together, so that's what she would be doing before they
had their 'big date' as Armaan referred to it.
They had a spa appointment, first thing, which was where the
ladies were at present.
"He's quite amazing, isn't he?"
Riddhima asked rhetorically.
"He
is," Emma agreed. "I wish Ron would do stuff like this for
me at times. Don't get me wrong, Ron is an
absolute sweetheart and I love him and he loves me and we're happy, but he's kind of a dork with no means to
romance."
Riddhima giggled. "I
bet that's what made you fall for
him in the first place, isn't it?"
Emma laughed. "Yes,
it is."
"He's just amazing. And he does all these
little things, you know. He always listens, he knows how to make me laugh and
he supports me in everything. And, he's
the best father. Seeing him with Rose absolutely melts my heart. She's his world, you know."
Riddhima smiled. "He
sounds like a very good husband."
"He
is. I don't know what I'd do without him. He's just so put together, you know? He makes
me feel safe and protected all the time."
"Yeah?
Tell me more about him."
"He's a dork. And a history buff, which is
a good thing as he teaches History at the high school in our town. He loves
playing chess. And he's absolutely great at it.
In all these years that I've known him, he's never lost a game. Like any guy, he's obsessed with soccer. And..." Emma trailed off when she saw Riddhima
looking at her.
"What?" She asked.
"What?"
"Why
are you looking at me like that?"
"Nothing.
Just seeing how in love you are."
Emma blushed.
"Enough
about me. Tell me about you guys."
"What's there to tell?" Riddhima asked. "You already know everything."
"Not
really. I know that you love each other, a
lot. And that you've been through many
hardships to get where you are today."
"Armaan
and I are like that typical couple from those rom - com movies," Riddhima began.
"Really?"
"Yeah.
We started on the wrong foot. Couldn't
stand the sight of each other. We fought a lot. Played pranks on each other.
Never missed an opportunity to show the other down."
"You
and Armaan? Didn't get along? Seems hard to
believe."
Riddhima laughed.
"It's the truth. We fought all the damn
time. But, somewhere in between those fights, our feelings grew into something
totally different, and before we could realize what was happening, we'd fallen in love. It took sometime to
realize that the feeling was actually love, even longer to let ourselves
believe that it could happen and then longer to actually confess those
feelings. But then we did, and we were happy. Armaan was - is
- the most amazing person I've ever met. He's smart, handsome, charming, loving and
funny. He's loyal to a fault and he's passionate about everything he does.
He's just the kind of guy you
fantasize about finding. Your one ture love. And I had mine."
"Sounds
like a fairytale," Emma commented.
"I
wish. Apart from all this, there were just so many complications. So many half - truths and lies and fights. Soemtimes
I felt like all of it was dream. That actually having a life with Armaan was
not something that could be real. But, Armaan is one stubborn guy. He never
gave up on us. Not for a second. Despite of how lost I've gotten, or how confused or ignorant
I've been, he's been my rock. Always there.
Supporting me. Encouraging me. Making me believe in myself, in him and in the
possibility of us."
"It
is a fairytale. Armaan loves you a
lot, Ridzy. You're really a lucky girl."
"I
know. But, enough about me. Tell me about how you met Ron."
"We
met in college. It was a blind date, sort of."
"No
way! A blind date?"
"Yeah,
my room mate was friends with a friend of his. They kind of set us up. We'd both been too involved in school to
get out much, but then Evie insisted that go out on the weekends. And on one
such Saturday, she barged in and told me that I was going on a date with the
guy who she knew was perfect for me."
"What
did you say?"
"What
do you think I said? I straight up refused. Told her to take her stupid ideas
elsewhere because I wasn't interested at all."
"How
did you end up going then?"
"One
thing you should know about Evie is that she's
a manipulative bitch. She's got the talent of getting
anything done the way she wants it."
"Oh."
"Yeah.
So, I went. And Ron was there. He bought me a bunch of lilies. He was so nervous that night. He ended up
dropping the flowers, spilling water all over the floor and dropping food on
his clothes," Emma said, laughing.
"Wow!"
"I
know, right. So, after the date, I sort of apologized to him."
"Apologized?
Why?"
"You
know, I figured he must have been forced into it, like I was. And I thought
that maybe he was doing stuff purposely so that I'd
think it was a bad date and we wouldn't
have to see each other again. And I told him that. And then I told him that I
understood if that was the case and he didn't
need to be so horrible."
"What
did he do?"
"He
kissed me."
"Seriously?"
Emma nodded. "He just straight up kissed
me, square on the mouth. And it was the best kiss of my life."
Riddhima giggled. "And
then?"
"He
said that I talked entirely too much. And that all that happened wasn't because he didn't want to be there, it was because he
thought I was insanely beautiful - those were his exact words
- and that he got nervous
around beautiful women."
Riddhima couldn't
help the Aww' that escaped.
"He
asked me to be his girl that night and the rest is history."
"You
guys are absolutely cute! I have to meet him and see the two of you together in
person."
"Soon,
hopefully."
Riddhima nodded.
After the massage, they went for a mani - pedi at the salon followed by a
haircut.
After that, Emma decided they absolutely needed to go to that one coffee shop
that sold the best coffee in the history of coffees. So, they went.
They were talking and merry making, when Riddhima said, "I want to talk to you about something."
"Yeah,
sure. What?"
"It's about Armaan."
"What
about him?"
"I
want to know about his treatment,"
she said, her voice resolute.
"Riddhima,
I don't think it's a good idea," Emma started.
"Emma,
please. I need to know. I've put it off for a long time, but I need
to know about it. It's constantly on my head.
This feeling of not knowing, of not being there. I want to know. Please."
Emma sighed. "I understand."
"Good,
then tell me, please. And Emma, please be truthful with me, okay? I trust you.
And I know that ut was really difficult for Armaan to go through with it, but
whenever I've tried to talk about it,
he just makes a light comment and moves on. But, I want the whole truth. All
the gory details, okay? I can take it."
Emma nodded.
"Firstly,
you have to understand that this is going to be difficult for you. There's a reason that Armaan thinks that that
part of his life is better left unsaid and while I understand his reasons, I
believe that you deserve to know the truth. So, I'm
going to tell you. Everything."
Riddhima nodded gratefully.
"Thank
you."
"When
Armaan came to us, his condition wasn't
really all that good. He'd been working with a
nuerologist from Delhi and we were familiar with the case because Dr. Hooda had
contacted us about it and we'd exchanged some notes.
When his treatment wasn't effective enough, Dr.
Hooda sent Armaan to Canada, to LifeCare. Dr. Silas his case. Soon into the
treatment, it became clear that majority of the reason that nothing seemed to
work was because Armaan wasn't trying hard enough. It
was as if something was holding him back. Like his heart wasn't in it. So, Dr. Silas suggested
therapy and asked me to take on his case. When we started, I tried to talk him a lot. But, Armaan, he never said
anything. Not a single freakin' word. I tried everything
that I could, but he never spoke. We didn't
know what to do. When nothing seemed to work, Dr. Silas put Armaan under a ton
of medicines, hoping for some results. But, nothing came of it. If anything,
his condition seemed to worsen. Though, his nerves were healing, his brain was
going into a state of depression. The only effective way to combat it was to
get him to talk, but he refused. After a while, any sort of treatment stopped
giving any results. So, he insisted on leaving. We tried to stop him, to make
him understand that he needed to heal before leaving. But, you know how Armaan
is. The stubborn mule that he is, he left. Went to that village, I guess."
"You
let him leave?" Riddhima asked, feeling
both mad and surprised.
Emma sighed. "It was complicated,
Riddhima. We tried as hard as we could. But we can't forcefully retain a patient,
especially when the chances of any improvement in his conditions were almost
none. So, we let him go. I didn't like it. I didn't like it one bit. But there was only
so much Dr. Silad and I could do. We moved on, hoping for the best for him.
But, I wasn't able to forget about it
completely. I tried to keep tabs on him, but he was difficult to get in touch
with. Then, one day he was standing at my door, begging for an appointment. I
was so surprised, I didn't know what to do. But, I
took him in and called Dr. Silas. He insisted on getting admitted, saying he
wanted to try again and this time he'd
do it our way. We had him hospitalized immediately and I booked him in the
first available slot. That appointment, he didn't
really talk again. He spent majority of his time sobbing. I tried to calm him
down, to get him to talk to me but he just kept mumbling "Sorry, Basket." Of course, I didn't know about you then, so I was
confused as to what he was saying. After the session, I went to Dr. Silas to
talk to him and told him I thought that Armaan had started to lose his mind
because he was apologizing to a basket. I recommended we put him in the
psychiatric ward immediately, but Dr. Silas suggested that we give him some
time. He thought that something drastic must have happened for him to come back
and willingly comply to all procedures he was so adamant not to go through with
just a few months ago. Those first few appointments, he literally spent them
crying. It was so heartbreaking, Riddhima. He would try to say something, but
nothing ever came out apart from choked sobs. It was enough for me to
understand that something really drastic and damaging had happened to him. I'll admit that even I cried sometimes on
seeing him. When he'd had a particularly bad
day, his sobs would be absolutely gut wrenching. One can only take in so much,
you know. It took him some while, but he finally started talking. He told us
about how you guys were supposed to get engaged and the shoot out that night.
About how you stepped in front of a bullet for him and he left you," Emma sighed. She stopped for a little
while, knowing that Riddhima needed sometime to process everything.
"He
really feels guilty about that, you know. About how you gave up his life for
him. And he left."
"He
shouldn't. He was only trying to
protect me."
"I
know. But, he feels absolutely terrible about it. He feels like absolute shit
for leaving you in the time that you needed him the most and he wasn't there. More so, he hates himself for
lying to you. For making you feel like he didn't
appreciate what you did for him, when in truth he did. He owes his life to you
and he's so grateful to have you.
But, he felt like a coward, for not moving sooner, for not being able to save
you. And he absolutely loathes the fact that you got hurt when you were
protecting him. He's said that he really wished to be at
the receiving end of that bullet countless times."
Riddhima gasped on hearing this. "He told me that was the reason why he
wasn't obeying what we were asking
him to do. Because he hated himself and he didn't
think he deserved to get better after everything that he'd put you through. He felt like the
vilest person for a very long time. The self hatred and guilt literally tore
him apart in all those months. I'm pretty sure had it not
been for his parents, he would have tried to kill himself just to get rid of
the guilt he felt."
Much as she tried, Riddhima couldn't stop the tears that flowed
continuously as she heard about Armaan's
struggle.
"We
talked a lot about you. He told us about how you were the kindest, sweetest,
most loving person he'd ever met and how he never
felt worthy of you. His eyes brightened whenever he spoke about you and his
face glowed. It was the happiest he would be. He told me about how he found you
in his cottage and how he came to know that you'd
been looking for him. He told me that that was when he decided to come back to
finish his treatment. That he had a reason to get better now that he knew you
still loved him and that you were waiting for him."
"He
wanted to get better for me?" Riddhima asked, amazed.
"You
were the only reason he pulled through everything, Riddhima. The thought of
getting back to you was what drove Armaan. If it hadn't been for you, he would still be at
the hospital, trying."
"I
don't know what to say to that."
"Riddhima
that boy loves you from the bottom of his heart. He looks at you like you hung
the moon and stars. He is completely, madly in love with you and there's nothing he wouldn't do for you."
"I
know."
"So
getting better isn't all that surprising. We
helped as much as we could, but this is all on Armaan. He was determined. While
his heart wasn't in it earlier, on coming
back, he put all of his heart, mind and body into pressure for healing. It was
amazing to watch. The amount of perseverance that he possesses is hard to come
by these days. He was strong and he was determined and he achieved what he
wanted to. Of course, the road to getting there was incredibly difficult. There
were days when his mind would give up. We had many setbacks, a few relapses,
but he pulled through. I know that whenever something bad happened, he would
chant your name like mantra. All you could hear from his mouth was Basket'.
I'm pretty sure he gained
strength from that. I think he could imagine your face. Imagine you waiting for
him to come back to you, silently praying for it. So, he thought about you,
about getting back to you, when it got tough."
Riddhima was sobbing by now. Of course she knew that Armaan
loved her. That was no secret. But, the amount of confidence and trust that he
placed in her, in their relationship was something she couldn't put into words. (Neither can I for
that matter. I can't put it in words.) He had
gotten better only for her. So that he could come back to her. And he had felt
so much of guilt and fear. She never really thought about it. Come to think of
it, had the situations been reversed, she surely would have died of guilt. Was
this one of the reasons that Armaan was hesiatating to propose? Because he
still felt guilty about everything?
"Riddhima,
I know this is difficult, but you wanted to know,"
Emma whispered, bringing her out of her thoughts.
"I
know. It just blew me away, I guess."
Emma nodded.
"You
know, just when I think that I've seen it all. Seen how
much Armaan loves me, something happens to show me just how wrong I was and
that he loves me infinitely more than I thought."
"That's a good thing, I hope."
"It's amazing."
Emma smiled.
"Riddhima,
from what Armaan's told me about you, I know
that you feel miserable right now, knowing all the pain Armaan was in for those
months. But, I need you to understand that that's
not on you, okay?"
"I'll try. It's just really hard for me to see him in
pain, you know? I just really love him."
"You
should show him," Emma suggested.
"What?"
"I
know you love him. He knows you love him. But, at times it's necessary to show, not just tell. I
think after today, you both need that. Showing each other that you love."
Riddhima contemplated what she'd
said for a minute.
"You're right,"
she finally acknowledged. "I really need him right
now."
"Come
on, then. You've got to show someone how
much you really love him."
Riddhima grinned and nodded. Together, they left the caf.
Riddhima needed to feel Armaan in her arms, tangible proof
that he was here, with her and that he wasn't
going away. She needed his arms around her when she told him just how much he
meant to her and how much she loved him. Because she loved him a whole lot. And
he needed to know just how much.
xxx
Happy ILYLTF Birthday, you guys!
I started posting thins one year ago, today!
Frankly speaking, when I first started, I never ever thought that I'd get such an amazing response from you guys!
But, I did.
You people are absolutely amazing! And I love you! <3
This chapter is dedicated to each and every one of you who have been reading this. Special mentions to Humz, Bunny, Megs and the gang who have been here since day one, even before that!
Humz, the one who pestered me to post it here, I love you, babes! <3 This wouldn't have been possible without you.
And, of course, Happy Birthday Paki! As much as this belongs to everybody, it's more special for you, because it's your birthday! And you post huge ass comments on all chapters going into detail about each and everything that happened. I love that!
And also, you were the one who wanted to read the most about Armaan's time away. So what better day than today?
I love you! <3
Also, I have other exciting news! I'm featuring in the Wattpad Block Party this February! It's this awesome party where people from all over Wattpad come to read posts by their favourite authors all month long!
And I'm a part of it! Huzzah! It's so exciting!
Be sure to check it out -
The Wattpad Bloack Party
Please vote and comment!
Love you guys!
Happy ILYLTF birthday once again!
comment:
p_commentcount