Reconciliation

Chapter 14 : Hello World

The gifts AvNeil received on their baby shower were being set up in a room besides their original, which happened to be the one in which Avni stayed while she was not talking to Neil.

Avni felt a stinging pain in her heart when they entered that room together to decorate it a bit and they moved her stuff. The wide grin on Neil's face as he unpacked her shower gel and shampoo from the washroom, the ones that he had kept himself some months ago, pierced Avni's heart.

Perhaps it were her extreme mood swings that made her wake up in the middle of the night, cry and apologize to Neil. "I regret it..." She said between her hiccups and was clearly not breathing properly either.

"Love please calm down. You underwent a lung surgery and our babies need you to be fine too." Neil said worriedly, stroking her back and kissing her cheeks. "I remember seeing your eyes-" She began and burst into a fresh pool of tears.

"I was at fault Avni." Neil said genuinely and hugged her tightly. "But you know why it doesn't matter now? Because we've both grown past everything. We're having two babies and we're the cutest family on the planet already." He told her in an almost baby tone calming her down finally.

The next day Neil told the family about Avni being the cutest woman with all her mood swings. "I do hope you got new shower gels." Shweta said, eating her breakfast simultaneously. "Yeah." Avni lied. Of course she got them when they shifted down. But for the few weeks that they were upstairs in their original room, she didn't really need it.

Neil and herself had been getting physically intimate in every opportunity they got during those weeks, that included the shower. It really seemed that they were making out for compensating all those missed opportunities of intimacy.

Avni had now entered 33rd week of her pregnancy and was very troubled. Her weak health had made everything complicated and the weight of the baby bump made her very disabled.

She was on the bed all the time except the times when Neil would take her out for a walk in the garden. He had also taken a leave from work indefinitely and went only when there was an urgent case.

Avni's back ached badly all the time and the little tykes didn't stop moving around either. To top it all, Neil and she had been briefed about the delivery procedure by Dr. Dipika. It was tentatively after a month but the thought of the pain greatly traumatized Avni.

And this brought to the present, at night. Neil was making Avni take a walk in the garden, insisting her to leave the room and enjoy the fresh air after a Mumbai rain. She took small steps in the grass, giggling whenever Neil would kiss her on the cheeks and would caress her baby bump.

"You know, today I met the boss lady version of Neela Ma today." Neil said, laughing. He had gone to call Neela Ma for lunch when he heard her yell on her laptop screen. She was in a Microsoft Teams online meeting and her employees were clearly not having a good day.

"That's a fierce version." Avni agreed, plucking a flower and twirling it in her hands. "I asked her when she would scold me like that. She said the day we wouldn't let our babies play football with her." He added, smiling softly. He loved the fact that his kids would have Neela Ma as their Nani.

"I'll really disown the one who refuses to be a footballer." Avni said seriously, her eyes squeezing in discomfort as she felt another kick. "Please don't do that babies." Neil said softly, bending down and kissing her belly.

He looked up and saw Avni almost aghast as she ran her hand on her belly, causing Neil to worry too. "Is it paining too much? Come let's go inside-" He began, holding her hand.

"I...My water broke." She said, breathing heavily now. She was sure it had. She absolutely did not feel like peeing yet there was sure a trickle that she could feel. But it was too early, why now?