The car ride to his best friend's house is silent and awkward

I was very nervous to meet baby Arohi and didn't know how she would adjust to me

We reached Sameer's house which was just a 15 mins ride from our house.

I guess Rahul had already informed Sameer cause him and his wife Aliya were waiting by the door with Arohi and their son Aman who was a few months older than Arohi

Rahul was the first to get down and he rushed to take Arohi, I followed silently feeling completely out of pictures

Aliya had gone to put a sleeping aman on the bed while Rahul and Sameer were talking about some work thing

Both Rahul and Aman worked in the same field, while Aman was a Physician, Rahul was a cardio surgeon and both of them were friends from college days.

I was getting bored since I had no one to talk to, so I started making faces to entertain arohi when she did the most surprising thing ever, she leaned her hands forward trying to come to me.

I guess rahul felt her squirm and stopped talking midway to look at me in surprise. He carefully handed her over to me and started playing with my hair.

I knew in my heart that she was my baby now, that no matter what happens, she'll always be my baby. 

Sameer got a phone call and he also excused himself

"Looks like she likes you a lot" said Rahul looking at both of us

"Looks like she does" I said looking back at him

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------We had lunch at Sameer and Aliya's house itself as they had invited us over

By the time we left their house, Arohi was still sleeping in my arms and wasn't ready to let me go

I sat in the front seat again with her peacefully sleeping in my arms again and welcomed the awkward silence

"Can I turn on some music?" he asked through the awkward silence

"yeah sure" he turned on some old hindi music and surprisingly they were some of my favourites, one more thing in common between us

"we need to talk" he suddenly said and I wondered what it could be about when he's made everything clear between us

"about what"

"I owe you an apology for the way i have behaved with you, and I want to talk about Arohi"

"Apology accepted" I said with a smile on my face

"wait, so quickly?? Rashmi used to never accept my apologies without a gift" he said and than his face scrunched realizing his slip of tongue, my heart sank at his comment but I hid it well

"I'm sorry, that's not fair to you, I think we should set some ground rules"

"I agree" I replied quickly

"well you can go first or do you want me to?"

"you go first" i tell him

"well, first things I want to know where you stand with arohi, I know you married me for her but can you really accept her forever and if there is even once when you feel like I'm done with her than please tell me because I can't bear it for my daughter to be a burden on someone else, I can take care of my daughter"

"okay, to be honest I have accepted her as my daughter long back and I don't think I can ever get tired of her, she's my daughter too" I say with a smile and look at him smile back at me

"Thank you for accepting her, I know you would want to continue your work once your leave is over and don't worry we will get a nanny or someone to take care of her when both of us are not available"

"I don't think that's necessary, to be honest I actually quit my job before getting married because I wanted to be with her full day and I am planning to be a freelancer after some time"

he looked at me completely in surprise and awe

"okay, do you have any conditions"

"well yes, first thing I would like us to be friends cause I wouldn't want any baby to grow up with her parents being distant and like strangers, I want her to have a good home and a good upbringing"

"that makes sense and I would also like that but I have to tell you we can't be anything more than that, I don't think I'll ever be able to love anyone else again"

"just friends is enough, and I would also like you to not compare rashmi to me cause I am a different person and she a different one"

"that was my bad, I'm really sorry for doing that, it won't happen again. One more thing I wanted to tell you is if you like someone else, I won't be against it, you can be with them but please tell me beforehand, if you ever fall in love with anyone I need to prepare my daughter for your absence, even if it is my brother"

I knew he was bothered about me and Rohan "i need you to trust me when I say that there is nothing more than friendship between between me and your brother, there never could be, he is more like my sibling now, so you don't have to worry about that"

"okay, well I guess that's all and we do need to pretend a little in front of my family so that they don't think there is something wrong between us"

"I get that but how far can we go?"

"most to most if we have to kiss"

I looked down blushing " hmm, i guess that's all"

"and by the way we will move to our own house after a few months as it is under renovation, you don't mind staying with my parents right?"

"no not at all, I love staying with your family and it feels nice"

"I'll sleep on the couch  till we can move to my house so we won't feel uncomfortable"

"no no, you sleep with arohi on the bed, I will sleep on the couch and well i'm smaller than you so I will fit on the couch but you won't"

"no need of all that, u sleep on the bed and i'm sleeping on the couch" he said with a finality in his tone

everything felt better after talking to him, for the first time I got hope that my life won't be as miserable as before

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