kalyanam mudhal kadhal varai

Chapter 40 - Staying away?

Days quickly passed on, it was more than 5 months after their marriage. For the first few days they were happy and their bond visibly grew more than friendship which made Shalini worry. 

By each day passing, Shalini herself felt that something was not right with her. She started expecting things from him like for him to care for her, or spend a lot of time with her or even imagining a future with him and immediately realizing the reality and cursing herself for it. When she understood that she was getting attracted to him she hated herself for it. She was sure of giving him divorce after a few months in her mind but her heart kept going towards him. She was confused with her feelings for him. She was literally fighting a war between her heart and her mind. 

She was not able to be normal and friendly with her unexplainable feelings so decided to stay away from him to get hold of her feelings but it was difficult doing it when he was around her and he got upset whenever she stayed away from him. 

When she thought her feelings were getting out of control she decided to stay away from him. She told everyone at Arjun's house that she was missing her family and needed to spend time with them and said she is interested in staying with them for a few days. Everyone agreed with her and she visited her parents and her brother and stayed there for 10 days. 

She tried her best to avoid Arjun. She did not call him or message him by herself; she only attended his calls and replied to his messages. It was more difficult for her than she thought but she did it. She thought this was good for both of them. Her parents were worried for her sudden visit and stay, that too alone without Arjun but she convinced them that she was missing them a lot and the reason for Arjun not visiting them was his hectic office schedule which was a partial truth. 

On the other hand Arjun was happy when they were in good terms as 
" friends'' or at least he thought that they were only friends. But the immediate change of Shalini's behavior when she tried to avoid him made him upset. Arjun was totally confused with her behavior, when one day she tried to avoid him and being normal the next day after knowing that he was upset. Arjun's confusion grew when she showed interest in staying at her parents house suddenly from nowhere. Arjun even asked her if he had done anything wrong that she suddenly wanted to visit her parents but she convinced him saying that she was missing them terribly and wanted to spend some time with them. Arjun insisted on accompanying her but she stopped him saying it would be difficult for him to go to the office from her house.

Arjun felt a void whenever he returned home from office, especially their room which was filled with her presence , her giggles and laughter now looked lifeless. He was terribly missing her and even the thought that he should once again experience all these after their divorce did cross his mind. Even the thought of divorce did not cross his mind. The only thing his heart wanted was her presence , her laughter , her silly banters with him back.

Shalini decided to leave her house after ten days when she felt that her parents were starting to get worried. She did not want them to go through this worry pre-handedly as she knew they had to experience it once again after a few months. She thought to handle her feelings by herself and not make her parents worry by staying back.

On a Sunday she asked her brother to drop her at home not wanting to disturb Arjun. Her brother dropped her and left for urgent work. She entered the house and was greeted by Vishwa , Jaya and Sruthi . Jaya and Vishwa left the house for work after sometime. She settled herself on the couch beside Sruthi and automatically her eyes searched for Arjun even though she did not wish to. That is when a girl who would be 2 years less than her age whom she saw once during their wedding ran down the stairs . The girl smiled at Shalini and she smiled back.

" hi akka" she said smiling warmly at Shalini.

Shalini: hi .. She said smiling.

Sruthi: Shalini ithu abi.. Enga athai ponu ..vinoth oda chithi ponnu. ( the one I introduced in typical relative chapter)