Cupids and Crossbows

A Surprise Encounter - II

" Those are the divorce papers she sent to me yesterday," he said pointing to the envelope placed on the coffee table, its ends bearing a sorry remainder of being manhandled by Rishi the day before. From the way he was heartbroken and crying his eyes out since yesterday, I had a pretty good idea who he was crying for. But they had been going steady when I left. They hadn't got married yet but anyone could affirm they were so in love just by looking at them. Though Pratiksha was shy and never voiced any lovey-dovey stuff, her eyes spoke a lot. They had always followed around Rishi wherever he went with a silent yearning that had turned to wordless admiration and slowly into bashful pride of having him as her lover, over the years. I never thought their love story would come to an end like this. Then again I never thought I would end up where I currently am either.

Anyway, my sob story is not important now. I had to know what happened to Rishi’s life. No beating around the bush or treading the waters with cautious steps anymore. So I asked him straight forward though I was struggling to form coherent sentences. "What the hell is wrong with her? Why does she want a divorce?" I asked point blank with imaginary fumes out of my nose which made him stare at me now with furrowed eyebrows to make sure I was alright. I took a deep breath and started over. "What happened Rishi? What was that big of a problem for Pratiksha to take a call like that? Also, I know this isn't the right time to ask this question. But I am gonna ask this anyway. When did you get married?" I asked still trying to fully take in the newfound information.

"Last year," Rishi said like he was reminiscing something beautiful yet painful enough to make him wince a moment later. He swallowed hard and uttered like he was ashamed of himself, "It’s my fault that she left."

"What? What did you do?" I asked getting more and more puzzled by each second. He didn't answer me immediately and honestly, the silence was getting on my nerves. I was desperate for some answers. In any other situation, I would have beat the information out of him but this was a sensitive topic that I have to tread carefully. Moreover, something told me he was more fragile now despite the cold front that he was putting up. Like yesterday when he marched out after our argument.

"Rishi, In all the years I have known you, I don't think you are capable of doing something that could seriously hurt the ones you love. I agree that your anger messes with your brain sometimes. But I don't think you would hurt her in any way that would make her walk out of your life. Don't beat yourself up" I said trying to comfort him. My consolation seemed to fall on deaf ears. He was convinced that he was wrong. While it was good he had realized the damage he had done so that he could proceed on the way to mend it. What I feared was if he had accepted it to be his fault entirely, then he would start to think he don't deserve Pratiksha anymore.

Losing a fight is one thing but losing the will to fight altogether is entirely different. From the looks of it, Rishi seemed to be set on the latter. When you have lost the will to fight, no amount of pep talk could persuade you until you are willing to pull yourself back together. Rishi didn't talk anymore on that day. I had left him to his thoughts deciding that it was enough prodding for one day. Later that week after he had started to stay at my apartment, I slowly gathered the remaining puzzle pieces in his story. Turns out he and Pratiksha had been living in Florida after their marriage last year. Now that I remember it was not a surprise to me that he had moved to the US as his mother was American and one of his elder sisters have settled down in the US after her marriage. He was taking care of the US operations of his father's company until he had resorted to drinking almost every minute of the day and picking up fights in nightclubs. It had all started only after Pratiksha had left three months before.

The guy was devastated and he was walking the world like a brain-dead zombie with no idea of what he was doing. He was dragging his career down the dirt, straining the relationship with his family, losing his reputation as a good son from his father, and exploiting his health. To top it all, he didn't seem to care about it. Because all those things seemed useless to him when he didn't have the person he loved, beside him.

While I could understand all of it and relate to most of it, I was sick of him moping around the house smelling like a hobo, and getting back late at night to bang my door reeking of alcohol. It had been going on for a week and I was not going to clean up after his mess every day. With a decision made, I dumped a jug of water on his head when he had come back to my apartment a few days back, completely wasted. "Listen here you jerk. I am not gonna put up with your s**t anymore. I am not your nanny to wash you after you puke or this is not a freaking hotel for you to just barge in and plant your a*s whenever you want" I shouted with my eyes flaring fire and roasting him alive. He was blinking to clear his eyes as his vision was blurred both due to the alcohol and the water that I had poured on his head. "Also I don't want to lose any more of my furniture either" I added pointing at the glass coffee table that he broke yesterday along with his mobile. He had gotten frustrated after trying to contact Pratiksha for the hundredth time and had failed miserably which drove him to take it out on my beautiful coffee table. Seemingly, Rishi’s number was blocked. Even if he tried from other numbers, all of Pratiksha’s calls were screened by her sister and she had hung up every time without a word. I highly doubt that she had even relayed the message to Pratiksha that Rishi had tried to contact her. "We are going to get you back to your wife" I finished and trudged back to my room for some much-needed sleep leaving a soaking and confused Rishi on my living room floor.

The next day as I promised I passed over the information to Kyle about Rishi’s case, of course after getting Rishi’s approval. We knew that we would not be able to contact Pratiksha without involving legal resources as she had already filed for a divorce. So I had talked over with Kyle and he had readily accepted to help. After some quick phone calls and doing his lawyer thing, he had somehow managed to set up a meeting with her. But with her lawyer present. Rishi was ecstatic as well as nervous when he heard the news. He wanted to meet Pratiksha so badly and he was damn confident that if he was able to get a one-on-one talk with her, he would be able to convince her for sure. He had still got some fight left in him and hadn't lost hope for their relationship completely. That may or may not have to do with my outburst earlier and my impromptu pep talks with him.

So that's where we were going today; to the law firm that Kyle was working in.

Unfortunately, like my worst nightmare coming to reality, we were caught up in the evening traffic when people were finishing work and getting back to their personal lives. I had already had a tiring day at work and this traffic was doing nothing to help me get my enthusiasm back. Not even the fact that I was happily playing as Cupid with my best friend's love life. With the honest intention of getting them back together mind you. I really hope that he says it that way and doesn't take a crossbow to my stupid face.

I banged my head on the steering wheel again making the horn blare noisily. "Touch that horn one more time and I swear to God I will throw you out the window Dhee," Sarah said through gritted teeth pulling me back by my ear to sit upright. "Ow! Ow! Ow! That freaking hurts" I shrieked in pain prying her hands away from me. She withdrew her hands and glared at me pointedly. I smoothed out my hair with a scoff. I don't know how many times I have said this but I am saying it again. The woman was insane. I shouldn't have offered her a ride when she said she wanted to meet Jason at the law firm for their dinner date.

Though she and Jason had a vague idea about Rishi, they didn't want to indulge anymore, concerned that it might make him uncomfortable. They were content with just offering their silent support which I truly appreciated. "Traffic’s clear," she said craning her head towards the road before us and I started my car to continue our journey. She got back to her makeup and spoke while applying her eyeliner. "I know you care for Rishi a lot Aadhira. But at this point, you can't do anything more than what you are helping with as of now. This issue is something that they have to settle on their own. The more we get into their problem, it will only make it worse" she said with a sigh closing her makeup bag.

As much as it was disappointing to hear that I can't do anything to fix my best friend’s relationship, I couldn’t help but agree with what Sarah said which was the undeniable truth. Fifteen minutes later we were at Kyle's office and Sarah had left us in search of Jason. They came back to say their goodbyes before they left for dinner. There were only three of us left once they were gone. Kyle was talking to someone over the phone and Rishi was seated in a chair with his right leg moving up and down, screaming to the world how nervous he was. He had even started to bite his nails at some point. I could see that the anxiety and anticipation were doing a good job of wrecking his nerves. I walked over to him clasping a comforting hand over his shoulder and gave him a reassuring squeeze. I smiled at him to let him know I will always be by his side as a supportive best friend.

"They are here" Kyle announced after hanging up his phone. "They are waiting in Meeting Room. 2. Come on people. Let's go and get this over with" he finished with a sigh. He picked up a file folder in his hand and walked in front of us while we trailed after him obediently. I had prepared myself for pulling back and calming down Rishi if things got out of hand. I had prepared myself for emotional outbursts, colorful words from Pratiksha, and even some furniture breaking from Rishi’s end. I had even prepared myself to console Rishi if things got really serious and he broke down into a crying mess right there in the middle of the meeting. But I had most definitely not prepared myself for what I saw once I entered the conference room.

Standing tall in a pinstripe black suit with his arms folded, a scowl creasing his handsome features, and his hardened eyes gazing out the floor-to-ceiling window, was none other than the man who I considered my everything for half a decade. Hell, he was the man I secretly imagined to be my everything even now.

Prithvi turned around on hearing the meeting room door open. His eyes bulged out visibly on seeing us enter while his breath caught in a short gasp as he stuttered out my name in a whisper.

"Dhira"

Holy s**t! Talk about surprises!