Please comment what you feel about this chapter.
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Khanna Mansion, 7:00pm.
Avni is looking around the room while sitting on the bed, her eyes land on Neil's side of the bed (which he rarely uses). She feels strange as Neil has never left her for this long since they got married.
She gets up feeling uncomfortable and walks over to the door, she moves to grab the door handle but the door opens at the same time and Ahana appears at the door. She walks in folding her arms and glaring at her, she continues walking making Avni back away at the same time.
When she stops, Avni speaks up " what is it Ahana? " Avni said in the most uninterested way.
" You know why I'm here Avni" Ahana says still folding her arms
"Honestly, I don't. So would you mind explaining" Avni says
" No I won't mind" Ahana says " but right after I sit down" she moves to the couch and sits and Avni settles down next to her.
" Avni, why were you behaving strange this morning" Ahana faces her " Neil said he was leaving and you were behaving as if you didn't care when it was clear that you did. Are you trying to prove something? "
" Prove what? What are you talking about? " Avni says
" I don't know...Maybe prove that you don't care, that it doesn't matter if he leaves or not" Ahana makes gestures with her hand " Avni...you didn't even look at him, what was wrong with you?"
" Ahana I really don't see why you're making a big deal out of this, he's just going for a few months, it's not like he's going forever. He'll be back before we know it" Avni says and leans back into the couch
" OK, I know that. But you could have at least said bye or something, everybody did. But since you don't want to listen, you can do what you want. But don't come to me when you realize what you did" Ahana gets up from the couch and Avni huffs and mumbles unclear words.
" Anyway, my Parents came while you were out. They asked me a lot of questions and I caught up with them and then I asked if I could stay here for some more time and they said yes"
" that's great" Avni exclaims
" I think I'll leave after Neil comes back"
" oh ok" she smiles
" I'm leaving now, bye" Ahana smiles and closes the door.
Meanwhile,
In a hotel in Kerala
About 10 minutes ago, Neil got back from work but instead of resting, he's actually doing more work on his laptop. It seems the mission is really important but Neil's mind isn't even focused on his work but on something unusual, his phone.
He moves to the window breaking his 5 minutes stare at his phone. He sits on the window and debates weather to call Avni or not.
"...if I call her now, I'll seem too desperate. No, I don't want that. But...But if call her tomorrow, she'll feel that I don't care and that's is the complete opposite of what I feel right now" Neil talks to himself.
" if I don't call her at all, then..then I don't know what she'll think cause I don't want what happened this morning to happen again, I mean she didn't even say bye" Neil runs his hand through his hair in frustration, nervousness and sadness.
He looks at the moon " Maybe she isn't even thinking of me right now, or maybe she didn't even think of me today" he feels this wave of sadness hit him, and it's really strange because it takes a lot to make him feel this sad.
He goes back to work on his laptop to try and lift his mood, but it doesn't work. So he changes into his shirt and pajama pants and lies down on the bed, trying to force himself to sleep.
Khanna Mansion
Avni comes out of the bathroom and walks to the bed, but as she walks past the small drawer, a protruding nail gets caught in the bottom of her nightwear and tears it open.
" Shit! " Avni curses, she opens the wardrobe and picks out another dress.
She changes into it and picks up the water jugs on the bedside table, she picks up the cup and it slips out of her hand hitting the floor with a loud shattering sound.
" O God, that was my favorite cup" she bends and picks the broken pieces and one of them cuts her hand. " Ow! " she dresses the wound and mutters to herself "first the cupboard, then my favorite cup and now this stupid cut" she moves to the bed " I feel so horrible" she lies down on the bed and thinks why Neil hasn't called her since.
Is he alright? She thinks
Avni starts to think she might have pushed things a little too far.
What was I thinking?, why am I acting so stupid?
I hope he doesn't hate me for this, I haven't even called him or anything to know whether he's alright or not. I feel so bad. He must be asleep now, I'll call him tomorrow.
She continues to think until she starts to feel sleepy, she hears a ping sound and her hand reaches for her phone.
New text message
She opens the text
Neil
*Goodnight *
Avni's bad mood starts to fade and a smile forms on her lips. She turns her phone screen off and puts her head back on the pillow, feeling guilty as Neil remembered her and she didn't even send him a text.
She turns her phone on and replies to his message.
Neil
*Goodnight *
*Goodnight*
She starts to think of what Ahana said
" Avni...you didn't even look at him, what was wrong with you?"
She gets up and walks out of the room, she walks down the hall and knocks on Ahana's door. Ahana opens the door after the third knock
" yes? " she says sleepily " Avni? " she says after seeing Avni
" Can I come in? " Avni says hopefully
Ahana crosses her arms and smirks " realized what you did?" she says and Avni nods.
That sit on the bed and Avni begins to speak
" I guess I didn't want him to think I wanted him to stay"
" but did you want him to stay?" Ahana asks and Avni nods
" You know you could have just acted normally right?"
" I know but I was just feeling weird and all" Avni says
" it's normal in love, I'm saying this from personal experience" She points out
" Love?, what are you saying"
" Avni why is it so hard to explain things to you? " Ahana says
" Just know that they'll be a moment when you'll realize what you feel for him, then you'll understand all this"
Avni opens the door to the room and steps inside, she opens the wardrobe and picks out Neil's shirt and wears it. She lies on the bed and slowly drifts off to sleep, thinking about a certain someone.
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Next morning
Avni wakes up and freshens up and the moment she came out of the bathroom fully dressed, the first thing she did was to grab her phone and dial Neil's number. It starts to ring and she starts feeling scared on thinking he might not pick it because he's angry with her. His voice interrupts her trail of thoughts.
" Hello? " His deep voice cuts off her thoughts
" H-Hi" Avni says and stays silent
" Avni is something wrong?" Neil begins to sound worried.
" No No " she says quickly " I just wanted to call you to ask if everything is alright"
" yeah, everything is fine. Sorry I couldn't call yesterday, I was really busy" Neil says nervously
" No, I'm sorry I didn't call. I wanted to call but I.."
Neil feels happy that she did think of him " it's okay Avni" he cuts her off "But I have to go, I'm really busy. I'll call you later"
" okay, bye" she smiles and hangs up feeling less guilty
In the evening
Avni just came back from Ali's cafe with Ahana, she goes to the room and starts to finish her work on her laptop before she resumes tomorrow.
She closes her laptop, done with her work and turns to see someone standing at the door, and that someone is Neil. She gets confused and rubs her eyes, but he's still there, his smile, his hair, his beautiful face, everything is still the same.
She gets up and looks at him again and begins to smile, "Neil!" she runs to hug him but she unfortunately bangs her face on the door in the process. She turns back to look at Neil but he isn't there anymore.
" I swear he was right here, I saw him!" Avni says unbelievably
" May..Maybe I'm just stressed out" she sighs.
In Kerala
Neil's case is moving faster everyday and he's happy that he might be done sooner than he thinks. But unfortunately today, he lost his phone and he's really sad about this, because even though he got a new one he doesn't know Avni's number offhand and it's been bugging him, he can't remember anyone's number and he's worried on how he'll contact them.
He decides he'll look for a solution later and focuses on his work.
Khanna mansion, 8pm
Avni is freaking out in her room right now, she's been thinking why Neil hasn't called her since morning when he said he would.
" Maybe, he's just busy" she tries to reason with herself " But..But he said he'll call me later.." she looks at the clock "and after almost 13hours is way past later" she sighs.
She goes to downstairs and asks Shweta to call Neil but it says it's switched off , she asks Bebe, Prakash and Ahana, but it's says the same thing.
" But what's wrong with his phone, Neil's phone is never switched off. Yah kaise sambhav hai, oh God.. I hope he's alright-" Shweta gets worried (How is this possible)
" He is.. He's alright" Avni cuts her off too quickly
" I'll go back to my room now" Avni says
" Avni don't worry, I'll call his boss in Kerala and ask him to connect us to Neil" Prakash says
" Okay, thank you Dad" Avni breaths a sigh of relief.
Avni walks up with Ahana and Ahana hugs her goodnight. She opens the door and starts a process which might become a routine now; she walks to the cupboard and picks out another of Neil's shirt and wears it. She walks to the window to her lonely friend, the moon, she looks up and starts to speak...
" I don't know what you're doing right now Neil, I don't know whether you are sleeping, working or maybe..maybe even thinking of me I hope " she says and breaths out " but.. but what I know right now is that.." she pauses " I miss you and I wish you won't stay there for long, I'm sorry for behaving like I wanted you to go, I didn't mean it. And.. And I wish you'll come back now cause I'm feeling lonely..v-very lonely" her voice cracks and she looks down.
Tired, she moves to the bed and lies down. She tightens the shirt around her and falls into a deep sleep.
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