The Wrong Woman

47. Dhruv

I couldn't wait to get home. Not only was my back breaking apart—I could handle cooking for 12 hours straight back at the restaurant in the kitchen heat —but this...damn, I couldn't handle this. Today was one of those days where doing the same thing with these dogs was driving me nuts because my body was too exhausted. My legs felt like they were going to unhinge itself from their muscles and bones. Hell, I was all for it at this point.

"God," I muttered, cracking my neck from side to side. The two bulldogs were pulling at the leash so violently, there was no doubt in my mind that any minute I'd be dragged along the grass as the centre's very own human lawn mower. A lawn mower that probably wouldn't be doing any mowing, so obviously an extremely useless one.

By the time I got them back to their adjoined outside kennels, my palms and the tips of my fingers were both purple and red, like a weird mix of a bruise. I shrugged. Despite the stinging, it was keeping me warm from the sudden drop in temperature we got hit with. I dropped onto one of the beanbags in the staff breakout room. The only time I thought about Frankie, who kept her distance from me after our extremely brief conversation in the morning, was about what she had said about the Kippie-look alike.

I wanted to ask her mom more about him. My mind then drifted off to how Rani was doing. I snorted. Who was I kidding? She was going to ace the meeting. I didn't even need to think twice about it.

My phone dinged just as I shifted to dig it out of my pocket; it was dad. He hadn't reached out to me in a while. Not since that time at the lake to ask why Rani wasn't picking up her phone. I thought we had been done with that conversation. I hadn't even thought of calling mom like Rani had said, not until the text glared up at me.

Dad: Is it selfish of me to ask again when you two will come visit?

Normally the answer to this would be a straight yes. After that conversation Rani and I had ages ago where she had said she wanted to visit them, I was starting to hesitate. Would things go well or would it be like last time? I mean, I didn't know what the deal with Rani was entirely and whether or not she was hinting at having feelings for Veer and remembering her time with him or something. I didn't know. My gut, though, told me to trust her. The other part of me that knew her well said that it was going to be a mess.

Once again, my thoughts drifted back to her practically begging me to see them. Saying no to my dad would be like lying and if I told Rani what I'd told him, she'd be heartbroken. Like I didn't want her to see them. Which I did. There'd been many instances when we first got married where I wanted all of us to get along.

Along the way, I'd lost hope and here was that hope being held up to me like a torch and I was going to be a dickhead and say no? I shook my head.

Me: Good timing, pops. Rani wants to visit actually. Sound good?

Dad: YE.G.

Dad: Oops. I meant yes. This is great news! Your mom is going to be ecstatic.

Ecstatic was one word to describe this. Who knew how this was going to turn out?