365 Written Days

I had all and then most of you, some and now none of you.

The morning comes like every other dawn, the room lights up without the curtains as the sunlight falls directly inside. The man in his late 20s still sleeps despite the morning's urgency. It's the day he has been waiting for his whole life. The difference between his forever dream and reality is now just 10 hours. The wait of 10 years, now looking back, feels like a lifetime, a forever he spent to get to the point he is at now.

In a few hours, Atharv Singhania, the Chief executive officer of Singhania Corporates, will be promoted to head of the directing board of the company.

He wakes up at 7 am sharp, and the first half of his day has nothing entitled for him except to relax and groom for the night. His room is on the 9th and the highest floor of the building, giving him a perfect view of the city. Life is pretty if you are born rich, hard for sure, but security surely plays its part.

Money is the language the world speaks.

The morning isn't that different from the others, the other side of his bed is perfectly made, a clear indication that the person residing it has been gone for a while now. No surprise there, between him and his wife, she always has been the early bird. The thought of his wife makes him smile, she is the reason for his promotion, his better half.
The day is important, not just because of the official event but also because the day marks 1 year of his relationship, and his first wedding anniversary. He has known Aashika for a little more than a year and a half and has been married for most of it, but to this day he wakes up to a piece of new information, a new habit, a new quirk of her that makes him fall for her more.
The marriage, he admits, has been one of convenience, something he didn't give much thought to initially, he could have had anyone he wanted at that time, even now, but the thought of anyone else in his life now apart from her feels revolting.

He has fallen in love slowly, steadily but surely. There's no one else if not her.

He walks out of the room after completing his morning routine, to find her- something he has unconsciously done for a year now. He loves the thought of her in his house, their shared penthouse, every morning as she prepares breakfast as well as lunch. That's something they've agreed upon, she takes care of the food early in the morning cause she leaves for work first and he takes care of the dinner.

There are a lot of adjustments and work distribution around the house as they both prefer privacy over luxury and with a bit of time management, their schedules align perfectly.

The morning, for the first time, is without her. He could still smell the aroma of food but the cook was nowhere to be seen, maybe she had some work? A little disappointment hits him at the realization. He has a long-due conversation that he has been delaying under faux consolation, always feeling that it's not yet the right time but he has reached a dead end, it's either today or never. Any further delay would lead to things playing out not in his favor and would cost him more than he can afford to pay.

He also has some special plans, the one that he has been preparing for, for the last 2 months. To follow through with the plan though, he needs to get done with the conversation he has been avoiding. It hasn't occurred to him yet, the sudden absence of his wife feels odd but not suspicious. The first sign that something is off is the lack of a message.

Aashika is nothing if not meticulous, she loves to take care of the tiniest details and that includes informing him of her whereabouts, or changes in schedules to avoid misunderstandings. He double-checks the phone but there's no new message. Ignoring the blaring red alarms in his mind he finishes off his breakfast.
Once done with everything in his routine and with nothing much to do, he plans to get rid of the anxiety and calls Aashika (yes he knows her college timetable, don't ask him why) but she doesn't pick up. He tries again, and again.... And again but nothing happens, and it does nothing to help his heart that's starting to beat louder than it's supposed to.