Forever Connected

A kid?

AUTHOR
The next morning goes in a blur as they get ready for the flight and when Aadvik picks up Aisha with Kunal and Niya with him but there's no denying he's on edge. Aisha notices it right away but still stays quite. She herself is scared. The guest list and RSVPs were sent to her by her assistent last night and her ex's name was looping through her mind since then. She didn't want to see him at her own party nonetheless but she also wasn't allowed to just not allow Tina to bring a plus one.

Aadvik's brain too ran similar thoughts. He tried to think of ways to avoid Aisha seeing him or best of all, how to kick him out of the party all together. He tried to call up Tina to tell her to not bring him but went against it since that would only cause questions to spawn up and that's never good.

The flight was smooth as Niya and Aisha sat in the comfortable bedroom in their plane and the guys sat in the main area talking buisness. As Niya told Aisha about her plans to move to New York in a couple months after collage finished so she could get some work experience Aadvik interjected and swooped Aisha away to talk.

He took her to another lounge area and closed the door as he took out his phone and was searching for something on his gallery.

AISHA
"Aadi you're scaring me. What is it?" I ask, he randomly asked me to talk with a serious mask on his face and now sits in front of me quietly as he scrolls for something on his phone.

A moment later the phone is pushed towards me with a photo of Aadvik holding a little baby, about a year in age. Wait is that Aadvik's kid? What the fuck. No Aisha. There's no way you wouldn't know. Shut up. My mind says.

"Is she yours?" I ask to clear my doubts.

"What! No." He knits his eyebrows together at me.

"That is Vani, Kunal's daughte-" I barely let him continue before stopping him.

I hold up a hand to signal him to stop.
"Kunal has a kid? Wait. Kunal has been married?" The more I think about it the more I realise, I barely know Kunal. I've only heard tidbits form Vedant about him and he and Kunal aren't as close as Aadvik and Kunal so there's not much I know. Plus me and Aadi have never talked about him.

"Yeah, he got married at 25 but his wife died after she gave birth. They weren't in love if you will, but they were friends, atleast so he says. After the wedding he fell into deep alcoholism and adding to that his father passed away too. We were all really stressed about everything, how he'd manage being a father in that condition then when I found out Shrishti passed away the stress increased. But the moment he set eyes on that girl something clicked and immediately he changed. Stopped drinking." Aadvik says, he continued to stare at the photo on the screen. I could tell by his eyes he was proud, proud of Kunal to get through all that.

With a small smile, I held his hands in mine and asked, "how old is she?" I too looked at the photo.

"Turned 1 nine months ago. She lives with Aunty and Kunal's younger brother in New York because Kunal was too busy to handle all that. He's bringing her home now." He says, now he too has a small smile on his lips and his eyes filled up with tears.

I don't completely understand what he's feeling but I try to. It must be so hard to see your own best friend to go through that. I also have admiration for Kunal now, losing your wife and then having to stuggle alone. Not being able to see your child everyday but still smiling.

I hug Aadvik's torso from the side to give him comfort.

"I wanted to tell you before you met her. She's also the biggest goofball ever" Aadvik chuckles bringing a smile on my face.

"I can guess." I say nodding against his chest.

"I take her out whenever she's visiting or I'm in New York and once when we were out I got her some ice cream and when I fed her she dunked his fingers in the bowl and smashed his fingers all over my hair amd face. I had to drive back home with sticky ice cream all over my hair and face while she relaxed in the car seat of my car." He said, his voice was filled with love as he told me the story.