Thoughts..

She was completely restless. Moving from one room to another, from the living room to the kitchen. A little over half an hour had passed but it seemed more like 2hrs to her. The house wasn’t unfamiliar. Apart from a few pieces of furniture the rest looked exactly the same when she was here over a year ago. That day was, however, full of sadness. Today, it was more of anxiety. She was unable to stop herself from thinking what had transpired in the last 24hrs.

As always Dev was late from office. Maya was busy fixing dinner for them. It was around quarter past 10 when she heard the doorbell ring. It was Dev. He looked more exhausted than usual. He went straight for a bath, then they both quietly had their dinner, which had become quite a tradition. It was over a week that the two had a proper conversation.

After the dinner Dev went to the bedroom surfing on his laptop while Maya finished off the dishes. Their relation was as dead as a 2 week old fish outside water. It was nearing their first marriage anniversary. They never really consummated their marriage, Dev always seemed aloof. Maya herself was forced by her parents against her wishes to marry Dev. She wanted to marry Rohit, her college sweetheart.

After finishing off her chores, as Maya went to the room, she saw an over exhausted Dev slouching over the laptop. He was fast asleep. She peeped a bit. He never let her near her laptop. It was a prized private possession. She had many a times wondered what exactly Dev has hidden inside ofnit. But it was always too far from her. This time however it was not far from her reach. And to her luck, it was unlocked as well.

She quietly slid the laptop from under Dev’s arms and looked at it. An old chat saved in a text file. His ex? She wondered what kind of girl would Dev be interested in. But as she read through the messages, the expressions on her face changed. It was an ex, but not a girl. It was a guy from his former company. From the messages, it was apparent that the two were romantically involved! Maya was unable to hold her tears back. She could not understand what had just happened.

She wiped off her tears, closed the laptop, tucked Dev into the bed and ran off the washroom. She must’ve cried for a good hour more before returning to the room. Slowly as she slid into the blanket she was careful not to even touch Dev a bit. She was feeling disgusted and cursed her parents for putting her through this misery. The next day as soon as Dev left for work, she started packing her bag. She wanted to go as far as she could from this she thought. As she placed a jeans in the bag she thought, where exactly would she go? Not her parents, not at all, they forced her into this and now she won’t go back to them.

Then a something struck her. Like a possessed being she moved out of the house got a rick and went straight to his place. She kept on ringing the bell as hard as she could. A familiar face opened the door. It was Rohit. She hugged him tight and gave a deep kiss. He was rattled by this sudden appearance of her at his door let alone the hugging and kissing. He closed the door. On inquiring, she told him that she missed him a lot and that she finally got the courage to come. Of course she was not going to tell him the main reason. The thoughts in her mind were that Dev cheated and lied to her. This was her way of getting back at Dev and her parents.

Rohit, was a bit happy, he had never stopped messaging her. He was hopeful that she will come to him someday. Though being a part of something wrong was making him worried as well. All his worries seemed less when Maya kissed him again. Rohit smiled and reminded her of their last night together. It was just before Maya’s week long wedding events were to be held. It was in this same house he smirked. Maya felt a bit embarrassed. They continued making out for some time on the couch before Rohit stood up. He had forgotten the assignment that he had to submit to his client. He promised Maya it won’t take more than couple of hours. He changed, took his folder and sped off. Maya was left in the house alone. She felt a sensation she hadn’t felt since her marriage. The feeling of being loved.

All of a sudden she started thinking about Dev. It was weird, why would his thoughts come to her mind at a time like this? Was she suddenly feeling sympathetic towards her husband? A feeling of guilt crawled upon her. She felt restless and started walking the length of the house. The more she tried not to think about him the more he came into her mind. His life was no better than hers. He was going through the same pain. The act of reading old messages meant that he too missed his ex. Maybe he too was forced into this marriage by his parents. The stress was just too much for her to bare any longer. She took out a paper, wrote a note for Rohit and left.

As she entered her house, she felt a strange confidence building in her. Slowly she finished off all her chores and waited for Dev. He was home early today. After his bath as they sat down for dinner, Maya spoke to him about the messages. To her surprise, instead of getting angry Dev was moved to tears. He opened up all about his ex to Maya and how his parents forced him to get married to get “cured”.

Maya was exasperated. She couldn’t control the disgust on her face. She helped Dev up and made him drink some water. Next she told him her entire story with Rohit. Dev did not respond. He thought it was a fitting reaction to what he did to her. Maya went inside and got a big yellow envelope. Sitting beside Dev she took out the papers from it and handed them over to him. Dev went through them. They were divorce papers. She smiled and said that they both should lead their lives the way they want and not the way their parents wanted. It has only given them pain. Not only them but their ex’s as well. Dev smiled gently. He was relieved that Maya was not angry on him for hiding the truth.

That night they both slept in peace. It was the same house, the same bed, but they both had never felt so comfortable with each other.