A Coffee at Dawn

Chapter 30 : Turn Arounds!

"Aahan! I finally found you," came out a familiar voice from behind. I got up and Dhruv gave a bare hug.

"How are you doing my brother? You look way better now," he tucked his elbow to my tummy.

"Wish I could say the same about you, sir". He had put on a few kilos and looked slightly more to his age.

"When stress gets out of your body, this is what happens," he bragged.

"I am happy for you. Heard your business is doing good," I greeted.

"God's grace! We can do all the talking tomorrow as well, first let us get back home, mom is waiting for you," he picked up a bag of mine, I had placed down. He drove me off the airport and the pride of Delhi being the capital city was evident in every ruffle of the wind. The much wider roads lit luxuriously with street lights, welcomed the vehicles in swift. 

Dhruv had not arranged any stay for me, I had no other choice but to agree to stay at his place. We drove for about forty minutes and entered the streets of Wazirpur. It was almost nine when I entered the huge gates of a white humongous building that stood tall between lush green trees.

"Welcome home!" he said as we parked the car and got down. "The luggage will be moved to your room, chalo" we moved in the house. He took me to introduce me to his family. He had lost his father a few years ago. The one thing that is captivating about north indians in general is the warmth with which they welcome you to their family. The smile, the bare tight hugs, the  food, the acceptance is all enthralling. I had a smile and bit of hesitance as I sat on the dining table. After the heavy dinner, I moved back to the room Dhruv showed me. The luggages were placed on the bed, I picked up my tracks and went on to change.

I stepped out after changing to see Dhruv already sitting on the chair with my file in hand.

"Hey!" I shouted and ran to snatch the file away. 
"So, this is the reason for your arrival here. Good, you decided to do something which you love," he moved out to the balcony. I kept the file back into the bag and moved to the balcony. The cool breeze at night and the peace out there was addictive. I leaned onto the railing as I saw Dhruv fidget with his phone. 

"What else is the motive behind your visit to Delhi?" I choked as he asked me the question. 

"Your questioning eyes, say a lot, I think I know what is it, but I would want to hear it from you," he smiled and sat on a chair.

"Let me get to the point straight, Aarti is at Delhi and now it is time for me to get her back in life." I bent my head down as he kept staring at me.

"I do not have words to tell. How have you been waiting for an year?" he asked.

"Before she left, and just right after she said that it didn't matter, everything had ceased. I had so much to ask her, thoughts that were brewing in my head, did she never care about me or was it overnight? was she never mine or was it overnight? There was a lot to say to her, for obvious reasons and every time I recall that moment, it takes away a living part of me, but then again, that was my side of the story, what she went through was never even put across. I was masked from the beginning. I always had an instinct that she would not have done such things, and time proved me right. I rue every day I spent not knowing of her. Yes, I waited, I knew nothing other than that," he was silent listening to me. 

"Till date, all I had was a bag full of parchments that read my emotions when she was not by my side, today I can spill over all of those in front of her and I am sure she would have a similar bag which she would want to spill over, I know her," I moved to the other side of the balcony and he got up from the chair.