Promised Love

31. The Showdown

It's been two days to the whole Vikrant incident. Me and Abhimanyu haven't spoken much about that topic, skirting around the issue and almost avoiding it. I even texted Vikrant asking him if he is okay yesterday but he hasn't responded. I have a feeling he isn't able to process what happened either.

Sometimes I feel guilty of shutting off his advances that day in the car. But then I have another thought telling me to not be sorry at all. It was wrong of him to come at me like that and all I did was let him know that I was not interested. I did nothing wrong.

"Accha Listen, Kunal's mom suggested the bestest name ever..." Trisha starts.
I give her my undivided attention as I stuff some fries into my mouth.

"What?"

"Lalit." She makes a distasteful face.

A laugh bubbles out of me. "I'm sure your baby will be too cute to be a Lalit."

"I know right!" She sighs. "I told Kunal to deal with her. She's been sending me names like Punit and Jamwal. All this has made me hundred percent sure that Kunal's dad must have named him. Or Jyoti Khanna would have named my Kunal, Lankesh."

I chuckle.

"Anyway, you got anymore good names yet?" She asks, stealing my fries. I swat her offending hand.

"Ayaan is still my top one. And oooh! I really like the name..." I trail off to keep the suspense alive and Trisha looks at me expectantly.
"Lalit." I laugh.

Her face morphs from one of excitement to anger. "Fuck off." She says rolling her eyes.

"Please your reaction was hilarious!"

"Yeah sure."

"Ok ok, but in all seriousness....I can't wait to see you with a full on pregnant belly." I state.

"Hmmm?" Trish takes a bite from her pizza and wiggles her eyebrows. "I bet I'll be the hottest pregnant woman."

"You bet your ass you will be."

Rolling her eyes she waves a fry, "But I am so no excited for the labour pains. The mood swings and random cravings have already started affecting me." She scowls, "You wait till you get pregnant, Saanvi. You'll understand how horrible it is. I mean I love my baby and all but still."

I raise my hands in surrender, "Yeah nothing like that is happening for atleast the next five years."

Trisha looks at me with a mischievous glint. "I mean...you are married. Have you talked to your husband about kids and all."

I smile sarcastically. "Yes totally. And we have planned to never ever consummate our marriage."

Hearing my answer, her smile falters. "Saanvi...." Her eyes water, all thanks to the pregnancy hormones. "I know you guys got married under...well unfavourable circumstances. But something has changed now. Shouldn't you just tell him?"

I withdraw my hand from her grip and hold her stare. "I don't know what you are talking about. Nothing has changed. I still hate him."

"You never hated him." She says plainly.

I have half a mind to argue with her and reaffirm that I do hate him. But this is Trisha we are talking about. She knows me better than anyone. "Fine. But I disliked him."

"Yeah... because he said all those things about you and got together with that back stabbing bitch Nitya."

Her words transport me back to that fateful evening. I gulp.
"Is it my fault though? Abhimanyu never ever cared about me. I mean sure, if you go by what dad said then he probably had a silly crush on me. But that was probably stupid teenage hormones and nothing else. My feelings ran deep, Trish. I loved him."