OS: The Glass is Half-Full

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OS: The Glass is Half-Full

Arnav swallowed his pill and drank some of the water in the glass as she came into the room. He was hunched over on his chair circling the rim of his glass and watching her from the corner of his eyes as she rushed around the room. She took off her shoes and put her bag away before taking out some clothes from the wardrobe.

'The visiting time starts in an hour, I'm just going to shower quickly and then we can go.' She then passed behind him to the dresser and he heard the sounds of jewellery being removed followed by the sound of footsteps and the bathroom door being closed.

'Aren't you ready yet?'

Arnav looked up from the kangans he was now holding in his hands. He hadn't even realised when he'd picked them up or how long he'd been sitting there. He watched in silence as she dried her hair, taking in every little detail he could to make his memories perfect for when she left him.

Khushi turned the dryer off and was about to put her make up on when she realised he still hadn't moved. 'Arnavji? Are you going to go to the hospital dressed like that?'

He looked down briefly as if he hadn't even realised that he was still wearing his gym clothes and then straight back up into her eyes and held out the kangans to her.

She took them hesitantly and waited but he didn't do anything else. 'Arnavji? Aren't you... the hospital? You have to go and see Di's baby?' There was no reply but he got up and moved towards the wardrobe and so Khushi put the kangans back on the dresser and picked up her eyeliner.

She was about to put the kangans on when he came and stood next to her. He was holding out a piece of paper in his hand and her heart lurched. They had agreed that she would stay until the baby was born and then he would deal with Shyam once she had left but she hadn't expected him to hand her divorce papers so soon. The baby had only been born this morning and Arnav had yet to even see the baby.

Arnav put the paper into his pocket and stepped forward, picking up the kangans and slipped them over her wrists one by one and then stepped back to his original position, again with the paper in his outstretched hadn. He wasn't looking at her, instead focusing somewhere in the region of her waist, 'my ... my mother wrote this for you. I should have given it to you earlier.'

'Your... mother?'

He nodded and continued to hold the letter out to her. She took it and opened it hesitantly, aware of his intense gaze on her hands. As she read it, she felt she should cry but instead she began to feel a sense of lightness in her being that she hadn't felt in months. She slowly folded the letter back up and held it out towards him.

'No. It's... they're yours. Keep them.' His voice was gruff but he didn't bother to conceal it.

Khushi nodded and silently put the letter away in her little box of keepsakes. She quickly put on her make up and turned to him with a tight smile on her face. 'Shall we go?'

He'd been standing in the same place watching her as she got ready but now he moved away and sat down on the end of the bed, 'no.'

'No? What do you mean no? Di's already worried because you weren't at the hospital during the birth and if you don't turn up now what's she going to say? Don't you want to see your niece?'

'No,' he said again quietly but insistently.

'What?'

'I don't want to see her.'

'Arnavji?' She stood next to him for a minute before she understood what he meant and dropped down next to him on the bed. 'It's not her fault.'

He raised his eyes to meet hers but didn't speak.

'It's not the baby's fault. It's not Di's fault. It's not even Shyamji's fault.' He opened his mouth to protest but Khushi continued not letting him. 'It's our fault. You should never have... you shouldn't have believed him, you should have spoken to me. And I... I should have spoken to you, or Di. I should have told someone.'  She reached out to take his hand and held it in between her own. 'We both tried to protect her, protect our families and we ended up hurting each other.'

Arnav was looking at their entwined hands and when she finished speaking he pulled them up to his lips, kissing her hands as his tears fell on them, 'I'm so sorry Khushi, I'm so sorry.'

'I'm sorry too,' she said as her own tears escaped and ran down her cheeks.

After they'd been sitting in the same position for a few minutes she slowly pulled her hands away from his grasp, wiped her tears and then reached up to wipe his face. 'Won't you see your niece? She's beautiful you know. Looks just like you.'

Arnav closed his eyes again putting a hand over hers on his cheek and trapping it there. He pulled her hand across his mouth and kissed her palm before he nodded.