Some two hours after she reached home, Ramit came home as well.

She wanted to greet him, but fearing that starting any conversation would lead back to the question she posed before, she kept quiet. She was watching the TV, unable to sit her mind on anything.

Ramit washed up and walked to the couch and sat beside her. Before he came he had a brawl with Abhay and threw a few punches at him. He created so much drama out of nothing and fed his wife such appalling lies. Then he practised what he was going to speak with him. This time he could not say anything rashly. He may not know why she put so much effort on him, but how bad could it get, he thought. She was willing to look at him. So he should also try to resolve things between them.

He coughed a little for her attention.

A little scared he'd speak, she pushed the remote to him. Maybe he wanted to watch something else. She hoped that was the case. She started scrolling through her phone. He took the remote and muted the TV.

"We should talk."

She was frightened. Last time he said she was no one to him. Her fright, although did not match the way she was petrified in front of the gun, did still her breath. "Should we? I don't want to." She tried to stand up and walk away, but he started speaking.

"Do you really believe I'd want to suicide?" He chuckled at the absurdity. Abhay should have gotten double the kicks. He sure let off that guy easily this time.

Geetha's lips quivered. Her eyes lacked any courage to look into his.

"It was windy. Somehow I could not breathe. My headache increased at that time. It was just a small accident and Abhay was there. Nothing happened."

"It was a pool, not a river," she stated, seeming bold.

"So you think I really sat in the water and stopped breathing? Do you know what kind of willpower it takes to do that? It's impossible."

"Didn't they all die just like that?"

"Who?"

She slowly looked at him. "Rama and Lakshmana."

"They are gods. I am not." He scoffed.

She nodded slowly. "Okay, fine. That's good." She cut off the conversation, quickly looked away, and wiped her eyes. She still felt that she was the culprit. She was, wasn't she?

He moved closer. "Today in the office... I'm sorry." He had not seen her behave like this before. It was like witnessing something incredible falling to dust. Her eyes were soft, as if for the first time, she regretted something.

"Geetha..." he said. He would rather she never knew anything. Not the accident and also not how hurt he felt.

She shook her head when she saw the helplessness in his eyes. He had nothing to be sorry about. It was her fault that she pestered him until he had to scream at her.

He took her hand in his, trying to say something, but she pulled her hand away. She did not want to face anything at the moment. She was the reason he had come so close to death last time and she was also the reason it happened again this time. Last time he had shielded her and sustained a gunshot. This time, she caused him a headache that morning that led him to drown.

"I should say sorry, not you." Her voice cracked. "I'm sorry!"

Ramit gently tugged her arm. She was still not facing him.

"Are you crying?"

She got up intending to leave and pulled her arm from his grip.

He did not let go.

She looked back at him and said, "Yes, I am crying." She pushed her neck and face towards him. "See, I am crying. Now leave me."

"Sit," he said, only to make tears gush out of her eyes. He put his arm over her shoulder and she quickly hugged him, hiding her face and crying her heart out.

How long had it been? One full month. First he said he wanted to divorce her. Then, he complained about her to his parents. Then, he did not take back his pen and paper clips. Then, he had not spoken to her properly for a whole month. Then, he said she was no one to him. Then, he embarrassed her before everyone.

She cried more. Her hiccups added to her current embarrassment.

Ramit held her, softly patting her head once in a while. "Stop crying..."

"I'm not crying! Tears are flowing!"

Ramit stayed quiet. Geetha also became quiet. Perhaps that line did the greatest damage to her image than anything else. She lost control of her words again. Not wanting to see the light of the world, she snuggled on his shoulder. She should have blocked a slot in her non-existent schedule for crying. She could have prepared better and be out of anyone's sight. She soon fell asleep.

Ramit had also teared up in between. She lied to him once but all this time, he felt she was being genuine. But he also felt she was only flattering when he thought back to her behaviour with his mother. He just needed to make sure that she was indeed sincere. He also had to know for sure if she respected his love.

Still, he could not help but think of the past from time to time. When wounds on the heart heal, they still leave scars, after all.

The time read 7:42 P.M. She cried for a good 1½ hour. He slowly removed her from his chest and put a pillow under her head as she dozed off.

It had been a while since they ate dinner together. When he opened the cupboard in the kitchen, salt was in the place of turmeric powder, which was in the place of chilli powder. Some even had their containers changed. Containers of ginger garlic and green chilli paste had their lids painted with their respective colours. All in all, his kitchen wasn't anything like he remembered. So this was what she was up to everyday at home.

He decided to cook a 3 course meal. After all, he had to apologise for making her cry so much. When he was done, he placed all the containers back the way he remembered she put them. They looked tidy and each of them was visible, without a single overlap of the lids.

Suddenly, he laughed a little. She was a foot shorter than him. This way, she would not have to step back and stretch her neck to see the tins on the row behind. He wondered how many times she had to rearrange them before arriving at the current perfect pattern. If she asked him, he would have made her a small program to bring out the pattern.

He set the table and waited another five minutes before he woke her up.

"Eat and sleep."

She heeded and came to the table after washing her tear stained face. Delighted at the dishes, yet a little embarrassed, she started devouring them the moment he touched his food. He got ahead of her in cooking.

"You cooked all this for me. There is no thought of divorce anymore, right?" Her face was a little swollen but her cheeks were pink with happiness.

He was not comfortable talking about that yet. He had things to confirm. He didn't have much hope to begin with either. "This is this, that is that."

She gave him a long stare. "Then why did you get all riled up about being friends?"

He looked at her stunned. "I... I... Maybe it was the headache. I wasn't thinking straight. You should give me some time. You kept on forcing me to talk to you."

"Ah... Your friend said I should wait until you start talking again. What are you? A letter of the eleventh century? You take so long and I don't even know if you're ever going to talk to me."

She usually liked it if people around her were like instant messaging apps. The other person and herself could respond quickly yet in their own comfortable time. But she wanted Ramit to be like a phone call. She would cut his call if she was busy, but she'd call him up once she was free and they would talk, back and forth, and back and forth, and back, and forth. She once did not like that, but now she liked it, although only in Ramit's case.

Ramit controlled his chuckle. The way she scolded him weighed more than the fact that she did. Things were exactly like that during their highschool years. She made him giggle a lot during that time. "I get irritated and I say something bad."

She replied in a heartbeat, "I won't feel bad for that. I'll feel 10 times worse if you deliberately ignore me." Her brows were raised and her eyes were solemn.

She was so stubborn and so demanding, a trait he was all too familiar with and at the same time, a trait that rubbed him in many new ways.

"You'll still have to give me at least 2 days. Let's see if we can live like that. Let's be friends. You should not intrude into my life too much." He suddenly did not understand what he was mad for before. Here he was, again asking to be friends instead of a couple. He acknowledged his insecurity, once again. But this time, he would rather not have her in his life than be afraid of an impending doom.

Geetha sucked in a deep breath. All of the nice dishes she ate and all the conversation they had was just that. Food and some words. This was this, that was that, just as he said. They did not resolve their problem, they did not take a step further, she was still friendzoned, and they were not going to share a bed, after all. He made her feel like a person with weak morals from time to time.

"Fine. Friends." She had to look on the brighter side. From now on she was not going to have to tolerate his cold shoulder. Moreover, if she could see that he doesn't get angry with her, those 2 days would never come.

∼•∽

The next morning, she cooked breakfast as usual. He offered to help, but she declined. He wasn't the one to wake up early like her. They decided breakfast would be made by her and dinner by him.

While having breakfast, he asked her if she was okay with going to the office the next day. After all, they had created a little drama yesterday. She was donned in a saree and sitting before him. She said, "Why would I care about what anyone thinks?"

"It's good. Just don't say it to them," he said. Knowing her, he knew he should be more worried for his employees than for her.

"I know. I'm not a fool. I think and speak. But I'll keep it in mind." He was worried for nothing. How did he think she lived all her life?

Minutes later, he said, "You can find a much better job than working here..."

"I want to help you."

Ramit's lips had a small lopsided smile. "I feel like... I'm pulling you down. Nothing is going great now..."

"All the more reason for me to help. Think about it like this. I got the shares for free. So I'll work for a while salary free."

"Those were a gift!"

"Then this is also a gift. Stop talking."

He paused. Moments later he scoffed at her.

"I mean... this is settled. So, eat peacefully." she said.

He scoffed again and looked into his plate. His face was pleasant, however. She was cute like this, worrying she'd hurt him unknowingly.

∼•∽

At the office, to her dismay, Geetha was stared at by almost everyone.

She tugged Ramit's arm down and leaned in to whisper in his ear, "I want to pull out all of their eyeballs."

Ramit bent his head. Although he managed not to laugh, he had a big smile on his lips.

Once they entered his office, she sighed in relief. His office wasn't as neat a place as she liked but it was way better than all the unruly and gaudy polygons dancing outside.

"Did that blonde leave?"

"Emma?"

"Who else?"

"What did she say?" He was curious as to how Emma got his wife to hold a grudge against her. For all he knew, she was a pretty decent friend and business partner.

"Nothing." Geetha rolled her eyes. Emma had looked her up and down, in front of everyone. Oh how she had hated that!

"They left yesterday."

"Fine. So now tell me everything I need to know."

Ramit called Veeru and they put some documents in front of her. It took her two hours to go through everything. The company was registered full three years ago, but its true operations started only a year ago. When she looked at the staff profile, she was taken aback. She expected a lack of administration and managerial staff since she had spoken to Dal, but just that did not seem to be the case.

"Ramit, if you are sure about moving away from investigations to proper journalism, the marketing strategy must change." All they had were some software employees, and some editors.

"Did you find yourself this job? I thought you'd want to look into finances."

"Focus, will you? Call both of your assistants."

"..." He side eyed her and picked his phone up.

∼•∽

A/N:
It's funny how writing allows to bring so many different concepts together. I watched Ramayan and Mahabharat during the lock-down and damn do I seem to be influenced!

If you find mistakes, let me know. I proofread but like I said, later chapters are even more fresh in my head and I don't know if I'm reading from memory or the screen.

See you you know when. Until then!