Tu Mere Paas Toh Hai Na!? #Completed

Part 2

Realising his mistake of lashing at her for no fault of hers, Raman felt ashamed of his actions and was looking for opportunities to apologise to her.
He lamented himself for getting overprotective of his son, Adi, who had come to live with him after ages. His love for Adi had blinded him to the extent that he could see no right, no wrong when it came to Adi's well-being. And as always, Ishita became the scapegoat on whom he vented out all his frustrations. At one occassion he would be telling her how he wished her to be his kids' real mother, and on another occassion he would accuse her of not being a good mother.

Why did he end up hurting her always? Why did he have to use words that he knew would scar her for a lifetime?
Her habit of forgiving him easily had somehow encouraged him to take her for granted, he mused.
Not anymore!
He decided, as he made plans to apologise to her.

He dialled her number several times but they went unanswered. He thought she was hurt and so was giving him this silent treatment. It never occurred to him that the incident that morning would have upset her further, for he assumed Shagun's actions did not make a difference to her just like it did not make any difference to him.

He wanted to wind up his work as early as possible, pick her from the clinic, take her on a drive and apologise for his misbehaviour. But to his dismay, a manufacturing defect in the goods that had to be dispatched to the client that day was detected just before loading the cartons in the truck and he had to stay back to find a quick remedy and cater to the client's requirements. He cursed his luck as it took longer than expected to fix the fault and he reached home past midnight.

He found her lying on the small couch fitting her fairly tall body in it while the huge king sized bed was left empty. He was so cruel to make her go through this and she was so sweet that she went through all of it without a complain. He realised there were a lot of things he needed to rectify.

"I am sorry Ishita. I respect you a lot but......"
He mumbled unable to phrase a sentence to express his guilt.

By the time he woke up in the morning, she had already bathed, dressed up, instructed Neelu on what to make for the breakfast and was now getting Ruhi ready for school. There was no way he was going to get a lone time with her at this hour. With a plan on his mind, he jumped off the bed and hastily got into the shower.

When he reached the dining table, she was packing Ruhi and Adi's tiffins. "Good morning Papa"
wished Ruhi with a kiss on his cheek. "Good morning beta"
he hugged her and kissed her back.
Adi watched the exchange enviously as he took a bite of his favourite Paneer Paratha.
(Aloo paratha has become a cliche...so for a change its Paneer Paratha 😉)

He quickly averted his gaze and acted nonchalant when his father looked at him.
"Good morning Adi"
Raman wished him and apprehensively leaned forward to hug him too. Adi did not resist but did not respond either. He wished him back grumpily although in his heart he loved the gesture of his father. Raman gave him a feeble smile.

"Bhaiyya aapke liye chai le aaun?" Asked Neelu on Ishita's instruction. He looked back at Ishita who acted oblivious of his presence.
"Mai khud le lunga"
he dismissed Neelu and walked towards the cooking counter.

He tried to gain Ishita's attention by coughing, dropping the spoon on the floor, spilling the water on the countertop and pretending to burn his fingers by holding the saucepan on the stove. Ishita very well knew what he was upto and did not entertain him.

"Ooh aaah... mera haath jal gaya.
Kisi ko meri fikr hai ya nahi"
he prolonged his act expecting she would respond to his pain. Ishita huffed holding the very saucepan on the stove with bare hand, lifted it off the stove showing him that the flame was off and the pan wasn't hot at all. Raman smacked himself mentally for not checking if the pan was really hot or not.

Ishita took her coffee mug and a plate, proceeding towards the dining table to have her breakfast when Raman held her hand.

"I want to talk to you" he said.

Before Ishita could reply, Neelu came back with a tray she had taken to Shagun's room "Bhabi... Shagun Madam ne parathe khaane se mana kiya. Unhe sandwich chahye" She said cursing Shagun mentally.

"Achha theek hai. Tum nashta karlo, mai tab tak sandwiches bana deti hoon" Ishita said keeping her coffee aside and went on to make sandwiches for Shagun.

Raman gritted his teeth at the audacity of that shameless creature called Shagun who acted like a queen sending orders from her haven to her maids.
"Tum uska koi kaam nahi karogi"
He held Ishita's hand giving a verdict.

"Please don't create a scene now. Adi is watching" she whispered to him taking her hand out of his hold.
He looked at Adi who was watching them like a hawk. He clenched his fist as he didn't like what was happening but then he kept quite because he didn't want to give any reason to Shagun to create a drama and instigate Adi further against Ishita.

"Ruko ruko...ye mat lagao"
He grabbed the butter knife from her hand when she was about to spread the peanut butter on the bread "Shagun ko peanut se allergy hai" he said.

"Oh" she said putting the jar of peanut butter aside. She went back to the fridge to see what other options did she have for the sandwich. She wasn't sure what to pick as she had no clue of Shagun's tastes, likes, dislikes and her allergies. Raman wished he could smear that peanut butter on Shagun's face, nevertheless, he came to Ishita's  rescue as he picked Mayonnaise, Mustard Sauce and an Egg
"She likes these"
Raman saw her eyes flicker with an emotion which he was not sure expressed jealousy, hurt, anger or something more. Before he could read her eyes clearly, she was quick to hide the emotion behind her eyelids.

Seeing all his attempts to talk to her going in vain, he silently sat down at the table and munched his breakfast.

"Ruhi, Adi apne bags le aao. We will leave in 10 minutes" she said after sending Shagun her sandwiches and sitting down to have her breakfast.

"Mai bhi tumhare sath araha hoon"
Raman announced startling her.
She did not speak but her face told him she wanted to ask why suddenly he wanted to come with her.

"Woh meri gaadi servicing keliye bhejni hai....bhej di hai...."
he was obviously lying and she very well knew it. She kept her gaze on her plate and continued eating. He was constantly trying to get a glance from her so that he could know why exactly she was avoiding conversation with him. He had an intuition that it was not about his misbehaviour but something more than that which was disturbing her. And then the look she had briefly given when he helped her pick Shagun's favourite combination for her sandwich, had him worried. He did that only because he did not want Shagun to create a fuss about it again. But now he felt he had hurt Ishita in this attempt. He did sense a strange kind of fear in her eyes.
Or was he thinking too much?
Whatever it was he was going to find out while they drove to his office after dropping the kids to school, he decided.

She went upstairs to get her bag and he quickly dialled his driver's number asking him to take his car away. On hearing her footsteps nearing him, he kept his back towards her pretending he was on a call with one of his clients. The poor driver could not understand what's wrong with his master.
He turned around when he heard a noise. She had placed her car keys on the table "Tell Papa to drop you. I will take a cab to the clinic" she said to Ruhi and marched out of the house.
Shocked by her move, he put the phone down and followed her calling out her name "Ishita....suno....ruko Ishitaaaaa"

Seeing her rushing into the elevator giving him a deaf ear, he felt a sharp pain in his heart. It felt like a part of him was being ripped off his body.
He could not fathom the reason behind her aloofness, why was she running away from him. As the fear of losing her gripped him, he mentally asked her "Tu mere paas toh hai na?"