Tale of Two Lovebirds

Chapter 16

It wasn't fun at all when Ranveer got back home from work past Ria's - and sometimes even past Deepika's - bedtime. This time it was so late that he was greeted only by a dark, quiet house; neither one of his girls there to welcome him with big smiles, hugs and kisses. He walked with heavy feet towards their bedroom, stopping by Ria's room first. She was sound asleep like every day this week when he got back home. He missed her. It was Thursday night, he hadn't spent much time with her since Sunday. It felt like forever ago. He missed playing with her, he missed her hugs, the silly things she always came up with, he missed spoiling her, basically everything.

He remembered how much he looked forward to his dad coming back home after work when he was Ria's age. It never occurred to him that he would be the dad one day and that his kid would be so happy to see him. He loved his dad and he knows Ria loves him a lot too. She loves and misses him, he knows because she told him so earlier that day on the phone. He wanted to leave work immediately when he heard her sad, little voice.

He stood by her bed thinking all that, feeling guilty because he couldn't come back before her bedtime. He sighed and kissed her forehead, taking care not to wake her up. The little girl didn't notice his presence and continued sleeping peacefully.

He was about to leave the room when he noticed a random stuffed animal on the floor which probably fell off her bed. He picked it up and put it back next to her. Ria liked to sleep surrounded by teddy bears and other animals of the stuffed kind, holding only her dear purple elephant close to her. That is her favorite and the only one she cuddles with when she sleeps. But the other ones must sleep on her bed too... She looked like a doll herself among all those toys. He smiled, deciding on his way out that he will wake her up in the morning to say goodbye before he goes to work.

~

Their bedroom's lights were off as well, the door semi-closed. His heart skipped a beat when he opened the door and Deepika wasn't on their bed, she was nowhere to be found in their bedroom. He assumed she had fallen asleep because she stopped replying to his messages a couple of hours ago... Where on earth could she be? He looked in the bathroom and she wasn't there, she wasn't in Ria's room either. He went back to the living room and nope, not there and not in the kitchen. He started getting worried. Maybe she didn't feel well? She had been feeling way better lately though, less tired and the nausea was completely gone. If she had to go anywhere, she wouldn't leave Ria behind all alone, unless something really bad happened... What if something happened to the baby? He didn't even want to go there... God... no. He shook off the thoughts immediately. He wasn't even done looking everywhere in the house.

He thought of calling her phone but on his way back to their room he saw a flimsy light coming from their office; a room they used for handling work-related things like calls and meetings, and in which they kept documents and other important stuff. None of that was allowed in their bedroom. They were drowning in work all the time, their bedroom and rest of the house and their time together was very valuable to them, it was sacred.

The light came from a small lamp on the desk. He felt a huge relief when he saw she was there, it looked like she fell asleep while working on something. She was sleeping with her arms and face on the desk, over a notepad and other papers, she even had a pen in her right hand. He sighed, feeling his heart rate slow down, everything seemed fine.

"Deepu..." He whispered, removing the pen from her hand and caressing her back. She was wearing her pajamas and her hair in a ponytail. She always went to bed like that, with her hair all neat, unless they had sexy fun then she didn't think about her hair at all. "Deepu, wake up darling, you fell asleep working on... whatever you were doing..." He took a look at the papers on the desk, they looked like magazine clippings and there was a book of swatches too. "Oh... on your new collection."