Fear & Love

Fifty Nine

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Gita opened her eyes to see Anand working on a laptop in the bed. She looked at the clock and it was 7 AM. Did he not sleep?

He looked at her scanning eyes and answered her unasked question, "I had a meeting." Gita sighed. In the one and half year of her marriage, she was frustrated with his working ways. He didn't sleep enough and worked till unusual hours. He was married to his work and his company was his first love. She taunted him for it to which he cheekily replied, "No, my company is not my first love," he huskily whispered in her ears and she looked down, almost blushing.

"Architecture is my first love." He said and Gita's blush diminished in no time as she glared at him.

"Look baby, we are not important! Papa loves architecture, then his company, then me and last you!" Gita complained.

"A little change in the order, my dear. You are last, Gitanjali." Gita shrieked at his words while he laughed.

Shanti Didi and the other staff was happy to see her back at home. They told her how the house was too quiet and dull without her. She came to know that after she left, Anand was rarely home and used to eat out. He only asked them to keep the house clean. The question : Did he miss her as much as she missed him?, thought Gita.

Anand had informed her that he will be home today. Anand's definition of being home was a little or very different from others. Instead of office, he stayed in his study and did his meeting. But surprisingly today, he got free after lunch and dismissed the staff.

Gita came home from school just after an hour. As soon as she entered home, Anand saw her throw her bag on the couch and she was sprawled on the couch. He scrunched his nose at her act. He was very particular with things kept at their place. "Gitanjali, get up, wash your feet and keep your bag where it belongs." She jumped from her seat, startled by his voice. Whenever he is home, he is in study at this hour. If she knew he was out of his study, she would have never done this. Gita liked keeping things organised and clean but he was a neat freak. He was a neat freak and didn't like it even if the bedsheet had creases. She knew not to push his buttons, unnecessarily and kept her bag in its place after washing her feet.

His phone rang and she heard him talk on the phone. It seemed like he was pissed off for someone's incompetency in office. There was a lot of cursing in the conversation and Gita shut her eyes a little everytime she heard him say a bad word. She couldn't believe this same man, who was so livid on the call, had apologised to her yesterday?

He walked towards her after he was done with the call. "You look so tired. What happened?" Anand had not seen her this exhausted after work. 

"Today was tough! The kids had a fight and the parents were involved and so on..." She didn't even had it in her to continue the whole story. 

He looked at her intently, hesitating if he should say it or not. He was skeptical, knowing very well that his words could be taken in a wrong way but decided to say it.

"Quit your job..." It didn't come out as it was supposed to. Gita's eyes displayed shock at his words.

"I don't want you to take stress during the pregnancy. If you can continue from home, that's good."  Gita didn't respond to his words and went to their bedroom to freshen up. She came back from the closet to see Anand with his Mac in their bedroom. "Did you hear what I said a while back?" He hated not being acknowledged. 

"Anand, my job can not match the amount of stress you gave me in last few weeks!" She was unapologetic or polite about the truth. "You blamed me for helping your sister runaway, forcefully tried to make me drink so I could tell you about the pregnancy and cut Rohan's dad treatment!" His face scowled as she recounted his deeds. He got his answer, she was not going to quit. His head was down, he was remorseful for his acts.