THE EX LOVERS

 

Photo by Artem Bali on Pexels.com

Looking back to twenty-eight years ago when I was in my college and meet my husband Ashish for the first time. He was a very tall handsome guy with sharp facial features. From the very first day I had a crush on him but I never approached him because he was already in a relationship with Nancy, a Christian girl. Nancy was known as the most beautiful girl in the college. However Ashish was quite friendly with all his female friends while Nancy was quite introverted in nature-probably the most silent girl in the class. After few months both of them broke up due to some personal reasons. By that time both Ashish and Nancy started receiving proposal offers from others.

However, on the day of our college freshers, all the seniors and juniors were gathered up in the William main hall of the college. As usual, all the seniors were busy in impressing their juniors. After that there was a small party followed by dancing, singing and tasting delicious food. The party ended at 9 PM and it was raining heavily outside. I was standing at the college gate waiting for the rain to stop and I had no umbrella with me. Suddenly, I saw a young man approaching me. His face was not so visible because it was dark outside. As he came nearer to me I saw that it was none but Ashish. Seeing him suddenly, I got nervous. However, he told me that if she wants then he could drop her home in his car. At first, I didn’t agree but later agreed by analyzing the terrible condition of the weather. He nicely dropped me to my home. I was quite glad and happy too.

The next day, as I entered my classroom, I saw him sitting on a bench. Seeing me, he smiled and approached me. In a formal manner I said”Thanks for giving me lift yesterday.” On that he replied back with a smile”Anytime”.From that day we had frequent conversations and started sharing jokes and stories of good and bad times with each other.we became good friends. Even we started to hang out with each other. On one Sunday we both planned to visit Victoria Memorial. As we reached that place, suddenly it started raining but Ashish always had a habit of carrying an umbrella with him. The atmosphere was quite romantic and intimate. We saw lovers sharing one umbrella and romancing in the air of mystery. It was quite uncomfortable for us to share one umbrella in such a romantic place and the most irritating part of the story was that we were not lover till then. After returning back home, I started feeling something more for Ashish.No doubt, he was my crush and friend but from that day I was in deep love with him and he was too. So on the eve of 14th February Valentine’s day, Ashish finally proposed to me. After that we started dating each other and after completing graduation and MSC we settled for jobs and finally got married. The wedding ceremony was too private and only a few relatives and friends were invited to it. Neither Ashish nor me had dreamt of any grand wedding party. After a few years we were blessed with two children Sara and Lara.

Now Sara is 24 years old while Lara is 22 years old. On my 25th Anniversary, Sara told me that she was in a relationship with Henrey. Although Henrey did not belong to our religion but as parents we both did not have any problems with that. It was planned that on the day of the Vijay Dashami both the family would meet at The Park hotel. Both the family formally invited each other and on that very day I, Ashish, and our two young daughters accompanied us to the park hotel at 7 PM. We occupied a big table and was waiting dearly for our daughter’s new family-Henrey and his family. As I looked up I saw a very tall handsome boy entered into the restaurant. From my daughter’s smile I understood that he is the one. He was followed by a woman. I was a little shocked by then. She was none, but Nancy-Ashish’s Ex-lover.

When Sara introduced us to Henrey ‘s mother Nancy and father Harry we all got shocked. A silence followed after this although we all started with a good formal talk and smile at first. Then Ashish told Sara, and Henrey to spend some time in the garden outside the restaurant while all the elders would have some important conversations. Lara also followed the new young couples.

As they left out, Ashish declared that their past should not disturb their children’s future. All of us agreed to him. After that, we made plans for all the arrangements for the wedding ceremony, etc. Sara, Lara, and Henrey again joined us at the dinner and after having a good dinner and wedding plans we returned back home finally. Sara was very happy on that day. I remembered the day when my marriage was settled with Ashish by our parents, I was very happy that day.

Suddenly at that night while going to sleep Ashish uttered few words in my ear”Ria, I still love you. There is no need to worry about anything.” I smiled at him and replied back”I know Honey.”

By

ANISHA DAS