Shape of the Sun

Two-faced?

"Chitti, Raj is here to pick you up!"

"Alright, mama. I'm coming!"

Manmeet responded atop her voice so that she and everyone else out in the living room could clearly hear her. Raghu had to drop her car at the workshop today and so, she had to uber back to her rental apartment where her parents and Gunjan were staying in Mumbai until they left, which was still a while. After spending some time with them, Manmeet had set out to call another uber to Rajkumar's apartment, only to find out that her mother had gone behind her back to inform him about her situation, and he offered to pick her up on his way after work.

Understandably, she hadn't been too pleased about it but didn't appear that way in the presence of her family members. For reasons that she was well aware of, Manmeet didn't want anyone, not even her family to see Rajkumar in a negative light. He was still the man that she was in love with.

But sometimes, even 'anyone' had its bounds. Her best friends were pissed as hell on her behalf. Verbally pouring vitriol on Rajkumar had been the center of their phone call to Manmeet ever since she had given them the rundown of what had happened in the morning two hours ago. It had considerably lessened now because then, Manmeet had been crying, and they were both ready to book an immediate flight to Mumbai and show him the stuff they were made up of.

Mansi repeated the same words for the sixteenth time since the call began. Manmeet had been counting.

"Look mannu, just stay away from this Rajkumar guy and give birth to your baby in peace, okay? If that asshole talks to you, don't answer."

To this advice, Aisha asked the same question that Manmeet had in mind.

"How do you want her to do that? They live together, he is the father of her baby, and besides, from what she's been saying, she does have feelings for him."

"Oh come on, Aisha." Mansi's voice revealed exasperation, "Mannu has always been surrounded by deadbeats and we both know that. Rajkumar is the most decent guy she had ever met in her whole thirty years of life, so of course she thinks that he is the earth and the sky!"

Okay true, but ouch. Manmeet still couldn't believe that these two were talking about her like she wasn't in on the call. Mansi still went on, nonetheless.

"When one or two other guys like that come into her life, she won't feel that Rajkumar is special anymore."

Aisha rolled her eyes at this comment.

"Hey, just yesterday you wrote in the high school girls' group chat that Manmeet was lucky as hell to be with the best member of his gender on earth and they should scram." Caught you now, huh.

"...Aisha!"

Manmeet was still stunned at this revelation and she couldn't help herself from asking.

"Why am I not on this group chat?" She wanted to know the things that they said about Rajkumar.

"Oh no, baby." Aisha replied, "It's a group chat full of sadists who are jealous of you, okay? No need for you to see that. I and Mansi even had to sneak in and now, we are dealing with them one by one."

"Aisha, there is no need to tell her that!" Mansi screamed from across the phone. She wished she could appear where she was and strangle her till she lost consciousness. Because wtf?

Manmeet was undaunted, however.

"How did you guys manage to sneak in?"

"Oh, we just swore that we hated you and thought you were totally desperate for Rajkumar back in High School, that's all. Thirty seconds of the greatest torture on earth, girl."