Two
weeks back, my office colleague, Sheila, had asked me if I could design and
bake a cake for her upcoming eighth wedding anniversary. She had seen the
photos of cakes on my Facebook page and she loved all my photos. Yes, you can
imagine my smile from one ear to the other. I was truly honored and went surely
to the moon and back, hearing that. However J, yes, yes, inside the double
quotes, I told her that I don’t do baking as a business but since it’s my
passion, I do it only for the family. She insisted that I make a cake for her
special occasion as this also marked fifteen years of their companionship,
seven years of courtship and eight years of holy matrimony. She wanted it to be
a surprise for her husband and did not want it to be store bought and did not
want to include home bakers as well. She said she would be personally lending
me a helping hand. I reluctantly agreed to it as she is a good friend of mine
and I am a diehard fan of such mushy-mushy kind of love stories, you will know
what I mean by reading the next paragraph. Well, since that day, we started on
our project. Every tea time, lunch, water breaks, etc. we spent together discussing
on the theme and I started placing orders for the ingredients through Amazon.
Am always content in the baking projects. J
Ashok
and Sheila had been married for eight years now with a cute little 4-year-old
daughter, Kaira. They had been in a long distance relationship for seven years
before marriage, and theirs was not an easy love story. They had to do a lot of
persuasion and convincing before their parents agreed for their match. It was
their determination and standing together through thick and thin, which finally
paid off and convinced their families to accept their matrimony whole
heartedly. So, the cake design and theme was decided to show case each phase of
their life, starting from courtship, marriage, parenthood and one more special
touch. It had been Sheila’s dream to walk hand in hand with Ashok atop Brooklyn
bridge and Ashok dropping on his knees and proposing her with a red rose. She
had discussed this with him n number of times by now. Ashok teases her also
like, Brooklyn bridge would fall down under her weight. I hope you can
understand by now my enthusiasm and excitement to work on this project. The
first week passed very quickly with a design in hand and placing order for the ingredients.
And, we had a plan ready to execute it within the next two weeks.
That
weekend I was all thrilled explaining about my baking project to my husband and
nagging him on how outsiders appreciate my talent whereas at home I had no
value. And as usual, my husband was as amused as he always is with my banter.
So, Monday I reach office with all starry eyed. I reach my cubicle and see a ghost
like person sitting next to my desk with dark, sunken and hollow eyes. I was
horrified to see Sheila like this. She started crying like a baby when she saw
me. Each pair of eyes and ears started poking into my cubicle from the
neighborhood. In offices like ours, there is no place to play hide and seek. I
reminded her about our surroundings and asked her to come inside a meeting
room. Every pair of eyes followed us till I shut the door of that conference
room. I asked, “Ok, now, tell me, what has happened? Why are you crying like
this?” She sobbed once again and told, “Nomi, everything is finished. Ashok is
cheating on me. He is already planning to leave me and elope with his girlfriend”.
“What, nonsense, are you talking about?”
She
replied, “Ashok is having an affair with someone named Meena, who runs a travel
agency. He has even secretly planned to elope with her somewhere”. That was a
real shocker. How did this happen within a span of two days? With a bewildered expression, I asked, "And, how did you find this out?" She snuffled but continued, “While cleaning his desk, I found some itinerary with his name on it. Suddenly he came and snatched them from me. I asked if he is planning to go somewhere. He answered it as none of my business. That day onwards I started noticing the changes in him”.
"You might have misunderstood”. She continued, “I did not notice it initially. How could I? I could
never have imagined him cheating on me. Since last three to four weeks, he is
coming very late from office. I had thought he had been busy in office and he
is absent minded during the weekends also. He forgot about Kaira’s PTM also
this Saturday. When I reminded him, he told me he had a meeting. While coming
back from her school, I had visited this café. I saw him coming out of the mall
opposite to the café with his girlfriend myself, laughing and carrying all her
shopping bags. He never carries my shopping bags and tells me if I carry them myself,
I will lose some weight. So, it seems he is leaving me for being overweight. I
can’t believe this. I want to die, I cannot live without him”. And, again my friend went back to her uncontrollable sobs.
The
whole week went by with her sobbing and my tries to calm her down in vain. I
had never felt so helpless. How do you console a person in such a pain. I also
can’t imagine my husband cheating on me. Day after day it seemed like Sheila
was aging twice as faster and those dark circles under her eyes used to tell me
about her sleeplessness the night before. She could not understand how her
Ashok could cheat on her like that. She could never have imagined her Ashok having
an affair. How would she explain this to Kaira, once Ashok leaves them? Her whole
world was coming down and her heart wrenching sobs were uncontrollable. I did
not know how to make it right for her.
I reached office a little
late today. I only know how I got ready and dragged myself to office on a
Monday morning. When I reached my cubicle, I saw Sheila sitting on a chair near
my desk with a lost expression. She lifted her head on seeing me. My heart
skipped a beat looking at her red swollen eyes. She had been crying for sure
and I presumed the inevitable might have happened. I was thinking what would I
say to her. I slowly asked her, “How are you? What happened?”
This last Saturday, my
dear friend, Sheila, lost all her patience and when her husband was not
looking, she took the number of the other lady, Meena, and dialed her number to
confront her. Not only that, Sheila, also went to meet her husband’s lady
friend secretly on Sunday afternoon when Meena made her aware of the real
reason of Ashok’s secret affair. He had been seeking Meena’s help to plan a
surprise vacation to New York and a visit to Brooklyn bridge, as a gift for his
eight-year-old wife and fifteen-year-old best friend.
Now she is in front of me
sitting in that so called ergonomic chair of our office with her bowed head and
regretful eyes. She says she is dying of guilt for doubting her husband. She
asks me, “I am so stupid and it’s so embarrassing. Meena is a good friend of
Ashok and she might have shared with him about what happened yesterday. What
shall I do now?”
This whole last week had
been a nightmare for me as well. I had been tormented and deeply saddened by
these turn of events in my friend’s life. Most of the time, I would be thinking
about her and hoping that Sheila does not take any harsh steps to harm herself.
I had been cursing all these two timing kind of husbands, and had given that
piece of my mind to my dear own husband as well once or twice. So, at this
point of time I am sorely tempted to throttle that slender neck (Sheila’s of
course) with my bare hands. “Well that’s a relief, of course, Sheila. I guess
Ashok will laugh it off when you tell him what you went through last week. Now
let’s not waste more time and get back to our baking project. We have only this
week to get it ready.” But trust me guys, I was really tempted to say, “It
would be good if he does not talk to you this whole week”.
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