wooing Meera Rai

stranded

It was a long night. The night she was stranded.

It was a dark night. The night she was stranded.

It was a night that Meera did not forget.

She could not remove that night from her existence.

She tried all she could.

But she could not.

"I thought we decided on this, baby, it is not good that you should go out and work. I'd hate seeing you in a 9-5 job." He pouted, his fingers brushing her cheek, "you know I work for you, and it is so stressful for me. I cannot imagine how frustrated you'll be."

Meera smiled. 

"I know, but it's just..." Meera was careful to choose her words. They had already been in tons of fights for the same conversation. "I'd like to earn money, just to get some sense of security, you know." 

He scoffed, withdrawing his hand from her face and focusing on the road. "So you are saying that you don't feel secure with me?" 

Meera shook her head. "No, that is not true."

"You just said it!" 

Meera sat on the edge of the passenger's seat. She hated whenever her husband raised her voice at her, and she almost wished he'd go back to being cute. The endless fights they had lately was worrying her. And more than that, they were breaking her.

A piece at a time.

"No baby." Meera tugged at his arm, trying her best to calm the angry man. "That is really not what I meant! I just meant I am getting bored being home alone most of the time and then you work late too at times..."

"So you want me to skip on my work to come and entertain you, so you don't get bored?" 

"That is not-"

"For God's sake Meera! I am slaving like a dog to get us a life we deserve and other than thanking me, you want me to sit at home like you?"

Meera counted backwards.

She hated how miserable she felt. Or how miserable her husband made her feel.

But he loved her. It was just his temper that got the worst of him. He really loved her, and she knew that.

"Let's not..." Meera took a brave breath, trying to not cry and smiled at her fuming husband. "We came here for a weekend getaway right, so let's not ruin it." She pressed his arm softly only for him to shrug it off. 

"I am not ruining anything. It is you. We have had this conversation so many times. Yet you always get on my nerves by repeating the same thing over and over again Meera. You are not going to work, that is my final decision." 

It was stupid of her, Meera knew that, it was stupid of her to speak up but she could not help herself when she did.

"It is not your decision to make." 

That was all she said. It was the first time in their marriage where she had spoken against the man she worshipped. She was so much in love with him, she let all his toxicity slide because he loved her.

And no one loved her before.

The car halted with a screeching noise in the middle of the woods. Meera remembered how scary the rains sounded now that the car was halted and she looked up at her husband. He was still looking at the empty roads ahead, the hillside silence paving its way for them.

"Get out." 

Meera gulped.

She had not seen his anger advance before. The most he did was scream at her and help her realise her mistakes. There was a time he left the house and returned home drunk, early in the morning. There was also a time he slammed the plate of dinner against the kitchen wall. Another time, he just did not speak to her for a whole week and pretended she was invisible.

But this, this never happened before.

"But-"

"Get the fuck out of my car." 

Meera flinched. She was scared, more of her husband than the darkness of the night. So she stepped out of the car, getting out in the middle of nowhere with the rains pouring on her and darkness engulfing her. 

Her husband shut the door and paced away in the car while she stood in her place for the entirety of the night. She remembered waiting in the rain, hoping that he would come take her, that he'd apologise and make up to her, or that he'd agree he needed to tone down on his anger.

But she only waited.

She was shivering and crying in the silence of the night. The rain soon left her alone, with her scared thoughts as she sat on the corner of the road and hugged herself. 

Meera was never so scared as she was of that night.

It was funny how a thunderstorm was the only thing that comforted her.

The cold hug from the soaking rain, the shiver from the cool breeze and the scary whisper of the tall dark trees.

They were with her that night.

The night she was stranded. 

Her husband did come to get her. She knew he would. He came back in the morning and even though he hugged her and apologised, saying he was worried for her, Meera could smell the eggs and toast he had that morning. She also did not see any stress marks or bags underneath his eyes, and neither did he show any signs of sleeplessness or worry. 

Meera was not dumb.

And neither was she blind.

She just wanted to hold onto that someone who dared to love her.

Even if that someone was a monster.

"I am so glad you are okay." He kissed her cold lips. Holding her cold hands in his warm ones and wrapping himself around her. "Don't do that next time, okay? Don't make me so upset again! I hate punishing you, but you get so stupid at times." He helped her sit in the car and leaned in to tie her seatbelt while she looked at him with little to no reaction. "I only want the best for you, baby. Trust me. You are safe with me."

But she wasn't. She really wasn't. 

She was stranded and lost and scared.

And abused.

Every single day and every single night.

The nights after that night became so scarier that Meera always remembered the night where she was stranded by the roadside in a unknown place. 

Because that night was still more comforting than all the other nights she had to bear. 

It was a safe night. The night she was stranded.

_