A Wednesday

It was Wednesday 7.30am. We both got into my car, Riya my wife was completely pissed off on me, I could tell it by the way she closed the car door.

THUDDDDDDDDDDD !!!!

Well, whenever she gets angry, she usually lets it out through her actions. To be fair to her it was my fault. Last night as we finished our supper around 9pm, Riya was about to pack our lunches for the next day, I told her to leave that task for me and said to her that I will do it this time. She smiled at me and said “Thanks Rohan. I had a very long day today. I am so sleepy”.

“Yes, go ahead and sleep. I will make you some strong coffee and breakfast in the morning as well”, I said as my eyes were glued to the television screen.

She wished me good night, advised me to sleep early and rushed up stairs. I was completely immersed in watching Martin Scorsese’s classic Good Fellas. Well, I had to watch it that particular night as the movie completed 30 years and I have seen so many posts in social media regarding that.

Long story short I fell asleep on the couch and Riya woke me up the next morning around 7. You must have understood by now, I sleep great, place doesn’t matter to me.

As we both buckled our seat belts, Riya enacted sipping coffee from her mug

“This coffee tastes great. Just the way I like it. My bag also feels very heavy today, might be because of the lunch and breakfast you packed for me” she said in her usual sarcastic tone

“I am so sorry babe. I just cannot believe that I passed out on the couch last night. I was so tired”. I said as I reversed the car from the garage.

“But Don’t worry, let’s go to Starbucks on our way to work pick up coffee and a sandwich” I said in quite an excited voice

“Well, I don’t have all the time in the world to leisurely go to Starbucks pick up something and head to work. It takes us 30-40 minutes to reach my work place. I just don’t think I will have time. I will manage something at work. You know what this is not the first time you said something and you dint do it. Actually, I am to be blamed for trusting you.”

Usually when she says something like this, its just not about the lunch, coffee or the breakfast it paints quite a larger picture of complaints she has on me

Riya, I am extremely sorry. Honestly as I said I don’t even know. And I only had a couple of beers last night. So, it’s pretty strange.

Who would drink on a Tuesday night? I mean you said to me that you were only going to drink on the weekends and at parties and you are going to become a social drinker. But guess what looks like you can socialize all by yourself too. And why do you have the watch that movie again and again. You have already seen it like a thousand times. You could have just packed our lunches and come up to sleep. It was just one-off day when I forget to set alarm for both of us and you mess it up.

“I am sorry. Can we pick something on our way”. I said as I interrupted her.

“They have recently opened up a new Starbucks on Attridge Drive. Not many people know that it exists, let’s go there” I said and I pressed my foot hard on the accelerator. Dint even care about the speed limit. Thankfully no cops were around.

We reached the drive thru and guess what there was a huuuugeeeee line up of vehicles in front of us. Riya stared at me angrily. She didn’t say a thing, but that was enough to make me even more nervous.

Well, I see 2 lines in the drive thru I am sure it will be done quickly. I said in quite a low tone.

Don’t worry about it. Let’s just go. Just back off. She yelled

I was dejected and as I wanted to reverse my car, I noticed few more cars lined up behind ours. What a day it has been for me. I dint even dare to look at her. I knew she would be pissed. There were about 5 to 6 cars in front of us. Thankfully most of them ordered quick and I saw the vehicles were moving quickly.

Meanwhile, Riya started to browse something online and usually when she does that, she gets lost in it. I was glad and I slowly turned up the volume in my car as my favourite song started playing on the radio.

Our turn came up pretty soon.

“I will get a tall coffee with 1 milk and 1 sugar please. I will have a croissant to go with it” I said and then asked Riya what she would like. She then started to look at the screen and was taking her own sweet time to decide what to order.

“Can you just pick an item? There is not a lot to choose from for a vegetarian. I said in a slightly commanding tone.

Yes, that’s why my lunch needs to be packed, as I don’t have many options she replied

After a lot of thought and careful consideration she asked for a tomato mozzarella panini and a tall caramel macchiato. The attender on the mike said let me check on the panini. She took a minute came back and said, sorry we are out of panini. Would you like anything else?

I just got this vibe that this day is going to suck as I saw how things were progressing.

No, Just the macchiato please. She said and signaled me to drive ahead. We drove past the payment booth, picked our drinks and croissant. I offered her my croissant and we drove straight to work. I dropped her off at her work place, and I left to my work.

About an hour later, I got a text from my Riya, saying “Bad news!! I just got my lay off notice”

I was shocked after reading that text.

“Stop kidding” I replied

“I am no mood to joke now. It’s depressing. I will be heading home. I will just take a cab”

“Can I call you now”? I texted getting a little worried.

“I am no mood to talk right now. Just wanna go home and crash”. Riya replied.

“I will come pick you up. Just hold on. I will take some time off work.I will be there shortly” I texted hoping she would say yes.

After a long pause she texted “OK”

I picked her up and we drove straight to home. She was pretty mad about the decision the company took. They were running low on projects and the employees were aware that there would be something like this in a few months from now but not right away.

“I think everything happens for a reason. You always wanted to get some time off and focus on your fitness levels right. You can now definitely take a couple of months off, recharge and then look out for opportunities. It’s not that they fired you, you can still apply for Employment insurance. Lot of my friends are getting laid off as well. The market is pretty bad right now because of the pandemic. I know its shocking to get the notice in a flash, but as I said before everything happens for a reason” Hoping that all this would cheer her up a little.

She didn’t say a thing, she just sat down in the couch completely dejected.

I texted my boss that I will be taking the day off due to personal reasons. After a brief moment of silence, I asked her

“What do you wanna have for lunch?” As I finished my sentence not sure why I started to laugh a little.

I thought it will piss Riya off because of all the drama we had in the car this morning, but she started laughing too. We both laughed out loud for a little while, I went and hugged her tight, kissed her on the head and said “it’s going to be ok. It is going to okay” in an affirmative tone.

At the end of day, it doesn’t matter even if you had a bad day or a great day, I just feel that you need to find some lighter moments that will cheer you up.

After a few minutes, I was immersed in my laptop, Riya came running down, she was breathing heavily as she stood in front of me.

I asked her “what’s the matter, Is everything ok?”

As I looked at her and I could see that she was all excited and shaking a little.

“I AM PREGNANT” she said.

Whattttt? I exclaimed. As I jumped from the couch.

“I AM PREGNANT” she said and hugged me as tears rolled over her eyes. I hugged her as well and kissed her.

We both went upstairs and she showed me the pregnancy test. We were delighted to know that she was pregnant. After everything sunk in, we both sat on the couch post supper cuddling each other as I began to recollect what all happened today. It was seriously one hell of a day!! It was seriously a wave ~~ Lows and Highs!!

“I always felt that after a tough ending for a chapter in life, there will definitely be a new beginning that will be waiting for you. We just have to be ready to knock on its door. Life is full of surprises”.