Titaliya

Chapter 35

The next morning Veda woke to the sound of Asha coming out of the bathroom. She dressed simply in a t-shirt and capris, pulling her hair back into a ponytail. She heard a knock at the door and opened it without checking the peephole. Shyam stood outside, clasping a bunch of flowers.

The sad bunch couldn't be called a bouquet. Veda knew the flowers were pulled from the resort's gardens. She'd seen the wildflowers when they first drove in. She imagined a bare patch among the resort's beautifully curated gardens, some gardener's hard work mutilated by Shyam's impulsive greed.

"I wanted to see you before I left," he said, shoving the dirty stems into her hands. Veda nodded and closed the door. She tossed the flowers into the nearby trash can and started to wash her hands at the suite's kitchenette sink.

"Who was it?" Asha asked, slipping on her earrings.

"It was trash," Veda answered, rubbing her hands raw with more hand soap. It was a rotten start to the day. Thank goodness the man was gone. Veda could finally breathe freely. She slipped on her shoes and headed out the door. Another nature hike would be good for her, and it would get her away from Arnav and Anjali, who were still at the resort.

"Another nature hike?" Asha asked. She didn't want to. The forest hikes were tiring. Vacations were supposed to be relaxing, and Asha didn't find exercise relaxing at all. She looked at Veda pleadingly.

"Sanjay's not coming, so you too can go to the resort spa. I'll join you after I'm done with the hike," she said.

"With Sanjay?" Asha asked.

"He doesn't bite."

"Worse. He flirts."

Veda smiled. "Are you worried you'll fall for him?"

Asha was afraid, but she shook her head emphatically. Sanjay was probably rich like Veda, and she knew girls like her weren't what people like Sanjay settled with at the end. They settled for people within their own tax bracket. They didn't marry girls without parents, without properties, who dreamed of a steady job and buying a house of her own. Sanjay seemed different, kinder and interested in her as a person rather than a conquest, but she knew appearances were deceiving.

"I'll see you at the spa," Asha said, stepping out the door.

Veda shook her head and smiled. Love could be fun when it was simpler and there were no adulterous assholes in the way. She locked the door and headed for the starting point of the hike. It was not long after dawn, and morning mist hung heavily in the air. A dozen people stood at the starting point of the hike, rubbing their bare arms against the morning chill. One, however, wore a worryingly familiar grey tracksuit and was faced away from her.

She forgot about his obsession with jogging. Of course he would be on the nature hike. The guide was irritatingly chirpy, especially for so early in the morning. Veda tucked a few errant strands of hair behind her ear and ignored him. She was one of the few girls there not fawning over him. There were a few young women in the group, each dressed in spandex tank tops and mini-shorts. She pitied the young women. The woods were filled with beastly mosquitoes. She had rubbed bug repellent on the exposed parts of her arms and legs, but judging from the flowery smells coming from the other girls, she could tell with reasonable certainty that they hadn't done the same.

Arnav walked over to her and placed an arm on her shoulder. Leaning closer, he whispered, "Please just pretend to be with me. Those girls are pissing me off."

Veda looked towards the girls he mentioned. One of them, a tall girl with a high ponytail, was giving her a particularly venomous stink-eye. Veda looked away. With two fingers she removed Arnav's hand from her shoulder and took a few steps away from him. She motioned to the girl in pink that Arnav was all hers if she wanted him.

She stepped closer to the guide and followed him, putting as much space between her and Arnav as possible. It was just an hour-long hike. She would survive it and go back to her friends. Arnav was definitely not the kind of person who frequented spas.

The morning was beautiful. She breathed in the smell of wet leaves and morning dew, took in the birdsong and the muted sounds of feet against the forest floor. When the other hikers started to converse, she slipped in her earphones and wandered a few feet behind the group, keeping close enough to follow but far enough to be spared the details of their conversations.

Her phone rang, and she checked the screen. It was her grandmother, and Veda took a deep breath. Her grandmother didn't know everything had happened the day before, and Veda knew it would only add more stress to her grandmother's already busy mind.

She picked up the phone and let out a cheery greeting.

"Beta, how's your weekend?"

"It's lovely, Nani," Veda said. "I'm on a nature hike."

"And Sanjay?" Sharda asked.

"Nani, I don't think Sanjay and I are suited for each other," Veda admitted. "But he's become a good friend."

Sharda sighed into the phone. It would've been nice to have Sanjay as a son-in-law. But it was nice that her granddaughter could maintain a friendship with him. He was a nice boy, respectful.

"That's alright, dear," she said. "But I'm glad you're friends."

She chided herself for wanting her granddaughter to fall in love so quickly, and that too with the first boy she had introduced. Her past was complex and traumatic. It baffled Sharda that Payal's parents had raised the girls with such restrictive rules. Her granddaughter had no friends of the opposite sex. She knew little of the world outside of sweets and domestic chores when she came back to her.

She was a treasure, and that family had left her to gather dust.

"Are you having fun?" Sharda asked.

Veda thought back to the day she had endured.

"I haven't been bored for a second," Veda said.

"I'm glad. I just want you to be happy, Veda. Your mother fell in love, but she wasn't happy for long. I don't want that kind of impetuous thing for you. I understand that Sanjay's a friend, but someday I want you to meet someone like him. Someone kind and gentle, someone who will cherish you."

It was a bit serious for a phone conversation, but Veda could almost feel her grandmother's warm hand on the top of her head. Her grandmother was right. Everyone from her parents to the Raizadas thought of her as flawed. They saw her eccentricities as abnormalities. Her family was happy to get her engaged to a man they knew nothing about, and the Raizadas felt little guilt in hiring her to train their future-in-law after threatening legal action.

"I want that too, Nani," Veda said, looking at the man in the tracksuit in front of her. Her grandmother made her realize she was not flawed or defective. Even if she was, she had been done wrong by people in the past. She deserved a fair, constant, love just like anyone else did. She needed someone like Akash or Sanjay. Someone whose love wasn't like a summer rainstorm.

The girl in pink was falling over Arnav, pretending to be frightened of the small insects crawling across the forest floor and hanging onto his arm despite the many times he shook her off.

She remembered the few moments she had felt cherished. Sometimes even as he loved her he had raged at her. But in those few seconds she loved even his anger. Arnav chose to throw away what they had, and what was thrown away couldn't be recovered so easily. If it could be recovered at all.

Writer's Note

I know, it's a little bit hard to believe that I uploaded two days in a row. But I think I've finally realized how I'm gonna take this story, so it'll hopefully be smooth sailing from now on. I won't promise daily updates, because I have other stories I'm working on, but I'm hoping to finish this in another couple of months. Then I'll move my attention to Beast, and finish that in due time.

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