The Wrong Woman

32. Mouna

I threw my head back and laughed for the billionth time that night as we walked down the busy streets. Dhruv groaned from beside me as he pressed the barely white tissue against his bleeding nose.

We had gotten kicked out of the bar for causing a ruckus after Dhruv had gotten punched in the nose by the man. He spoke tough words, but in the end, got beat. It was a comical scene and one that I had the pleasure of seeing.

"I'm glad my pain has brought you joy," he said, voice nasally due to the tissue placed in his nostrils. I covered my mouth, wobbling on my feet.

"I'm sorry. I was just not expecting any of that to happen. I thought you were going to punch him!"

"I should have. Now I'm regretting my decision of being a pacifist." My body ached from laughing, my stomach still rolling around. Something crawled up the length of my throat but I swallowed it back and stopped walking. My head throbbed, blurring my vision and my feet were on fire.

"You okay?" Dhruv was asking me how I was feeling despite having got punched in the face. My stomach tightened, the sensation of wanting to vomit becoming ever so stronger.

I couldn't help but zero in on Dhruv's bloody nose, regardless. I answered his question with a question of my own. "Does it hurt a lot?"

"I'll be fine," he said, dodging what I asked. "I'll put some ic—ow!" He flinched as I tapped his nose.

"You were saying?"

"That was cruel."

"You should be more honest. You can't always look after me when you can't even look after yourself." He stared at me. I shifted my weight on my other leg, feeling the silence wrap around me in tendrils; should I not have said that? I couldn't read his expression so I didn't know if what I had said was the wrong thing or not. Then I realised he wasn't staring at me. Rather someone over my shoulder.

I turned. It was too dark to make out who it was but they were wearing a white shirt. They stood nearby the wall covered in graffiti and patches of green plants, back to us. They looked like they were speaking to somebody.

"Is that..." I heard Dhruv mumble before shaking his head.

"Is everything okay?" I asked. I saw a shadow of someone moving behind the wall near the bar. I shook my head as his gaze snapped to me.

"Yeah. I thought I saw someone I knew." He then paused before saying, "And you're not wrong." The acidity burnt my throat as he spoke and I scrunched my face up. Please, do not vomit, I begged myself. "At least one of us is doing okay." As soon as those words left his lips, however, I bent down and vomited with the force of my whole body.

All over his shiny shoes.

That were not shiny anymore.

***

It had been a few days since that incident but I couldn't get over how out of control I had been. I squealed into my hands thinking about how I had vomited all over Dhruv's shoes, even at work. Preethi—the woman with the glasses—raised her eyebrows at me from over her cubicle.

Of course Dhruv didn't let me clean it, not at all disgusted in cleaning my vomit from his shoes. In exchange, I had made him a makeshift ice pack for his now slightly bruised nose, one I had made many times for Mohi.

"Are you ready?" Preethi whispered to me.

"Ready?" I asked, startled out of my thoughts. "For what?"

"The meeting in two weeks, silly."

Those words seemed to haunt me for the rest of that afternoon. Even as I went live for a story and heard Tara's scolding voice in my ears to be more lively, I couldn't think of anything else but that as I went home that evening. I didn't know about any meeting and from the work folders and files that I had, there was no mention of them either.

As I headed up the porch stairs and toward the double doors, I didn't see someone sitting there until the figure stood up.

Rani.

She frowned at me as if she had caught me doing something I wasn't supposed to. "Rani?" I whispered, glancing around to make sure no one was there. "What are you doing here?" I rushed over to her. "Did you change your mind about—"

"You shouldn't be hanging out with Dhruv so much."

This was not at all the news I was expecting. "What do you mean? He's your husband so it is only natural."

"He'll get the wrong message," she hissed.

"How do you know I was hanging out with him?"

Rani straightened up, trying to place the curly strand that had gotten out of her plait behind her ear. "I forgot my phone at the bar. One of the bartenders held onto it until I was able to make it."

"Bar?" I repeated. I hadn't seen her so when did this happen? "You went to the bar?"

She went to the bar in my body and put alcohol in it?! Well, I had done the same thing...but my body couldn't take it. Could it? I had never tried. I shook my head. I had more important things to worry about than that. Was that who Dhruv had seen? Was she the shadow I thought I saw near the bar?

"That's not the issue here," she blurted.

"Look, I really think there was a reason this happened," I explained. "Maybe I'm supposed to unite the both of you together."

Rani didn't say anything, glaring at me. She folded her arms across her chest and leaned her weight on one leg. The posture looked strange on my body. "I don't want you fiddling around with things."

"If it is the only way to switch back, I have to try. Unlike you, ma'am, I want to get back to my own life."

"Well, I don't."

"But why not?" I asked, exasperated.

"Because I don't like Dhruv anymore," she exclaimed. The birds sang and tweeted but their joy did not translate to our situation. I gawked at her, glued to the floor. I opened my mouth to question her why and what could help in a desperate attempt to understand what was going on when she let out a heavy sigh and said, "I'm gonna go back. Your grandma's waiting for me to pick up some food and I don't want to be late." At the mention of Mohi, my eyes watered but I tried to blink them back. "How's work, anyway?"

"I...have some sort of meeting in two weeks?" I said, playing along and pretending she didn't just exclaim she didn't want her relationship with her husband fixed.

"Ah, right. The promotion."

"The promotion?"

"I'd asked Tara about it a few months ago. There was a meeting scheduled to discuss it if things were going well. I've got notes prepared for any questions she may have in the desk by the bed, that should help you. Just memorise it and you'll be good to go."

I didn't say anything, only watched her head down the mini steps. Right when Dhruv arrived through the gates.