Chapter 34
TANISHA
She stayed curled up under the comforter, knees tucked to her chest, arms wrapped around herself as though she could hold the pieces of her heart together by sheer force. Her blank and unseeing gaze remained fixed on the window across the room.
It was an unusually bright, sunny day. Golden light spilled into the room, warmed the furniture, and made tiny dust motes hanging in the air shimmer like something magical. Hope lived in mornings like this. Joy did too…
Everything she wasn’t feeling, might never feel seemed to hang in the air. The bright cheer of the day only made her chest ache more.
The bedroom door opened with a soft click. Her breath hitched, but she didn’t move. She shut her eyes quickly, evening her breath out and pretending to sleep, as if it were a shield and could protect her from the questions she had no energy to answer.
Footsteps padded across the room. The edge of the mattress dipped as someone sat down.
“I know you’re awake,” Shikha said dryly.
Her mother’s hand landed on her leg through the comforter. She squeezed once in comfort. And for the first time since everything shattered, Tani felt something crack inside her chest. She swallowed, hard, fighting the sting behind her eyes.
“Time to get up and face the world, baby girl.” Her mother’s soft voice tried to coax her into opening her eyes.
“I don’t want to,” Tani muttered, feeling the rebellious grief that swelled her heart growing bigger.
“And yet,” Shikha said, “you have to. Get up, Tani.” Her mother’s voice was steely with resolve. “We do not curl up and cower.”
Tani groaned as she pushed herself into a sitting position, reluctantly meeting her mother’s eyes.
“So,” Shikha said, her eyes brimming with love and gentle concern. “Kabir, huh?”
Tani groaned again, dropping her head back against the headboard.
“Still waiting for an answer,” Shikha said, amused by her daughter’s dramatic reaction.
“Yeah, Kabir,” Tani said morosely, picking at the embroidery on the sheets, and loosening a pink thread.
Shikha’s eyes crinkled at the side as she smiled. “Love shouldn’t make you grumpy.”
“Unrequited love does,” Tani groused, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. “He doesn’t want me.”
“Oh baby,” Shikha murmured. “That boy looks at you like you hung the moon. There is no way in hell he doesn’t want you. He’s loved you since the first day you tormented him with one of you doll sized tea parties. And I’ve known for a while that he is also in love with you.”
“Maybe,” Tani glanced out of the window. “But he doesn’t want to be in love with me. That’s the whole problem.”
“Well,” Shikha said briskly, ignoring her self-pitying wallow. “What are you going to do about it?”
“You mean other than throwing myself at him, declaring my undying love, getting rejected and ghosted, and then promptly deciding to marry my rebound in a ridiculous attempt at making him jealous?”
“Yes, other than that,” Shikha replied blandly.
Tani stared at her disbelievingly before she caught Shikha’s small smirk and burst into helpless giggles. “Stop it,” she muttered, grinning as she chucked a pillow at her mother.
“It’s all such a mess,” she moaned, crawling forward to drop her head in her mother’s lap.
Shikha’s fingers combed through Tani’s wild curls. “Here’s a radical thought,” she said now, “but have you tried conversation? One where you both talk like calm, rational adults about your hopes, dreams, expectations and,” she hesitated, “fears.”
Tani looked up at her, eyes narrowing. “What do you know?”
“It’s not my news to tell,” Shikha said quietly.
“But there is news to tell?” Tani clarified.
Shikha nodded, her eyes looking troubled.
Anxiety clutched at Tani’s heart. “Is he okay?”
“He’s,” Shikha paused to choose her words carefully, “got a lot on his plate right now. I think, Tani, right now he doesn’t need the love of his life. He needs his best friend.”
Which was her, Tani thought, her mother’s gentle caress both soothing and unsettling her. “I don’t think he wants to see me right now,” she murmured.
“And are you going to let that stop you?”
Tani thought past her hurt, her anger, her feelings of rejection.
She thought back to the boy with the sad, angry eyes who’d walked into her life and had learned to smile along the way, to the man who had music in his veins and bottomless depths of love in his soul.
Her best friend and the love of her life.
“No, I’m not.”
She pushed up from the bed to hug her mother before bounding off the bed. Shikha caught her hand and stopped her before she went far.
“Before you go charging off to slay his demons, there is something else you and I are going to do.”
Tani tugged at her hand, trying to release it from Shikha’s grip. “Can’t it wait?” She caught sight of her mother’s solemn face and she stilled. “What is it?”
“We’re going to the hospital to have you checked out.”
The words were a weight on her heart, her simmering hurt and anger rising to the surface. “I can’t believe he did that.”
“What’s done is done.” Shikha got to her feet. “We’re going to move forward but before that, we’re going to make sure there are no nasty surprises waiting for us.”
“Ma-“
“We are not doing anything before we do this Tani,” Shikha said sternly. She looked at Tani’s tense, anxious face and her own softened. “Kabir will understand. He would want you to do this too.”
Tani nodded. “Ma, the wedding-“
“That’s already being taken care.” Shikha’s face was granite hard. “Your father has gone to meet the Malhotras.”
She got to her feet, walking over to Tani’s cupboard and pulling out a comfortable co-ord set. “Get dressed. I’ll meet you in the hall.”
Tani waited for her mother to leave before picking up her phone and typing out a message to Kabir.
“Are you okay?”
She waited an endless moment but the ticks didn’t turn blue.
After another moment, she stepped back, tossing the phone down and heading to the shower.
Her mother would come back and drag her out, if she wasn’t ready on time.
But even hours later, as she sat in the waiting area of the hospital, her phone told the same story. The ticks didn’t turn blue.