The Royal Stranger

11

"They are very confused about why I married an Indian when I was brought up in New York," Vrishali spoke looking at him.

"What was your answer?" Padmanabh asked cautiously wanting to know the answer. Vrishali smiled shaking her head.

"Why should I tell you?" She asked him teasingly.

"Because I asked."

"I'm not going to tell you." Padmanabh shook his head as she smiled at him.

"Your cousins are coming tomorrow?"

"Yes! I miss them so much. They are coming in the early morning. You are going to be there right?" Vrishali asked. She hoped for the answer to be yes.

Padmanabh felt bad when her smile turned down when he shook his head negatively. He wants to be there and know more about her from her cousins. Sadly he needs to attend a meeting with his mother.

"Hmm, okay. Can we use the kitchen? We will keep the kitchen neat."

"As I said before, you don't have to ask me. It is your home too." Padmanabh explained.

"You should go and meet your grandparents. They must be missing you," Padmanabh said. He doesn't want her to miss her family, he wants her to go and meet them whenever she wants.

"Yeah, I was actually planning to meet them but dada and dadi aren't here. They went to a relative's house to attend a wedding," Vrishali spoke looking at Padmanabh. She observed that there are eye bags under his eyes because of lack of sleep.

"Aren't you sleeping on time?" Vrishali questioned focusing all the attention on Padmanabh.

Padmanabh glanced at her before shifting his attention to the road. He took a U-turn. "No, had to do late hours at the office to work on some important files."

"Oh, are you always like this?" Padmanabh frowned his brows not understanding her question.

"Pardon?"

"I mean do you always stay up late in your office working on those files and other work?"

"Most of the time, Papa can't work overtime and I need to look after his work and also ma's. I have to go through her schedule every day and arrange her meetings. So yes," he answered.

"Why would you arrange your mom's meetings and go through her schedule? I mean she has an assistant right?" Vrishali asked in confusion.

Padmanabh smiled, "ma has an assistant but she is a politician. You don't know what is going to happen whenever she steps out. I can't be irresponsible when it comes to ma. To make sure she is meeting the correct people, I arrange her meetings and look after her schedule," Padmanabh spoke.

He is surprising himself by talking more and more every day. Usually, he would not utter a word, he likes to stay quiet and not speak with anyone.

But here he is talking and having a normal conversation with her. Padmanabh did not even speak to his sister or any of his friends from school or college or childhood much.

They all know about him. Padmanabh is and was the silent guy who likes to stay away from everyone.

"I understand now, you must be tired by the end of the day," Vrishali said.

She now understands why he always stays in his office and works late at night. Before marriage when she stalked him secretly he never stepped out to enjoy his life.

Padmanabh stopped the car and parked it. He turned his face looking at Vrishali. He felt something change inside him when he heard her say that.

"Everyone gets tired at the end of the day, everyone got responsibilities to take care of," Padmanabh spoke indirectly opening his side of the car door.