In the rose garden,
Where the rain is falling..
Waking up, I heard the pitter patter of rain drops falling and hitting the sidewalk. The rain gave me an instant case of not just peace and serenity, but homesickness. The beautiful memories of dancing in the rain and playing in the rose garden by my house flashed before my eyes. My thoughts were interrupted when I felt a masculine pair of arms pull me backwards. I closed my eyes and let a smile creep up onto my face.
"Purvi'" I heard him mumble as he rested his head on my shoulder. He loved to do that. It was the most comfortable position for him. Only because he knew how ticklish I was.
I giggled and replied back with an "Arjun'" in a whiny tone. I looked up at the man that stood before me and smiled wide. I honestly don't know what I did to deserve someone like him in my life, but I'm so grateful to have him with me. Just thinking about where I would be without my Arjun scared the hell out of me.
"Look, it's raining!" I exclaimed, leaving his warm embrace and pushing my hands up against the icy cold window.
I heard Arjun chuckle from behind me, making me feel warm and toasty inside. Whenever he was happy, I was happy' most of the time. I watched as he extended his arms to put his hands up against the window next to mine.
"Why do you like this weather so much?" he asked, curiosity creeping up in his voice.
I smiled and began to answer, "Well'" I debated whether or whether not I should tell him the truth. I decided to go for it and finished my answer with "it reminds me of home..." I ended up drifting off and stared into the beautiful scenery of Montreal, Canada. However, she missed her gorgeous Mumbai.
I saw Arjun's brows furrow as he frowned from the corner of my eye. "I'm sorry Purvi, it's just for the co-"
Before he could finish, I turned around, looked him in the eyes and gave him a convincing "it's fine, I understand." I tried to not assure only him, but also myself.
Growing up on only my mother and grandmother's love ' I've become attached to them. I admired Arjun. While I still had my mother and her love in my life ' all he has is the memories of the 10 years he was with his mom before she died alongside his father who cared ultimately about work and business. While for me, it's only been about a year since I last got to see my family. I always tend to find myself calling them at the wrong time to due to time differences as well.
I felt Arjun envelope me again into one of his comforting hugs. I felt him rest his head on top of mine as I snuggled into his chest ' listening to his heartbeat. All my sorrow and worries vanished and were put on pause when Arjun was there to comfort me. I felt him plant a kiss on the top of my head, making me smile. Every little thing he did made me smile.
"I love you." I whispered.
"I love you too." he mumbled, snuggling into my hair.
I giggled yet again and let go of his embrace.
"I have a surprise for you." he said out of the blue.
I looked at him with a confused expression. The last time Arjun had a surprise for me was a disaster. To make the long story short, the house almost caught on fire.
"'and it's not like the time I set the house on fire." he said, interrupting my thoughts. I laughed, but was still hesitant to see his surprise.
"I don't like your surprises ' they're scary." I said in a baby voice also known as Arjun's weakness. I pouted as well, hoping I would melt Arjun with my attempted cuteness.
"No, it'll be fun and safe this time! Pleeease?" he pleaded, mocking my voice and pout.
"Damn it." I mumbled under my breath. I let out a sigh and accepted defeat much too easily. "Fine."
He told me to go change with the threat of getting pneumonia, while he went to go dig out the umbrella. I came out wearing a big red coat over my favorite leggings which I used to always wear to dance practices. After debating for a good five minutes on what shoes to wear, I decided to go with my favorite Ugg boots. After taking what seemed like 5 hours picking out my outfit, Arjun was still not done finding the umbrella or changing.
"And they say girls take forever to get ready." I mumbled to myself, getting impatient.
When Arjun eventually came out, I noticed his black coat and black jeans first. I smiled and looked down at my outfit in comparison. Then, my eyes diverted to his footwear' tennis shoes.
"Your feet are going to get wet and then YOU are going to be the one with pneumonia, not me!" I scolded at Arjun.
"We'll see about that' winner gets a kiss from the loser." Arjun replied back to me with a smirk.
He suddenly took hold of my hand. Before I knew it, hues of coral pink and crimson red crept up onto my cheeks, encouraging Arjun to kiss me on the cheek.
"Stooop!" I whined to him, feeling shy and trying my best to avoid eye contact with him.
He laughed while still holding my hand all the way to the passenger side of the car. "After you, my lady."
Now, it was my turn to giggle. "Thank you, my... Arjun" I said, once again trying to avoid eye contact in fear or doing something stupid.
The car ride was filled with pointless conversation, making me bored. After I stared at the rain drops race each other down the windshield, I asked Arjun, "Why do you dislike the rain?" I knew lots about Arjun ' after all, he was my husband. However, there's still little trivial things that we have yet to find out about each other. Minutes passed by after I asked my question, giving me the impression that I should have kept my big mouth shut. A second before I was about to apologize, he gave me the answer that I've been wondering for what seems like the longest time.
"I don't hate it, but I don't like it either." he said with a sigh. "When I was younger, I hated the rain because it was raining on the night my aai passed away."
I felt my eyelids getting moist. When Arjun was in pain, I felt like I was in pain. "I'm sorry for bringing it up."
"It's ok."
The car was brought to a halt at a red light and that's when Arjun continued. "I love the rain though, because the night we met, it rained. The night we confessed our love for each other, it rained. The night we got engaged, it rain. The night we got married, it rain. The rain is like a reminder of the two most important ladies in my life." he poetically said while looking at me ' eager for my reaction.
"Arjun'." I started in a low voice. "That was beautiful' everything you said about your mom. I'm sure she cries sometimes while looking down on you due to how proud she is of you." I said to him with sad eyes.
"And the things I said about you?" he slyly asked with hope and curiosity dancing around in his eyes.
"You're so cheesy!" I said with a laugh, attempting to lighten the mood. I felt like someone had blessed me with courage because at the moment I reached over and gave him a peck on the cheek.
When the light finally turned green, I saw Arjun's smile return which was like a sigh of relief for me.
"Would you rather have Arjun Khadoosloskar back?" he asked me with a wink.
I gave his cheek a little slap on the same spot where I kissed him. "Arjun, you're so annoying!" I said while trying to control my laughter.
While staring out the window, I started remembering all of the things Arjun has done for me. From living his home, name, and property to taking a bullet to protect me. I wish there were more ways to show my love and appreciation for him. I mean, if he didn't come into my life, I'd probably be married to some guy wanting me for the little money my family had, some old guy wanting me for sex and keeping me as a trophy wife, or I'd probably end up getting diabetes from being married to a sweet doctor who shows no anger which I cannot take. Either way, I'd be dead on the inside.
I looked at Arjun with love and wonder, silently praying that he wouldn't catch me staring. Of course because of my bad luck, he saw me. When we locked eyes, I quickly broke the gaze and stared back out the window with the hues of pink and red creeping back up on my face.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"I saw that."
"Saw what?"
"You staring."
Crap. I diverted all my focus onto thinking of a clever response. Instead, I blurted out ' "I love you."
"Kya?"
I laughed at how confused Arjun was.
"Ugh, nevermind."
"You're the weirdest creature on this planet."
"Go to hell."
"You go to hell!"
"Good, then I don't have to see your surprise." I said with a roll of eyes.
We rode in silence for the rest of the car ride. The car finally halted in front a park. Surprisingly, the heavy pouring of the rain drops turned into a light drizzle along with the stopping of the car. We both opened our respective car doors and went out.
I scanned what was in front of me. A picnic table with an umbrella was what caught my eye first as it was the only dry spot in sight. I walked to it and sat down, thinking that Arjun just had a surprise lunch planned or something. He took a seat across from me and put a picnic basket on the table.
"Where did that come from?" I asked in confusion.
"Umm' home?! Come on Purvi, think!" Arjun replied back to me with a hint of sarcasm.
I laughed and grabbed the picnic basket to see what food Arjun had made and how poisonous and sickening it would be. I opened the basket expecting to see sandwiches, salads, and candy, but instead I found lauki ka halwa, jalebi, pani puri, and kande poha. I looked up at him and saw him smiling' but it wasn't his normal smile filled with confidence. I noticed how he was getting nervous and started giggling.
"Well?" he asked, fed up with playing the waiting game ' the prize being my response.
"Well what?" I asked him innocently.
"Purviii.." he began in a whiny voice. He continued with, "do you like the food?"
"Did you make it?" I asked him, ignoring his question to me.
"Yeah.. but please it, I tried really hard this time.. I even called Archana aunty to give me recipes and give me tips!" Arjun said, speaking fast and fidgeting with his fingers.
Goodness, I just wanted to jump up and attack Arjun with hugs and kisses. How could one man be so cute?
"I love anything you make, but the fact that you made it with such effort makes me love it even more.. and I didn't know that was possible." I said after carefully thinking out what to say in response. Nice choice of words on my part, don't you think?
Arjun breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. I felt as if his eyes were dancing in excitement when he asked me to try the food as well. Normally, I would have hesitated and had him taste it first, but I went ahead and dug right in. My eyes went wide in surprise at how amazing the food tasted.
"Afhrkgj firgo bogo!" I exclaimed with my mouth full of food. I tend to get shy when I'm around Arjun, but my relationship with food helps me overcome that wall of shyness whenever we're eating.
Arjun smiled and took my inaudible words as a compliment. I knew how much Arjun liked lauki ka halwa, so to get him to start eating, I tried to feed him some. However, whenever I try to do something nice for Arjun, something usually always goes wrong. Wanna know what happened this time? The spoon literally fell from my hand and into the muddy, wet grass.
"I am SO sorry.." I started, not even knowing what to say. I covered my face with my hands, partly sad because I embarrassed myself yet again, but also sad because that means there's no way to eat the lauki ka halwa and I was craving it.
Arjun smiled and held my free hand. "It's okay ' it's the thought that counts."
"If it's the thought that counts, then you wouldn't have went through all this effort to do all this' I can't thank you enough Arjun." I said with a huge smile on my face, I felt like my mouth was going to fall off.
"Because of me, you've been stuck in Canada for a year ' hardly getting to talk to your family. I know how much you miss home and this is the least I could do." he said. I could sense his cheesy side coming back.
"Thank you." I said again in a low whisper, feeling tears welling up in my eyes. NO PURVI NO. Crying when Arjun wasn't near me was acceptable, but I tried my best to never cry when he was around since he was usually always stressed and I never wanted to add on to that with my typical problems.
"This is going to be our last full day in Montreal by the way." Arjun said nonchalantly, while scarfing down jalebis.
"Ooh.. where are they relocating you?" I asked with hopes for Quebec so I could see the Northern Lights. Wow, seeing the Northern Lights with Arjun.. how romantic would that be? I blushed just thinking about it.
"Mumbai."
I choked on the spicy pani puri I was eating and ended up creating a scene. After having a glass of water, I asked him, "What do you mean Mumbai?"
"I finished all the work I needed for the company here." Arjun said with such happiness and excitement. "Now we can go back home and I can see you happy again."
"Home is when you're near me and I'm only happy when I'm with you." I clarified for Arjun, not commenting anything on the Mumbai thing. That can wait for when we're at the airport.
We both wiped our hands after finishing all the food Arjun made after what seemed like five minutes. He stood up and took hold of my hand again. I took his hand and stood up without any protest. We walked deeper into the forest we were in and he stopped in front of a bush.
"I know this isn't like the rose garden back in Mumbai, but I tried my best to make it somewhat like it?" Arjun said sheepishly while scratching the back of his head.
The bush only had one rose on it, but it was still beautiful. Probably more beautiful than the rose garden back in Mumbai. This "rose garden" that was in front of her would probably the ugly duckling compared to the rose garden back home, but the fact that Arjun tried to recreate her favorite place in Mumbai made the bush even more beautiful.
I smiled and jumped into his arms, letting my tears of joy run down my face. How many times has Arjun even made me smile today? Beyond 1000 times, that's for sure. I felt him stroking my hair with one hand and pulling me closer towards him with the other. This moment was perfect, I never wanted it to end. Well, any time I was in Arjun's arms, it was a perfect moment. Just then, I heard Arjun sneeze.
I looked up at him while he has a mischievous smile on his face.
"Guess I lost the bet." he said, not at all feeling affected in a negative way by his loss.
"Guess you did." I smiled.
Arjun lowered his head to my level. While I was still holding on to his coat, I brought my face closer to his and closed my eyes as he did the same. Before I knew it, my lips were on his as I was experiencing a sweet, yet passionate kiss. I unwillingly pulled away and bit my bottom lip as I looked away from him. For some reason, this kiss was better than all of the rest. Probably because I was in my rose garden with the rain falling.
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