IT WASN'T THAT SIMPLE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"Now tell me what happened?" Asked Ayesha as both of them settled down at a table.

"Er - two things. First, your parents have informed mine about the start-up."

"Then?" Ayesha.'s expressions changed drastically.

"Dad is furious and mom is upset. He things that I am fickle minded while she feels that I am an escapist and the worst part is that I think both of them are true. I have always tried to avoid tough conversations and I have given my dad enough reasons in the past to judge me indecisive in in nature. But I am not selfish. He feels that I think about nobody else but you and me. Do you think that's true?" Punit almost choked up.

Ayesha held his hand and said, "No, you are not. Don't be upset on what he said. He was angry and he had his reasons. We often say things in rage that we don't mean."

"It's not just dad. Even Sid thinks so."

"Sid?" Ayesha was flabbergasted. "How did Sid came in between you and your dad?"

Punit hesitantly replied, "He didn't. I had a verbal spat with him too."

Punit depicted her everything that happened between him and Sid and she wasn't impressed at all.

"What is wrong with you?" She snapped. "Why are you picking fights with everybody? Your dad came to know from somebody else that you, in spite of all his warnings, got involved in a business. Of course he is going to be angry! He has got all the reasons to be. You should have informed him if not discuss it with him. If you were lagging behind the task schedule, why didn't you ask Sid to help you out?"

"Because we are partners," mumbled Punit. "Sid was supposed to his part and I was supposed to do mine."

"Punit, this is not about ego. This is a golden opportunity for you guys to convert your idea into a reality."

"It's not about ego, it's about shame. Sid is already doing more than his part. He has left his job, developed eighty percent of the product and works on the idea day and night. After all of this, I feel ashamed to ask him to do my part of the task too."

"What the fuck are you? A kid?" Her irritation was clear in her voice. "You are a grown ass adult and it's high time for you to start acting like one. You are too shy to ask for Sid's help but you are ok jeopardizing the only opportunity that you guys ever had in so many years. If I was Sid, I would have smacked the head out of your shoulder."

"Believe me, I was going to complete the task. I didn't know that the deadline was till this morning."

"And whose fault is that? You are justifying your screw ups with dumb excuses and you want everybody to be ok with that?"

Punit didn't have any answer to that. He couldn't deny that it was too casual of him not to read the mail properly and that frustration was eating him from inside.

"You broke the news of our marriage to Sid in a fight. I can't believe it!" Stated Ayesha after a short-lived silence.

"I know..."

She didn't let him complete. "We are the closest that Sid has," she roared. "And I don't want him to push us away too."

"I know that," emphasized Punit. "I know that it's my fault and I should have handled it calmly. But I didn't and now I want you to help me. Please help me to sort this out."

Over a brief silence, Ayesha said, "You need to call your dad and apologize to him first." She wasn't yet done being upset with him.

Punit didn't stretch the conversation and called his father. He didn't answer the first time but he didn't give up. He called him the second time and that time he answered.