Relationship Status - It's complicated

Chapter 2 - I am fine

Shiv 

The drive on the way back from court wasn't easy.  I had never imagined that my marriage with Shikha would end in divorce. We were college best friends who fell in love and waited to convince our parents for marriage. During the wait period, I also completed my masters when finally Shikha's parents and my father as my mother is no more gave us their blessing to get married. We were 26 then. Of the 8 years of our married life, 5 years very absolutely blissful. It was like Shiv and Shikha were inseparable, madly in love, happy with life and crazy for each other. Things were never the same after what happened in that fateful accident almost 5 years ago. 

I was jolted back to reality when my phone started ringing. I know I shouldn't be answering the phone while driving, but technology has progressed. My phone was connected to the car bluetooth and I didn't have to do a thing except for press a button on the steering wheel of the car. I saw the caller name on the little screen attached to the panel. It was Jai Jeeja , husband of my lovely elder sister. He and I had become the best of buddies since their marriage. I did call him Jeeja (short for Jeejajee used to address sister's husband) out of respect though. I immediately answered the call

"Shiv, All done bro?" He asked, I didn't have to second guess what he was asking for. That was the friendship/realtionship we shared. 

"Done and dusted. I can't help feeling bad." I responded with a sudden pang in my heart. 

"Don't worry, we will fix you. Your flight is on time, I already checked. So, please check in before the gates close. Okay?" He asked.

"Yes, I will be at the airport on time. Can't wait to meet Shivani and our little princess Riya" I replied and then added "I will see you tonight Jeeja. I need to talk to Harshit and Papa before I leave"

I had a small smile on playing on my lips as I put my phone down. Riya was around 10 years old and my absolutely adorable niece. Shivani was truly blessed to have married Jai. An arranged marriage that had given us many relations and a beautiful family for Shivani. 

Driving and thinking, I had reached my apartment building parking very soon. It was past 2pm. Pushing the buttons on elevator, I entered the apartment to see my younger brother who was not so young now (he was 28 years old after all), moving around the kitchen with headphones plugged in. Urrghh, I had forgotten. The maid who cooked us lunch and dinner was not coming in today and had informed via phone. I had forgotten to inform Harshit atleast.

"Harshit, what are you doing ?" I asked.

"Cooking for us bhai. The maid hasn't come" He replied. 

"But why are you home? I thought you will be in office with Papa and I forgot to inform you that maid will not come today" I didn't like this. This meant Papa was all alone. He really needed to quit working so hard now that he had two adult sons to take care of the house.  

"Bhai, Papa sent me home to be with you." He looked at me with puppy eyes. Shivani and Harshit and both got my mothers eyes whereas I had my Dad's eyes.

He wiped his hands on the kitchen cloth and came over to hug me. I hugged him back and muttered a quiet "Thank you!". 

"I will get changed. Don't worry out on the cooking. We can order something!"  I asked him to also call Papa and ask him to come early. Since it was anyways a holiday in the country that we were currently dealing with, we could afford to give time off to our small group of employees and also close down office early. 

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Harshit had managed to cook dal and rice and had warmed up some frozen roti's. We had ordered butter chicken from nearby restaurant. All the three of us which is me, Papa and Harshit could cook basic items. It was something we had to learn after Shivani's marriage. Dadi would insist on us to learn ever since mom passed away so that our sister wouldn't be burdened but we had been lazy and had let Shivani and my dadi manage the cooking. Dadi would frequently visit us from Punjab and often stayed months together. Papa had insisted on her staying with us permanently but she said she found peace only in her and Dadaji's home. We learnt basic cooking only after we were left with no options. Things with cooking didn't change when I got married, Shikha would rarely cook. I didn't mind as it was never supposed to be only ladies work to cook. We all should know how to cook. It's just that with our busy schedules, we couldn't keep up with it all the time and hiring a maid was easy in a desi country.