Chapter 14
Geet accepted the letter, even though it took her a week to ponder over what her decision should be. She typed out a reply to Viren thanking them for the opportunity and told them she'd be happy to join them as soon as.
Maan walked into the room just as she'd sent the email.
"What's with your smile?" he looked at her curiously as he tugged on his tie and unbuttoned his waistcoat.
"Um…" she looked down at her phone and looked back at him. She stepped off their bed and walked over towards him showing him her sent email.
"You accepted?" he looked at her pleasantly surprised. He waited for a week, she hadn’t said anything nor had Adi delivered any news of her starting date. He hadn’t pushed her, they continued to spend time when he could spare a moment in between his work.
"I did" she grinned. "Looks like you're going to have to see me for more than a few hours, Saru" she winked cheekily and was feeling elated seeing him grinning.
"I'll endure that" he chuckled cradling her cheek. A moment was shared between them, she'd felt it. He released her getting off his waistcoat, grabbing a towel and headed into the washroom to freshen up whilst her mind wandered to Naintara's teasing.
"Have you kissed yet?"
"What is it to you?"
"C'mon Geet" Naintara nudged her. "It's Maan Khurana. Is he good? Or is the looks an all just hype?"
"Naintara" Geet blushed.
"I'll take it as he's an excellent kisser" Naintara laughed.
If only she knew, Geet thought shaking her head. No one would believe her if she said they'd been married for 8 months and they had not yet shared a kiss.
It wasn't anyone's business anyway, jab hona hai, hojayega.
With that, Geet headed downstairs to join the family in the dining room as dinner was being set and served.
"Dadima" Geet pressed a kiss to the elderly lady's cheek and sat down besides her taking her hand into hers. "I've accepted the offer to work in Maan's office".
"Sach bete?" Dadima looked surprised, she'd gotten excited when she'd learned Geet had gotten the offer then felt a little down when Geet had told her she needed some time to think before she accepts this.
"Mmhmm" she nodded in agreement chuckling when dadima pulled and enveloped her tightly congratulating her.
"Oh, what's with all the love being showered here?" Dev teased as he joined them at the table. "Bhai, why is dadima hugging my sweet bhabhi so much?" he questioned just as Maan joined.
"She must've given the good news" Maan said pulling out his chair to sit.
"O WOW" Dev stood and hugged Maan. "Congratulators bro!"
"Um, okay" Maan patted Dev's back looking confused.
"I can't believe I'm going to be an uncle!" Dev grinned widely.
"What?" Geet and Maan's eyes widened.
Naintara and dadima burst out laughing and high fiving each other.
"What's so funny?" Dev looked confused seeing his wife and grandmother his hysterics, his brother and sister in law staring in shock.
"Geet isn't pregnant" Maan stated, he pulled out a chair and sat down. "She accepted the offer to work in my company" he added.
"Oh" Dev frowned. "Dadima was hugging her as if she'd announced she's pregnant".
"Dev bete, I should be asking you about when you're going to give me a grandchild?" dadima smirked when his eyes widened this time. "Naintara" she turned to look at her.
"Dadima" Naintara blushed.
"Khair koi nahi, chalo khana kao" dadima laughed.
During the entire dinner, Geet and Maan had avoided looking at each other.
Geet was already curled into a ball with her phone in her hand, she was chuckling as she scrolled through the tik tok videos, then alternated into checking her Facebook messenger and profile.
Maan entered offering a smile when she'd glanced his way then quickly did his nightly routine before joining her in bed.
He switched off the nightlamp laying on his back whilst she giggled besides him watching something on her phone.
"Are you planning to sleep?" he turned his head.
"Not yet" she replied then laughed at another video.
"What is so funny?"
"Haven't you got tik tok?" she clicked the lock button on her phone and turned to him. "Tik tok, it’s a music sort of app. There's people on there mimicking or dancing or playing pranks" she explained seeing him frowning in confusion.
"What?" Maan still looked confused.
"Look" she unlocked her phone shuffling closer to him and showed her screen, she scrolled through the videos giggling.
"People have time to do all that?" Maan scoffed shaking his head. "You know Geet you wouldn’t have such free time when you join the office, might as well make the best of it" he informed.
Geet locked her phone shoving it under her pillow and turned onto her side, facing him, her hand pressed beneath her cheek whilst he lay on his back with his head turned to her. "Don’t worry, Maan. If I find I don’t have time, I'll cut out from us meeting in the evenings" she answered.
"Yeah we might grow tired of seeing each other" he laughed nodding in agreement.
"Maan, do you have Facebook?" Geet inquired curiously, she hadn’t searched him but given his baffled expression she wondered if he even knew what Facebook was.
"I don’t handle any social media accounts, there's a business page but that is handled by the social media handler in our office" Maan replied. "I don’t have time for that".
"So, you don’t have Instagram, Snapchat, Tinder?"
"Tinder?" Maan looked at her amused.
"A great way to meet people, I heard" she winked.
"Did you have tinder before we married?" he questioned.
"Na" she shook her head. "Who knows who is behind those profile pictures?" she chuckled. "I prefer the old getting to know each other stages, falling in love then marrying" her smile grew faint as did Maan's.
"Instead of that, you got saddled with me" he muttered.
"Nahi Maan" she shook her head. "Mama and papa liked what they saw, though I don’t know what the heck they saw" she added with a chuckle. "In a way, we're getting to know each other through the stages, we just happened to get married first" she appeared nonchalant. "You are still such a saru though" she finished.
"Ever so romantic, Geet" he laughed. "Your jungli behaviour has mellowed since living with me" he further added.
"Maan" she nudged him when he withdrew shaking his head, Geet grinned realising Maan was ticklish so she attacked him with her hands making him laugh wholeheartedly shaking his head vehemently, she laughed with him and tickled him some more getting onto her knees and bracing herself over him as he battled with her jokingly. He grasped her wrists in both hands and turned her onto her back and his body hovered over hers.
"Bloody hell, Geet" he cursed panting heavily, his hands grasped hers and held it above her head so she wouldn’t try doing that again.
She laughed seeing his face all red and hot, "Maan, I haven’t seen you laugh so much".
"That's why you tackled me like a jungli" he shook his head chuckling.
Geet smiled as did he and they also realised how close they were to one another, their chests mere inches away, their breaths mixing in the air, his grip tightened for a moment. He cocked his head at an angle as did she, he leaned forward, she lifted her head slightly and inhaled as she felt the brush of his lips on hers.
Maan withdrew swiftly releasing her wrists and shuffled onto his side, "It's late".
Geet frowned confused and found herself burning in embarrassment, she turned away gritting her teeth and pondered deeply as to why he'd pulled away.
He'd agreed to give them a chance, he'd touched her lips with his for a brief second and he pulled away without a reason.
Don’t cry, jhalli she cursed trying to keep her temper in check. Don’t cry she repeated inwardly forcing herself to swallow the lump in her throat.
Maan pinched his eyes closed hard when he heard her climb out of the bed, she snatched the pillow roughly and stomped over to the small sofa and curled up into a ball. He sat up in the dark and looked at her, "Geet, come back to bed" he called.
She ignored him.
"Geet".
"Just shut up" she sat up and looked over her shoulder. "Don’t talk to me about not trusting you and giving you a chance when you pull a stunt like that" she snapped.
Maan sighed heavily, "Geet… I…"
"Don’t! Okay! I don’t want to talk to you right now. Looking at you now, Maan. I'm hating myself for even allowing you to get my hopes up for anything to happen between us" she spat unaware of how much her words were hurting him. She didn’t wait to hear if he had anything to say, she flopped on to the sofa curled up into a ball and squeezed her eyes closed brushing away the silent tear that rolled down.
Indian Idol 16
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