The Boxes We Are Put In

Epilogue

Two years later...

The year 2020, March

"Your Mojito, Ma'am," The bartender slid the drink to me. I took a sniff and said, "Excuse me, Sorry... I had ordered Virgin. Yeah, no alcohol for me."

"Oh, I am sorry." The bartender took the drink away.

"Are you sure you want a virgin?" I heard a familiar voice. I turned around to find Zahara. I smiled at her. I was in Goa for Zahara's wedding

Zahara came to hug me, "Damn, I missed you, babe." She crooned.

"Yeah, and that is why you did not invite me to your wedding?" I asked her.

I had lost touch with these friends after my marriage. But I did feel hurt when Zahara called me to inform me that she is getting married in a week. It was such short notice. But it worked since I did not work these days. These days, I travel a lot. And write about my travels. They are not travelogues exactly, just some memories and experiences. Nik does travel with me sometimes, but I need some time alone too. And my therapist says travel is good for me. . I planned to stay longer for a few weeks in Goa.

"I am sorry, Arya. But Darshan asked me not to invite you. Especially...." Zahara said. "He insisted."

Oh...

"And I figured.... You know... you want to stay away from all 'bad habits." She said. "You even ordered a non-alcoholic drink."

Yeah. I was trying to keep clean of any habits. But that did not mean I could not be invited to Zahara's wedding.

"And I guess it would be weird for you to see Darshan," Zahara said.

"No, actually...." I said. "Is he here? I would love to see how he is doing."

"Oh, he is here." She said. "You will see him at the wedding. And I have not told him that you will be coming." Zahara was there to order wine for her wedding. Zahara was getting married to a Christian in Christian style. The guy was born and brought up in Goa, and hence Goa.

We caught up and talked about the new news of some sort of virus spreading in the world. Talked about how people are getting very panicked and do we need to panic.

Darshan looked nice. He was dressed in a white suit. He was the Groom's man at the wedding. He had looked clean and nice. I walked to him and asked. "How are you?"

"Why are you here?" he asked. He was super surprised to see me.

"Way to greet someone," I said. He kept looking at me for a while. Awkwardly, I opened my arms. He took a moment, but then awkwardly hugged me.

"How are you?" I asked.

"I am good, Arya." He said, in a soft genuine voice. He seemed happy to see me. And he seemed to be doing good. "Alone?" he asked.

"Hm," I nodded.

"Mr Nice Guy?"

"You are still calling him that? He has a name...."

"Yeah. Whatever." Darshan said. "How is he?"

"Good."

"Hm.... Good.... Eh..." he scratched his hair. "I want you to meet someone."

I blinked. "Diego," Darshan called someone. And I saw a non-Indian brown guy come to him. "This is Diego." Darshan introduced the young-looking guy to me. "My.... boyfriend."

Oh.... Okay.... Darshan turned to Diego, "Arya – Arjun's sister." And I think that was enough introduction for Diego. He broke into a smile and grabbed my hand. "So nice to meet you." He said.

As the day progressed, I could see how happy Darshan looked with Diego. Diego was Spanish, and 24-year-old and the two met in New York

"Hey, did you get your tattoo yet or not," Darshan asked me in the evening.

"No. You promised to take me to a tattoo shop, no? You did not keep your promise yet." I reminded him with a laugh.

That evening when I got out of the office building with Adi, Arya was waiting for me downstairs. She was wearing a pair of torn jeans and a worn-out black t-shit with her backpack. She was gone for so long that it was so nice to see her.

"This means I have to eat dinner alone today, right?" Adi asked with a laugh. His and my office are in the same building. His startup was doing great these days. I patted his back and moved on to meet Arya.

She jumped into my arms forgetting social conventions. But She was not supposed to be back for another week. That does not mean I was not glad to see her.

"Why are you back?" I asked her, ruffling her hair.

"Some virus spread going on." She complained in an annoyed voice. "If things get bad, I did not want to get stuck somewhere." I wadded off her stray hairs. She was doing so much better these days. Eating her medicine, and is a lot stable. The scars on her hand cannot even be seen now.

"I missed you." She edged up for a kiss. I looked around. She frowned and kissed my cheek. She was still very impulsive and adventurous sometimes. "I missed you too," I said.

"If the Corona thing gets bad, I think I will be home for a couple of months or something at least, I guess..." she said. I would be glad about that.

Later that night when I got home, Amma dropped the news of a full country lockdown because of Corona Virus. That was something that never happened in my memory.

Amma joked that if Arya is going to be home for a while, we should maybe make a baby. Arya shied away from that topic and I said I am too young to be a dad. In a couple more years maybe.

That night we dropped to the bed, Arya said, "I have a surprise for you." I sat up.

She carefully lifted her t-shit edge and showed her side. There was a letter 'A' tattooed on her side.

"A?" I asked. She nodded with enthusiasm.

"A for Arya?" I asked.

She shook her head. "A for Arjun." She said. I nodded I could get that.

"Also...." She said and put her hand on my shoulder and climbed onto my lap. She looked into my eyes and said, "A for Appu."

The END

(So that is it, readers. That is the end of Arya and Nikhil's story. 
I hope you enjoyed this novel. This story is very much near to my heart, and hence I hope you all will leave comments about your thoughts on it. And thank you for all the votes.)