Naira hadn't texted me more than two and a half days. I was getting anxious but I knew she needed some time to herself. After Arunav appeared and assumed that it was an intervention of some sort, he wanted to leave immediately.
"I swear I didn't know it! Dyuti didn't tell me they would be here!"
"No, but you wanted Dyuti to be here, didn't you? You wanted this to be in a public place instead of the privacy of my flat. You wanted to involve your friend into this so you could corner me."
"No! I just wanted her here because I was nervous. I was worried about what you wanted to talk about and you know Dyuti being around helps me."
"It definitely helps you. Normally, whenever she's around, you get to corner me because you know she would side with you. This time, I don't mind her being here. I know she wouldn't side with you this time."
That had sent a chill down my spine. I didn't like exactly how confident he was. He refused to say anything else and just left. Naira chased after him and since then she had no contact with me.
"You should just go to her house." Ritwik pulled me closer to him so my back was flush to his chest.
Still lying, I turned around to face him. "I don't think it's a good idea. If she wanted to talk to me, she would."
"Stop it."
"What?"
He traced my lower lip with his thumb forcing me to let go of the skin I was holding with my teeth.
"That. You'll make yourself bleed."
"Don't care. I just. Fuck. I don't know. What if I screwed her relationship up beyond repair and now she doesn't want anything to do with me? What if she hates me her whole life? Did I just ruin her life?" I bit down on my lower lip again and closed my eyes as tightly as possible.
"You're her best friend. She loves you."
I hid my face in the crook of his neck. "Does she? Will she? I just ruined her three year old relationship. She will never want anything to do with me. She hates me. Fuck, I'm so stupid. I hate mys-"
"You didn't ruin her relationship, she did that herself."
"What?" I pulled myself out of his embrace and sat up on the bed.
Ritwik sat up too and sighed. "Do you know that Pratyush dropped her off on our reception?"
I nodded.
"He stayed the night at her house."
"What?!"
"Yeah."
"Why did he stay at her house?" I couldn't wrap my head at the absurdity of it all.
"Her parents insisted he went inside to get some tea."
"She left the party after 11pm."
Who the fuck had tea so close to midnight?
"Yeah, but they did invite him because he went to drop her off. Then they insisted he stay there. He refused but they kept asking him to at least have something before he left. He tried to refuse again but being a huge parent-pleaser, he finally gave in. He fell asleep on the couch while her mother was bringing him food and her father trying to chat with him. He woke up around 7 in the morning and then left."
"Oh." It was still hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that Pratyush had a sleepover at Naira's house before me. But fine, whatever. "I still don't get why you're saying that she ruined her relationship. And also how do you know all this?"
"Pratyush told me this on Monday itself. He kept saying that if he went home and got some real sleep maybe he could have found a better way to save the little girl. But the thing is, he tried his best. He had been trying to do everything to save her for almost 6 months now. That surgery was the last option the family had of possibly saving her life. But the risk was always there."
Images of Pratyush's expression that day and how broken he sounded flooded my mind. I felt awful just thinking about what he was going through.
"I feel like shit for asking this after what you said but I have to know. How is any of this Naira's fault? Or relevant to her relationship? And how does it involve Arunav?"
"I don't know the details as such. Pratyush texted me on Tuesday telling me that Naira had shown up to his apartment to yell at him for ruining her relationship. After he had managed to somewhat calm her down, she told him that Arunav had been worried about her that night and had wanted to pick her up but since Pratyush offered to drop her off, she told her boyfriend to not come. Apparently, Arunav had been worried enough to have been waiting outside of her house. Neither Naira nor Pratyush had seen him but he saw them and had waited for Naira to text him. She didn't because she thought it wasn't relevant. Arunav had apparently waited outside her house for hours with no sign of Pratyush exiting so he-"
"-assumed that they were fucking?"
He shrugged.
I bit into my hand out of sheer anger. Fuck. Obviously Arunav had issues. The fact that Naira dated him for 3 years and I thought of him as a good person was proof enough. But then again, it wasn't entirely his fault but it wasn't not his fault either.
"Why do you say she ruined her relationship? This is clearly a huge misunderstanding because they're both morons and Pratyush is nyaka." I rolled my eyes.
"First of all, Pratyush isn't nyaka, he has a bit of a saviour complex. Secondly, Naira should have told her boyfriend about that regardless of whether he was acting like a creepy stalker or not. Th-"
"Exactly. He -"
"Let me finish."
I mocked him which he ignored and continued. "Naira shouldn't have involved you or at least gone after Arunav after that situation instead of running to Pratyush's to yell at him."
"Okay, you don't know if she had gone after Arunav or no-"
"She was yelling at Pratyush at 6:30."
I winced. She went straight to him. "Oh boy, this is a mess."
"A huge one."
"Do you think I should talk to Arunav?"
"Just talk to your best friend. But if you really want to talk to him, I'm going with you."
"I don't think that would be appropriate."
"Too bad. I'm not letting you talk to him by yourself. He doesn't seem stable."
I snorted. "He's all bark and no bite. Plus, you just caught him on a bad time. I just need to ask him what does his moronic ass think Pratyush and Naira were doing in Naira's parents house with the her parents and grandparents in the house."
"You don't want to ask about his creepy stalkerish behaviour?"
"Yepp. That too. I am kinda mad right now having to hear this from you instead of her." I grumbled.
"Maybe she's just figuring it all out or maybe she feels like you'll tell me."
"And Pratyush wouldn't?"
"I don't think she was thinking."
"Please stop defending her. It only makes me want to murder you. Anyway, you're right. I should talk to her and I will." I wanted to talk to her. There were so many things we needed to talk about. But I had to calm down before I could talk to her. Having to hear about a crisis in my best friend's life through my boss wasn't the most fun thing in the world.
"But right now-" I pushed Ritwik so that he laid on his back, "- I need a distraction." I straddled his hips and intertwined my fingers with his and put his hands above his head. "Right now, I don't want to deal with my frustration and anger over the shit that happened this week."
There were better ways to deal with my stress than crying every 5 minutes.
Much better ways.
*********†*****†*********
Ritwik drove us to Pratyush's apartment. I planned to talk to Naira after my dinner with Pratyush's family. Then depending on her reaction, I would either talk to Arunav or I wouldn't.
I chewed my lip nervously as the guard opened the door to let Ritwik's car into the building. Ritwik placed a hand on my shaking knee as he drove into the garage.
"It will all be fine."
I snorted. "Surya told me yesterday that his dad's a police officer and his mom's a crime branch officer."
Ritwik rolled his eyes. "Did he say they'll interrogate you?"
I nodded while still staring outside the window. He finally pulled into a spot and parked the car.
"He was just messing with your head. Just stick to what I told you. Be polite but not too nice. Seriously, your eyes look dead when you're fake nice. And act like having to pretend to be my wife is exhausting, just a little."
"Please, that won't be acting. That is exhausting!"
He flipped me off. "Pratyush's parents are the sweetest people I know. So, don't fuck this up."
"You know mostly bitter people." I huffed.
He chuckled. I turned towards him to glare at him but his grin caused my voice to get caught in my throat. Part of me wondered if being married to him was that bad. He had ditched his blazer and tie that he wore to work. His black shirt clung to his body. It reminded me of the morning before we got ready for work. That frustrated me even more.
It was as if the universe didn't want Ritwik and me to consummate our marriage.
When I thought we were finally getting some action, I had pulled a muscle. I kept rubbing the area between my stomach and right thigh hoping to reduce the pain there but after 3 minutes of trying and failing, I gave and we both got ready.
I felt bad for everyone who had to deal with the two of us for the rest of the day.
"I wish you had your tie on." I blurted out.
He groaned. "Don't do this two minutes before we're supposed to go in there to meet my best friend's parents."
"What? I didn't even do anything." I batted my eyelashes innocently.
He glared at me.
"You know you look hot with the tie and suit and all. Plus, the tie gives me easy access to you." I continued.
Maybe if I could distract him we wouldn't have to meet Pratyush's parents.
"You're a piece of shit." He grumbled.
"Oh come on. It's not my fault you're so hot." I rested a hand on his thigh.
He looked pained. He grabbed my hand and placed a kiss on my palm. "I'm taking you somewhere where it will just be the two of us away from the drama and everything. But right now, we need to go. His parents mean a lot to me."
That's exactly why I don't want to meet them.
I faked an almost genuine smile. He didn't comment about my dead eyes so that must have been a convincing one.
During the elevator ride, I kept silently praying to the universe to help me not screw it up. After all that Ritwik had revealed to me in the morning, I needed that win.
It should work out. Parents love me.
No matter how many times I was caught doing dumb shit by my friends' parents, they still for some reason trusted me to responsible. I had high hopes that the universe would be on my side in this regard.
The universe on the other hand, seemed to have different plans. As we reached Pratyush's floor and then his apartment, Ritwik pulled a key out of his pocket and opened the door.
My eyes widened in shock and I blurted out. "What the actual fuck?"
*********†*****†*********
Nyaka- dramatic