There were worse things, he supposed, than falling in love with one's own wife.
Bihaan Pandey lay on the all too short and uncomfortable sofa that had been his bed for the past month, feet dangling off one end while his head rested on his bent right arm at the other.
The aforementioned wife, the one he had gone ahead and possibly fallen in love with, was at the mirror on the opposite end of the room, combing out her hair and getting ready for the day. He watched as she went about her morning routine, a routine he was all too familiar with now. He tried to be discrete about it, pretending to still be sleeping.
He closed his eyes and tried to collect his thoughts.
He couldn't be in love with her, could he? And so what if he was, she was his wife. But only for another two months. He went back and forth, the positives and the negatives fighting each other in his mind.
She might be his wife but she definitely didn't love him back. Based on the circumstances of their wedding he didn't blame her either. Sure things had changed since then, they'd found a rhythm, he thought she may even like him sometimes instead of just tolerating him, that did not equate to love however.
If someone had asked him on his wedding day if he loved her, it would have been an adamant no, the thought alone would have been out of the question, so how did he find himself here in this predicament? Falling in love with a woman who for all intents and purposes was likely still in love with his brother.
Thapki had happened. Fierce, loyal, strong, independent Thapki. What had her father said to him the day after the wedding? Thapki had a way of endearing herself to people, that even he would find a place in his heart for her. Found it he had.
Perhaps if circumstances hadn't kept pushing them together things might have been different. He might have been saved from this, but time and again it kept happening. She was his wife and he would take care of her, this situation was of his making, he had hurt her and he would make sure that she didn't have to pay for his mistakes any more than necessary. Problem was, he hadn't been able to keep his heart from getting involved.
What was he going to do with a wife he had fallen in love with? He turned over to face the back of the sofa, away from his wife. He was going to ensure her happiness is what he was going to do. He was going to help her get her love back.
--
Thapki put her hairbrush down and picked up her earrings. As she put the left one in she caught sight of her husband turning over through the mirror. She was glad for it.
He unnerved her and she didn't like it. If the feeling were similar to what she had felt before their sham of a wedding she would be okay with it, but it wasn't. Now he unnerved her in a different sense, one she couldn't explain, she'd never felt anything like it before.
She had thought she had him figured out. He was a gunda, a cheat, he was capable of doing any number of awful things to get the result he wanted. He was incapable of listening to reason, rushing into things before thinking them through. He let his heart guide him. He was loyal, he was there for her when she needed him even without her knowing.
He tried to hide it but he wasn't as awful as he tried to be for the world and that intrigued Thapki more than it should. Why was he so afraid of letting people see that other side of him? If her father hadn't fallen ill again the previous week she might never have known all the things that Bihaan had been doing without her knowledge to help her and her family. But why?
She couldn't quite understand him and that unnerved her. Because she wanted to know that other Bihaan better.
The man she was seeing glimpses of would never have done to her what he did. So why had he done it?
It was a mystery she was going to figure out. For now she had to get down to the kitchen she noted catching the time on the clock.
She glanced quickly in the direction of the man sleeping on the couch, the man she found herself thinking about more than she should before leaving the room, closing the door behind her.
