Royal Arrangement

24) KABIR~ Settling for more

I wanted to stop Nalini but she left me behind with her annoying friend. I turned my head towards Hina as she slid a Martini in front of me across the bar. She was way sassy in comparison of the burnt marks across her neck and arm. Other one was covered in tattoos. Her black leather top and rounded till neck.

"Wanna know the tea?" She asked in the most masculine way a female could. I wasn't really surprised she was Nalini's best friend. Her world was full wonders. I sighed. "Sure."

Hina turned around, there wasn't anyone else at the bar except up. My eyes found Nalini running towards the kid in blue shorts. The same excitement filled run she did whenever she was about to do something fun. I smiled without knowing.

"I was a victim of domestic abuse." Hina said and I shot her a look. Because I didn't know what to do with that same information. I was confused myself. "Nalini saved me and my son." She said with a small smile and that answered my many questions. Why she was telling me all that, being the most important.

I just listened to her and she kept working side by side. "Nalini is a tough woman, I don't think she would let you in, in just two months." I nodded my head, turning to face Nalini again. She was grinning and ruffling the kid's hair. I felt a weird relief wash over me but then Hina's words were syncing in me.

"I don't think she'd tell you the deep parts of her. I can't either because it's her story to tell. But I really wanted to let you know from day one, when she told me you were an ass to her." Hina said leaning against the counter and I sipped the martini before I looked back at her.
"Did she tell you that? Exactly that?" I put my hands against the counter. 

"No, but that's exactly what she meant." Hina shrugged. "But getting back to my point, I wanted to tell you to stop being hard on her. For Nalini, to give a relationship is already a big deal. Ever since I know her, she'd hated the idea of relationships. But I felt her happiness from a mile. Thankyou."
My heart stopped when I heard the thankyou. Confusion laced my every thought. I gulped gently. My brain was running a marathon of conclusions that had just began.

"Why did she hate the idea of relationships?" I asked, ignoring the thankyou. My heart raced in my chest with a weird tension inside my chest.
"Because her parents never had a good relationship. Pretty abusive itself." And then it hit me. I took a deep breath.

"Her foundational relationship with a man was the worst one, just like me, and many like us. It's hard to get that out of your head, no matter how hard you try. When I found my now husband, I was scarred. I never knew what it was like to be loved by a man, but he taught me everything. He helps me heal. Nalini is all bold, but she is wounded Kabir." Hina said and I saw a sadness come across her serious face when she looked at Nalini. The same sadness that covered my face when I realised how fucking stupid I was to not care.

I wished I never knew this. Because now I wanted to know everything. I had nothing to say. I didn't want to say anything. Nalini's sad eyes. Her words ringed my head. Her teary eyes when I yelled at her, when we argued. I pictured her finding a glimpse of her parents in us and I felt awfully stupid. So stupid that I could feel my heart churning in my chest.

The first time I saw her crying in her own room when we visited her parent's house. When I ascended the stairs, I heard her muffled sobs. I stopped right there, but now I wished I hadn't.
Her hopeful and surprised face when she I bought her chocolates. Her brightest smile at tiniest things I had done. It all made sense now.

Her words when she told me she couldn't treat this relationship between us as nothing made so much sense now. Her sad eyes when she didn't say a word to me at all. Her covering her face when I rushed inside her office. Her pushing me away, calling me selfish. It was all justified now.