Chapter 20 (Finale) - Calling Him By His Name

Arjun had been meaning to give a piece of his mind to Miss. D, not scold her but try and sound stern, for turning up at his home in such a heart breaking manner. She had come running in the rain, without any care for her own safety, getting completely soaked in rain and looking pale and frail. She could have waited for his call, but she didn't.

As her ice cold hands pulled at his arms to search him for injuries, he could feel her devastation at the thought of him getting hurt, and that hurt him too. But, first things first, he needed to calm her down. As he tried to explain it to her that he was fine and unharmed, she had looked up at him.

Her eyes red and brimming with tears, eyebrows knit in worry, her lips slightly parted, Arjun could see her whole world hanging in there in her gaze. She raised her hand to tenderly touch his forehead near his bruise, as softly as she could, tracing her fingers down his temple to his cheek to finally cradle his face in her hands. And then, she called his name.

"Arjun..."

It sucked his breath away.

In that moment, he realized why he had always felt something was amiss in his flawless relationship. She had never called him by his name. He was always Mr. J. She had consistently called him Mr. J, even after coming back to him post two years to start their relationship, even after getting really close to him, all the time. He had never thought about it much. He had called her Miss. D always too. They were used to calling each other with the names they had coined for each other at the start of their friendship, and it was special for them. No one called them and most didn't know them by those names.

So, Arjun had never expected or hoped for her to call him by his name.

When she finally did call him in that low whisper of love and concern, "Arjun," he felt something crumble within him, as if the walls to the most beautiful garden were finally broken down for him to see the beauty it contained. He had never imagined that someone calling him by his own name could make his heart race and send shivers down his nerves.

"Arjun," she murmured again, blinking away her tears. "Arjun, I..."

He simply stared at her, holding his breath, revelling in her voice uttering his name again and again, realizing that she was truly his woman in that moment, unconditionally worried about him, looking up to him as her man, so much that she had to call him by his name. She wasn't seeing him as the friend she made on the sea beach years ago who gradually turned into the man she cared about, but as the man she loved with every fibre of her being. She was in love with Arjun as a person and not just Mr. J she had grown accustomed to.

"Arjun, I thought..." she tried to speak, her voice breaking. "I didn't know... I just couldn't..."

He took her face in his hands, warming her cold as dead cheeks, gazed into her burning eyes and breathed, "Advika, look at me."

She was looking at him all along, yet it felt different when she focused her gaze into the dark depths of his eyes.

"I am completely fine," he murmured. "It's okay. It's really okay. Nothing happened."

She nodded slowly and buried her head in his chest, wrapping her arms around him tightly. The water from her soaked clothes seeped into the dry fabrics of his attire and he didn't even feel the wetness anymore. She could feel the warmth of his body through the cold mess of her dress and hear his heart pounding, feel his arms tightening around her torso embracing her with all his might.

"You could have called me," she spoke against his chest without much thought.

"You didn't wait for me to even pick my phone up," he muttered softly in a pretend complaining tone.

"You should have been in my place," she reasoned, sniffling. "You would have panicked even worse."

Arjun pictured it for a moment, hearing over the phone that Advika met with an accident; and he didn't want to imagine it anymore. She was right, he would have panicked even worse than her.

"Let's not talk about it anymore," he decided. "But seriously, you shouldn't have run in the rain like that. What if you had hurt yourself on the way?"

"It doesn't matter," she mumbled.

Arjun pulled back quite reproachfully. "It does matter. Wouldn't it matter to you if it were me?"

She glared at him for a moment and then softened her gaze. "Let's go to the hospital," she urged again.

Arjun lowered his head to put his forehead on Advika's forehead and assured softly, "For the hundredth time, I am alright."

She stared into his eyes up close, her breath quickening. Arjun could sense it coming.

"Advika..." he whispered, his voice low and deep.

She leaned further into him, tipping her head up, and kissed him softly. For a whole moment, before drawing back to look at him again, the expression of finally doing something right written all over her face.

Arjun simply gazed at her for a few seconds, getting lost, and then without realizing it, pulled her closer and kissed her back as fervently as he could. He wrapped his arms around her embracing her wholly, so much that he didn't know where his body ended and where hers began. He could feel her hands slipping through his hair, holding him as she kissed him.

Moments passed. Time seemed to unravel and spin away and neither was aware how long they had been standing there as they pulled back, both their eyes darkened and hued.

Arjun smiled warmly at her and then took a clear look at her. Her clothes were still dripping wet. "You will catch a cold," he remarked.

She chuckled, "As if I care."

"I do. You need to change." He took a step back, holding her by her arms and slowly leading her inside his home, to his room.

He finally felt complete.

#

Little ways down the road, everything panned out to be perfect for the two. They had always known that as long as they were together, they could face any hurdle together and succeed, have the most blissful time together and build a trusting relationship that no one could ever even create a crack within.

Arjun and Advika were indeed a power couple. Not in the way media would portray them as a brilliant couple leading the sustainable projects of the conglomerate Arjun owned, rather a very balanced and powerful duo that their team members and employees often noticed. They weren't the usual kind of couple who worked together and well with each other.

They would respectfully disagree with each other during their brainstorming sessions, yet almost immediately see where the other person is coming from. They would hold each other grounded and see things beyond their normal spectrum of vision too. People were often confused on who was the domineering one of the two. They both called each other with names others didn't: Miss. D and Mr. J; except for the times when they had to reference each other or call out to each other in public appearances or for formal meetings, events and proceedings.

"We need to prepare for a press release," Arjun was giving an instruction during their meeting for a project process mapping.

"I have already started work on that, Mr. J," Advika spoke up in the middle of typing some notes on her laptop. "We need to get started on the regulatory documents though."

"I have that in progress already, Miss. D," he replied as a matter of fact.

They both lifted their heads up from the work they were doing to exchange a glance of understanding and a smile that said of-course-you-would-have-done-that.

Their team members, watching the sequence, exchanged looks between themselves that said they-both-are-at-again. It was becoming too obvious between them. They completed each other like no one else. They could have never imagined that a synchronization of this sort was possible.

Arjun and Advika never much bothered about how the people around them perceived them. They were absorbed in their own world. No matter what they called each other all the day, at their most private moments, when they felt like baring their hearts and true emotions to each other, be that anything, they would call each other with their own names. It was special for them in their own terms. Just a whisper, a low voiced utterance of 'Arjun' from her could make his heart race and the moments he sighed her name 'Advika' made her quite breathless.

It was their own indestructible world, a path they had built on their own which only they could walk together.