The next couple of days after regaining the memory of that fateful night went by painfully slow. Every moment that Aditya spent with Pooja, he had a sword of guilt hanging above his head. There was nothing he could do to change it and he hadn't gathered the courage to tell her.
"Aditya, what do you think?"
Pooja asked Aditya, forcing him to get out of his head. They were standing in the middle of the beautiful hall that was going to be the venue of Pooja's exhibition that night. She had been working hard for this moment and she wanted everything to be perfect, instead of another fiasco like what had happened in Goa. Aditya knew all of this and he wanted to be there for her despite of what had happened the other night.
Pooja didn't bring it up again and he knew it must've hurt thinking that her own husband didn't want to be intimate with her. It was just a conversation that had to happen, but he was pretty sure Pooja was dreading it just as much as he was.
"It's great. You're really talented and I'm sure everyone with eyes can see that." He said, as he circle his arms around her waist from behind.
All Aditya wanted, was for everything to go back to normal but he knew his situation was the farthest thing from that.
______________
Zoya was experiencing a similar situation. On one hand, the issues inside of her marriage were already so hard to deal with and now the mistake that she had committed was haunting her so much, it felt like everything was going to fell apart.
She had been noticing the distance between her and Yash. There was an emotional distance and there was also physical distance. She didn't expect them to be romantic after the fight but even when Yash didn't know about what she had done, he slept noticeably away from her.
"Yash, is there something we should talk about?"...aside from the fact that she had slept with another man. When she asked this question a couple of days ago, she wanted to know if he wanted to address the internal issues of their marriage. She obviously had a big confession to make but she wasn't ready. So, Zoya thought that the right thing to do would be to address the problems within her relationship that she could hopefully solve.
But Yash, like always, pretended like everything is okay and continued to act aloof.
Remembering that little talk, on the day that she had to go to Pooja's exhibition really stressed her. It was like a big heap of problems and Zoya had no idea how to overcome it without completely emotionally draining herself.
She really didn't want to go the exhibition. She tried to make excuses on the phone but Pooja was really ardent and she insisted that she wanted to make up for leaving Zoya unattended by not being there at the anniversary party. As much as Zoya hated it, she wasn't left unattended... Aditya had "attended" her in a way that Pooja would definitely not approve of. So, in order to get Pooja to stop mentioning the night, Zoya agreed.
But now, here she was. Getting ready in a simple net blush pink saree, getting ready to look Pooja eye to eye despite of knowing that what her drunk-self had done could ruin Pooja's life. As Zoya draped the saree over her stomach, the memory of Aditya kissing her same stomach and going down slowly from there flashed across her eyes. His hands massaging the roundness of her bust and his lips continuing their downward trail. She turned away from the mirror, trying to get a grip of the sudden rush of emotions, as some of them would make her want to moan.
With one deep breath, she finished getting ready as she constantly tried to focus her attention somewhere else.
_____________
Zoya entered the exhibition knowing that she was late. The space was already full of people and it seemed like everyone was enjoying Pooja's work. That made her happy, at least things going well for her friend in the professional sense since Zoya herself had managed to mess things in the personal one.
"Please welcome the woman of the hour, Mrs. Poojs Hooda." A round of applause erupted in the huge hall as Pooja stepped on the slightly elevated stage.
Zoya smiled looking at the happy glow on her face and joined to clap for her accomplishments.
"Thank you all for coming here and giving me the chance to share my passion with you. Of course, none of this could have been possible without my dear husband, Adi." Another round of applause, but this time Zoya didn't join.
Her eyes followed as he stepped up on the stage, seeming a little embarrassed with all the attention and a wave of shock hit her. She had been dumb enough to not think about the possible encounter with Aditya. He was her husband, afterall. Of course he was going to be there. But she wasn't ready for a confrontation, so she looked down to avoid the direct eye-contact.
But it was too late, the damage was done for Aditya had already caught a glimpse of the face that hadn't left his mind ever since that night. Suddenly, his entire focus shifted from his wife standing beside him to Zoya, who was evidently trying to hide herself by looking down and stepping behind people.
He wanted to call her name out but obviously couldn't. He looked back at Pooja and tried to not be distracted by someone who wasn't his wife. He smiled, stopping himself from looking in the other direction. It was especially harder because Zoya was right there and the idea of meeting her again didn't seem like a possibility but there she was, in the same room as him.
Zoya didn't know what to do herself, she knew Aditya had seen her and made her feel gutted thinking that her mistake could possibly take the limelight away from Pooja's big night. Part of her thought Aditya wouldn't care enough about becaue he was up there with his wife. That's right, he was Pooja's husband, her husband. He had no relationship, no obligation to Zoya so why would he even pay attention to her at a night like this. The unrest that the thought caused was confusing because Zoya shouldn't have felt that way, just like Aditya, she too was in a committed marriage herself.
The uneasiness and the chance of an encounter with Aditya made her want to run away, and that's exactly what she did. She stooped and tried to get out of the place hiding behind people, so nobody would notice that she was leaving in the middle of the speech.
Aditya noticed her as soon as she started leaving, putting him in a dilemma. Should he leave his wife and run behind her? He had questions, he didn't exactly know what those were but he knew he had to talk to her and figure things out. There was a very high chance that they would meet again considering they run in the same circles and he did deserve one conservation to acknowledge what had happened and to put the night in the past.
He excused himself, right when Pooja's speech ended which was right after Zoya had apparently exited the hall. He told Pooja's organiser to inform her about him leaving for an emergency and ignored everyone else to head straight for the exit gate. He figured Zoya couldn't have gone too far and he was right, he spotted her from the gate as she was walking away briskly, talking on the phone. He tried to catch up with her speed, as he finally called out her name.
"Zoya!"
...and Zoya stopped. Hearing him say her name felt foreign and yet familiar, if that made any sense. She ended the phone call with her driver, whom she was calling to pick her up. She couldn't believe that he actually left to follow her and turned to look at him. He was there, just a little behind her trying to get to her. What did he even want? Zoya didn't want a confrontation, she didn't even know what she would say if they had one.
Aditya saw her look at him and it was odd how he felt helpless with how much he wanted to sit down and talk to her in that moment. To his surprise, she continued walking with an even increased speed and before he knew, she was running.
Damn it, Zoya.
He continued to follow her and he realised they were only about a hundred metres away from the venue and getting closer to the main road.
"Zoya, would you stop?!"
As Aditya suspected, she didn't listen and at this point, she was dangerously close to the main road. Even the people passing would wonder about this crazy women in a saree running in the middle of the road. He managed to get closer to her by running as fast as he could and suddenly panic hit him when he saw a car speeding exactly to where Zoya had stopped to probably catch her breath.
Zoya was not thinking clearly at this point, she knew he was calling him and she knew she was being an idiot by running there but she didn't want a confrontation. Accepting what had happened was hard enough to her. She noticed the blaring sound of a horn and looked up at the car coming towards her. She was in the middle of the road and she wanted to hit herself for not being more careful. She tried to move away in a rush of panic and almost lost her balance when Aditya caught her by the waist and pulled her to the other side of the road with him. Without thinking, she latched onto him by his shoulders and close her eyes, leaving everything up to him. He lifted her off slightly and Zoya tightened her grip.
They were on the other side now and Zoya was trying to catch her breath. Her arms were still around him and she felt his tight hold with his hands resting on the bare part of her waist. And in that moment, everything was okay, everything was numb. She felt her mind at peace for once in so many days and nothing in the world felt wrong as her head rested against Aditya's chest where she could feel his hastened heart beat.
Aditya too, was trying to catch his breath. Memories of the night came back to him and as good it felt being that close to her, he took a step back and as he did, she removed her hands too.
"Are you insane? How hard is to look around before running like a maniac?" It came out louder than he intended but he really was annoyed at her.
Zoya knew she was right but her ego got the better of her and supressed the voice in her that actually wanted to thank him. "Like what you did wasn't a safety hazard! what were you thinking jumping in trying to save me like that?"
"I was doing exactly that – trying to save you!"
Aditya took a deep breath and tried to think clearly. It was obvious that just like him, Zoya had a lot going on and as much as it bothered him that she was almost hit by a car, he had more important things to discuss. "We need to talk."
This is exactly what Zoya was dreading, she preferred arguing with him over talking about it. Partly because there was nothing that could be done so this conversation would do no good other than making her feel more guilty and restless.
"About what?"
Aditya was surprised for a second and then realised that she was obviously playing dumb to avoid talking about it. He answered her back because if she was stubborn, so was he.
"About the other night."
"What about the other night?"
Good, go ahead. Test my patience after making me run behind you.
"We need to talk about the other night."
"Ne, we don't."
"Yes we do, Zoya. We need to talk about what happened."
"What happened?" ... and that backfired. Zoya put both of them in an uncomfortable state as images of their bare bodies against each other and a riled up blanket entered her head.
Aditya looked at her, knowing that she was getting flashbacks just like he was.
"Listen... we don't have to talk about it. It happened and that was that. There's no need to bring it up and disrupt out lives."
He opened her mouth to say something but he didn't know what to say. Maybe she was right, maybe there was no point in discussing it. Both of them knew it happened and both of them had separate lives to get too. He felt her vulnerable tone and before he could say something, a car pulled up beside them.
"I should go." Zoya didn't wait for him to respond before she opened the door and got in. She knew his eyes were following her and she knew this was it. She shut the door and the car drove and she didn't look back at Aditya. She was a little relieved that maybe this was the end of the matter even though emotionally, it would haunt her every second.
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A/N: I know a lot of you thought that I was abandoning this story but here it is, I felt so happy writing it again so here's a long chapter to make up for my absence. Being a college student, I don't get the time to sit down and get in the writing zone because I'm busy with assignments and my internship. But I promise the next update will come out before 7th May because that's when my finals start. Thank you for showering so much love, it warms my heart.
XO.