Two.

She was a Gemini.

That’s merely an observation. She was a lot of things. But the thing that stood out to him as he watched the burial was that she was a Gemini. And he wondered why he’d remember her sun sign of all the things in the world.

Some people take sun signs too literally. If you’re a Scorpio you’re vengeful, if you’re a Cancerian you’re a sentimental fool and a Gemini, well a Gemini was supposed to be someone of dual nature.

She was a Gemini.

Always conflicted. Always divided.

One day she hated and the next day she loved with a love so fierce, that it unnerved him sometimes. “I don’t get you”, he would say, shaking his head in despair. “Good”, she smiled. And he was breathless as usual. She filled him with a joy he’d never known and every time she left, she took a part of him with her.

She loved them, the both of them. And she could never decide, not even till the very end. He knew that she would never decide and yet he loved her, till the very end.

Then, cancer came like a bandit and stole her time.

They had never really said goodbye to each other. She had called from the hospital saying that she was sick and may never really get over it. He had croaked out an ‘Ok’ and hung up. But they knew what it meant. She was going to die. Slowly. But surely.

She watched them both. One, fussing over her and making sure she was comfortable. The other, leaning against the doorway and watching her die. And she loved them both.

One, who never knew that she was capable of betrayal, the other, she hurt repeatedly and he took it. She could never leave either of them. She was like an addict, going to them both to get her regular fix.

She was clear what she wanted with her when she died. The wedding ring, the gold chain and the watch that he gave her. No one would ever know, no one would ever guess.

He watched her and knew at once, that she had never once read the inscription behind the watch.

It came in twos – the love and the hate.