His Solace

Mysterious Betrayer

Nandini's POV:

I was casually looking at the flowers in a flower shop when his familiar cologne invaded my senses. My heart was racing, my breath was rhythming with every step he took towards me. Yes, I could feel his gaze on me, the steps he took towards me even when my back was facing him.

I heard the sound of a book dropping from his hands. Before I could stop myself, I found myself stepping towards him. I picked up the book and handed it to him. At that moment, I realised what I was doing and escaped, or atleast I thought I escaped.

I went to the secluded area of the market trying to gather myself before I fell apart, to get a grip on my emotions before it overwhelms me. I was too busy pulling myself together when I felt the familiar, overwhelming touch, the touch I craved for two months.

I knew I couldn't escape him, not after he found me after the suffocating separation of two months. But what he doesn't know is that this separation is my fate, his fate, our fate.

My destiny has always been cruel. But I hate that it affects him too. I hate that my cruel destiny posed a threat to hai precious life. I hate that my cruel destiny made me the only cure of his vulnerability and then made me the cause of his vulnerability.

I mustered up the courage to face him, pull out the act that would make him stay away from me. I behaved like I didn't recognize him, like he was a complete stranger to me, when every ounce of me screamed to tell him how much I missed him, how I died every day without him, how I spent sleepless nights crying for him.

I claimed to be Prakriti Sinha, the identity I have been living with for two months. This facade has become my reality now and he has to accept it.

He doesn't know certain truths. I will never tell them to him. I won't let them overshadow his life. I won't let the demons of my life haunt him. I won't go back to him. I will keep my distance from him even if it makes my heart bleed. He doesn't deserve this pain.

His single touch wavered my resolve. I became weak at the moment. But I won't let that happen ever again. I have to stay strong for my Arjun even if it means fighting him only.

I knew my emotions will overwhelm me. That's why I ran away from there and came back to my apartment without looking back. I knew if I looked back even once I won't be able to resist the man I have loved with every ounce my heart. I ran away from there like a coward.

Please Kanha, give me strength, the willpower to fight him, to fight myself.

Author's POV:

A single meeting with Arjun after two months shattered Nandini. She was dying to meet him. But deep down she knew meeting him will break her further because she will have to fight not only with his heart but hers too.

She was sitting on the floor leaning against the door of her apartment. Tears slid down her face, her emotions lay raw in the isolation of her apartment.

A knock on the door cut through the suffocating silence of the apartment like a knife.

Nandini's heartbeat quickened. It's him. She knew it was him. She could sense it. Her eyes widened. Panic surged through her veins. She escaped from him in the market. But where will she escape now? But she has to face him. She has to push him away because he won't go away until he forces him to.

She was lost in her thoughts when another knock sounded on the door. She let out a shaky breath, standing up on wobbly legs.

She was about to open the door when she realised her state. She quickly wiped her tears, masked her expressions with a casual one, straightened her clothes.
She searched for her glasses but remembered that he took it off and she left without taking it back.