My loveless marriage

Part 24

***Abhimanyu's P.O.V***

I blinked a couple of times just to let the whole thing sink-in. It was kinda obvious that Kunal and Shruti had a history between them, but to imagine this confident man in front of me being all shy and geeky like me?! That's the difficult part!

"Come again?!" came a familiar voice, making me and Kunal turn behind in shock.

"Naina?!"  Kunal and I exclaimed together, while a shocked Naina looked at us with eyes as wide as saucers.

"You love my best friend?" she asked, tears welling in her eyes.

Kunal looked at her in complete shock, while I'm sure his brains are working the cogs to come up with some lie to get out of the situation.

"Why didn't you say anything before?! Wait is that the reason why you're still unmarried?! You still have feelings for Shru?! Does she love you too?! Why didn't you at least tell me?!" she fired questions one after the other, looking at Kunal, who sighed before slowly nodding his head.

"But...why?! How?!" Naina asked, still sounding shocked.

"After first getting introduced to her formally, I used to make excuses to come down and be with you girls, remember? Well, once I heard her tell you that she is going to meet up some cousins at a park, so I um bumped into her accidentally on purpose there, before her cousins could come, and it was a really really awkward moment as the geeky me had never stepped his foot in a park, ever! But she talked to me and made me feel good! I ended up even meeting her cousins, and having a great time. Slowly we started meeting in the park whenever I'd come home to visit.... We did nothing but discuss about books and stuff...Slowly, we grew close.... we used to write letters when I was in hostel you know?" Kunal said, smiling at some long-lost memory, warming my heart and making me gaze at my wife who had tears in her eyes - she definitely believes in love!

"For my 18th birthday she actually came to visit me at hostel in Shimla...we went out and spent the whole day roaming around the streets of Shimla... at the end of the day we kissed, wordlessly expression our feelings for one another" Kunal croaked, tears finally spilling from his eyes.

I walked to him, handing him a tissue, and looked from him to Naina, who too was tearing up. Sighing, I walked to my wife, taking her in my embrace, who gladly accepted me, wrapping her arms around me and resting her head on my chest.

"The genius geek who read so many books didn't even know that he had to express his feelings out loud. The stupid fucker that I was, I kept silent, reliving that kiss every moment of every day, not understanding that I had long passed the stage of mere attraction to that girl who still haunts me. I should have told her that day itself that I love her, or at least a little later on maybe, but...well it's all over now isn't it?" Kunal said, chuckling ruefully, while tears streamed down his face.

"Bhai please don't cry.... Shru loves you back right? Why don't you talk to her?" Naina said, finally breaking from my embrace to go comfort her brother who looked like he needed it.

"She doesn't.... back then maybe she did love me as much as I'd loved her, but now it's all gone.... Before starting college she did hint about me and her, our future... I knew back then like I do now that dadu would never agree for it...so instead of even talking to dadu and maybe trying to convince him, I directly told her that there's no future.... I said that it was just an attraction, the kiss was just in the spur of the moment, not because I loved her! I chickened out, I had no balls to talk to dadu, or confess to Shruthi regarding my feelings" Kunal said, before Naina started punching every part of Kunal, making both of us look at her in shock - my wife is a total surprise package eh?!