A new beginning

“The world would be a different place if every couple who loved ended up together,” she said with tears in her eyes. 

“We are meant to be together Malvika,” told Rohit with a wavering conviction in his voice. 

The night was young, the full moon was making the dark sands of the beach shine. The waves were caressing their feet and going back to the ebbs of the sea. With every receding wave, they could feel their love getting lost in the vastness of the sea. This holiday had been the last retort to salvage their relationship. They both had agreed upon this, a thing which was an achievement in itself. The secluded beach resort at one of their favorite destinations; Bali. They had their honeymoon over here, so it was an obvious destination choice when they decided to give their marriage one last resort.

“Rohit, we have to realize that this is not working anymore,” said Malvika fighting back her tears. 

“Don’t say that. Please don’t say that its over,” said Rohit with a lump in his throat.

“Don’t make this difficult, Rohit. We are poles apart and I cannot live a lie forever.”

He did not need to say anything; the tears in his eyes had said what he never could. It was over. He knew her well enough to know that once she had decided on something then seldom would she balk from it.

The wind had stopped and the silence of the night could be felt. Once they both longed for this peace, wanting to spend time at places where they had nobody to bother them. But tonight the silence was not romantic, it was just awkward. The ship had sailed and there was nothing that they could do now to make it work. She slid her hand into his, she always liked the way he held her fingers, softly caressing the inside of her palm by tracing the lines back and forth. He was staring at the dark vastness of the sea. He turned to look at her and asked,”How did we end up like this?”

Malvika gazed into the eyes of Rohit. She knew that there was love in their relationship, but sometimes that is not enough. They wanted different things in life. After more than ten years of knowing one another, today, they were mere strangers to each other. She wanted to scream that she didn’t know the answer, but all she could do was kiss him on the cheek. “I wish I knew the answer, Rohit” she whispered in his ears and started walking back to the resort. He wanted to run and hold her back, but all he was able to do was cry. Tears rushed through to soothe the pain only to find themselves failing miserably in doing so. The thing with relationships is that when they are over they leave you scarred. Heartbreaks and separation are beautiful only for the poets, not for everybody.