When you Say Goodbye

Date

His brother Arjun, set him up on a date. Aditi had a friend came from India and she could not get out of Teaching at school plus taking care of Viva, time to show her friend around. Therefore, she had Dhruv set it up for her.

Dhruv waited for a few minutes then decided to order because he secretly hoped his date had stood him up. He did not really want to be there anyway.

He felt stupid meeting a girl in this manner. As he wondered what he had gotten himself into, he saw a girl of early twenties walking over to his table. She smiled at him and introduced herself as 'Tanvi'. She sat down next to him and opened her menu. After a moment, she looked around for the waiter. It did not take her long to realize that he had already ordered without her. The waiter did not return until his food was ready. She rolled her eyes and shifted in her seat

When the waiter asked for her order, she handed him the menu and shook her head. "I guess I will just have black coffee with two cubes of brown sugar." She glanced over at Dhruv who was devouring his 'The Caprese Sandwich' and added that she wanted a plate 'Spicy Southern Fried Pickles' if they could do that for her. She knew, by the way, the looks of things; she would need tons of food distraction to get through the date.

When the waiter was gone, she tried to start the conversation sense Dhruv was obviously not going to make an attempt. Dhruv, Aditi, your bhabhi told me you're single." The girl's heart froze because he looked so serious, almost offended.

A polite smile trembled over Tanvi's lips and she asked, "This is not a crack, is it? Are you seeing someone your family doesn't want you to?"

And his heart sank more. Much more. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. A memory of her face, pale with straight, dark hair, flashed in his mind as it often did when someone nowadays asked him why he was sad.

Her face had drained of all color and her white teeth had bitten into her wine red color bottom lip.

Dhruv looked down studied his golden ring and twisted it back and forth on his finger. He sighed through his nose "seeing someone?"

"No, I-"

"No explanations, please. Yes or no will do." Tanvi said her face composed in straight lines, devoid of emotion.

"That's not what it is...I...I," Her stomach was roiling as she guessed why he must be trying to find some excuse. What excuse would he give him?

"Still waiting. Yes or no?"

"No." His answer came on a breath of expelled air as if he'd used all he had to push the word out of himself. He hung his head. "Not anymore"

She looked at him with something approaching sympathy "So you two broke up?"

He thought about shrugging in agreement, letting the remark pass as he usually did, when people became very nosey about him. Instead, he said the first response that popped into his head. "Married," his mouth worked as if he were trying to pronounce a complicated foreign word.

Her cat type eyes darkened as he looked away. "What?"

"Yeah"

The casualty in his voice struck deep into her gut.

"Then why are you here?" She asked. The words weren't enough. They didn't cover her questions for.

"Well my wife died a few months ago," After hearing this she didn't say a thing for a while

Her face slowly changed from anger to understanding. "I'm sorry," she finally said. She regretted that she had caused him pain by demanding an answer from him. But she had too.