Abeer's POV

I stared at the airplanes from the glass window of the airport, my chin resting on my hand as I thought of her. We had a project meeting in London, and after wrapping them up, we were waiting at the airport for our flight back home. My boss and I both had our laptops opened before us, and Mr. Dixit was typing continuously on the keypad, occasionally discussing the meetings that had taken place in the last three days. 

But my mind wasn't on work. It was far, far away in Delhi, strung on a certain impertinent woman who had captured my heart so that there was no escape from her thoughts. Even though I had left Aashi with an ultimatum, and I knew the decision was in the best interest of the both of us, I couldn't help it. Yes, I had told her it was high time she told her parents about us, but I was worried. I knew that there was a fat chance that I won't ever talk to her again. The thought left me absolutely wretched. But I knew no other way. 

That Dhruv's episode had left a sour taste in my mouth, and I couldn't get past that without her absolute surety of our future. Because God, did I want a future with her. To have her in my arms everyday, to love her with every fiber of my being. But I knew how connected she was to her family; how much she loved them. The thought of her having to leave her parents for me scared the living daylights out of me. It felt like a lose-lose situation for us. If that happened, would she be able to live happily with me? How would I fill the void? Would her family ever accept me?

And above all else, will she ever tell them? She loved them to a fault. What if she doesn't tell? What would happen then? I didn't like when my thoughts ventured into that territory. The two weeks had been hard without having to listen to her loud, shrill voice. How will I go without her tantrums and screaming, and above all, her mad love for me that reflected in her tantalizing brown eyes for life? I rubbed my forehead, willing the headache to go away. Willing the tears in my eyes to not slip out.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when I heard a hiccup. When I turned to my left, I was left speechless. There he was, the brute of a man, my so-called devil boss, crying like a little child, tears streaming down his cheeks steadily. My eyes widened with shock as I struggled for words.

"Sir, are you...are you alright? Did something...ahem...happen? Are you hurt?" I asked, highly awkward.

"Hurt!" he let out a humorless chuckle and continued to stare in front of him... wistfully? I followed his line of sight to see a happy, cheerful little girl running about on her chubby little legs, making happy sounds as she went from chair to chair and smiled up at the people. Involuntarily, a smile graced my lips as I watched the little girl play about. A lady was running behind the girl, calling out to her, and when she caught the girl in her arms she picked her up and twirled around, making the little girl laugh gleefully. A man came by their side and grinned down at the two females. It was a heart-warming scene.

"Hurt is one stupid word. My feelings are far and beyond," my boss shook his head and continued to stare, unable to look anywhere else.

I wondered who those people were. By the look Mr. Dixit had on his face, I was positive he knew them. After a beat of silence, my boss spoke up, his voice uncommonly detached, as if he wasn't here. As if he was living a memory.

"My first and only love. Simran Ahuja. What have I turned into without her? But she is happy, she was always happy. I was the grumpy one. Only if... "

Only if?

He sniffed. "Only if I had bore with her family. They were very rich, you see. I had just started then, they kept embarrassing me and that pissed me off. I had always been egoistic. And it hurt my ego when her father belittled me every single time. So I left her, but she never left my heart. Only if I would've tried a little harder to stay by her side...perhaps that would have been me with her today, smiling, happy and content in my life. But I didn't and I will always remain alone because of that. Bereft of my love. That's her husband and daughter. She got married after a few years and has a good life. I couldn't ever move on though."

I kept staring at him, my mind blank.

He soon came out the trance and was visibly embarrassed. To rant like that in front of a junior must have seemed highly unprofessional to him. A few moments later he spoke again, "I am sorry. My apologizes. I shouldn't have...well...that wasn't right," he cleared his throat awkwardly.

"No it's fine, sir, I understand," I said quietly, knowing saying anything else would be highly inappropriate.

"I hope you..."

"You need not worry on my account, sir. I understand it is very personal," I replied solemnly, my eyes grave with promise and honesty.

He nodded and we descended into silence. After some moments I left him with his thoughts and went to the Starbucks outlet nearby, craving a hot cup of cappuccino. As I sat down with the steaming hot coffee in my hands, I couldn't help but ruminate on what had transpired with my boss. The thought of meeting Aashi down the years in a similar fashion left a sour taste in my mouth and created a physical pain in my chest. The thought wasn't bearable.

No, I couldn't possibly let this happen. Neither the other things I had been thinking earlier. I willed myself into believing that she would tell her parents soon. And once she tells them about us, I would everything in my power to convince them. I will move heaven and earth if it meant I could gain her parents approval. But lord, leaving Aashi Singhania for life wasn't physically possible for me.

But my worries remained as they were. What if...what if she chose not to tell her parents? I ran a frustrated hand through my hair, feeling utterly helpless. I picked up my phone in agitation and started to scroll down the caller's list, not sure what I was looking for. But my eyes landed on my father's number, and my thumbs stopped scrolling down. Baba. It had been a while since I had spoken to him. The last conversation we had hadn't ended on good terms, per say. He had informed me of his decision to remarry, and I had answered him curtly and put the phone down.

Without thinking for another moment, I called him up. He answered after three rings.

"Hello, baba?" I said, hesitatingly.

"Yes?"

I exhaled before continuing. "How are you, baba?"

"Fine," he replied monosyllabically. He had never been the one to elaborate on his answers. I was questioning my choice of calling him. I didn't even know why I had dialed his number in the first place. But something had urged me to call him.

"Abhijita is good too," he said quietly, and my jaw tightened. Abhijita was my father's intended, and to say that I wasn't pleased would be an understatement. I still didn't know why I had called him, perhaps to vent out my worries regarding Aashi's parents accepting me and how lonely I was and I -

I paused, my mind churning. Acceptance. It was a difficult thing. Simple, yet difficult. Accepting something different. Someone different. And at that moment, I realized my folly. I had refused to accept my father's decision of bringing someone else in his life, someone who would probably give him the joy he deserved years ago. If I refused to accept something different, how could I expect Aashi's parents to accept someone different? How could I expect them to consider me?

I swallowed. My dad was a good man. Not very expressive, but good at heart. He won't do anything irrational. If he felt the need to connect with someone, to marry someone it had to be genuine. And it would still hurt, but I was ready for it. It would hurt Aashi's parents to accept me, but that would give us a lifetime of bliss. I must do the same for my dad.

"That's good," I replied after a pause. "Baba...I wanted to say something. About your marriage. You...you should do it," I cringed at my words and the lack of fluency.

"Yes, I am doing it. Who told you I wasn't?" He answered firmly from other end, making me cringe. It wasn't that he was simple, but he just couldn't read between the lines. I gulped and spelled it out to him, "I am happy that you are getting married and moving on, baba. I support you," I said in one breath before I could change my mind. The line went silent for a moment.

"Hello, baba? Can you hear me?" I asked, worried if the line had gone dead.

"Yes, yes I heard," he said with a heavy voice. Was Baba crying? Something imperceptibly hard hit me squarely in the chest, and I waited with bated breath for him to say something.

He continued "I...it means a lot to me, shona. I'm blessed with you and your two sisters. Adhi and Adhira," he gulped loudly before continuing. "They both have been supportive, too. However, I had been most worried about you. You...you were the closest with her, much more than your sisters. You...you were her darling boy, they are dad's girls" he sniffed and chuckled at the same time. "I wasn't sure you would ever be able to accept this, but I'm happy that you did. I won't be lonely any longer." I hadn't noticed I had tears in my eyes, too. I hurriedly wiped them with the back of my hand and fought to keep them in check. I couldn't say anything. I didn't know if it was truly my father talking, the man who didn't speak till it became absolutely necessary to. It was now that I realized how much all of us siblings had relied on our father's strength. That he had stood tall and strong, the anchor of our family.

This was the longest he had ever spoken to me. And did he say he was lonely? Of course, he would have been with me in Delhi and my sisters in Canada. I blinked, trying not to cry out loud. I hadn't realized he needed support in his life, as well. That he needed a shoulder he could lean on, and rest. Peacefully, happily.

"Yes," I croaked out, unable to say anything else. We sat in silence for a minute, each trying to control their emotions.

"You don't call your sisters often?" Baba cleared his throat. The moment had passed. But I was positive I shall not forget this exchange for the rest of my life.

"They are busy with their families now. I text them sometimes and call their kids on Sundays," I said lightly, catching up on the change of topic.

"You were close when you were younger. They have raised you more than I have. I know they're older than you, and you're your own man now, but one shouldn't forget their siblings.You should talk to them more often." There was something in the air, I was sure of it. Or my father had simply gone berserk.

"I...yes, right." I couldn't say anything else. Silence ensued, before he made an elaborate excuse and cut the call. I wasn't disappointed in the least. It had been the strangest conversation I had had with my father. I was part glad that it had ended. But that didn't mean his words hadn't struck a chord. Of course I loved my sisters, but in my hesitation and determination to be my own person and no longer be dependent on them, I had unknowingly left them behind.

Family, I was beginning to realize, made everything easier. I checked the time on my phone. It was 11PM here in London, which meant it would be near 3AM in Canada. I wicked smile played on my lips as I dialed Adhi's number.

"It's 3 in the morning, for God's sake. You would have woken my baby," Adhi hissed sleepily in an accent. My smile widened.

"Oh, I didn't know that," I mimicked her accent, which earned me another round of scolding. I ignored her. "Which baby, though?"

"What?" She practically barked. I didn't know if my call would wake anyone up or not, but I was positive her snaring would. I leaned back in the cafe chair, utterly at ease after teasing my sister.

"Which baby would wake up? The big one currently snoring beside you or the one in the crib?" I almost laughed at how easy it was to rile up our eldest sister. We bickered for a while after which I put her call on hold to get Adhira on the line. Adhi was still busy reprimanding me.

Adhira greeted me with a very beautiful Bengali swear word. "Some people sleep at this time, idiot, how much ever that might shock you," she grunted angrily. When I didn't say anything, they both remained silent for beat before bombarding me with a plethora of questions.

"Is Baba okay?"

"Did he tell you about Abhijita right now?"

"Is something wrong with you?"

"Something was always wrong with him, Adhi. I'm telling you," Adhira spoke, and the two of them continued to talk about me as if I wasn't present on the other line at all, which made me wonder. Did they talk about me? But I didn't need to ask that, because their tones said it all. They missed me. My heart ached with the sweet pain of knowing that my sisters loved me and missed me, but that it was me who had failed to reach out to them.

I grumbled like a child and pretended to be upset with them, which had them roasting me more than ever. My face was split open in a wide smile, unable to curb my happiness. In the quest of being my own man, of becoming responsible and making all efforts to become successful, I had failed to stop and rewind. I hadn't realized that I could ask them for advice, talk to them when I felt low.

"I'm sorry," I blurted out, interrupting their fight about which one of them had picked me for the first time in the hospital. They both instantly fell silent.

"Why?" they both asked in unison.

I sighed. "Because I don't call you that often anymore. I am sorry. I thought...I thought that I would simply be a burden by calling you when you have your own families to look after. But now I know," I said brightly, my eyes shining with newfound vigor.

"What do you know?" Adhi asked, her voice uncharacteristically soft and sweet.

"That family's don't change. They just expand," I murmured quietly, cradling the phone against my ear.

There was a moment of silence where I knew they were reflecting over it.

"You are like our first child, Abeer. We raised you," Adhi said bluntly. Proudly. And then she sighed. "We are sorry too, shona. We couldn't be with you when you...when you fought the case. When you fought for ma," she whispered the last words, a catch in her voice. My throat felt heavy, too. "It isn't just your fault. We should have been by your side when you were struggling to cope up." There was silence and I felt all of us were thinking of our mother, and all those days we had seen and spent together after that.

To diffuse the tension in the air, Adhira spoke up firmly. "Yes, but now our baby brother's all grown up. Why, I hadn't thought I would live to see the day when he won't follow us around, begging us to take him to play with the dolls," she recalled the time I would run behind the two to let me play with them, and the two of them burst out laughing. Despite myself, I could hear myself laughing, too.

"And on the top of that, he has a properly normal girlfriend. Imagine! Not a witchy one that he had in his college, gosh that one was a total witch, wasn't she?" Adhi gossiped conspiratorially. I stopped laughing.

The both of them noticed the change in my mood and ceased the levity. "Abeer? Aashi in still in your life, right?" Adhira asked carefully.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "Its...complicated," and I progressed to tell them the events of the last few weeks.

"She begged you to not leave her?" Adhi asked slowly.

"Yes." I replied

"And she cried when you said either she tells her parents or you leave her?" Adhira asked this time, her tone thoughtful. "And you say she's proud and stubborn and not the one to give up?"

"Yes."

"She loves you, Abeer," Adhi said simply, making my heart ache.

"I know she does," I said quietly.

"Then you should know she would come back to you," Adhira replied.

"I...I know that. In the back of my mind, I know. But...but she loves her family too much. I'm scared that she won't be able tell her parents, and...and then," I gulped, my voice cracking. "And then she won't come back," I whispered the last words, unable to not say it any longer. I hadn't given voice to my worries before. But now that I did, they seemed real, and scarier.

"Then she isn't worth it," Adhira said sternly.

"Adhira, how can you - "

"What Adhira means to say is," Adhi interrupted me, her voice calm. "That every person has to take the risk, eventually. They have to make the choice. She needs to make the choice that does she love you enough to take the plunge, or is it not worth it. And if she chooses the latter, then she is not worth the pain. But if she chooses the former, then you should be by her side and fight. She's fought her fears for you, it won't do on your part to leave her to fight the future battles alone. Do you get me, Abeer?"

I nodded, not realizing that they can't see me. "Yes," I muttered, quietly, letting the words sink in. "Yes, of course I will stand by her when she needs me."

"Our brother is a keeper, Adhi. We raised him well. His Aashi will soon realize that as well," Adhira commented, unbridled pride in her voice.

"You will get her back, Abeer. I'm sure she'll make the right choice," Adhi stated confidently, making me smile.

Their confidence had me smiling, too. Aashi will make the right choice, whatever she feels is the right thing to do. I was sure the nervousness, the fear won't leave me until I either had Aashi in my arms or she decided to let me go, let us go.

But I had learnt something today. That I wasn't alone. And that family made everything bearable.

Easier.

Lovelier.

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