One shot - Home on the Range

Home on the Range

When she was younger, she vowed she would marry for love. In hell is she going to marry a random stranger!

When he was younger, he didn't think about marriage. It was a taboo to think of it already.

Few years later, on a Sunday afternoon they met in Coffee day, with their fathers in tow.

A cappuccino later, their fathers moved to the next table to allow them to speak. After they exchanged their pleasantries, silence accompanied them.

She wanted to talk about books. He was not an avid reader.

He wanted to talk about cricket. She was not interested in the sport.

Neither of them watched movies.

Their professions differed as chalk and cheese. One runs a business, another teaches children.

They had nothing in common. Their conversation didn't last ten minutes.

Ten days later, they were engaged.

Numbers exchanged, teased mercilessly by cousins, both of them talked with each other occasionally.

Shopping was coordinated, wedding cards discussed, their conversations looked more like getting a task done together, much less in getting to know each other.

Three months passed, and they were married.

Accustomed to the idea of getting married, and to each other, didn't stop them from being intimidated by the idea of it on the day when their wedding was to happen.

She, who could teach hundreds of children, but disliked being walked into a stage with adults as audience, revelled in the glory of a bride when she sat on the altar, with him on her side.

The holy chants that he had not paid attention to all these years, were listened to.

The wedding dress and the unreal make up she resented before didn't dampen her spirits. When he looked at her as his bride and smiled, she had felt more beautiful than what she had felt since forever.

When the marriage vows were recounted, he had in his heart, meant to keep all the promises he made.

When her Maang was filled with Sindoor, she felt something inside her change, a small acceptance, and something peaceful settle in her heart.

When he was lifted off his feet by his friends when she tried to put the garland around his neck, he laughed from his heart, yet, he managed to lower his head for her convenience when he was put back on ground.

What if they were not lovers, they wanted to have a fresh start, starting off as friends, companions, life partners.

Five years passed. Their companionship had its ups and downs, their friendship had remained, but the initial spark had died.

Little habits of each other bothered, their different takes towards everything irritated each other.

Arguments, and fights came to be a regular visitor in their life first, which finally took a permanent place later.

His attempts of giving laughter was mistaken as insults. Her desire of wanting space was regarded as coldness and detachment from his relatives.

The argument one afternoon escalated until words they didn't mean were said, until their angers started driving them raging mad, until she left the home.

Two hours flight later, she was back to her parental home. Her sudden visit home was covered up with a fake smile, the wedding of a dear friend, his absence with a business trip he couldn't miss.

Back in her room, with closed doors, she let out her sorrow in the form of tears that soaked her pillow.

The room where she grew up in seemed to have changed, the home which was hers, now became her parental house, a visiting place.

In between conversation with her parents, during dinner time, or when she sat against the mango tree in their garden, every time, she seemed to flee from present, living in her recent past, thinking about him, wondering about him.

Her memories of the house were overridden by theirs. Her bed seemed uncomfortable, now that there wasn't a beating heart under her ears to lull her to sleep.

Two days before the wedding of her friend, when she was by her side all the time, she travelled time and saw herself. On the day of wedding, when the groom was lifted off his feet, a sudden flash of their wedding where he got to his feet, much to the grumblings of his friends, and bent his head to let her put the garland came to her mind.

Tears blinded her eyes, and her feet took her out of the venue, her heart beating a wild race. The taxi she hired took her through the lanes of the coffee shop where they had first met. Her taxi stopped there, as per her request, her feet led her inside, and to the same seat they had been five years ago.

Too proud to let the tears out in public, she held them back. Yet, the immense pain in her chest hasn't lessened. The reason of their last fight seemed too distant to her. Who was right, who was wrong neither remembered nor mattered.

At the moment all that mattered was the empty seat before her.

She was taken back to the day after three months to their wedding, when the attraction between them was simmering, when they started to understand each other... When she had been away to her parental house for two days, and he had to go to a business meeting to another city. On that night when she had reached home, when she didn't expect him to have returned already, when the loneliness was eating her up, when she realized that she missed him terribly, had she felt a pair of arms going around her from behind; his.

He had recounted a poem by Rumi back then, whispered them near her ears, and the words he whispered touched not only her body, as close as they were, but her soul.

"I want to see you.

Know your voice.

Recognize you when you
first come 'round the corner.

Sense your scent when I come
into a room you've just left.

Know the lift of your heel,
the glide of your foot.

Become familiar with the way
you purse your lips
then let them part,
just the slightest bit,
when I lean in to your space
and kiss you.

I want to know the joy
of how you whisper
"more"

When she had turned, and saw him after two whole days, even in the dark room, she trailed her hands through his jaw and tried to remember each crevice of his face. When they had kissed for the first time, and later parted, she had not said more, but a hand curling his nape, another striking his cheek, she had pulled him for more. They had made love for the first time that day.

Her blurred vision couldn't recognise that the seat before her was occupied few seconds later by a man. When she wiped her tears discreetly, and blinked back the tears, had she seen him scanning the menu card and ordering two cappuccino's.

"You don't like cappuccino" were the first words she spoke after seeing him in flesh and blood in fifteen days.

"I want to give it a try" he had said.

Silence embraced them once again.

She wanted to ask him why he had come there. She waited for him to ask her to come back. Neither happened.

Their cappuccinos arrived, completed. He stood up indicating it was time to depart.

He turned his back to her, her fingers curled as she fought the urge to reach him.

"Can I drop you?" he had asked. She had noticed that his I will had changed to Can I. The space she once desired now choked her, filled her with doubts. She nodded too scared that she would not be able to speak without her voice breaking.

His vehicle took the wrong way and stopped at the wedding venue of her friend. Her eyes shot up to him when she got down and realized, while he picked a gift from the backseat and closed the door saying "I know you will forget the gift"

Her eyes glittering with moisture met his and sought so many questions, but all she asked was "Are you going to stay?"

He thought for a moment. "For the night".

"Later?"

She wanted to be reassured.

He shrugged.

She dropped the topic.

Together, they had went back inside and met her friend who was starting her own life, while her life felt hanging on a thread.

Much later, when they had gone back to her home, him having had tea with her parents, laughing; as loved as he was by them, she was waiting to have to meet him alone. After an hour, which passed like an eternity, when they were finally alone in her room, he produced few papers from his bag and extended it to her, her hands turned cold for a second, but later realized there were pencil sketches he had drawn, in the two weeks. Each one was on her.

"In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art."

He had quoted Rumi again.

Tears blinded her vision, something painful bubbled in her heart. This time she stopped neither. As tears flew, she flung her arms around his neck, and buried her face in his chest.

I am sorry was too late to be told. I love you didn't justify what she felt for him.

"I was scared" she had said.

"Me too" he admitted, as his arms locked around her waist, pulling her to himself. His fingers caressing her slowly, in an attempt to remind himself of her presence.

They relived in present, in the moment forgetting the differences in the past, forgetting what tomorrow has in store.

Tomorrow was a day of different possibilities.

"Tomorrow you will be gone" she whispered into his chest, not having the guts to meet his eyes.

"Tomorrow..." he paused "I will drop all my plans if you plan to show me around your place" he had said, and she gave him a watery laugh before raising on her toes to kiss him gently first, and deeply later.

Much later, when they were enclosed in sheets, lying next to each other, a thudding heartbeat under her ear lulling her, a warm hand passing through her hair, she had whispered "Never let me go"

"No chance" he had said. "I can't manage to cook for myself all my life"

Though that earned him a punch on his chest, she pressed her smiling lips on his chest.

As the two of them lay in the bed as one, legs tangled, an old song played in radio somewhere...

"Jab Koi Baat Bigad Jaaye Jab Koi Mushkil Pad Jaaye
Tum Dena Saath Mera O Humnawaaz"

Originally posted by: mannu_minnie

It was nice story.

i dont have much words. don't know wat to write.

and yes

Happy Birthday Meenu. though i don't know you. But thanx. because of u we got such a nice piece of writing. 😃

Originally posted by: mayyo

You have a great way of making me smile through tears! 🤗

Originally posted by: .Maggie.

I never want the tears in your eyes though