My (fake) Wedding

CONFESSIONS WITH COFFEE

"What are you doing here?" she asked in an unfriendly voice. And where was Everybody else? She had heard her cousin return in the wee hours of the morning, but she seemed to have left already.

He got up lazily.

S: "I came to apologize."

"Not interested," she stated bluntly. "Where's Everybody?"

"Chachaji and Bhaiya have gone to court. Bhabhi and chachiji to market and Sahil and Gauri were the only ones when I got here. When I gave her my credit card for the morning, she forgot to ask why I came by at all," he finished with a sly smile.

My own cousins sold me out to the beast. Granted, Gauri did not know about their last conversation, but it felt like a betrayal nonetheless.

"Can I make you a coffee?" he asked her.

"This is my house. This is my coffee. And I'll make it myself. Now, get out." She wanted him as far away as the world extended.

"I'm trying to apologize," he reiterated in a soothing voice.

A: "And I don't want your apologies. I want you to leave me alone."

Annika's hostility had several sources beyond her ire from the previous evening. Regardless of how intensely she disliked him when she went to bed, in the night, his eyes had invaded her dreams. She was miffed that hearing him say to her "you ignorant fool" had the power to wound her; this was worsened by the statement's underlying truth - she shouldn't have fallen for him and stayed as far away from him as possible. She did not and had paid for it. 

She detested that, in spite of his caustic words, she sympathized with his powerless urge to protect his family. Moreover, she was seeking desperately to outmatch with her asperity the willingness to forgive him, which she was infuriated to discover in herself. And there was the fact that, after she had slapped him across the face, he decided to show up with apologies, making her feel almost remorseful. She was fuming.

He came to stand next to her, and she despised her body for its awareness of him.

"All the same, I won't go anywhere until you hear me out." He said sincerely.

Annika suspected he was more stubborn than a mule. The poor animal had nothing on Shivaay Singh Oberoi.

"Fine. Say what you've come to say, then get out," she said, deciding, of course, that this was simply the fastest way to get rid of him. She was not interested in his words. Not one bit.

"I'm sorry for the way I spoke to you last night and also for what you had to witness. I didn't mean to hurt you." She raised her eyebrows in irritation - that was putting it mildly.

"As you understand, I trust very few people in this world with my secrets. And our marriage is the one I haven't told anyone about. So when one reporter was accusing you of trying to marry me for money, it was unforgiveable. I had to talk to his superiors and show him his place. Tia found me in the lot and listening to my conversation she tried to lighten my mood with her jokes. I had no idea she had any other intention by coming to me, so when she kissed me I was shocked and rendered speechless and before I can move I heard the car alarm banging and you standing there with all the accusation in your eyes."

She remained silent, and there was a pause. His voice sounded a little accusing when he spoke next.

S: "You judge swiftly and harshly, Annika, hardly realizing how deeply your arbitrarily thrown words may cut someone."

A: "I judge? When you were the one kissing another girl. Yeah, Shivaay, I'm the picture of cruelty," she said with heavy sarcasm. "Are you sure you went to the right address? Because it sounds to me like you've got the wrong lines here."