Remember That Day - TEJRAN

Part 4

Teja woke up to a bright, sunlit room. She slept longer than usual today. Other days, she found herself waking up right before the sun rose — just like she did when she had been filming. She missed that. She missed being on crowded sets, being part of a hectic schedule, the sound of a clapperboard. She especially missed hearing the director call cut. 

Her longing for her past life was slowly overwhelmed by a sense of guilt that she was becoming quite familiar with these days. She felt as if she was betraying her baby by having such thoughts. She hugged her arms around her belly. I would trade a thousand sets for you, she said to herself, hoping the baby believed her that there was nothing more important.

She tried not to start her morning with tears but found herself having little control over them. Stupid, stupid hormones! So she let herself cry instead of screaming like a lunatic. A good cry often calmed her down.

She moved her feet and hit something solid. She looked and found Karan kneeling on the floor by her feet. She moved her feet and hit his arm one more time to make sure he was actually there. To make sure, hallucination was not her new symptom. She wiped her face roughly and sat up straight on the bed.

"I didn't see you. How long have you been here?" She asked, confused.

He didn't answer her — she wasn't sure if he had even heard her. He looked at her like he was studying her, and expression said he didn't like what he learned from this study. 

Her eyes fell on the random objects by her feet. Nail polish remover, polish stained cotton pads, a base polish and nude colored nail polish, her favorite one. She glanced at her exposed feet peeking out from the blanket. Her toenails had been freshly painted. He had painted them? This man, Karan Kundrra painted her nails while she slept! 

"You did this?" Teja asked, trying to swallow the painful knot in her throat. 

"I will book an at home salon appointment for you later. Until then..." he shrugged his shoulders. His voice sounded hoarse and it looked as if he didn't sleep last night.

"Sunny, you didn't have to do this." She was touched, at the same time, embarrassed that she had let herself go to such an extent that he had to paint her ugly toes.

"I know. I wanted to," he said, rising to his feet.

She felt nausea hit her. "Bathroom," she uttered, covering her mouth. 

Karan nodded and moved out of the way so she could escape freely. When he started following her to the bathroom like usual, she stopped him.

"Please don't." He had seen her throw up enough times for this lifetime. She wanted to save whatever remaining attraction he felt for her. She knew how disgusted he gets by these things. She locked the door behind her, shutting him out.

When Karan first heard her sobbing, he thought she was having a nightmare. Then he realized she was awake. Seeing her cry like that had paralyzed him to his spot. He didn't know what to do, whether to jump in and take her into his arms or run the other way so she could have her private moment. He knew she cried often these days, she just avoided doing it in front of him, which made him feel worse.

He grabbed his phone and sent a quick email to her doctor's office to move up the next appointment to the earliest possible time. In his notifications he saw Omi's message. An article about him, titled "Karan Kundrra rekindles his romance with ex Anusha, Tejasswi leaves in tears." For fuck's sake! These garbage tabloids, and their garbage headlines would never stop.

 He opened the article and it said he had spent hours reconnecting with Anusha without a care for who was around. Partly true, Karan thought. He wasn't reconnecting. They were just talking, it had lasted a while. He read on. Party attendants have told us Karan Kundrra's wife, actress Tejasswi Prakash stormed out of the party in tears. Karan didn't know whether that part was true. When Anusha had walked up to them and asked to talk to him for a minute it was not him who had said yes. Tejasswi had told him to go ahead.