The surprise!

Forever together : No matter what!
Image Coutesy : Stockfresh.com

It was Christmas Eve and I was going to meet Anvesha after almost two months. Sixty days, having thousands of minutes and hundred’s of thousands of seconds, it was a long time to stay away from her. But all in that time, there wasn’t a single moment when I didn’t miss her. The wait was going to be over finally and the way she said it over the phone, “I’m really dying to meet you baby. I’m going to surprise you today!” I was sure that the wait is all going to be worth it and being a man for whom lust has always been his biggest sin, the statement made me think otherwise as well!


Two months of separation made me realize one thing though, if you’re in love, you really don’t need to see each other or talk everyday to be with each other. You are there with each other by the way you feel each other around you. There were times when I missed her terribly and I would just look at a picture of hers and that would bring her right in front of me. Beautiful eyes dressed up with kohl which made it so impossible for me to resist looking into her eyes. And yet when I did, I felt that funny feeling in my stomach every single time. I could see her smiling now, her gorgeous smile which could light up the worst of my days and even had the power to bring me back from the dumps. Her soft hand against my cheeks when she wanted to soothe my anger down had an amazing impact. It made me fall in love with her even more. Her naughty mind added to her hotness and the fact that she knew she was hot made it even better!

‘I’m going to make this day really special’, I said to myself. As I started lighting up candles in our room, I remembered a beautiful day which we had some four months back. It was her birthday and I had surprised her in a similar fashion. That’s the time when I gifted her, ‘Snoopy’ – our crazy little lazy dog. I picked her from the office, brought her home and told her to open the door. The moment she opened it, she saw the room completely lit up with candles in every corner of the room. The walls were full of pictures of me and her and right in the middle of the room a huge cake on a table awaited her. As she tried to walk towards the cake, she felt something really soft beneath her feet. She looked down just to discover rose petals all down the way to lead her way to the cake. She was touched, really touched. She came near me and hugged me. She placed both of her hands on my cheeks and kissed me. I could taste the strawberry flavored lip balm on her soft lips. And the moment she got away from me, she was in tears. ‘Nobody has made me feel so special and nobody ever can like you do!’ I looked at her, pulled her face closer and kissed her forehead and kept her head on my chest as I told her in her ears, ‘I would die to bring a smile to you and make you feel special sweetheart!’ We made love that night amidst the glowing candles, smell of roses and with the flames of love burning very bright inside our hearts.

‘What a beautiful night it was’, I thought. Nostalgia ran all through my mind as I remembered the day. And then I remembered the unfortunate day which happened two months back. I came home after a heavy drinking session with some friends and first thing I did was to get into the kitchen and hug her. She was my life, she was my wife and I loved her.

I leaned forward to kiss her and she blatantly told me, ‘It’s on your mind all the time, isn’t it?’

‘Is it my fault that you’re such a sexy thing?’ I told her as I kept looking in her eyes which I knew made her nervous.

She tried moving away from me, but I clutched my fingers against hers and forced her against the wall. ‘You’re not going to get anything today!’ she told me with that mischief which I found extremely hot always.

‘We’ll see about that baby’, I told her as I whispered, ‘I love you darling’ in her ears again and again. It sent shivers down her spine. She knew why I was doing it. She knew that I knew the trick to get what I want and may be that’s why she told me looking into my eyes, ‘You’re a dog!’

As we were busy in our own world of romance, my cell phone started ringing. I ignored picking it up, but my wife told me to pick it up as it may have been something important. I told her, nothing was more important than what I was doing! Realizing that I wouldn’t give in to what she was suggesting, she picked up the phone and before she could say anything, she heard,

‘I love you so much. I want you so bad and I wish I was your wife. Please be with me.’

It was Shelly from work. She was absolutely sloshed. She recently had a divorce with her husband and that had taken her into depression. I had been her emotional support many times. She took it in the wrong way and started developing feelings for me. That’s why I was avoiding her from couple of days. I didn’t want any trouble between me and my wife because of this. But life certainly doesn’t go as planned all the time, does it?

Anvesha was upset, really upset. She ran towards the bedroom and locked it. I kept requesting her to open the door, but she didn’t. I kept shouting outside and she kept crying inside. And when she finally opened the door, we had what was our first and only fight which took us away from each other. There’s a thing about a perfect couple – they seldom fight, but when they do they say the meanest things possible and that’s exact what we did that day! We said things we should not have said to each other. She left home and went to her mother’s. We didn’t talk for two months, until this morning when I called her up and told her, ‘I feel like I’m living a life without any purpose. I feel like I’ve a body without any soul and I feel like I’ve lost something I absolutely love. Come back to me, I’ll never make you cry again. I love you and you’re where I belong!’ We both were in tears after that and she told me that she is going to take the first flight home.

‘Yes! This concrete house will be home again after she returns’, I said to myself as I looked at the wall clock. It was nearly six. ‘Anvesha will be here any minute now’ I thought and I started to wait really anxiously. Time passed by really slowly, more slowly than those horrid two months I spent without her. I started wondering about the surprise she was talking about. ‘What can it be? May be she’s going to surprise me with a special gift, may be something I like.’ As I was thinking about the surprise which my wife said she would give to me, my cell phone started ringing. It was Anvesha. Happily, I picked up the phone just to hear a man’s voice on the other end.

‘Can I talk to Mr Abhimanyu Malhotra?’ the man asked.

‘Yes, that’s me. But who’re you and where’s my wife?’ I asked completely confused with what was happening.

‘This is Inspector Jacob. I’m calling to inform you that your wife has met with an accident on her way from the Delhi International Airport!’ he said in a down played voice.

My world fell apart listening to what the man said and I just didn’t know what to say and how to react. All the time that I ever spent with my wife flashed in front of my eyes. The moments I spent together with her, the day of her birthday and the day we had that fight all came rushing towards me. It made me completely blank and I could no longer listen to what the person on the other end of the call had to say.

‘Mr Malhotra …. Mr Malhotra?’ the Inspector asked to confirm if I was still on the line.

‘Yes!’ I said not knowing what else to say.

‘Mr Malhotra, I understand this is sudden news for you, but your wife needs you right now. I need you to come down to the city hospital as soon as you can. I’ll meet you there!’ saying that, he hung up the phone.

I rushed towards my car, completely avoiding my neighbor on the way who was trying to talk to me. Driving as fast as I can, I drove to the city hospital where I met Inspector Jacob.

‘Mr Malhotra, I’m Inspector Jacob. Your wife was on her way home from the airport and the cab she was in was crushed by a truck. The truck driver appeared to be drunk and has been detained. The cab driver was killed on the spot. Your wife is in the intensive care unit right now where she’s undergoing treatment. Don’t worry she’ll be fine!’ he said sympathetically placing a hand on my shoulder.

‘I just want to see my wife and meet the doctors who are treating her right now’ I said, as I fought my tears.

They didn’t let me go to the room my wife was being treated. So, I went up to the doctor’s cabin, a ward boy accompanied me. I think he understood that I was in bad state of shock and so offered to take me to the cabin himself. Dr Vartika Gupta was a well known doctor and surgeon of the city and also she was a Anvesha’s friend. I was really relieved to see her, as I was assured that the best treatment will be available for Anvesha. As I sat in front of her, I could see that this incident had brought tears to her eyes as well .It had to, she shared a great quotient with Anvesha and was a real close friend of hers.

‘Abhimanyu, what has happened is really bad. But, don’t worry. She’s out of danger.’ She said. The sentence brought calm to me and I started crying. Vartika added, ‘I know you guys were going through a rough patch. Anvesha told me about it a month back, but she loved you crazily. She would call me often just to know how you were doing. She’s has been a lovely friend to me as well. Believe me; I’ll do everything in my hands to get her well soon.’

‘Thank you so much Vartika. I want to talk to her. I want to see her smile. Please make her better.’ I said, looking at Vartika with all my hopes on her now. A little relieved to know that Anvesha was okay and that Vartika would take care of her now, I said with a laugh, ‘You know she told me over the phone that she wanted to give a surprise to me. I didn’t expect this surprise. And it is certainly not pleasant!’

‘Abhimanyu, there’s something else as well you need to know. I wanted to tell you this a little later but since you’ve brought this up, I think you should know now’, said Vartika keeping her hand on my hand now.

‘What’re you talking about?’ I asked.

Taking a breath, Vartika said, ‘Anvesha really did have a surprise for you. She had it for you from nearly one month now. She didn’t tell you because you guys had the fight. She was pregnant with your child Abhimanyu. A child she lost, a child you lost when she met with the accident. The child was the surprise!’

Leaving everthing aside, I ran towards her room. I didn't want to leave her alone for a single minute now.