The Business Trip (Arshi FF)

The Aftermath

In between her weeping, she held Arnav tighter before looking up at him and telling him "I couldn't do it Arnav. I couldn't do it. I don't know how I'm going to manage. Nothing adds up or makes sense. But I couldn't do it."

Arnav stared at her in disbelief, trying to process the words that just left her mouth.

There are multiple moments in one's lives where we do not remember the exact words that were shared, nor the surroundings or any other such detail. What we take away is how we felt in that moment. In that very moment that Khushi let him know that she hadn't gone ahead with the termination as planned, Arnav had wept with her, embracing her tightly. He had felt relief, shock and happiness all at once, but mostly as if a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

He had struggled for the words to speak in that moment so a few minutes later, when the weird looks and strange stares from hospital staff and patients alike became more common, he wiped his own tears before doing the same to Khushi and spoke. "I..I don't have all the answers for you, Khush. But I promise you I will figure it out. We will figure it out."

Arnav pulled out his phone and called an Uber. He paused for a second before entering the destination, and hesitatingly put in Khushi's address. The drive to the flat was a quiet one. Khushi still had tears in her eyes as she stared outside the window, lost in her own thoughts. Arnav wanted to comfort her, talk to her about whatever she was feeling, whatever he was feeling even, but he knew better than to provide gossip for the Uber driver that kept peeping through the mirror, curious at their situation. Once they reached their flat and got out, Arnav looked around at the area again and mumbled as he struggled to keep his thoughts to himself today. Khushi had already started walking upstairs towards the 5th floor in a daze, with Arnav walking right behind her. She got to the third floor and almost began to wobble, bringing her hand to her head. "Khushi, tum teekh toh ho?", Arnav asked finally breaking the silence. Khushi took a deep breath, "I'm fine, I just need a second" before proceeding to make her way up the stairs again.

After fumbling for her keys, Khushi immediately drops on the sofa and curls up in to a fetal position, trying to make sense of the day she just had and process her feelings. Arnav returns from her kitchen with a glass of water that he hands to her. As Khushi finishes her water, Arnav speaks up. "You're moving back, Khushi. Our child is not growing up in this area. At this rate, it'll be best friends with the local drug dealer by the age of 5. And how do you plan on getting in and out with a pram? This place doesn't even have a lift, for God's sake. How are you going to carry our little one up all those flights of stairs? You can barely carry yourself up in this condition, let alone with a little baby in your hands."

Somehow, her husband had mastered the ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time, always. She took a deep breath after hearing his verbal diarrhoea before speaking. "I'm not going anywhere right now, Arnav. This is all I can afford." Arnav groaned in response. "Come on, Khushi. What's mine is yours, you know that! Surely you're not the type of mum who will let her child grow up in such an area or put her child in a bad school just to spite her husband?" Now this infuriated Khushi, "Maybe that's exactly who I am, Arnav. Also the kind of mum that will teach her kid right from wrong and to have a moral conscious so they end up nothing like their dad."

Arnav clenched his fists in frustration, desperately trying to keep his cool. He knew he'd have to take a different approach if he were to convince her. "Khush, I swear, nothing happened. I'm just worried, jaan. The building is beyond dilapidated, this flat is tiny and just about hosts one person, if that. Walking up and down all those flights of stairs with no working lift is going to be all the more exhausting as the months go along. Things will be so much easier at home." Khushi retorted, "I didn't think you'd be interested in me warming your bed now after being with Sheetal. Surely pregnant women aren't anywhere near as fun?" Yep, Khushi was still not done with her jibes, and this one hurt more than normal, he thought. But Arnav was nothing if not persistent, and there was far too much at stake for him to let his ego get in the way this time.

"Just so you know, you could be wearing Salman Khan pyjamas and i'd still be interested in you. Come back home, Khush. I promise you'll be so much more comfortable." Khushi almost broke down again whilst speaking, "You don't get it, Arnav. Everything about that room reminds me of moments we shared. Private moments. Promises we made to each other. And when you were gone for months and I didn't hear from you, it made me realise how one sided it had all been. It made me question everything. I fought every day with the thought of telling you about this baby. Some days I'd convince myself it was what would bring you back, and every time I reminded myself that you were there for big things. I'd remind myself just how hard it had been for you to start everything from scratch and how big this opportunity was for you. Other days, I'd think about how a child is the last thing you'd ever want, least of all when money is as tight as it has been. Every photo frame, the scent of that room, your shirts that I wore to help me through the sleepless nights when I missed you and you'd never call, every single thing in that room torments me Arnav. You think I don't know how bad it is here? You tell me, what option do I have?"

There's probably a special room in hell for people who make pregnant women upset, Arnav thought looking at his emotional wife. He was only just realising the magnitude of his actions and it killed him to see what Khushi went through. "I know me apologising will sound hollow and mean nothing to you right now. I was a jerk, I see that now. Trust me when I say, I will spend the rest of my life hating myself for leaving my pregnant wife alone and in tears, because she deserves so much more. I didn't think our room could bring you so much unhappiness, but I get it. How about this, would you be comfortable moving in to the guest room?", he asked in hope and desperation.

For the first time since they'd gotten back, Khushi paused to think. Sure, she was stubborn and wanted more than ever to be fiercely independent but she also wasn't stupid enough to think that she would successfully be able to sustain herself and her baby in this flat. Khushi spoke decisively, "I have two conditions. First, I won't stay there for free. I'll pay you rent. Secondly, I'll need to speak to Karan to see if he can transfer me to a branch close to South Delhi." He would never be comfortable taking money from his wife. In fact, he hated that money had become such a bone of contention since the credit card saga. Nor did he like that she'd still be working for Karan but he knew it'd be best not to start that argument now. "Done. We'll go back tonight once you get some rest, I know it's been a long day."

In the midst of the day's dramas, Khushi had barely had time to charge her dead phone. As she woke up from her slumber later that day to a now charged phone, she saw "5 missed calls - Karan"