It was something about the color white and not pink that
reminded her of their room back home in NY. Perhaps the idea was never to
recreate the same room here, yet she reveled in the last memory she had been
amidst their presence; their suhaag raat. A ginormous part-frosted glass vase
filled with white sensual orchids, fanned out atop the dresser that faced the
bed. She was blushing scarlet already as her cheeks filled with a red hue. She
quickly took out her mobile, even before she could dry her hair or finish tying
her sari, and texted him "Thank you for the flowers...What are you
planning to do here? Remember this is
your jiju's house" with a sweet smile curving her lips.
But as she continued to peer at the mobile for a response,
a knock at the door made her scurry to hug the sari to her chest and before she
could halt the person from opening the door, Martha, the help at Rishabh's
home, came in.
"I go home..." She said in a bloated thick
accent "You flowers no allergy no? Reshi Senor send...for you ill" A
motherly smile popped up on her face now and she added "You need
anything?...Dinner" She said pointing the index finger down and ended with
"Table down".
Geet kept her smile in acknowledgement, only this was an
empty one. Sporting a look like a kid on the street robbed of her favorite
bauble that she felt had been rightfully hers, she sighed with bitter
disappointment. The bouquet of
perishable orchids which cost no more than a few hundreds of dollars had indeed
grown to be of immense value, the second she sighted it with the presumption he
had sent them for her.
"What's with women and flowers or cards or 'I miss
you's or 'I love you's...You know I do Geet. Don't you?" Is what he had
argued during their second fight; the first being an hour-long discussion over
their plans to come visit the other. She had cried following an unsatisfied
travel schedule, albeit, never during the call. The number of times he was
going to fly had come out to a little less than her expectation. As a follow-up
to their distressed phone call, she had sent him a bouquet the next day. And of
course, by some misguided notion of romance and young love (She was 24 so to
speak) she had expected another flower arrangement to head her direction as a
token of closure for their fight from the previous night. Given her husband had
his way with grand themes, to make up in a novel manner; she had hoped
something with a surprise element in return. When the whole day had passed and
she had not even received an acknowledgement over phone, she had flared up in
rage. In return, as he took her call while he was still on hold with another
office call, he had given her a piece of his mind in frustration. That is when
that curt statement had come out of him, launching another night of fury for
the duo. Well, things did sort out and he was here, wasn't he?
Despite the fact that he had argued multiple times over
his preference to showing his love, than speaking about it, it had put her off,
quite a bit. When distance separated them far enough, words were all they had,
she had told him, but he had cleverly diverted their conversation course
stating that he was a better man of action, than to fish for words to coin his
feelings. Come Friday she had questioned his lack of 'actions' in the last
one-week, to which he had stated office issues and lack of time as excuses,
which clearly had not suited her either.
And she had twirled in joy at spotting the white orchids
in her room, somehow sensing the open wound from those three nights inside her.
But it was indeed short lived as Martha had come in to crush her spirited
moment, giving her a reason, to instead wear that frown on her face.
Surely, she was of not the kind who attached any
importance to expressing deep sentiments of life with such tokens or trinkets;
notwithstanding, she yearned it from Maan and for unknown reasons too. Perhaps
their wedding had come across as nothing short of a fairy tale that she had
romanticized their whole life in a similar fashion. If not for the 'actions'
that he sought to have mastery of, she was not ready to give up on her attempts
to have him 'talk' to her often. To her, he was more direct than needed at
times and at other situations, he was just plain tight-lipped, driving her
crazy between the extremes. In actuality, he was mixing up the events that
called for his reticence and with the ones that required his candidness.
Overall, she really could do with a bit of cheesy, if that is what being
romantic and sugarcoated talk came across to him. Or rather, explain to him there
was really no such thing as cheesy or being corny, when they were only mere
perceptions of being over-affectionate, which she thought he could live with.
So, she armed herself with the necessary arsenal for the
lesson. Of the many that came to her mind, and from the things she had packed,
incase he showed up there, she first chose the white and maroon block print
sari with the same colored zari border. The scandalous blouse that hugged her
chest, and the hemmed top edges that dug into her skin, made her feminine
curves bulge out in prominence. Thanks to her revealing blouse, more of her
smooth neck and shoulder, deep ravine of a back and the fair expanse of her
chest were for plain view as she carefully pleated her aanchal to come out that
way. Standing in front of the mirror, she turned to either sides to confirm if she
was to make his eyes pop out with desire. Hmmm, she hummed now, twisting her
finger around her long mane that fell to the side of her face. Curls, she felt
was what she was missing. As much as she loved herself with pin-straight hair,
she couldn't help but think that rings of cascading curls, gave her the dark
'Umph' she often lacked. Yet when all this didn't convince her, she lined thick
kajal to the curves of her eyes and indulged in her newfound nose ring, pinning
it to the right side of her nose. And if appearances went for something, she
was indeed dressed to kill for the night.
At least that is how he saw her as he entered the room,
while on an office call, freezing him in his tracks. She smiled as she
recognized the stumped look on his face giving out the secret that she had achieved
the required impression, much sooner than she had hoped for.
"Hush" she said, putting her index finger to her lips, as
she turned slightly jutting out her slender waist for him.
"Let's go on that walk now" She said, with a provocative
smile, the neutral gloss on her lips, alluring enough to make him gulp down his
bursting need to covet her lips.
"The night is still young..." She whispered coming close to
his ears.
To be continued...
This is what I was thinking of for her sari tie up. And this for the nose ring. Thank you all for the lovely comments. I appreciate them and they all mean so much to me to keep me going. Please do look to Author's note on the first post of the thread for any news/updates from my end.
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