It was another one of their poor attempts to glorify their coming together. Only, this was the first time he was there too - stretched on the floor in the family room and had raised himself on one elbow, as he indulged Payal in a game of snakes and ladders - while Prateik and Vidhi di exchanged a volley of anecdotes from their college days; some of which, even she couldn't bring to memory. To another person, it would appear that they were perhaps doing it right this time - without having touched subjects concerning Arpita - but, it still couldn't make any difference to her when he was her friend.
By all counts, today was the first evening the other family members had got to observe their reactions as a couple - which wasn't much by their standards and thus, Prateik and Vidhi babhi were taking turns at singing odes to their union.
"Look at this picture Vidhi bhabi..." Prateik said as Vidhi di continued chopping vegetables for dinner, casting frequent glimpses in her and Gaurav's direction to ascertain they had both their attention. She was across the island from where they stood and continued to nip off the ends of the bhindi. "I have never seen Bhaiya smile so wide before. See...Aditi bhabhi is right next to him even in this one..."
Upon having turned her back to them, she rolled her eyes and moved to the counter closest to the family room, but in-spite of the irritation she felt, she couldn't help giving a small smile when Gaurav raised his eyes to her with a knowing look and a wry smile on his face.
Unlike, other marriages, they hadn't gone through the games ceremony and neither had he spent the immediate week following their wedding at home for the others to gauge how they had taken to each other, which made their indirect attempts to pair them up understandable. However, it was still annoying at many levels when it hadn't been hours since he'd come back home and they were already obsessing over their post-wedding rapport and the appeal they shared.
"Do something" She picked up her phone and texted him.
Even before the message flashed on her screen, as she watched him type the response, she had a good idea on what to expect from him, given the mild sadistic tendencies that he'd been known to possess when it came to her. "Are you kidding me? I'm actually enjoying this..."
"What?" She replied on her phone, "You like hearing them rave on their match-making skills?"
Shaking his head, he typed and upon reading his text, she narrowed her eyes at the screen "No...I meant the look on your face. Its priceless..."
"Ass &%&*$#$" She wrote back for the lack of expletives.
And she lifted the phone to call his attention first and then left the phone on a far counter.
For quite a while, she didn't bother with the phone beeps that arrived within seconds of each other. Payal kept calling his name to have him attend to his game and throughout that time, she could tell without looking that his gaze had remained with her. It was something that she'd picked in him recently, albeit it wasn't an admittance that alarmed her by any bit.
"Vidhi bhabi, did you know that Gaurav bhaiya always slept at Aditi bhabi's house during their exams? They were really close then...In the urban way of saying..." As he spoke, he threaded his fingers together and carried a goofy smile, "They were really tight..."
And she thought she was going to explode. But, as if he could read her heightened states of fury, she heard him address her, "Aditi...Can you get me some water?"
Seriously? Can you get me some water...f***ing PLEASE, Mr. Gaurav, she wanted to tell him. Precisely, when she gave no reaction to his impolite request is when he should have known - and in all good probability, he already did - that her patience reserves for the day had been exhausted with having been thrown into the water, her badgering in-laws and lastly, him.
Giving up, she blew at the wisp of hair that wouldn't settle behind her ear and checked her messages. There were three: "Ok...fine. Tell me what I can do?"; "Pick up..."; "If you so badly want this to stop, then I can do something. But do you trust me?"
His last text gave her some hope that his devious brain wasn't always stuck up on vexing her and she felt relieved that he had finally come up with a plan to put an end to all of this.
"Aditi...the water..." There was a fake cough and she raised her head from her mobile to find Vidhi di and Prateik watching her expectantly.
"You have gotta be kidding me..." She sent him a reply before she moved from the counter.
Eventually, she did play by his book and bought him the water glass. He took a big mouthful of water from the glass, but the next instant out came all of it, when it had more salt in it than what Lakshmi groceries, by the street corner, was provisioned for.
"Here..." She thrust the towel, she'd kept handy, into his face, with an evil smirk, ignoring his wet kurta and his You-are-going-to-pay-for-this look, "I thought you might need this"
"All our jokes and games apart...Do something Gaurav...Anything" Kneeling on one knee, she whispered to him, while she wiped the water spill on the carpet, "I don't care"
By then, his face had eased into a smile and in-turn her eyes gave away the same ease as she met his, that moment.
"And..." She remembered the one thing that had been nagging her for some time, just before she left, "Don't look at me like that..."
Assured that Prateik and Vidhi di had been watching her every move, she went without looking their way and got back to cutting up the bhindi.
Everything went quiet for a few minutes with the scheming pair speaking in hushed tones, while Vidhi di prepped for dinner and it stuck her that that had been due to their retiring to one corner of the dining table- most likely, to have had a better view of them when she'd fetched him the water glass.
Her face turned a fraction when she heard him come into the kitchen and clear his throat as he approached her.
"Do you trust me?" He spoke close to her ear, his hands raised into the air as if he was stretching and her hand stilled midway sensing a panic instilled from his words.
"Hmm..." She slightly twisted to look back into his eyes, when at the same time - though they were partially hidden from Prateik and Vidhi di's direct view - she was aware of the curious gazes, charged with an eager enthusiasm, being darted their way.
She noticed his eyes - intent in its purpose and yet a faint uncertainty showed itself to her. But, from not having understood the motive behind his asking and there by his course of action, she did not have time to react to what followed from thereon and when it happened all at once, she was stunned into submission.
While his fingers raised a slice of tomato from a nearby plate, to her lips, his other hand beset her grip of the knife and it fell to the cutting board. Her brows drew together and her eyes filled with doubt, while her body jerked with a shiver when his thumb pressed firm into the back of her hand, coercing her to take the tomato into her mouth. In that second of unsuspecting obscurity, she did so unconsciously and his arm laced with hers circled her waist. Hooking his index finger below her chin, he raised her lips to him and bit off the piece that was bridged there.
It could have been that only the smallest square of his lips had touched hers, and she felt her breath shake, notwithstanding, from a chill that spiraled down to her toes, making them curl on the floor.
It had taken all of her will to just stand there and not push him away. Despite the fuzziness she was wrapped in, she could still hear the loud gasp that escaped Vidhi di and the crude exclamation of surprise that Prateik gave: "Shit!"; picture them with their necks craning over the dining room partition as they kept up with their earnest snooping.
He held her eyes for a beat more, unapologetic and if anything, shaded with a smugness, before he gave her a brief smile and walked out, leaving her there as a tower of jelly ready to collapse.
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
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