Affliction and Redemption✔ (Love & Baby Series #3)

02 || Redemption

Only the one who loves you, is the one who will forgive you, despite you hurting them over and over again!

"Aravi, you wanna go out tonight for dinner?" asks Aayan, tying his tie. It's 8 in morning and they both are getting ready for their respective offices.

"Yeah, sure," replies Aravi vaguely, brushing her hair.

Aayan nods and leaves for the kitchen to make their breakfast. Aravi follows his suit a little later and both have their breakfast together, though in silence.

Once done with their breakfast, both of them exit their home for their office, with Aayan driving the car while Aravi takes the passenger seat.

The ride, like all the other days, goes in silence, though Aayan wonders everyday when has this inarticulateness seeped into their marriage, their lives. But everyday, he ends up answering it himself.
Certainly, when I was busy thinking about my career ... and our future.

But it won't be wrong if he says he was busy securing their future, because he was, still is.

"Here we are, your office, Miss HR," says Aayan, passing Aravi his ever charming smile.

"Thank you," she politely replies, smiling as well, but Aayan knows it's fake, yet he prefers to pretend he's oblivious, just like everyday.

"You don't need to thank me, I'm your husb-" he tries to be goofy, again, but his wife doesn't let him.

"My husband, I know that. You don't have to remind me every single day," she snaps. However, she soon realises her error and promptly tries to rectify it. "I didn't mean to be so ru-"

"Rude, I know. It's fine, I didn't mind it," he says soothingly, his smile still intact. "You must be getting late for work, right? See you at 7, bye. I love you."

"Yeah, see you in evening, bye," she replies, getting out of the car. "I love you ... too," she adds hesitantly, which Aayan catches immediately but shrugs it off.

He reverses his car and turns for his office, an IT firm he has been working with for last 8 years. A Senior Software Engineer, he's somewhat stable in his career, or maybe he has had invested his time and self for this stability, which in this age of cut throat competition seems rare.

As he drives through the crowded roads of the national capital, memories of the day he married Aravi, surrounds him. To be honest, she was and still is the most beautiful bride he has ever seen in his life. The moment he had seen her when she walked down the aisle toward the mandap, he was mesmerised by her grace and elegance, her bridal attire was beyond comparison. In that moment, he felt all his dreams had come true, he was contended. He fell in love with her more than he already was before.

With the slow movement of the cars, he is transported back to the initial days of their marriage. It was a phase he still cherishes, certainly because he fell in love with Aravi even more. During this honeymoon phase of their marriage, he came to learn and acknowledge many traits of his wife he was earlier unaware of. Like how she can't sleep in complete darkness and always keeps a night bulb on, or how she likes to drink water only after pouring it in a glass or how she continually fusses when the bedsheet has creases.
Though all these just made him love her even more.

A twitching pain suddenly makes his heart wonder where has that Aravi gone, she's so silent from past so many months. Since the day of her miscarriage to this day, she has been reticent, speaking to him only for the sake of their relationship. Most of the times, it seems formal to him - Aravi tries too hard to sound her usual self - they weren't like this in those initial years of marriage.