Chapter 13

Aarush came home very late that night. Radhika couldn’t sleep in restlessness, thinking about that positive pregnancy test that she encountered lying under the basin unattended. Once Aarush was back, she just clung to him like a baby.

‘Hey what happened?’

‘Take a look at this…’ Radhika passed the pee-stick to him with two lines confirming pregnancy.

‘I know you are excited about it sweetheart, but I know you are pregnant! And I love you for that, you want me to take you out for dinner? I won’t mind that babe, but it’s almost 2 in the morning and I doubt any restaurant will be open at such an odd hour…’ Aarush said while removing his shirt and pants.

‘Aarush, do I look a fool to you?’

‘What now?’

‘This is not my test!’

‘What?’

‘Yes! Why will I take home pregnancy tests when I have had it medically confirmed?’

‘Then whose is it?’

‘That’s what I don’t know. I found it under the basin almost six hours ago…’

‘And you haven’t slept a minute?’

‘Well…’

‘Are you crazy? You could’ve told me about it any time. What was the necessity to keep up all night for it?’

‘Aarush I was just thinking about Love, and about that girl, I think she’s using him and might put him into trouble in future…’

‘I think that too. And I knew it.’

‘What do you mean by ‘I knew it?’, is that a way to handle problems?’

‘I knew that Radhika. The way Love was handling stuff in his life, this was bound to happen.’

‘But we can’t leave him alone like this.’

‘Of course we won’t…’

‘And thank God I found this under the basin. Lord knows what would have happened if none of us would have known about it.’

‘I can imagine that too.’ Aarush changed into a pair of boxers.

‘Come, we will think about it tomorrow morning, let’s sleep for now.’ he dragged Radhika to bed who looked exhausted, with half closed eyes and swollen face.

Aarush kissed her good-night, and they both slept.

The next morning, Aarush and Radhika woke up at around ten and by that time, Sameera had gone to office, while Love was still around in home.

‘Hey good morning!’ Love greeted Radhika who was yawning, but all her dizziness washed away as memories from last night surfaced in her mind.

‘Love!’

‘Yes, Radhika?’ Love took a step back as Radhika pranced at him.

‘I need to talk to you…’

‘About what?’ Love was getting conscious now.

‘About pregnancy…’

‘Look, Radhika…I know you are emotional unstable, and pregnancy does cause a lot of hormonal changes in the body, but I think Aarush would be the right person to talk about it, isn’t it?’

‘Talk about what?’ Aarush also came out of his room listening to Radhika and Love’s faint voices.

‘Talk about pregnancy. Your wife wants to discuss that with me for some…weird reason!’

‘At least let me complete someone!’ Radhika bounced in the middle of two men.

‘What?’ Love backed off once again, ‘Pregnant women are dangerous boy…good luck to you!’ he eyed Aarush and he stared at him with an expressionless face.

‘Okay continue, Radhika…I am sorry for being a jerk…’

‘No, you are not! Not yet, but very soon, you are going to be…’

‘Hey what are the threats for?’ Love looked at Aarush again whose wife was playing with him since a while now.

‘See this…’ Radhika shoved the pregnancy stick into his face.

‘Is this yours? You peed on it?’ Love’s back was almost sticking to the fridge door now.

‘No! This is not mine, and one last time you interrupt me before I complete my sentence, I will kill you!’ Radhika was pissed off now.

‘Fine, fine!’ Love ran away and sat in the dining chair.

‘Listen, Sameera is pregnant. She might lie to you about it, but very soon a legal notice is going to follow under which you might have to marry her…’

‘Marry?’ Love panicked.

‘And might also be declared a legal guardian to her unborn child…’

‘Guardian? Unborn child?’ Love was getting a heart attack!

‘Yes, and not only this, she might sue you for property, settlement and alimony and even funds for her child for a lifetime, if you refuse to marry her!’

‘What the fuck is all this?’

‘This one stick can cause you that much damage.’ Radhika finally breathed a sigh of relief.

‘And that’s why we are trying to provide some damage control in advance, my friend.’ Aarush consoled him.

‘And what do I do now?’

‘I won’t say go to your lawyer and ask for legal advice, but first talk to her and ‘confirm’ that this stick is hers and she’s actually pregnant – if you did not have any girl in this apartment before this week!’

‘What do you mean?’

‘First of all tell me one thing – how often do you have this apartment cleaned and who cleans it?’ Aarush tried to add some logic into the situation.

‘There’s a cleaning lady who cleans it on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I don’t invite her on weekends, because…’ Love pressed his lips. He didn’t want to disclose about his weekend-debauchery!

‘Yeah I know that…so only Tuesdays and Thursdays?’ Radhika rubbed her forehead.

‘Yeah!’

‘And today is Monday. That means the last time this apartment was cleaned was on Thursday, almost 3 days ago. Are you sure that no one else visited this apartment in last 3 days? I mean, no lady, no woman who might be pregnant and left this stick under the basin?’

‘Not that I know of. But yeah, on Saturday I had a house party.’

‘And who was there?’

‘Around…fifty people?’ Love smiled sheepishly, embarrassed of himself.

‘WHAT?’ Aarush slapped his forehead. He knew how careless he was.

‘Forget it Radhika, this man can’t ever learn responsibilities.’ Aarush snapped back at him.

‘But what’s there to be responsible about? Everyone has house parties, I had one too, big deal?’

‘Yeah right! And now, the bigger deal is out of those fifty people, one person left this mysterious stick under your basin and it can also be your casual-girlfriend who might use it as a diabolical plan against you!’ Aarush shouted.

‘This is not a diabolical plan, and as far as Sameera is concerned, she’d have told me if she was pregnant.’

‘Do you remember when did she had her last period?’ Aarush folded his arms.

‘Seriously man? Are you going to ask me about my girlfriend’s periods now?’

‘Yeah, why not! When she might soon slap you with a pregnancy report and legal document attached with it demanding all your shares of the company, and be a legal owner of our company in a while, I can and as sure have the right to ask you about your girlfriend’s last period!’

‘We don’t talk about such things, I mean, it’s not that close yet…’

‘Oh wow! Talk about hypocrisy now. You can have sex with her but don’t know when she had her last period.’

‘I’m out of this sick discussion you boys!’ Radhika walked out of the hall, while Aarush and Love kept arguing.

‘I seriously have no idea man!’

‘So since last one month, you have had sex every day?’

‘Aarush, I don’t keep a journal! I am not a maniac. I just do it, forget it, do it again next day, and again – forget it…’

‘Well done! Now deal with this issue yourself.’ Aarush threw the stick on the table and walked out.

‘Hey, don’t throw that like this! Someone has peed on it, and I’m going to have my breakfast on this table!’ Love cried.

‘And that might well be your girlfriend. When you can have sex with her at the dining table, can’t you tolerate a pee-stick on it?’ Aarush ended the argument with his master stroke. Love was all silent after it.

Love decided to confront Sameera in office today, about the whole pregnancy issue.