Haphephobia

The calling bell rang breaking up their thoughts. Dhruv went out to open and was surprised to see an old man perfectly dressed in a formal suit. His head shined under the sun and his furrowed eyebrows over thin spectacles frightened Dhruv every time they met.

"Hello, uncle! Please come in…", he welcomed Riya's father inside and hurriedly tidied up the coffee table.

"Hi dad!", Riya slowly sat up on the couch making way for him to sit. But he chose to sit over the couch chair nearby.

His business suit indicated that he had come straight from office.

"Is there any problem at office?", Riya asked instantly. She was always worried and on edge when she handed over things to somebody. If something should go right, she must do it herself.

"I came to see you, daughter. Nothing is wrong in the office.", "Before I forget, Sharan asked me to give this to you Dhruv", he handed over the file he was carrying to Dhruv which he politely took over.

"Thanks, uncle. What would you like to drink? Green tea, coffee?"

"Coffee would do", he replied and turned his attention to Riya. Dhruv nodded and left the father and daughter alone in the living room.

"How have you been?"

"I've been good, dad. I'm healed now. I'll join next week."

"Take rest. I don't want you to stress over work. I'm taking care of it alongside Sharan."

"Hmm..."

"How's everything going on…?", he trailed his sentence to check if Dhruv was anywhere around. "With Dhruv", he looked at his daughter bothered.

"Everything is fine, dad. You don't have to worry about me…. Really!"

"Okay! I believe you!"

Once Dhruv entered with coffee, the conversation drifted towards the joint event and various other marketing and PR programs at hand. Riya pitched in her ideas or more like orders from time to time. Her father felt a little convinced of their relationship witnessing their teamwork firsthand.

Riya tried getting up from the couch when he was about to leave.

"It's okay. Sit and rest…", he signaled Dhruv to see him outside which he prudently obliged.

"I will send over the agenda for the week to you uncle.", Dhruv remarked.

"That's fine. Take your time. I want to ask you something else… something personal..... if you don't mind", Riya's father dithered a moment.

"Yes, uncle. Sure, anything"

"Um…. Is Riya doing okay?"

"Yes, uncle. She is doing most of the basic works herself now. I'm working from home, to make sure that she's eating and resting well", he smiled politely, "you have nothing to worry. I'll take care of her.", he said proudly taking the role of fake husband a bit far.

"Uh… Dhruv, I wasn't asking about that. I was worried about the other thing….", he paused to check the surroundings before resuming again, "Her phobia….Is she…um… letting you touch her or she's still getting scared?", he looked at Dhruv with troubled eyes.

Dhruv was taken aback for a second. He never knew she had a phobia.

What was he talking about? He shouldn't ask him that since he was supposed to know everything as her husband.

He made himself smile with trouble. "She's fine... when I touch uncle". As far as he knew, he helped her with everything, and she seemed okay. But whenever she was anxious, he thought it was shyness.

"Maybe she can touch you because she loves you, but that means she still has problems with other people….. Dhruv, she doesn't listen to me! Can you persuade her to consult her psychiatrist? At least on weekends. I want my daughter cured completely."

He still couldn't quite fathom the entire conversation, "Yes, uncle. I'll try. Please don't worry". 'What am I reassuring him about? I didn't even know all this existed till now', he thought and felt disappointed.

"I leave her in your hands, Dhruv", Riya's father shook his hands before getting in the car.

Dhruv came back with the best poker face he could conjure.

"Was he nagging you to take care of me?", she asked him without looking up from her phone. He understood she started playing again. Good for him!

"Not much… He was asking me more details about the agenda. I assured him not to worry", he lied. "Listen! I'm feeling a bit tired. Going to sleep. Do you want to go to your room?"

Still involved very much in the game, she replied "Nopppe!" and continued.

He departed to his room and closed the door behind him.

He felt giddy from all the news. He sat on his bed for a minute to clear his mind. He didn't know where to begin or how to piece everything together.

He took his personal tab and did a google search immediately – "phobia of touch" and was shocked to see it even had a name "Haphephobia".

"Oh my god! Such a thing really exists?", he asked himself shocked.

The more and more he read about it, the more Riya's behavior and attitude made sense. She was always alone at school, sat in some corner, did her own stuffs. Always rude that everybody was scared to approach her. As far as he knew, she never went out, dated anyone, had friends. All that was because of this phobia? Not because she was narcissistic?

His whole world turned upside down. "What happened during the party… Was it…..? Oh my god!", he buried his face in his hands.

Lots of questions swamped his mind. Though he couldn't understand the depth of everything, he did feel sad for her. He always considered her to be strange, but all these days she was suffering inside? Why didn't she tell anyone?

He imagined that for a moment. If she had told anyone, they'd have outrightly made fun of her. A touch phobia? Nobody would've taken it seriously and maybe would've touched just to annoy her. It made sense as to why she would raise such high walls around and never let anyone in.

But she let him touch her. According to her father, she allowed that because of love, but Dhruv knew they weren't real couples. 'Did she really start feeling comfortable with me?', nobody could answer these questions except Riya, but he couldn't ask her. She'd only hide herself more if she knew Dhruv was aware of it all.

He sighed sadly and lied down on his bed not knowing what to do. Probably acting innocent would be best in this situation. But his heart melted towards the woman.

"So she was actually never rude...", he covered his eyes with his arm and fell asleep.