Ramit was in the hallway when he suddenly thought he saw her. He squinted his eyes and he still saw her. He walked to the group of 3 ladies and he still saw her. He called her name and she looked at him.

Damn, "What are you doing here?"

His greeting became an incomprehensible question.

His mother slapped his shoulder, "What do you mean by that? Didn't you go to pick her up?"

"No... I... when did you come?"

"Landed at four fifteen. I was here at five."

"You could have called me."

"Ah, I was in a hurry to rush back." She did not get a chance to tell him before the flight and to call him when she reached would make her wait 45 minutes. "I had only one bag, so it's fine."

"And brother, you only told her yesterday?"

"That..." Was it time for him to run?

"Whatever, but di is going to stay for a fortnight this time! I don't even want to get married anymore."

Their mother slapped the three of them on the shoulder one by one.

"Do you not wish for your wife to be here for the wedding? Tsk," she said to her son.

"How did you get so many holidays now? What about your own wedding? Tsk, tsk, tsk. Everything had to happen so quickly!" she said to Geetha, who got the tightest slap. Geetha rubbed her shoulder. "I was promoted so I could negotiate a little... and I don't have a heavy workload now, maa..." she defended without guilt for only taking out the five day leave her company designated for marriages.

"And you, stop chatting with the groom so frequently! And she says she doesn't want to get married!" Ria pouted, hiding her phone from her mother.

She turned to Geetha, remembering something. "What about mama and papa? When are they coming?"

Geetha looked at Ramit instead. When he raised his chin at her from behind his mother, she looked back at her mother-in-law and said, "They'll come."

"That's good," she said and left. Ria also got busy on her phone.

"When did my parents say they are coming? Geetha then asked Ramit.

Unable to catch her frequency he said, "I don't know. Papa invited them."

"Don't you usually have a word with them even if it's papa who called?"

"..." Did she forget everything? They were not supposed to be talking at the moment. How could he not feel awkward to talk to her parents given how they had fought. His dad had walked a few steps to give him the phone, saying that uncle wanted to say hi. But he escaped it somehow.

"It's okay. Not a problem. I'll ask them now."

Ramit quietly looked at her. Why did it sound like she was solving something for him?

She whipped out her phone and typed, 'When are you coming to Ria's wedding?" and sent it to her father, then to her mother.

Her father responded first, before she even set her phone down. 'One day before. That should be fine, right?'

'Yes,' she replied.

"Come on, let's go have lunch," she said.

Ramit gave up trying to reason and followed.

∼•∽

Until Ria's wedding was over, they spent the time busy and light hearted.

It was now time to go back.

They both went back together. But once they reached his flat, she said, "I'll go back then"

"Don't you have a week more holidays?"

"I do."

"..."

"I'll go to my flat."

"There'll be a thick layer of dust in your flat. Let's go in. Stay here until you go back."

"How many times are you going to do this? I don't like it. Now go. Don't make a scene on the road."

"..." Who was the one making a scene on the road?

She really turned back. He caught her wrist in his right hand, her luggage in his left, and dragged them both into the house.

She followed. Once inside, she slapped him one.

"I can also slap you, you know?" he chuckled. His eyes got red though.

"I wish you did something like that! Makes everything easy!"

"Just what am I lacking?"

"You're not lacking one thing. But I lacked enough for a long time. Now I just want to live and do everything my way. Time is important to me."

It made little sense to him. What did she mean? "Are you going to die?"

She puffed up her chest and slitted her eyes. "You! Don't curse me!"

"Did I ever stop you from anything?"

"What's it that you're doing now?"

He held her hands.

"Please, I love you."

"I don't want to waste my time with you. If I knew I couldn't take your word for it, I'd have not gotten myself into this trouble."

"Sorry then... I've also had enough with your running away. For no reason!"

"Ready to divorce?"

"Not at all. I'm planning to tie you up."

She silently looked at him as if he was a retard.

"What?"

"I'm going," she tried reaching for her luggage.

He quickly locked the door and sorted the fingerprints. Only his worked now.

She pursed her lips, turned around, and went into one of the rooms and shut the door. She thought about what he said. Was she dying? No, but there was a time she wished it was easy to die. Her face cringed thinking about it.

When she was in school, she hated talking to her over enthusiastic mother. But every little thing about her mattered to her mother, while she generally had a leave-me-alone attitude. Her father was also too caring. They asked her a lot of things everyday, if she wanted something, or if she made any friends, or just anything. She would ask them if she wanted something, wouldn't she? She felt exhausted and done with them.

Every time she was thinking about something deeply, they managed to break her thoughts and the train was never back on the track. Then there were a few instances where she shared with them her new knowledge. One time, she told them about owls being able to turn their heads 360 degrees over dinner. She read about it in the school library. She went on to explain why evolution favoured the trait and how the whole world was intact because of that. Her father's face looked clueless but he seemed to be listening carefully. Her mother's face however, was unappreciative. In the end, she told her not to talk about owls in her house again. Apparently it brought bad luck. But she knew it was more because her mother was simply not interested in the cute owls!

But that was not the main issue. It was how when she kept quiet and did not respond back with overflowing willingness, her mother acted as if she were the bad guy. Both her parents told her that she had to speak nicely. She did speak well, only when needed.

Now it all felt silly, silly to the point of embarrassment. But it was a big deal to her teenage self. So big that she contemplated running away from home and even just being done with life. Later she came to her senses, thankfully, and looked at life from a different perspective: You only live once. So don't waste it and live it as you wish. Your time is worth being selfish for. So is your energy.

That has been her life's mantra for a long time now. What else is life, if not time and energy. And as she grew up, she managed to shut her parents out and keep her peace, not completely, but just as much as she needed.

∼•∽

In the evening, Ramit probed her for dinner. She ate well but completely ignored him.

Later they were in bed. His eyes were closed when she climbed in. She stayed on the edge, turned away. He was afraid in the beginning but after some contemplation, he slowly slipped his arm over her, she snuggled into him, slumbering already.

∼•∽

He moved his eyes under their lids before he woke up with a start. His side was empty. Wide eyed, he sat up, turned the light on and looked around the room. He flung off his blanket and walked out of the room. He breathed in and calmed himself before continuing the search.

He slowly called out in his groggy voice, "Geetha?"

The hall and kitchen both were empty. He looked into the guest room and walked towards it. Still no trace of her.

He went back to his room, and went near the bathroom but the door was open, just like the one in the hall. The silence in the house was too grim to him. He slowly walked around as he turned off all the lights he had frantically switched on. What good was all that brightness when his life was so dark? She must have left somehow. He remembered his front was intact. Could she have found the door lock manual and reset it? He sighed.

Back in his room, he sat on her side of the bed. It was still dawn and the sunrise was coming. He sat there, as if no breath went in and out of him. After a while, the sun rays fell on his eyes. Black eyes turned brown but they were still dark, resonating with his sadness.

He finally fell back into the bed, an arm covering his eyes. His other hand landed on something cold. He groped the thing and found it to be a phone. It was slightly heavier than his. Moreover, he always left his phone on the nightstand, never near the pillows.

He opened his eyes and sat up straight. It was her phone. Did he go blind? Why didn't he find her? Confused, he stood up to take another round. "Geetha?"

No response again, not even a sound. Then, as he looked around, he caught a door left ajar. It leads to the other balcony. He kept it closed through the winter. He suddenly didn't want to continue. He wasn't very sure she would be there. He somehow pictured some very unpleasant things. No. She must have left but forgot her phone. With a silent shallow breath, he turned around. His eyes caught her handbag. A little away were her bangles. She definitely didn't go out. He didn't want to think further, but his heart was beating faster by the minute.

"Why are you up so early?"

He turned to the voice. The frown that had built up since he'd woken up eased a little. He pulled her into an embrace and held her tightly. But she soon struggled out of it.

"What were you doing on the balcony? Didn't you hear when I called?"

She rolled her eyes at him.

"Since you're awake, open the door," she said and grabbed her phone.

Her indifference was too much to take. He caught her wrist and said, "Do you know how worried I was!"

"What for?" She snorted and tried to fling his hand away but his grip was strong this time.

Seeing his serious face, she said casually, "Why? You thought I'd jump off because I can't get out?"

He still stared at her. "Would you?"

"What?"

"Would you really jump off if I insist we live together?"

"Huh, you want to try?"

This time he flung her hand away. He walked to the door and pressed around the security screen after opening the settings menu with his fingerprint. "Add yours."

"And get out." He added.

Geetha looked at him with some confusion. But she decided not to waste her time standing there. She had places to be at. She was already a little late.

But on second thought, she decided to pack up all her stuff that he'd unpacked through the day before. Let the match ticket go to waste. This sacrifice would definitely save her a lot of time.

As she got busy, Ramit watched her from the side. He was willing himself not to take back his words.

"Well, it doesn't look like we will meet much after this, huh?"

"We won't. I'll apply for a divorce."

She stopped and looked at him. She gave a small smile. "Okay. You... do everything you like to do. Someone once said, everyone has two lives and we start to live the second when we realise we have only one, after all. If it's in your capacity, do it."

"Which life are you living then? The first or the second?"

She paused and said, "Definitely the second."

∼•∽

After what happened, she cut short her vacation. She had taken such a long leave to see him every 2 days if not daily. After all, Paris was lonely. But in Delhi his absence, which made little difference, was something her skin perceived rather palpably, It was way too lonely. She sighed, it made a difference. She shook her head off those thoughts.

As soon as she was done with all the event tickets she had bought, she returned.

∼•∽

"Back already? I've cleared your schedule." Her boss asked, surprised.

"Don't you have even a single case that needs me?"

Her boss sighed.

She really had little work the next 2 days.

Since then, for 3 months, her life was great. Two parallel projects, weekends filled with exhibitions of some sort or just long drives to walk the sands of the beach for an hour. All these without any compromise for her hobbies, dancing or reading or making whatever YouTube DIY that caught her eye. It was the most productive phase of her life. The only downside was that she ditched cooking for raw food, but she felt even more energised being healthy.

∼•∽

On a day in her finally-back-to-peace personal life, she realised something was missing. With quite a great hunch, she opened her health calendar. There it was, 'Period late by 2m 22d'. And she made the weirdest face of her entire life. She ran to the hospital and 2 days later, she called the perpetrator.

He didn't pick up the phone. She thought about texting but she had to tell him personally. A call was already a great compromise, thanks to her busy schedule. She patiently waited for the call to be returned.

Instead her assistant called her and she was very busy for the next two days. During lunch, when she remembered the issue, she called him again. No response, no call back. She messaged him, 'Call back soon.'

At night she checked on him. Her message was read, but nothing came back. What was the meaning of that? Hadn't they parted on friendly terms? She just wants to know if he filed for the divorce and what progress there was. She would share the news in any case.

Looking at the phone, she fell asleep unknowingly. In the morning, she called him first thing. This time, he cut her call!

'Are we divorced yet?' she messaged.

It was left unread for days. She was sure he saw the message, but did not open her chat. It was a short message that didn't need one to open the chat, after all.

She called her mother-in-law saying she could not reach him.

After two days, the call finally came in.

∼•∽

A/N:
Sorry for those empty dialogues. I know it isn't professional to write that way, or is it nowadays? What's your choice? 'He remained silent.' (vs) '"..."' (vs) skipping the narration because it implies nothing was said. Personally, nothing gives me the same feeling as "..." It's just so cute.

That was all I had to say. See you next chapter!