Love's Untold Symphony

Part 4

It had only been a week, and he couldn't figure out how to get through the next twelve days. He would have gone to the US if Anika hadn't taken his passport. He felt stuck, especially dealing with the time difference. When he called her in the evening, it was morning for her, and she was busy with work. Despite that, she never ignored his calls and always brightened his mood. But he knew she was busy, so he tried not to call too much. The confusion between his dreams and reality bothered him. Most of the time, he dreamt of her hugging him and kissing his earlobe, but none of it came true. When the dream repeated, he tried to ignore it but ended up grabbing her wrist, only to realize she was really there.

"That was surprising," he heard her say in a comforting voice. Shivaay opened his eyes to see the person who had occupied his thoughts for the past week. The constant pain in his chest disappeared when he looked into her eyes. It seemed like he had fallen madly in love, as everyone said. He noticed her messy hair, tired eyes, and messy shirt with food stains. Her hand, holding his face, felt cold. Then he remembered her struggle to find a suitable flight home. There were flights with multiple stops. 

Wait, did she take those challenging flights just to be with him? His face lit up, realizing she didn't want to bother him with travel arrangements.

"What an irony! I leave you for a week, and you catch an infection and get a fever?" she said, running her finger down his lips, but he was still upset. He pushed her hand away and moved away from her. Confused, she asked what happened.

"Nothing! Go freshen up; I'll ask the chef to prepare something for you to eat," he said, attempting to get up.

"Listen, Mr. Oberoi, you can't be grumpy at night!" She pushed him back onto the bed, frustrated by his sudden change in mood.

"Anika, what's this behavior?" he asked.

"I'm behaving right. After being away for seven days, all you have to behave like this. Learn how to treat your wife," she said, her eyes welling up for the first time in three months. He was left speechless, feeling numb.

"Please, don't hurt me like this again," she said, rolling away and disappearing into the bathroom. He immediately regretted not appreciating her effort, unsure of how to make amends.

***

She splashed the water on her face over and over when she couldn't take a sudden rejection from her husband, only she knew how much she suffered in the entire journey of being pregnant, her feet got swollen, and she put the remainder in the phone to walk every one hour during the journey, ate the salad even though the green smell in it felt like puking, after being so hard on her, when she thought she will get enough pamper from her husband, he just killed her expectation. She removed her dress in urge and walked naked to the shower area and turned it on. Hot water splashed all over her sore body which gave her ultimate relief, especially to her swollen feet. She heard people say that first trimester most of the women have pretty bad morning sickness but it was not happening in her case.

Slowly her anger got rid of her and the reality sunk in, she rushed back to him after learning about his infection and severe fever from Gauri, when she tried to check on him over the phone, he kept his conversation short and preached her more to concentrate on her health since there were more people to take care of him but she's alone there. She spent every second after that in worry and she couldn't stop thinking about him. Thankfully her music director agreed to record her portions overnight and let her go when she opened him about her pregnancy, but she lied she found it just then. But she didn't know when she would open up to her grumpy husband about their baby.

She started to question herself thinking did she overreact. That was his behaviour from the start but why did she get hurt, adding to that, he was not keeping well, and she crossed miles to take care of him not to stay sulking over his behaviour. In her mind, she again started to brainstorm ideas to apologize to him while getting into the bathrobe. Smiling in front of the mirror, she walked toward their walk-in closet picked up her comfy pajamas, and walked out to the bed where her husband must be there, she didn't have any idea about his mood. As per guess, he was sitting in the bed and he was tired but his posture said he was confused about her mood change.