Better Together | ✓

25 | apology

It had been a while since Aadarsh felt so confused, so helpless. Usually people avoided difficult conversations. They ran the other way. But Ruhaani was different she faced them head-on even if it guaranteed a collision.

Aadarsh had underestimated and misunderstood Ruhaani. He realized that only now in retrospect. He had always thought she was someone who needed support, who needed stability for herself and Pari, who needed someone like him more than he needed her. People who needed something generally caved in first. They didn't question what was given. Sometimes even went as far as to tolerate unfair treatment and disrespect at cost of getting what they needed.

Ruhaani was different. She didn't give a fuck about the consequences of demanding what she deserved. Aadarsh would never openly admit but he admired that. It was something he found to be a refreshingly powerful quality for a woman to posses.

He wouldn't lie, he thought eventually their marriage would become one of those eighties marriage, where the roots of their relationship was compromising and turning a blind eye to the qualities they hated in each other for the sake of their family. He was ready for it. Not for Ruhaani questioning his behavior and complaining about it.

He needed space from her. Off late, he didn't know why but he was reacting more than responding. No smart man would react to a situation, especially if the said situation involved a woman. Fools react, wise people respond. It was that simple. However he didn't seem to be applying that to his life. It definitely had to do with Ruhaani being a part of his life, residing in his room and finding his shortcomings with a sharp eye.

It made him go mad. It had always done. He hated criticism. He hated it when someone picked his faults. He had lived a very blissfully isolated private life. His siblings looked up to him. They respected him, adored him and loved him.

And now suddenly there was this woman he had to share the private parts of his life with. He never felt more exposed. He should have seen this coming. In fact, he should have predicted it and prepared for it. But he fell short there. Making sure Ruhaani married him was his priority. Pursuing that with all his focus he forgot about preparing for a married life.

Now that he sat all alone in his hotel room away from home, just as cold as he preferred it, he was beginning to reflect on all his actions. Ruhaani was definitely a good fit in his family. She was the elder sister figure Ashvi and Abhi needed. She was the mother figure the twins needed. She knew how to make a home, a happy home.

A few days of knowing her had been enough for Aadarsh to figure out that she was a reflection of his mother. She was sweet, giving and loved children. Something inside had pushed him to pursue her. That night when she had first come to his house, in the quiet of the multipurpose room on the first floor, she had asked him nothing but to be a good father to Pari. Right there, he knew she was the person he was looking for. She'd give them the love they deserved.

And she did.

However he had forgotten to consider what kind of relationship would come in to existence between them.

It was on the night of their second day as a couple, after that walk by the beach in afternoon, that he had comprehended her power. She had got him to talk out his heart, so effortlessly. In many years, for the first time he felt he had shared something from the depths of his heart with a person who was not Abhi.

It was perplexing. She had brought alive all those memories, all those emotions inside him that he had thought he had forever forgotten. Perhaps it was the gravity of being married that had sunk in to the bone, reminding him of how differently he had imagined it to be.