TejAng: Alone Protects Me

Chapter 6

Two months later:

Angad walked into his fav cafe to meet his old friend, Dr.Mishti. She was not just friend but she was 'the mom' of his friends group.Mishti, Arjun and Angad studied in same school and later pursued their own careers but always stayed in touch. After Arjun's death Mishti took care of his therapy sessions helped him overcome his trauma. He was always grateful for her help when he came to know she gave birth to a baby his happiness had no bounds. He wanted to meet that little munchkin and play with him.

Mishti and her husband, Ashwin entered the cafe with the newborn, the baby looked so cute. Angad took baby boy in his arms and adored him. Ashwin received a call from his boss which he had to attend,he had to be a part of an impromptu meeting from client's side so he took the baby with him and rushed to his car to get back to home.

Mishti before entering the cafe observed how Angad's eyes lingered onto the blank space he was wearing a tracksuit instead of his tailored suit. He looked dull and upset and she is well aware of this look he had. He must've done something stupid to be in this state. As always he never speak about his worries and what he is going through unless someone pester him which is kind of annoyingly baby like behaviour for a grown up man.

"You know Aarav has better communication than you have though he is months old. What happened to your suits? Did rats ran lose in you wardrobe or did you finally gave up on them?" She teased him.

"Not funny, I just don't feel like making effort at all. I just hate myself for what I do to others or myself. I am a mess." He started sharing his agonies. But he looked at Mishti who looked tired with all the sleepless nights due to Aarav.

"I am all ears, tell me what happened to you since we last met Angad." She said being concerned.

"I was doing so well man! My Work-life was perfect 10, I decided to do something more so checked out few mails written to me personally by few start-ups. One was from a village very near to my hometown so I decided to meet them in person and was super impressed with the ideas of the woman who wrote it Tejo. She has this vision for her academy and was intelligent enough to achieve it but lacks financial support which I agreed to provide. I didn't want to get into her personal life but I felt so sorry for her situation in the party we arranged after we signed the deal. Her husband Fateh cheated on her with her own sister Jasmine who tried to make that party into her engagement party. She was mentally very strong to put up a smile in such situations, I tried to cheer her up she does put up a smile but deep down she is not happy. 

I packed my bags to Shimla to meet the lawyer about Riya's custody but Tejo made a visit to my house and asked me to help her as she was in a fix. She wanted to do a fake engagement and requested me to act like a fiance because her ex- FIL wanted her to settle first."

Angad was interrupted by Mishti, "you said No right.." . Angad didn't look at the Mishti eye to eye. He stirred the cup of Espresso and continued to narrate the events. Mishti rolled her eyes as she understood he said yes when he was struggling to even look at her. 

The dreaded marriage of her sister and ex-husband happened, Tejo had a huge breakdown I was the sole witness and when she asked for help to move on I agreed and asked her to come with me to Shimla.Riya escaped from school and I just couldn't handle her tantrums. Tejo took care of her and they bonded really well but everything started to fall apart since then. I lost Riya's custody to her Nani, I was completely devastated and I am glad that Tejo was by my side and took care of me. That old woman not only held me responsible for the accident she also told Tejo that I actually murdered them.I discovered her sister doing shady things for money and tried to mock some sense into her. The marriage of her sister and ex-husband was fake and he did all this to teach Jasmine a lesson for trying to Destroy everyone's life and especially Tejo's life. Everyone reunited in Gurdwara and believe me when I say this but I felt so alone when I saw them together. I Just wanted to pack my bags and run to London but then I stayed, honestly it was ages since our home was filled with guests, I kind of liked it and I am the host , I can't run away so I stayed in the office till late night, it's the only place which keeps me sane and I expected everyone sleeping by that time but when I returned home and saw Tejo waiting for me I was so moved. I was going through emotional high I guess, I can't recall a single thing we discussed but I can never forget what I felt that time." He had this goofy smile during those last two sentences by which Mishti assumed he was in love with this girl Tejo.