In this digital world where everyone was seeking love online, so were Nishant and Kavya. New in town Kavya had moved to the city after accepting a job as a content writer at The Paper Project, a digital marketing agency. She had a roommate who she barely spoke to. Always alone, Kavya, on the recommendation of her best friend had decided to join an online dating app ‘Click’. In the first phase of swiping right, she was quite disappointed with the kind of recommendations she was receiving. Yet she decided to continue, just to give her luck a try.

 

Soon she found that she had ‘clicked’ with someone, and after a few days of texting each other, they finally decided to meet for coffee. Out of her comfort zone, Kavya was nervous and conscious as she had never done something like this before. But by the end of her ‘date’, she was extremely bored and wanted to get out. To her luck, a phone call from her roommate gave her the much needed getaway pass. She excused herself and never reached out to him again.

 

Nor did he bother contacting her again. What followed was a string of several more ‘first dates’ where she would meet them only once but would never hear from them again. Initially it broke her confidence but then later it became a joke. Irritated and disheartened, Kavya decided it was time to give up the entire concept of online dating. She decided to close the chats with whoever she was talking to. One of those guys was Nishant. She accepted his request on the eve  of her birthday. He had just returned from his shift and she was unable to sleep. They ended up talking till  four in the morning. Their conversation kept flowing without a break, but if it hadn’t been a working day for Kavya they would have stayed up all night chatting away.

 

Not having recovered from past experiences, Kavya was certain of not meeting Nishant more than once. It was raining profusely the day they decided to meet each other. But due to network issue in the area, she hadn’t received any texts from Nishant. She jokingly told her roommate that she had been stood up by the guy even before they could meet. But her roommate reassured her that it may not be the case and that she should recheck her network. Three hours before their rendezvous and several refresh clicks later,  Kavya received multiple texts from him confirming their date.

 

Like all her previous dates, she reached on time while the guy was late. When Nishant finally arrived, they both shook hands. Contrary to what Kavya had anticipated, the date ran longer than two hours. They found that they had a lot in common. A lot of similar experiences, their love for food, travel and animals. And the best part of their date was that it was effortless. They hit it off really well. To Kavya’s surprise, they met a couple of more times after that, followed by many three hour long, midnight calls.

 

To make their 7th date special, Nishant invited her over to his home for lunch. She was really happy about the invitation. She decided to dress up casually after a lot of thought and changing her getup multiple times. Kavya was very nervous. She had jitters in her stomach like it was their first date. He had made his specialty; dal fry and jeera rice. After their lunch, they snuggled up and watched her favourite movie, a rom-com; a genre he wasn’t a fan of. During one of the scene when the hero reciprocates his love for the girl by kissing her for the first time, teared up Kavya. Nishant looked at her and she glanced back at him. Her eyes were sparkling as he leaned in to kiss her. They kissed for the first time, with one of her favourite songs playing in the background.

 

Just when Kavya thought it everything was perfect, she realized it wasn’t. Because of his off-the-clock shift timings and working weekends, they couldn’t spend much time together. Over the weekends, either she would be visiting her folks or he would want to spend time relaxing alone or would have some friends over. They spent less and less time with each other. Inhibitions and insecurities started seeping in their relationship. They had fights about how they don’t have time for each other anymore. He wouldn’t initiate a conversation for days until she would miss him too much and eventually end up messaging him. But she would refrain herself from doing this often as felt that it would make her clingy and buggy. The reasons why Nishant had parted ways in his past relationships.

 

On one such occasion when they hadn’t spoken for over a week, Kavya decided to call him up and end things. She assumed that he was not interested in the relationship. Upon talking to him, she got to know that he had the flu and had been resting all week. She felt pathetic for assuming the worst, and went over to meet him.  At his place, they talked about their situation and he assured her of his feelings for her. But both agreed that they needed to put in more effort in making things work.

 

To make their relationship stronger and to spend some more time together, Nishant and Kavya decided to take a weekend trip together to Goa. Everything was planned; tickets were booked, reservations were made, it was all set. They both flew together. As usual, Kavya was excited but nervous too. She has never shared her personal space with anyone, let alone a guy. Being a single child, she was used to having the entire room to herself. Lucky for her, Nishant was an extremely organised person, even more than her. Soon after they checked in, they decided to go to the beach for an evening stroll. They walked the shores of the beach, holding each other’s hands, kissing and hugging each other. They both were glad that they decided to take the vacation as it helped them discover a very different side to each other.  They were surprised with themselves, for doing things that they would otherwise cringe at or make fun of. That night, Kavya broke the vow she made to herself as a teenager; not to have premarital sex. But that night, it didn’t feel wrong, it didn’t feel like she was betraying herself. She felt loved like never before. They were up half the night talking, knowing each other more, sharing even the most embarrassing stories about themselves. For a girl who hated cuddling, Kavya slept soundly in Nishant’s arms through the night.

 

Back home, both got to their busy, grilling routine. She only told her best friend, Avantika about the trip and how she and Nishant felt closer like never before. The trip made her realize that Nishant was a keeper and even considered marrying him.

 

Because of several factors, Nishant wasn’t able to visit his parents and sister for almost five months. So he visited his folks, the following week. That weekend, Kavya caught up with her girls. They decided to have a sleepover at Avantika’s house. Half a bottle of wine down, Kavya started missing Nishant. She hadn’t heard from him for almost three days. Assuming he was busy with his family,she decided to give him space. By midnight, Kavya had downed one bottle of wine and a few vodka and tequila shots. She woke up the next day with a severe headache and an upset stomach.

 

The following week, Kavya decided to catch  up with her chores. Wondering why the heck did she mix all that alcohol that night, she was worried about her incessant upset stomach, headaches and nauseousness. But what worried her more was that she hadn’t heard from Nishant for the entire week. It was very unlike him. She had messaged him a couple of times through the week, but only got one word replies. Finally losing her patience, she decided to call him. He answered the call after long ring and before she could utter a word, he said that he had something important to tell her. He sounded very serious, very tense. His tone began to worry her all the more. Gathering her courage, she asked him what was wrong and if he was alright. He, in a very cold and grim tone said that he is going to get married by the end of that year.

 

Kavya’s world shook. She didn’t know what to reply. She was dumbstruck. There was a long pause after which Nishant said that everything was almost finalized and that there was nothing he could do to stop it from happening. The families were deeply involved in setting up a match for him and he didn’t have the courage or the words to stand up to them. All her dreams and hopes of spending her life with him were crushed. She was at a loss for words But managed to ask him one question; whether he ever loved her enough for him even consider for them to spend their lives together. He confessed that he loved her too much to let her go, and that he wants her in his life, but in the given situation, couldn’t take her as a life partner. As he spoke, Kavya’s future of the two of them came crumbling down. Unable to hear any more of it, she hung up.

 

Kavya wasn’t much of a crier. But she couldn’t hold herself back anymore and cried like never before. The last time she probably cried this much was when her parents passed away in a car accident. She couldn’t believe that the person she loved and trusted so much, would put her in the situation where she felt so helpless. Kavya called Avantika. She wanted someone to hold her tight and tell her that everything was going to be alright. That she is going to survive this catastrophe too.

 

Later, Nishant called her multiple times. He wanted to apologize to her, but Kavya was too broken to even hear his voice. He left several messages with Avantika, but he didn’t get a reply to any of those. Nishant thought back to their earlier dates when Kavya once had mentioned that if they were ever to date and breakup, she would walk out of his life like she never existed. She promised him that she would not create any drama ever.  And Kavya kept her promise. She never called, not even to ask him why did he do that to her. She left his life quietly. And even after all this, she secretly wished for him a happy married life and that the girl he was marrying, would love and care for him more that she did.

 

 

Nishant was shocked to see Avantika’s message on his phone. He hadn’t heard from her or Kavya after he broke the news of his marriage. Little did he know that the girl he married turned out to be a gold digger. He was angry and disappointed at himself for saying ‘yes’ out of obligation and not following his heart. He had wanted to reach out to Kavya again but she had blocked his number, was off social media and even changed her address..

 

Avantika asked him to meet her at a cafe that was Kavya’s and his favourite place. She mentioned that she had something important to tell him and wanted him to meet someone. Hoping it was Kavya, he reached the cafe 20 minutes early, with a bouquet of lilies, wearing a shirt that Kavya had gifted him and a cologne that she loved . Few minutes later, Avantika walked in with a baby carrier in her hand. He was surprised to see her with a baby since she was one of those who was afraid of commitments. His eyes searched for Kavya hoping she would walk in right behind Avantika

 

Avantika took the seat in front of Nishant put the carrier on the table next to the bouquet. Avantika asked how married life was turning out to be but was shocked to know what had happened to him. She took out a huge envelope from her purse and handed it to Nishant. After Avantika’s coaxes and still confused, Nishant opened the envelope. She told him that those were all the letters Kavya had written to him through her pregnancy and that the baby was theirs. She passed him a small box that contained Kavya’s positive pregnancy kit, and a note explaining the way Kavya would have broken the news. She wrote why she called him up that day, for two reasons; first to check up on him and to ask him to meet her so that she could tell him about the pregnancy in person.

 

These were letters that Kavya wrote to Nishant every month telling him about the development of the baby. There was the sonogram of her first ultrasound. There was a list of all the things she wished to buy for the nursery. Nishant was overwhelmed. He didn’t know how to react. He felt so helpless. But what bothered him more was that Kavya should have been here too to tell him all this. With tears in her eyes, Avantika told Nishant that Kavya couldn’t survive childbirth. The doctors had warned her that the pregnancy would be difficult due to certain complications and might even put her life at risk. But she took the chances. The baby was her ray of hope of a happy future and aptly named the baby Navya, meaning, a new beginning. It was also fusion of their names.

 

Nishant couldn’t stop weeping. He felt miserable. He held the letter close to him and cried for a long time. Avantika patted him on his back as he calmed down. She told him how Kavya wanted to call him so many times to tell him about the baby but was too hurt to do that and  neither did she want to be a homewrecker.

 

Avantika picked up Navya from the carrier and gave Nishant to hold her. He looked at her and more tears rolled down his cheeks. He regretted his moments of weakness when he couldn’t stand up to his family for the woman he dearly loved, the woman he wanted to spend his happy, sad and most importantly, embarrassing moments with.  It was his weakness that kept him from being besides Kavya in her most difficult time and be the husband she deserved. Holding Navya close to his chest, he wept for a long time. Wept for the time he lost with his daughter, the time he lost with Kavya and the fact that he would never be able to kiss her again.

 

 

Nishant didn’t feel the need to fill Kavya’s void in his life. Navya had done that. He was a single father. He did everything for Navya that he and Kavya used to talk about. He pampered her, spoiled her but also played the bad cop; a role that Kavya would have played if some words weren’t left unsaid.