Ramifications

'So you will not drink again, ever ?' asked he.


She went back in time, exactly an year ago, on the same day. It was his birthday, a nice evening. Everything had gone as planned. He had always wanted her to host a drinks party with his friends. And today as part of the biggest surprise she had decided to drink too, for him!


It is always difficult to be a first timer at anything. You never know how you would perform at the given task. In this case she had no idea, when was the time to stop. In the making merry spree, she had outnumbered the most experienced of the lot, to everyone's shock and amazement. The only thing she remembered was waking up late the next day to a tingling sensation in her head, which was just the start of the worst headache of her life. She smiled fondly at herself and looked around at an empty and neat room. Well, at least we cleaned everything before sleeping. And so she tried to remember. The only thing which came to her mind was calling a number. Everything after that call was blank. Not even a single image flashed in her memory. Panic replaced  the initial amusement. Well that was just the start of the hangover. Its indeed difficult to be a first timer at anything!


She stressed herself for any clue about what happened after that call. But to no avail. She even asked him and other girl friends. Everyone replied the same, 'you drank too much and passed out'. She thought may be they knew better. They seemed a little less affected and hence she agreed. After 2 days when the headache was gone and things had become normal, she again started thinking about that night. She vividly remembered a phone call. Now back in her senses she checked her phone logs and found a call to her ex on the same night, at 2 in the morning. Things were falling into place now. She had called him up in her drunken revelry and proclaimed that she still loved him. She felt like getting eaten by a dinosaur at that very moment. It was her husband's birthday and she had done the most unforgivable thing in the world. Well may be she thought, it wasnt that bad. May be no one was around when the whole call took place. She still had a chance to explain herself and rectify any misunderstandings, because he had been unusually quite since past 2 days.


She tried to broach the topic for the next few days. What and how he must have felt was eating her up. She wanted to explain things and apologise. But he never seemed interested in the topic. The silence was killing her. The distance was growing. The most amazing bond which they had build, had broken because of her. And then it became the itch of the relationship. The itch which was there but about which no one talked about. May be they both valued the relationship so much that they wanted to forget it. May be no one wanted to face the truth and accept it and move on. May be they were scared as the stakes involved for a fallout were higher. May be sometimes its better to reshape some misshapen memories by ignoring the bad part and outcomes. The possibilities were so many.


Which one had they taken.


It was his birthday again. No fancy party. It was a quite dinner. Just the 2 of them. He ordered drinks for them and asked her 'So you will not drink again, ever ?'
She smiled. Picked up her phone and called up her ex. She had tears in her eyes as she spoke, 'It isnt an yearly ritual to call you. But some mistakes need to be corrected. There was a time when I did love you. But I am truly in love with my husband now, a person who respects us so much that he wont risk a fallout for a mistake his wife committed over few extra shots of vodka. I am glad that I am saying all this in my senses now'.
He just smiled back at her and opened the bottle.


Sometimes its simpler to re-write a few memories and make bonds stronger. It is worth every drop in the bottle ;)


~nightflier