Somewhere Only We Go (Editing)

Chapter 36

Avinash

The past week has been good, a little too good and that is making me anxious. I haven't talked to my parents since Goa and neither of us had tried to change that. But I know this can't go on for a long time. I need to talk to them, at least one of them. Now that we are back on schedule with the launch I need to tell my father what I have been working on. I am pretty sure that he won't be okay with it hence I have a backup plan, one that would mean me leaving my family business like Rishabh.

The last week of having Kabir at the office was the best. We got to go to work together and come back home together, we had lunch together, and we spent the last 6 days glued to each other. He is such a talented photographer and I am happy he is finally getting a chance to prove himself. I still don't understand how he could take that chance with me, wanting me to be the model for the portraits but if there is one person who can make me fall in love with myself it's Kabir. Seeing myself through his lens was exhilarating.

"Good morning," Kabir murmurs in my neck making clear that he has no intention of getting up.

"Morning."

"Go back to sleep, it's Sunday, let's sleep...all..."

I think he was going to say let's sleep all day before he started snoring softly. So I stayed like that holding him close and thinking about how I got so lucky.

"Moring sunshine." I smile as Kabir slowly stirs from sleep.

"Sun...huh...it's morning already?"

God, he is so cute, also he doesn't remember waking up which makes his morning wish all the more adorable.

"Yup, it has been morning for at least 4 hours now."

That gets his eyes wide open. "4 hours? Why didn't you wake me up? When did you wake up? Oh god, how long have I sleeping like this keeping you here?"

"About 2 hours, I think. I don't know how much time passed if I am being honest. And to answer your first question, you did wake up and made it clear you don't want to wake up and went back to sleep."

Kabir groans and then buries his face in his hand.

"Are your hands okay?" I ask. We went shopping yesterday evening and Kabir bought a tie he thought would look good on him. So when we got back I tied him up with the said tie and fucked him. He was right the tie looked good on him.

"Yeah it's fine; it's a little red around my wrist but other than that nothing."

"What do you want for breakfast?" I ask giving him a quick kiss on his swollen lips.

"Nothing too heavy please."

"How about some French toast?"

"Yes please and a gallon of coffee." He groans again.

"If you keep making those noises neither of us is getting any food."

"But I am hungry." He pouts. I sigh.

We freshen up and then I make some French toast for the two of us while Kabir makes coffee. After breakfast, Kabir decides to work some more on his exhibition set. He has run the idea through the gallery and after seeing some of the initial pictures they are on board with it too. The exhibition is supposed to happen in November so he needs to send in the final shots by the end of October. He still has ample time but he wants to get ahead and I am worried that he is overworking himself. But when I brought it up he said 'You are the one to talk' and that was fair so I had to shut up.

I dusted my bookshelf to kill time because, for the first time in a while, I didn't have anything to do because everything was going so well and no work emergencies were happening. We had smooth contract negotiations with most of our clients and everything with the website was already in the works. Like I said, everything was so good right now that it was scaring me. I should have trusted my instincts. I should have known it was the calm before the storm.

It was during dinner when Kabir's phone beeped with a message and his smile dropped when he read it. At first, I thought it was something about his mother but then I realized he was avoiding looking at me.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Don't be mad but I did something. I wanted to talk to you about it but I knew you would never agree and I couldn't just sit and do nothing. You deserved answers, Avi."

My initial reaction to what he said was confusion. I had no idea what he was talking about when suddenly his words hit me. You deserve answers, Avi.

No, I don't want answers. I want it to go away.

"What did...what did you do?"

"After Rishabh left something he had said something that I couldn't stop thinking about. Something about your mother using her mental illness as an excuse and so I talked to him. I think you need, no not need, you deserve the answers Avi, I think you need to confront her, I think she needs to be held accountable for her actions, for all that she did."

I don't agree with anything but I need to know what he did first.

"And?"

"And Rishabh found one of Ishan's friends. The one who was with him at the party."

Aman, he is talking about Aman. He was there with Ishan but he left sooner otherwise he would have been there in the same car.

"There is nothing to talk Kabir. Ishan had a car accident and he died."

Kabir gets up from where he is sitting and kneels in front of me.

"I know baby, I also know this isn't easy, and I understand why you have avoided all of this for so long, but you are not alone anymore. I don't want to force you and I am sorry I sort of blindsided you into this but I didn't know any other way."

"Where is he?"

"I asked Rishabh to come here."

"Rishabh is in Delhi?"

"Yeah he arrived a few hours ago, in the beginning, I thought I could meet Aman myself but Rishabh had been talking to Aman for the past week. And I think even he felt comfortable with being around someone other than you or me, a total stranger."

Aman knew all of us back when he was hanging out with Ishan. So it makes sense that he would feel better with having Rishabh around. But that also means he didn't like the idea of being around me and so I was right. After Ishan's death, I did try to get in touch with Aman, I wasn't looking for answers or anything I thought maybe he would understand my pain, losing a best friend can't be easy. But then he never replied to my messages. So I got the hint, and I stopped.

Aman's silence didn't hurt. He was Ishan's friend so if he didn't want to stay in touch with his dead best friend's younger brother it wasn't a big deal. But then why now?

"I don't understand what's there to talk?"

"I have a theory, I could be wrong but..." Kabir pauses for a second and then continues, "What if something happened after your call and before Ishan left that party? Your mother's hatred is targeted towards you like...like...she"

"Like she blames me?"

He nods.

I can't believe I am considering this but talking to Aman won't change anything because nothing happened. But maybe Kabir would finally let it go.

"If I do this do you promise to stop after this?"

Kabir sighs. "Yes, it's not like there would be much to do about it after that. I am not trying to come up with any conspiracy theories. I know your brother died in an accident but I just want to understand why your mother thinks it's okay to treat you like this, it's not by the way."

I love how this kind-hearted man can go all feral for me not showing even a drop of kindness.

"Okay, where is he?"

"He will be here in about 10 mins."

"I still can't believe you went behind my back."

Kabir looks guiltily on the floor. "I know I am sorry."

[There is going to be a new character getting introduced in the next chapter and you are going to see a lot more of him in the next book in this series. There will be new main characters with a brand new story, and hopefully I'll start it in November which means I am planning to wrap this story up this month.]