Chapter 21: chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One“It’s a matchbox,” Yash argued.Maya sighed, rolling her eyes at him. “It is not a matchbox, Mr. Spoilt Brat. That’s a perfectly respectable size for a toilet. How much space do you need anyway to poop?”“You’re always so classy,” he retorted, drolly, still glaring at the toilet. “That’s me,” Maya said, airily. “I’m sophistication and fun all wrapped into one tiny package.” He gave her a look that told her exactly what he thought of that. Maya giggled and leaned back against the hard hospital pillows. The discharge process was taking forever and her mother had gone to harangue the nurses to see if they could get out of here sooner. Maya had used the break to make a quick call to Yash and somehow that so-called quick call hadn’t ended at all. She was currently touring a flat with him and arguing about the placing of planters in the living room amongst of course, toilet space issues. “I like big bathrooms,” he grumbled. “It’s a space to relax and reflect and reset for the day.” “It’s a space to pee and poop and have a shower,” she retorted. “Look at the size of that bedroom. Relax and reflect there, Mr. Enlightenment.” “I thought I was Mr. Spoilt Brat.” “You have many different facets to your personality,” she laughed, just as the door opened and her mother walked in. Unfortunately, Yash chose that moment to say, “Look at the view from this bedroom. If I stand to the extreme right, tilt my head at a thirty degree angle and stand on the tips of my toes, I think I can see a sliver of the ocean.” Her mother’s eyebrows lowered in a ferocious glare at the sound of the word bedroom. Before she could start yelling, Maya quickly told Yash she needed to hang up and disconnected before he could even respond. She didn’t want him exposed to the vitriol she was sure her mother would unleash.Sure enough, it took her mother less than a minute to hiss, “Bedroom. He is showing you his bedroom.”“Amma,” Maya groaned. “It’s not like that.” “Then what is it like?” her mother cried. “That boy and his mother broke your engagement when you were fighting for your life in a hospital bed. They left us drowning in debt because of the loans we took for your wedding. Not to mention the additional expenses of your educational loan and your medical bills. Just now with your job and Appa’s savings we are able to make a dent in that mess and now you’ve lost your job and added more medical bills to our problems and after all that, you’re still talking to HIM!” The last word was almost a wail. Maya winced as a persistent throbbing behind her right eye got worse. She pressed two fingers to her temple trying to get the pain to ease.“We can’t even use your office medical insurance because you got thrown out.” Her mother was not done with her rant as yet. She continued to pace in front of Maya with her arms windmilling in fury. “I didn’t ask to be hit by a drunk driver,” Maya ground out, the pain in her head making it hard to concentrate. “I’ll find another job, Amma, and we will get back on our feet again. I promise.”“You first promise me that you will not talk to that boy again.” “Amma,” Maya snapped. “Enough.” “No, it’s not enough. I won’t let that family ruin us again. Do you understand?” Maya’s vision was starting to get patchy, the pain in her head now agonizing. She brought both hands to her head trying to massage her aching temples. Her mother was too caught up in her fury to notice. “I will never forgive you, Maya, if you keep in touch with him,” she raved. “I will not tolerate it. Anybody else but not him. Never him.” Maya whimpered, the sound somehow reaching her mother.“Maya!” she screamed, making the pain lance through Maya’s head. She vaguely recalled her mother punching the bell to summon a nurse while also screaming loudly for one before she lost the battle and slid into a welcome faint. When Maya finally came to her senses much later, it was to find herself once again strapped to an IV line, her mother hovering behind the doctor and nurses attending to her.“What happened?” she whispered.“Your blood pressure shot up to 180/120,” the duty doctor answered. “We’d like to keep you here in observation for another day. I’m also ordering a CT scan and an ECG. The nurse will come by in some time to take you for the tests.” Great. Maya let her eyes close in defeat. More bills to pay. The medical team filed out slowly leaving only Maya and her mother in the room. “Maya.” Her mother came closer. Maya looked at her to see her wringing her hands together, tears shimmering in her eyes. “I didn’t mean to make you sick.”“I know, Amma,” she whispered. “I understand. There is nothing between Yash and me. I was just thanking him for his help, that’s all. He’s not a bad person, you know.”“How can you say that?” she asked, thankfully in a quieter voice. “How can you defend someone who left you when you needed them the most?”Amma was right, Maya thought, exhaustion sweeping through her. What Yash had done was indefensible and still, when she thought of him, when she thought of his stern, serious, grim face, she found it hard to hold on to her anger. She wondered what that said about her…Her phone pinged. Her tired gaze travelled to the display to see a message from Yash. Confirmed the flat with the mini toilet. If I get stuck in it and can’t get out, I hope you’ll ride to my rescue?Tears prickled at the back of her eyes as she stared at the message. She blinked them back, refusing to let them fall. Then she picked up her phone, powered it off and left it on the bedside table. She turned her back on her mother who was seated on the attender’s bed and closed her eyes. She willed herself to sleep, to forget, to stop thinking…She willed herself to be the Maya she was today and not the girl she’d been on the night of her MBA graduation. That girl had lost everything. This Maya had nothing to lose and so nothing to fear. She would get out of this hospital, get back on her feet, and build her shattered life again. And when she was doing that, she would make sure there was no place for Yash Malhotra in the life she has built. It was the only way forward.Â