Arranged Marriage ✓

Chapter - Thirty-eight.

Darshan.

Nishita sipped the last drops of her coffee and furrowed her brows at me. I just shook my head and took the cup from her hands. I made my way to the kitchen and placed our cups on the marble counter.

She just looked at me in the eye. As if, she was searching for something. As if, she had never seen my eyes before. It seemed somewhat like her dark brown eyes threw daggers at mine.

“What?”, I asked. “Nothing”, She told me. I took her hand in mine and fixed my gaze on her ring. “Do you trust me, Nishita?”, I asked. She looked at me, cluelessly “Do you trust me at all?”, I repeated. “Why— why do you ask?”, she asked. “Nothing, just asking,” I shrugged.

“If there is something that you want to tell me, I’m right in front of you, spit it out”, she encouraged. “Exactly! That’s what I wanted to say! Tell me if there is something.” I said.  She took a sharp drag of breath in, stared at me for some time and started to talk.

“Nishita Mehta was born on 12th of March, in 1995 to Nilesh Mehta and Nalini Mehta. Before her, they had a son four years old son and one and half year old daughter. Nishita and her family lived in a small town, Ahmedabad. They were leading a good life until 2000. In the 2000, Nishita’s father lost his job. Nishita’s father who was a journalist, was jobless for almost a year. But her father never faced any problems. He always lived a normal life. But Nishita her mother and her siblings suffered a lot. Nishita — who was just five years old then, used to cry all day and night because her parents couldn’t afford milk or cereal. She saw her mother cry all the time for a whole year. She was mostly raised by her two elder siblings. A year later, her father found a job in a different media house and their lives were growing a bit normal. They bought air-conditioner, a computer. And again, five years later her father lost the job. It wasn’t like her father did something, he was very dedicated to his work. But he didn’t want any kind of promotion. So, his juniors were getting promoted and he was getting demotion. And then within six months, he found a job once again. But each year, his salary reduced. And Nishita’s mother was getting sick of this. She would often fight with her father, cry and vent out all her anger on Nishita. Know why? Because all their problems started after her birth. So Nishita was like a misfortune for her family. And then Nishita’s brother grew up, her sister grew up. Her brother spemt most of his time alone and her sister would study all the time and then date boys in her free time. And nobody used to talk to Nishita. Out of boredom, she studied. She studied so hard that she got scholarship in medical college and for her, her family moved to Mumbai. Although they led a few years nicely and got her brother and then sister married, her father retired from his job. And now they that they had no income, they lived on Nishita and Nishant’s earning. But her parents hated Nishita, and thought her as a burden. So they thought they should get her married. They searched for a nice, decent, good and of course, wealthy guy and tied them up in a marital relationship. And now she’s somewhat… happy.”, she said. She had tears in her eyes but she stopped them.

I just stood in front of her, blankly. I loved the way her lips moved when she talked. The way she would square her shoulders and shrug, she was just so cute. She was a little princess who deserved every happiness of this Earth. But what she received was all the pain, why?

“Nishita, I—”, she cut me off, “Don’t be. Don’t be sorry, Darshan. I should be the one saying sorry to you. I’m a misfortune, I have caused people a lot of pain. And I don’t want you to be in pain to. Because I—”, she stopped. I don’t know why, but I was so eager to hear what she had to say. “I care for you”, she said. That’s it?

“Aw, Nishita. I care for you, too”, I told her. She feebly smiled. I leaned in and smashed my lips on her. She sandwiched my face between her palms. Her palms felt so warm! Then I broke the kiss. “I’ll be there for you, I promise. Always.”, I said. Always.

She smiled. “Do you— would you like to tell me about you? I mean, I know a lot about you, already through your fans and reading about you but you know I don’t completely know you. How you were as a child, I do know your journey from IRS to now but only you could say a lot about yourself and remember mentioning about ‘rough nights’? Maybe, you could tell me about it…?”, she asked, cutely. She has a fucking cutie, and I didn’t deserve her. (:

I nodded my head and started talking the way she did. “I am Darshan Raval, born on 18th October, 1994. To Rajendra and late Rajal Raval. I was the only child of my parents. Because, my mother had complications during her pregnancy. My mother tried to conceive a child many times, but she would end up having miscarriages every time she was impregnated. My mom wanted a big family. She always wanted to live with her family happily. But after I was born and all the complications she faced during that time, she dropped that thought. I was someone who was never a good student, not a very nice son or even someone who was interested in my dad’s business, since childhood. And my dad still hates me, but I don’t give a fuck, of course. The only person who mattered to me was mom. I wanted to give her everything that was possible for me. And I — at the same time — had a huge knack for music. I made music my passion. I started a band, performed in various places, earned money and was living a good life and mom was happy seeing me happy, too. But something wasn’t right. She would stay depressed all the time. Sometimes, she even locked her seelf inside her room and come out hours later. She started to do this more often after I didn’t win IRS. She wanted to see me well established in my life, on my own. Unlike my father, my mother never forced me to do anything. She gave me all the freedom of this world. But she was lonely. She needed someone. Either me, or dad. But none of us could make time for her. Dad was always busy with business meetings and what not! And I was out of town or even country, sometimes performing or partying. And basically devoted to music. In 2017, we found out mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. And she was on the second stage of it. We took her to Singapore and treated her with the best possible treatment. Mom had to go bald for the chemotherapy, rays and everything we tried. We left no stone unturned to save her. Dad spent money as much as money he could, but nothing could have saved mom. On 4th November, 2017, she passed away. Exactly five days before my biggest hit song, ‘Tera Zikr’ released. I had thought of cancelling everything and go to Ahmedabad, but SMI was a huge music label, and they couldn’t afford the cancellation of the song. And because we signed a contract, the cancellation wasn’t possible, as well. So I was given three days to attend my mom’s funeral and them come back. I went and came back. I was fine for some days. But after a week of her death, I started getting nightmares. My mom wanted me close to her, when she was counting her last few days. She called me everyday and make me sing the song. She would hear it and tell me it was beautiful. But she would always ask me when was I going to visit her. I kept telling her that, I will visit her very soon. But little did I know, that I would never see her, ever again. And this is exactly what haunts me till date. Although, I don’t get nightmares everyday. But they happen once a week. And my mother’s voice desperately asking me to come and see her, haunts me as they echo in my ears.”, I concluded.

“I don’t know what to say!”, she said. I smiled. “Then don’t”, I told her. She pulled me in a hug and I could smell the fragrance of her shampoo from her hairs. “I’m lucky. I am so lucky to have you, Khushi and Nabiha in my life!”, she said, “I love you guys so much!”.

I sensed a tinge of heat in my cheeks, as she broke the hug. She looked cheerfully happy, as she didn’t know what she had just said. She had told me she loves me. But she mentioned her friends, too! Does she think of me as a friend? Holy fuck, am I friend-zoned, now?!

Nishita pushed me out of the kitchen and told me to have a bath and then come to have lunch, so that she can prepare lunch as she had an off day, today. I did as instructed but I couldn’t stop thinking about her words. I decided to ignore her friends and concentrate on her sweet words.

“I love you so much!”

She was just so fucking cute! What did I even do to deserve her? What is she doing to me?! Whatever it is, why am I loving it? Wait, what?!