Her mobile buzzed softly as the alarm rang that morning. Anuradha reached over and switched off the alarm before it could disturb Nila's sleep. As she lay there, feeling relaxed after the calm and lovely sleep she had the night before, realization struck her that she was alone on the double bed. Snapping her eyes open, she sat up in bed.

Where has Nila gone? Shalu has told me Nila has a habit of sleepwalking sometimes and lands up in the double bed with her parents on most nights. But she had been fine with me on this bed the last few days. Anuradha quickly checked the bathroom but Nila was not there. She walked out of the bedroom starting to panic when she spotted Nila sleeping in Narain's arms on the couch in the living room.

As if he had sensed her intruding presence, Narain eyes opened with a start and he stared at her for a moment trying to make out his surroundings. Seeing the angry frown on Anuradha's face, he slowly sat up on the couch, leaving a pillow in his place next to Nila.

"Why did you steal my baby from me at night?"

"I didn't steal any baby. She came here on her own sometime early in the morning."

"Early in the morning? How do you know if she came here on her own then? Do you think I'll believe you if you say that? She slept fine with me the last few days. You would have taken her from me last night."

"By the time I slept, it would have been sometime past 2 in the morning. She came after that, because I don't know when she came."

"You sleep past 2 in the morning?"

"Yeah." Narain shifted his glance away in disinterest.

"Why? Don't you know how to sleep at night?"

"I have a problem. It hasn't been easy for me to sleep at night for the past few years."

"So if you have a problem, why are you so adamant you want to look after Nila too? She is a child; she needs to sleep at night."

"So what if I can't sleep at night? I make sure she sleeps on time. And when she was with me, I was able to sleep early those nights."

"Oh so you're saying you don't have a problem when she's with you. You only have a problem when she's not. What do you think of me? I'll fall for your words and leave her with you and go? Definitely not!"

"Oh God, I'm not thinking anything. Now, please go and leave me alone!"

"Where do you expect me to go? My child is sleeping here. I'm not going anywhere."

"She's not just your child; she's my child too. Look here, bedroom is your territory, living room is my territory. You stay in your place and don't come this side unless you have something important to do here."

"What are you doing? Dividing this home into territories? There's only one bathroom here and that is in the bedroom. If you wanna have territories, then you have no right to come to the bedroom either. Is that okay with you?"

"Are you mad? I didn't say that. I told you not to come to this living room unless there's anything important. And the same applies to me. That's all. It's better we divide this apartment into two without including the bedroom." He walked out of the living room, followed by Anuradha, and looked around for a moment. "Lets draw a line here from the front door. You keep that half, I'll keep this half of the place. Bedroom is not included. Okay?"

"What do you seriously think of me? If you take that half, then can't I go to the kitchen? Do you expect me to go out to eat every meal? And the bedroom is in my half of the area, and you say it's not included. As usual, discrimination towards females. All you guys are the same. And, if you're still thinking of dividing this place into two, then believe me, you will not see Nila at all because she will be with me in my half of the place."

"Oh my God, I don't wanna divide this place. You can go anywhere you want in this apartment or outside. I just don't want you to cross my path so I can have some peace without your disturbance. Will you at least leave me alone now?"

"You are the one crossing my path all the time and you're trying to put the blame on me."

"No one is putting any blame on you. You are the best person on the surface of this earth." Not. "Enough? Now, leave me alone for God's sake!"

With a glare, Anuradha turned to go when she heard Narain mutter under his breath, "Good riddance to plain torture."

"Torture? If you call this torture, I will torture you as much as I like until you leave me and Nila alone." Shalini's words to Shiva replayed in Anuradha's mind. 'I will torture you as much as I like. But I won't let you divorce me until you take me on our honeymoon.' Anuradha frowned. So what if I said almost the same? Shalini said it to Shiva in love. I said it to this guy because I hate him. Where there is place for hate, there is place for love. No, I didn't say it in hate. I said it devoid of emotions, enough? Now, stop thinking too much.

"That's why I never wanted to stay with a girl again. All you girls know is to torture in some way or the other. I can't believe I'm living in the same apartment with a girl like you again after all that happened."

"I didn't ask you to live in the same apartment with me. You're the one who refused to leave my Nila with me and opted to stay here. And what are you trying to say? You've lived with your wife before, right? Yet, you act like living as roommates with a girl is such a torture. I don't know how your wife could bear with you. I'm sure you would have forced her to be a puppet to follow everything you say. And poor girl wouldn't have had a choice. That's why you're finding staying with me a torture because I'm not your wife to follow everything you say like a puppet."

Narain glanced at her for a moment but remained silent before he turned away. "You are no less a dominating person. You would have tortured your boyfriend the same way."

Anuradha flinched. I wish I had. A little at least once. Without a word, she turned and walked away to the kitchen.

After making a cup of tea for herself like she did every morning, she walked out to the balcony of the apartment. Narain was already standing there. Why does he always have to be a nuisance? Going where I want to go; taking what I want to take; saying what I want to say; oh God, I have to bear one month with him. I just hope this month goes by faster than any other. Anuradha walked into the balcony ignoring him and sipped her tea while looking around outside in every direction except at him.

Feeling her presence, Narain turned and glanced at Anuradha to see her drinking a cup of tea. He waited for a moment before he turned away. He left the balcony and headed to the kitchen to make a cup of tea for himself.

***

"Good morning, darling." Narain opened the curtains in the living room to allow the sunlight to pour in through the window. "It's time to wake up. We have lots to do today, don't we?"

"No. Nila sleepy." Nila shaded her closed eyes with her arms.

Anuradha walked into the living room, dressed for work, at that precise moment.

"Good morning, darling. How's my baby girl?" Anuradha headed over towards Nila.

"Mama, Nila sleepy."

"Aww, we can sleep early tonight, okay baby? Now, come along. Mama has to go to work. You have to go to school. If we go on time, Mama can come to pick you up on time. If we go late, Mama also can come only late in the evening. So come, let's get ready and go quickly."

Narain remained silent as Anuradha tried to wake up Nila. Nila finally opened her eyes and clung to Anuradha with a hug. Anuradha walked Nila up to the bathroom in the bedroom and made her brush her teeth before dragging her to the dining table and giving her the glass of milk she had prepared for her already.

Fifteen minutes passed but still more than half the milk remained in the glass.

Anuradha paced up and down as the clock ticked the time and nothing she did was speeding up the child. Nila was taking longer than usual today.

Narain calmly walked into the dining room, dressed and ready for work since he had had his shower and gotten ready while Anuradha had been trying to make Nila drink her glass of milk.

Seeing Anuradha's tensed face, Narain asked, "Will you go to work on your own or do I have to drop you?"

"Why? Don't you have to go to work too? I have my car; I'll go on my own."

"Okay. It's enough for me to go later in the morning. So I asked."

"Oh, everything is late for you. From sleep to work also."

"My shift starts later. That's all. But I would be there on time or earlier. Why am I even telling you all this?" Narain mused to himself, turning away.

As Anuradha ignored him and continued pacing up and down, Narain turned back to her. "If you want to go, you can go. I'll send Nila to school."

Anuradha hesitated. Should I leave Nila with him and go? But if I stay any longer, I'll surely be late. And I'll get into trouble and have to stay late in the evening. It's better I go now and leave her with him so that I can come back earlier in the evening and spend more time with her. "Fine, since you asked, I'll let you take Nila to school."

Narain turned his face away again in irritation. Who is she to 'let me' take my baby to school?

"Baby, it's getting little late and Mama have to reach office early so Mama will go now. You go to school with Papa, okay?"

Nila nodded while she continued sipping her glass of milk.

Anuradha made a sandwich for her breakfast and left after eating it.

After Anuradha left, Nila drank her milk and rushed to the bathroom a little more quickly as she realized she was getting late. After having her shower and getting dressed in her uniform, she had breakfast prepared by Narain before he sent her to school.

***

Narain returned home quite late that night after work and rang the doorbell. Anuradha opened the door with a frown.

"Did you see the time? Is this the time you come home from work? Then what time did you pick Nila up from school the days she was with you?"

"I'm sorry. I couldn't help it today. There were some issues at office; I had to stay and sort it out before I could wrap up my work there."

"So if it had been one of those days when I left you with Nila, you would have picked her up at this time?"

"No! I would have left office on time, picked her up and dropped her at home before going back to office." Narain closed the door behind him with an annoyed frown.

"Okay, but you didn't bother today as you expected that I would pick her up. What if I hadn't?"

"I called to check at the school and I was told that she had already been picked up from school by you. Enough?"

"Fine. But if you knew you would be late, you could have told me, right?"

"I didn't know until I went to office, okay? And I didn't know your phone number or anything to inform you after that."

"Fine and you don't have to know my number."

"I don't want to know your number."

"Good." Anuradha turned away and started walking towards the kitchen.

"Mama, I'm hungry." Nila appeared from the living room. She hadn't noticed that Narain had arrived.

"Sorry baby, I'll make dinner now."

"You haven't had or made dinner yet?"

Anuradha turned back to him. "No, we just got home from the park."

"Did you stay at the park for this long? It's so late already."

"Well, Nila thought you would be coming home in the evening. So even after it was time to go to the park as usual, she refused to go and started a tantrum so that I would wait for you to come. As you didn't come after half an hour, I finally took her to the park and told her you might be home when we come back after playing. But after playing at the park, on the way back, there was a traffic jam and we just reached home a few minutes before you. I'm sure you would have been stuck somewhere behind us in the traffic jam too."

"Hmm. Okay, I'll make dinner today." Narain stepped towards the living room.

"No need, I was going to make dinner now. I'll make."

"You made dinner yesterday already. Anyway it's so late, I'll make dinner today."

"Why? Didn't you like what I made for dinner yesterday? Fine then, nobody's forcing you to eat what I make."

"It's late, okay? And she's already hungry. Let me make dinner for tonight." Narain dropped his office bag on a couch in the living room and started walking towards the kitchen.

"Why? Are you such a fast cook? I'll make dinner quickly for myself and Nila. You can make food for yourself after that. Anyway, you don't like what I cook, I'm sure. That's why you're making this fuss."

"I'm not trying to make a fuss. Urgh, we should just eat out."

"Eat in restaurant?" A bored Nila's face lit up in excitement.

Anuradha, who was going to oppose Narain's statement, remained silent seeing the eagerness in Nila's face. "Fine, let's go out and eat tonight."

Nila grinned before grabbing Narain's car keys and handing it to him.

***

Narain drove out of the apartment gate after the three of them had seated themselves in his car with Anuradha in the passenger seat beside him and Nila behind as per her request.

"Where shall we go?" asked Narain, driving down the lane outside the apartment.

"Any restaurant, Papa."

"It's peak hour. Everywhere will be quite crowded." Narain drove for a few minutes before he stopped in front of a building, noticing a restaurant that seemed to be large with glass walls and having very few people inside. "Shall we go here?"

Anuradha glanced at the restaurant before frowning at him. "This restaurant has romantic ambience. We're not going in here for sure." This guy is weird sometimes. What does he think? He can bring me to a romantic place? No way. "Go to some very crowded restaurant. That will be better."

"Okay, I didn't know that. And very crowded restaurant? If we go to a crowded restaurant, we might not get place to sit. Even if we do, we might be squeezed between people. Do you want to go sit and eat like that?"

"No, I don't want to go anywhere." With any guy.

"I don't want to go anywhere too." With any girl including you.

"But I want to go to restaurant. I'm very hungry. If no restaurant, I'll become like cookie monster and eat Mama and Papa, okay?" Nila frowned before continuing, "I want food."

Without wasting another second, Narain drove a little further down the lane to a small stall where an elderly lady and her nephew sold meals. "It's better we eat here. The food here is good and we get it very fast too."

He stepped out of the car and asked the elderly lady for three special meals. The three of them seated themselves at the bench by the stall with Nila in between the two adults while they waited for the hot food which was prepared within a couple of minutes.

The elderly lady recognised Narain as he had often come to eat at her stall before. She looked at Anuradha and Nila closely as she had never seen them before.

They finished eating and Narain smiled as he noticed that Nila had enjoyed the simple food as much as he had. Narain paid for the food, leaving quite a large tip as usual before they returned to the car.

"Did you like the food?" asked Narain generally as they drove away from there.

"Yes Papa, it's the yummiest food in the world!"

"Hmm, it was okay."

Narain ignored the second answer he got which was from the person seated next to him. At least she ate without any complains. Swetha never ate anything from here as it was not the proper healthy food she could eat. I used to join her in her early morning runs and workouts at the gym but the 'healthy' salads and foods she made for dinner never satiated me by fill or taste though I appreciated them in front of her.

I survived through many nights with just those foods she made for me but on some nights when I couldn't bear it no matter how much I tried, I would sneak out and this stall would be my saviour though she did not know that. Each time I sneaked out at night, I would be so guilty that I wouldn't let myself sneak out again for the rest of the week or month. At last, I had gotten used to bearing with the food she cooked for me wholeheartedly but she became pregnant by then.

After deciding against abortion on my advice, she still refused to listen to my words and eat proper food until her doctor told her she would become weak and both she and her child would die if she doesn't start eating properly. But in the end, both of them still didn't survive. Today, I would have been driving this car with her by my side and my child with Nila behind. But it was never meant to be.

To be continued...

A/N: Hey peeps, super long chapter! Hope you liked it.

So that was their second day together in the same house. More and more fights. These fights are leading to something that will happen in the next chapter. What do you think the something might be?

Please vote, comment and share. :)