As Good As It Gets - 7 - The Birthday Present

 stared at the lock. Was this a joke? I looked around, I could see no sign that anyone had come there today. I tunred away a little disturbed. Why had he lied to me? I pulled out my phone and then stopped. Confront him now? Or face to face? I put my phone back. I didn’t have the guts to hear his justifications. I wondered  where he was.

I stopped at the entrance of the building and asked the guard about my husband.

“Woh.. Sahib toh kissi madam ke saath nikal gaye.”

Be calm, I told myself. It didn’t mean anything. Maybe his client was a woman. Yeah, that was it. He wouldn’t cheat on me. Would he?

I went back home, lost in my thoughts. I waited for my husband to call me, but he didn’t. I dressed for the evening. I was supposed to look happy, being the birthday girl and all. I was supposed to have him by my side, but I wasn’t going to. I sighed deeply as I got ready. Nothing was going according to plan. Not my life, not my career, not my marriage not even my birthday.

The doorbell rang as I was slipping on my pumps. I carefully put my foot in when the doorbell rang again. I cursed under my breath and limped my way over to the door with one pump on my hand. I swung the door open angrily.

“Why do you have to ring the bell so many..” I stopped as I saw who was outside.

“Hey..” Anurag stood at my door with an amused look on his face. “Is this how you answer the door every time?”

I followed his gaze to the shoe I held in my hand.

“No..” I laughed. “This is just for people like you who don’t have the patience to wait.”

He pulled out the shoe from my hand and walked inside. I followed awkwardly. He didn’t even try to control his laughter as I struggled to walk with one pump on.

“Ha Ha!” I said sarcastically, “You’ve hand your laugh, now can I have my shoe back?”

I settled down on the couch and put out my hand expectantly. He tossed the shoe at me and settled down opposite me.

“So what brings you here?” I asked, struggling to put my foot in through the shoe.

“I forgot something.” He said watching me stamp the floor trying to put the shoe on. “Are you sure that’s your size?” He asked.

“Of course it is, see the other one fit.” I turned the other ankle.

“Gently Anagha, gently.” He smiled, shook his head and got down one knee near the couch.

I was so taken aback by his gesture, I froze for a moment.

“And this is how you do it.” He held out the shoe for me and gently slipped my foot in, holding it by the heel.

“Thanks,” Awkwardly I moved my legs away from him.

“So,” He got up, all businesslike again, “The reason I am here, is because I have something for you.”

“You do?” I was genuinely surprised. Through out the time that I had known him, we had never got a gift for each other. “What’d you get?” I asked, suddenly excited.

He laughed “You remember that song that you used to keep humming all the time?”

“I hum all the time, which one are you talking about?” He got me a CD??

“You know, that billionaire one..” Now I remembered, when we were starting out, I had become addicted to this song whose lyrics made a whole lot of sense to me.

I wanna be a billionaire so fricking bad
Buy all of the things I never had
Uh, I wanna be on the cover of Forbes magazine
Smiling next to Oprah and the Queen

Oh every time I close my eyes
I see my name in shining lights
A different city every night oh
I swear the world better prepare
For when I’m a billionaire

“What about it?” I was totally confused, it was an old song, I hadn’t heard it for ages.

“Well, I can’t make you a billionaire,” He inched a little closer. “I can’t buy you all the things you want, I can’t get you on the cover of Forbes magazine and I can’t take you to a different city every night but..” He pulled out a small box. “I can do one thing.”

I took the little box from his hand and opened it.

It was my name in lights.