When you Say Goodbye

Calling

Dhruv's parents came to stay with him for some days, but they were of small comfort since they did so much feeling sad and crying themselves and he didn't have the energy to console them.

After that, Dhruv had spent hours crying with Arjun pressed against his side, and knew that he would spend many more hours crying for Shreya. Aditi was very supportive of what he was going through and he could talk to her anytime.

Arjun and Aditi didn't say much, they just let the silence pass between them. For the first time in a month, Dhruv felt calm. The silence was like a blanket, covering him in numbness as the light drip of water from rain blowing through the windows.

Arjun sat gingerly on the edge of the bed and wiped his younger brother's face, brushing the hair back from his forehead and Dhruv didn't try to pull away from his elder brother. Dhruv pressed his face into Arjun's arm, breathing in deep. Arjun smelled like childhood, smelled like what simple used to feel like. Back when things weren't so complicated and messy, back when Dhruv did not realize just how cruel the world truly was.

......

The job was miles away from Ditiya's home and from where was her last job but she couldn't say she didn't enjoy it. Sitting in front of a computer all day was a lot easier on her body than short skirts, black sailor hats, and tasseled boots hustled about balancing big trays of food and drinks of some four-star restaurant. She had thought that when would get another job nearby she would return to manual labor, but with a promotion looming on the horizon. She was not so sure that was a good idea. This promotion could change her life. This job had already changed her life. And if everything happens for a reason...then maybe this was what God wants for her, she thought. She didn't bother to know what was going on with so many calls coming to inform her parents and Aditi, yet she never once dared to intervene and pick up the phone. She considered the possibility of getting married and then she wanted their advice about her prospects.

Zyad Junaid walked the floor while they worked. He strolled through production with two other men in suits, taking leisurely steps and pausing every now and then to talk amongst them. They stopped at Ditiya's desk, and when she glanced over her shoulder, dark chocolate eyes are staring straight down at her. She gave her best polite smile before returning her gave to the monitor. Her checks flame unbidden as she thought again about that framed picture of his face in the hallway and realize it didn't do him justice.

She understood it now what the other women have seen all this time but she has somehow missed. Worse than that, she felt it.

She could not look at him again. Her fingers trembled slightly as she tried to concentrate on what she was doing. She took a deep breath and nodded to herself before selecting the correct address and moving on to the next.

She didn't understand what was going on. Looking at a man had never made her feel this way before, except Dhruv, which was something she didn't want to think about. There was so much power behind Zyad's eyes. In the confident way that he stood in his fitted suit with his hands tucked into the pockets. It was odd how in a fraction of a second you can commit so much to memory. His perfectly carved jawline. The five o'clock shadow of dark hair that made him looked just off-kilter of pristine.

"Wow. Just wow. He goes to the nearby orphanage every month once, such a kind soul!" one of Ditiya's female co-workers poked at her.

She did her best to ignore her, refusing to admit the truth ~that she felt something when she looked into that man's eyes. Something that she didn't want to forget about.

Even though she would be haunted for the next several hours. Every time she would close her eyes. She would see Zyad Junaid staring down at her. His deep voice was silently beckoning. She squirmed in her seat.