What's a soulmate? ~ MaNan

Chapter 9

"Ready to leave?" I knit my brows.

"You forgot... didn't you?" He accused feigning offence as he crossed his hands across his chest, his gaze setting on me firmly. "Tonight, Navya has hosted a dinner, remember? She already called and invited you last week?"

I pressed my eyes shut as realisation struck me. "Right."

"You are still coming, right?" He looked at me crossly, his voice hopeful.

"Um, Cabir." I turned back to him with an apologetic expression. "I don't think I can make it, buddy. I've got a headache that-"

"No. No. No." He cut me off. "I'm not having any of that crap excuses, especially not the headache one. It's the most non-innovative and crappiest of them all. Besides, don't you miss your daughter?"

Mia. I felt selfish. But again, if Mia would be there, then so would Nandini.

I felt the urge to reach out in my pocket again and light another cigarette.

Cabir didn't wait anymore for an answer. "I'm going to go and get the car out until then. See you down in five."

Saying that, he left my cabin. I sighed, turning back to my desk and opening one of the drawers to wear my watch, but amongst the many there, when I didn't find the one my eyes were searching for, I felt a pang in my heart as I remembered where it was. Probably at the bottom of that lake I had ended up throwing it into.

For the first time in the past three years, I sighed picking out another watch to wear on my wrist, just like for the first time in all these years, the picture of me and Nandini that sat on my desk was put back into a drawer.

And then, I made sure the drawer was closed and the keys were hidden well away from eyes reach to avoid any temptation whatsoever, for you cannot turn the pages of a book and read ahead until the previous chapters are flipped over and shut.

*

My daughter had an unhealthy obsession with strawberries. I fairly knew whom she got it from as well, and the answer to that was not me.

I didn't hesitate in stopping at one of the local supermarkets below Navya's house and taking a box of fresh strawberries to make up for the lost weekend. For my daughter, I had to remind myself, not my wife.

I knew they were highly scented with it's typical vanilla and strawberry smell when I had only entered Navya's house and already heard Mia's voice from inside.

"Strawberries?" I knew it was followed by a giggle from both the ladies and audible footsteps towards us making me smile to my fullest and my best-friend shake his head in disbelief as my daughter ran towards me and I picked her up in my arms.

"Hello, baby love." I cooed smothering her with kisses and for the first time, she didn't already begin to wriggle out of my grip.

Seems like someone had missed me just as much as I had missed her through the weekend...

"Papa, I missed you." She told me holding my face in her tiny hands and managed to place a kiss on my nose in return too.

"I missed you too, Mia," I answered, holding her firmer as we walked inside. "So, what new do you have to tell me about last week?" A standard question I always ask her to make sure she grows up feeling validated, that her talks and thoughts and opinions matter to her father.

"I punched someone," She giggled proudly.

My mouth hung open. "You what now?"

"Punched." She repeated herself with a smug smile.