Just for one night

They meet again

Siya was not heartbroken because she didn't even know Raghav very well, but she realized the weight of the truth and how it will impact her future. Siya was not married so she still never had any thoughts about having kids but now when she knew that she could never have kids, her life felt extremely incomplete to her. She still couldn't forget that date with Raghav. It had been two weeks since then and she hadn't heard of him even once. There were times when she wanted to call him and see if they can make it work but all those plans were just fruitless. Raghav was a practical man he just took an easy escape from a very difficult situation, which his association with Siya would be. Then again, in moments of real clarity she would believe that he genuinely did like her, so somewhere he must be heartbroken too. She had to break her sad news to her aunt who was constantly trying to get Siya married. Siya had hoped that this would shut her up, but it did the opposite. She was now bombarded with matches of divorcees and widowers. Most of whom had kids of their own. Siya even met a few of them in a very short span. Every meeting would remind her of Raghav and push her into more depression.

It was early December; Siya was invited to her cousin Rohit's house. His wife was expecting their second baby and they wanted everyone to gather for a grand celebration. The party was two days later, Siya was called to discuss the arrangement. All her cousins were present. Rohit's father, who was also Siya's fathers' elder brother, was a filthy rich man and Rohit was his only son. When Siya entered the house there was already a big group gathered. The room was filled with noises of people chatting and kids playing. Siya felt lost already and to her good luck no one really bothered her much. Her luck didn't last long, she saw Raghav sitting at the dining table surrounded by Rohit and his relatives. Siya could easily identify his husky voice. She met Rohit's mother, touched her feet, and asked about her health. Rohit's mother introduced her to Raghav without missing to mention a couple of his accomplishments. He's been living in Australia and has come to see his mother in India. Siya managed to mumble a 'Hi" and escape the scene. The next couple of hours, she managed to stay away from Raghav. However, when it was time to eat, they were seated at the same table. Rohit was busy eating everybody's ear off which relieved Siya from making any kind of conversation. She was silent than ever today and kept her focus limited to the food... food that she barely could eat. Rohit interrupted her solace "Hey Siya, did you know Raghav works in your firm as well. But he is based out of Australia so you guys must be working in completely different circles". Before Siya could respond, Raghav intervened. It seemed to Siya that he wanted to set the records straight. Raghav said, "not really a different circle, in fact Siya and I work for common clients and do similar work". Rohit was surprised, he had never really bothered knowing about Siya's professional work profile before. He joked sarcastically "But still Raghav, you must be Siya's boss right!".

Siya was only a couple of months older to Rohit. They had basically grown up together, but they never got along not even when they were kids. Siya was always better than Rohit in studies and in everything. But today, Rohit was a multi-millionaire, or you can say a multi-millionaire's son with a great life, a great wife and two kids. This made him believe he was also much superior to Siya.

Siya decided not to respond to his stupid joke. Her ignorance enraged Rohit and he cracked another silly joke "Your boss is having dinner here, why don't you serve him some sweets". Siya was still quiet and trying to ignore this dumb conversation. Rohit pushed her again and again. He had a knack of taunting people in the disguise of lame jokes. Siya bluntly replied "why don't you shut the fuck up... I don't serve anyone!" and walked away. Siya had this one quality lacking in her, she could never respond to humor with humor. She would just directly blurt it out, which would always make her seem rude and snobbish. Her words would come into scrutiny, no one would care about who and what triggered them. Her outburst towards her cousin had the same impact. This time Rohit's wife was furious. She made angry gestures to her husband and Siya noticed her wailing to her mother-in-law and sister-in-law. Now they were all collectively mad at Siya. Siya was now scared of the consequence of her outburst. She wanted to quietly escape but people didn't allow her to. People around her started counselling her and giving her the gyaan that she would dread to listen to. There were people giving her life advice on how she should let go of her ego and just settle with whoever is ready to accept her knowing her unfortunate medical condition. She was being given medical advice and what not. This was already turning out to be on of her worst days in a long time, but little did she know that much worse was yet to come.

The topic soon changed, and the new one was even more painful. Rohit was busy initiating marriage talks of Raghav and Nidhi. Nidhi was also a close cousin of Siya's. She was a young, beautiful, bright, and pampered princess of Siya's family. Listening to people talk about this match, only made Siya realize how mismatched she was for Raghav. She hadn't felt this this small, ever in her life. She just stood in a corner trying to process this new information. She did her very best to stay strong. She had to! Falling apart today in front of all these people especially in front of Raghav would be the worst insult of her life. She wouldn't be able to face herself.

While she struggled to muster courage, a known figure walked towards her. Siya didn't notice him until he stood besides her and patted on her shoulder. Siya reacted in shock. It was Raghav. He said, "Your dumbass brother is trying to fix me up with some chic here". Siya coolly replied, "Actually that chic is my sister, Nidhi". Raghav felt a little embarrassed but before he could say something, Siya continued her speech. "She is kind of out of your league, so you should be glad about this match". Raghav replied "Oh really! Out of my league... how?". Siya answered "She is gorgeous, smart, has and amazing career, a very bright future, a doting family, and she is young ... so obviously fertile. She's a catch". Raghav suddenly lost the mischievous look from his face and got serious. Siya walked away, loudly proclaiming again "She is way out of your league, don't miss the chance!". Siya managed to gracefully handle her pain. She even found a solution to deal with the next few days of torture. She made him the enemy! Watching Raghav with her cousin and his family and all those fake sophisticated people in the party made Siya hate him. She did her best to create a perception of him which was everything that she ever hated in the society she was part of. To Siya, Raghav had now joined the enemy. She was ready to fight him in every step of the way and not lose. Never lose.