“Name it.” Kabir turned to face Yash.
“Advik has his heart set on a post graduate robotics program in New York. He applied and got a full scholarship to it.”
“Alright! That’s awesome!” Kabir grinned, his chest puffing up with pride. “My little bro is the shit!”
Yash winced. “Yeah, he’s that alright but also, he’s…” Yash’s voice trailed off before he added, “Shy?”
“He’s quiet,” Kabir corrected. “And intentional. That’s not a bad thing. In fact, he’s the best of us in so many ways.”
Yash nodded, still looking worried. “I wanted to ask if you’d-“
“Mamu come on! Do you even need to ask? He’ll stay with me and I will Big Brother his arse all through college and life in New York.”
Relief flooded Yash’s face. “I bet he’ll be thrilled to live in that man cave of yours. It would beat any dorm room or flat we could find him.”
Kabir smiled. “I would love to have him with me. And I travel so much, he’ll more or less have the place to himself. But if he wants the dorm experience, we can figure that out too.”
“Thanks Kabir.” Yash murmured. “It’s a weight of Maya’s and my mind to know that he’ll have at least one family member there.”
“What do you mean?” Kabir frowned. “Tani’s there, and unlike me, she doesn’t travel like a crazy person, so she can check in on him more often. If I’m not wrong, her new job only starts in January.”
Yash paused. “You don’t know?”
Something dark and heavy settled in Kabir’s gut. “Know what?” he asked, though some part of him guessed what was coming.
“Tani turned the job down. Jay and she are relocating to India.”
Kabir’s head spun. What was New York without Tani in it? He’d known he wouldn’t get to see her too often once she was marriedbut there had always been the hope that he would see her once in a while. “They’re moving back after the wedding?”
“They already have,” Yash replied, blissfully unaware that the bottom had dropped out of Kabir’s world. “Jay wants to live in India, raise children here. They’re not going back, Kabir. They’re back for good.”
“But the job at the investment banking firm on Wall Street,” he said, his voice sounding strangled, “it was her dream job.”
Yash shrugged. “I guess dreams change. I know she’s been talking to Karam and Aakash about setting up her own consultancy firm here.”
Dreams change. Kabir’s gaze was drawn to the farmhouse. Intermittent bursts of laughter and chatter erupted from the building, floating over to them on the quiet morning breeze.
How had her dreams changed so drastically? How had the Tani he’d known, the one who’d worked her butt off at college to graduate on the dean’s list, to land the job she’d wanted since she was a teenager, chucked it all up for a man? Especially that man.
Had her dreams changed or had she? It felt like he stood on the precipice of a dark, swirling vortex, one in which the Tani he’d loved forever was a stranger.
“I don’t get it,” he said quietly, his voice shaky.
“I don’t either, son,” Yash replied. “I really wish falling in love didn’t have to snuff her light out. But it seems that this is what she wants. So, this is what we’ll all support her in getting.”
He scrubbed his hands over his face before adding, “At least the excessive drinking has stopped.”
Kabir gaped at him. “The excessive what?”
Yash winced. “Yeah, um, Tani went through some kind of a phase when she got back. But she’s stopped now.”
“Now?”
Yash frowned, thinking back. “Yeah, around the time you came back actually.”
“So, in the last two days?” The vortex was growing deeper and darker. It was now the sinkhole that led to hell. “She stopped drinking excessively in the last two days?”
“Yeah, I guess.” Yash slapped Kabir on his back and nudged him towards the farmhouse. “Shall we join the rest for breakfast?”
