Chapter 19 - When The World Crashes

The thought sometimes crossed his mind at the most random moments, most unintentionally. There was no question about how Miss. D felt about him; Arjun could see it in her eyes, the way she handled herself around him and the very subtle way she tried to spend more time with him. Still, there was something amiss. Arjun could never pinpoint to what it was, except that he felt that a piece of the jigsaw he wasn't completely aware of was missing.

He often wondered what it was and how to eliminate that feeling of incompleteness.

Miss. D was slowly, but surely, getting over her fears and insecurities. She didn't hesitate to get upset with Mr. J when he annoyed her with his occasional nagging during their morning jogs, she didn't feel pressurised to say 'yes' to everything suggested by Arjun, she was slipping into a level of comfort with him where she could push and pull. It made Arjun feel a lot assured.

Most of the times it did seem like a perfect relationship, a synchronization between two souls that completed each other. She was the grounded balance to Arjun's spirited attitude, the romantic counterpart to Arjun's rational mind, the ground zero that held and completed him. Except for those grains of partialness that sometimes seemed to sneak into the creases of Arjun's mind. It was infuriating to an extent that he didn't quite know what it was.

"Mr. J, does this look better than the blue one?" she asked him holding up a pale purple dress shirt and contrasting it with a blue shirt of the same type in her other hand.

They were shopping for a wardrobe change for her new job at Arjun's company. Arjun stood viewing the two choices, tracing his lower lip with his fingers in introspection.

"Purple," he chose. "Actually the peach coloured one we saw earlier suited you much better. And the maroon one too."

"We can't buy the same shirt in all colours," she laughed, browsing through the clothes hung in the store. "I already have clothes in combinations of peach, red, maroon and pale orange. It would be too much of the same colour spectrum."

"It's difficult to pick out dresses for you when you look this good in everything," Arjun remarked sincerely as he looked through some of the pant suits hung next to him.

Miss. D tilted her head towards him and rolled her eyes. "How about we look for something for you too?" she suggested.

"I have too many of them already. Besides," he turned to her and complained, "I am starving. Can we continue shopping after dinner?"

She laughed at him and agreed, "Okay, sure."

He beamed at her. She turned around, taking the clothes they had already picked out and headed for billing. Arjun waited for her as she paid for her dresses, browsing through some of the bracelets and accessories kept at one end of the store, making a mental note of picking out some for Miss. D and gifting them to her the day she starts working with him. He was already a little put off, and a lot proud of her, that she never let him pay for her shopping endeavours. "I can pay for myself, and I never buy more than what I use or can afford," she had told him sternly.

The first few times they went out for meals, she had insisted on paying her half for the food she ate. Arjun had glared at her till she backed off. Slowly, they fell into a routine where they would take turns at picking up the tab. She was fiercely independent and he supported that aspect of her.

They had a quick dinner of wok and noodles and then sat at a café, drinking coffee. It was raining and as they sat next to the glass walls of the coffee house admiring the rain water sprinkling and flowing down the glass screens, thunder flashing and rumbling at a distance, Arjun looked at Miss. D and remarked, "You look happy."

"I am," she answered, gazing at the falling rain, sipping the coffee.

"And I am one of the reasons for that?" he asked.

"The main reason, maybe?" She thought for a second and then changed her answer, "Tied with the rain."

"I knew it," Arjun grumbled. "I always lose out to sunrises and rain."

She broke into a smile of adoration and explained, "You always tie with sunrises and rain because I don't want them to lose out to you."

He knew it already, yet, he wanted to hear it from her again. Verbal affirmations seem to always hold a special place for him. He had lost out once years ago without enough vocalization of true feelings. He wasn't going to let that happen again.

He puckered his lips in mock disappointment as she giggled.

They shopped till half-past-nine and then Arjun dropped Miss. D at her home. It was still raining and the weather was cool, the right amount of pleasant that she loved.

"Any plans for tomorrow?" she asked him before getting out of his car.

"Vinodh went to his hometown for a couple of days. So, it's just me at home, and no plans." He paused for a moment and pondered before asking her slowly, "How about you come over tomorrow afternoon and I will cook you lunch?"

She had been to his house before, but there was always someone or the other present there. Most of the times it was Vinodh hovering over them, asking Miss. D if she needed any good home cooked food, or some house help working around. This would be the first time they would truly be just the two of them at his house. If Miss. D felt any nervousness, she hid it expertly. She knew Mr. J had given it proper thought and enough consideration for her before inviting her over.

She smiled at him and nodded. "That sounds good. I want to have a good South Indian meal. Let's see if you can whip up something really tasty."

She could see his face brighten up with relief that she agreed and excitement that she would really come over.

"You better be prepared, I am an amazing cook," he swore.

"Okay!"

She got out of the car and raced to the sheltered confides of the apartment lobby, making sure the shopping bags she was carrying didn't get too wet in the rain that was still pouring down hard. She turned back to wave a 'bye' at Arjun. He waved back at her and as soon as she went up to get to her house, he left.

Twenty minute later, when he was still ten minutes away from his house, Miss. D called him up.

"Mr. J, my colleagues are planning a dinner party for me," she informed him quite worriedly.

"When?" he asked her.

"Tomorrow, since it is a Sunday."

"What did you tell them?"

"I said we can have it on Monday after office hours."

"You are not going to bail out on me tomorrow, are you?"

"No, I'm not." She chuckled. "I am just letting you know that there is a lot of competition to share a meal with me."

"Touché, you keep trying to portray excessive pride, but it seems so out of place with you," Arjun teased her.

"I can actually sound proud and arrogant if I want to, Mr. J," she tried to boast.

"Yeah, we will talk about it when you have mastered..."

His words got cut off as there was a sound of a crash and a loud groan from him.

If Advika ever knew what having your heart stop beating meant, it wouldn't have been sufficient to explain what she felt that moment.

"Hello? Hello...?" she spoke into the phone.

There was no response.

"Hello...?" she whispered, panic setting in with a force that was of the worst kind ever. "Hello?!" she shrieked.

She could hear voices, sounds, and Arjun's voice, first groaning, as if he were in pain, and then swearing, "What the hell...!"

Advika kept hearing him speak to someone, "Check that, and be careful."

She tried reaching him again, "Hello?"

In a second, she got the answer, "Hello? Miss. D, I will call you back in a back."

"What happened?" she demanded. "Did you get into an accident?"

"Someone hit us from behind. It looks like a fender-bender. We are checking it," he answered, trying to sound calm for her sake.

"Are you hurt?" she asked, panic audible clearly in her broken voice.

"No, I am not," he said it too fast. "I am fine, really. You don't have to worry. I will just see to this and call you once I reach home."

"No, no, don't cut the call," she pleaded, anxious of losing contact with him. "Where are you right now? I will come over and handle it."

"Miss. D," he spoke slowly, in a reassuring tone, trying to calm her down. "I am really fine. It must be because of the rain. My driver is already speaking to the owner of the car that rammed into us. I can handle this, okay? You don't have to come over. I will call you once I sort this out. Just sit down coolly. Okay? I need to go now."

There was no word from her. "You there?" he asked unsurely.

"Yeah, yes, I am here," she replied. Her voice was cracking. "I'll wait. You call me up as soon as you are out of the mess."

"Sure, I will," he promised.

He cut the call then.

Advika paced in her room restlessly. It didn't sit right with her at all. She tried to put herself in his shoes. If she met with an accident while on call with Arjun, she would definitely tell him that she was fine and unhurt. What if he was seriously injured? He didn't sound like that, still, there were chances of him being hurt. He definitely sounded like he was in pain. Advika felt something crashing in her, as if something was going wrong around her and she wasn't doing anything to stop it.

Arjun's face flashed in her eyes, hurt and alone. He was definitely not okay.

She couldn't sit there any longer. Snatching her wallet, she rushed out of the house, running through the muddy lane outside her apartment in the heavy rain, looking for a taxi or autorikshaw that she could hail.

The lane was empty. She looked around for a moment and then tried to check her phone if she could book a ride. The rain was making it difficult for her to swipe through the applications with water pouring on her phone. She wiped it with her dress and tried again. There was no cab nearby.

She jogged down the road, checking Uber and Ola for rides. It was definitely the rain and late hour of the night. She couldn't find anything. She ran to the nearest bus stop and waited. Luckily she saw a bus arriving. It wouldn't go till Arjun's neighbourhood, but it still covered some distance.

She boarded it hurriedly. Traffic was thinning down a little, but the roads were still busy. Advika prayed to every god she could think of to keep Arjun safe, to let her reach him as fast as she could. She kept looking out of the window to see if there were any vehicles on the way that had met with an accident.

There were none. She alighted at the bus stop closest to Arjun's neighbourhood. It was a fifteen minute walk from there. She didn't bother walking and instead ran her way through the rain.

Arjun had just reached his home. His driver had taken the car to the repair centre as soon as he dropped Arjun at his apartment. Arjun knew he had to call Miss. D and tell her that he was safe home. He just needed to freshen up first, given that he had gotten wet in the rain while trying to talk to the person who had driven into his car. It had been an amiable conversation; the man had apologized to him profusely, given Arjun his contact details and asked him to send over the repair bills so he could take care of it. Arjun wasn't bothered about the money. The man had looked so shaken that Arjun had to calm him down and assure him that it was okay, that he needed to be careful driving at least from then onwards.

Arjun washed his face and changed as fast as he could to call Miss. D. He was fetching his phone to make the call when his doorbell rang.

Arjun thought it must be his driver coming home to give an update about the car. He had already told him that it wasn't needed before sending him away.

He opened the door to see Advika standing there, looking a wreck, drenched from head to toe in the rain and panting as if she had been running hard.

"Miss. D?" Arjun panicked. "What happened? What are you doing here? Did you run in the rain?"

She stepped up to him, studying his face. "You are hurt," she whispered, her eyes fixed on a spot on his forehead.

Arjun put a hand to the bruise he had sustained on his forehead that was turning to a shade of purple. "This? I just hit my head slightly. It's nothing."

She tugged at both his hands, pulling them forward and looking at them in fright to see if he was hurt anywhere else. Her hands were ice cold and shivering.

"Where else did you get injured?' she asked, her voice breaking all over, searching him all over fast. "Let's go to the hospital, I'll call a taxi."

If Arjun was perplexed by her sudden appearance and agitated with how terrible she was looking, soaked through and pale, the way she was studying him with fear made him realize that she was devastated.

He put his hands on her shoulders, holding her firmly and said strongly, warmly, "Look here, I'm fine. It was a fender-bender and just one bruise, that's all."

She lifted her head and finally looked into his eyes. She raised her hand slowly to touch his face, tracing the skin around the bruise on his forehead and then trailing her fingers to his cheek, cradling his face in her hands.

"Arjun..." she whispered slowly, all her world hanging in the name she uttered. Breathing deeply, she called him again softly, her voice laden with worry, "Arjun..."