Shape of the Sun

Melding

Two days later. Reddy Mansion.

"Easy, easy. There."

Veer breathed a sigh of relief when Rajkumar's back touched the bed. It had been a hectic two days. He motioned to Raghu.

"Go and bring up his bags. Place them outside so he is not disturbed and you can retire for the night after."

"Thank you, sir."

The man left to do as told, leaving Veer with a red-faced Rajkumar.

"You bastard. I am not an invalid, okay?" They kept fussing over him like he would fall apart soon.

His friend clicked his tongue in response, arms folded before his chest.

"Tsk. You were singing a different song last night."

"Veer..."

"Raj." his voice had an unusual edge. "What are we meant to do if we don't panic? That disgusting bitch..."

"Veer, stop."

"Fuck that! How are you so calm when she appeared in front of you? She left her hell to haunt you even more. I just want to strangle her, damn!"

He kicked the bedside table in the heat and the lamp fell and shattered into pieces. A stunning silence ensued in which Veer seemed to come to it.

"I am so sorry, man..."

"No, no. It's okay, bro. I'll just call Ritesh over. Don't sweat it...Uh, Ritesh?" Rajkumar was now sitting up, the receiver pressed to his ear. Then, the latest entries walked in.

Fateh and Rishabh each had a duffel bag in hand with the former talking to the latter.

"So she said...what the hell is going on here?" The lamp shards were too conspicuous to ignore. Both men caught bits of Rajkumar's conversation on the phone and redirected their gaze to Veer who was now quietly sitting in an armchair, fixated on the splinters at his feet.

"You crazy piece-how many times have we told you to chill out?" Rishabh began to scold him. "Raj doesn't need this..."

"It's okay, Rishabh. He was just looking out for me like any of you would. And you relax." he said, launching a pillow at Veer who caught it with both hands. "Ritesh is sending someone to clean it up. I won't charge you for the cost. Just buy me a few drinks. Low alcohol content."

"Just fucking drink water. The hell." But Veer's relaxed tone told that he had listened. Both men looked at each other and laughed, leaving the other two who were setting the bags in the corner, rolling their eyes. This was the kind of friendship they were stuck in for life.

How pitiful they were.

Someone knocked on the door as soon as they were done setting up. Rishabh went to open the door and found a male housekeeper with a cleaning caddy. He wordlessly let him in and retreated to the chair behind Rajkumar's desk.

The room was silent as all three men opted to use their phones while the man cleaned. Fateh was taking a breather on the balcony. He came back after the housekeeper left, signaled by a short click of the door.

"He's gone?"

"Yeah." Rajkumar looked up from his phone to answer and also had to adjust a bit to accommodate him. Fateh crawled over to the other side that was closer to Veer and settled there. He turned to Rajkumar thereafter.

"Choti had gone to pick up Manmeet. She insisted on coming."

"I heard."

"...Are you going to tell her?" He wasn't the only one curious. The other men had their attention here too.

"I think I should be honest with her on this. It's important that she knows."

"I see."

Veer spoke up in the ensuing silence.

"You know we are there for you whatever shit happens."

"Yeah. Thanks, guys."

"Don't sweat it. We were the ones who had to do damage control when you, uncle, and aunt wouldn't stop crying at the hospital yesterday."

"Shut the hell up...Bastard!"

Rajkumar launched another pillow, evoking laughter from the others.

******************************************************

Four hours later.

"What should we do if anything happens to you? I was so afraid."

"...Manmeet?"

Rajkumar had gone to bed after his friends left with the intent to sleep for an hour and wake up to prep for Manmeet's arrival. It seemed that was fool's gold.

Manmeet was here and she was crying, her left hand stroking his beard and the right doing the same to his hair. He had woken to feel something soft and wet against his forehead. It was her cheek.

Darling.

"Manmeet." his voice had lost the earlier sleepiness. "Look at me. Look at me, darling."

She yielded to his gentle pull, enough so he could see her face and the tears that stained it. The sight broke his heart. Rajkumar's hands went to cradle that beautiful face atop his, the driving pain reflected in his eyes.

"I am fine, my love. Please stop crying."

Manmeet cried harder instead. "Do you know that my heart stopped when you fainted? I thought that everything was over."

"How can that be?" he asked while thumbing her tears, "How can I leave you and our gorgeous baby to love another man when I'm gone?"

"Oh, Raj." She laughed through her tears, giving him the opportunity to coax her into a hug. He rubbed her back while talking.

"Manmeet, what you don't know is that I should be the one most afraid of you leaving me. I don't want you to see my disgusting sides."

His words evoked a frown from her and she pulled away a bit to see his face and the tears that rolled down the corners of his eyes. Rajkumar looked away so that they spilled onto the bed. He wasn't looking at her.

And Manmeet didn't like that one bit.

"What are you saying, Rajkumar? Look at me. Please look at me." She shook his shoulders hard but he didn't budge. At least not until she started crying again. Then he looked, panicked.

"Manmeet..."

"Every part of you is so beautiful you know? I don't care about your past and you don't even have to tell me. You make me so happy already, Raj. I..." She couldn't finish, dipping into his welcome arms and crying along with him.

It was like the room was a safe haven for both man and woman to release their pains of present and past. It promised to wait and be a testament to something new and colorful.

It was a melding of the things that brought sun after rain.