It Wasn't Supposed To Happen

13

Aniruddh did not miss the limp with which she set out to decide on what flowers were good enough. She didn't take care of herself at all. That is why he didn't like occasions like these anymore. She tired herself in order to make everything upto the mark for her kaka sasurji.

" Why is she doing...Why the hell is she limping..."

" Aniruddh babu, if we could go over the papers..." His assistant reminded.

" Yes...sure...I...I have already gone through all these. All I have to do is sign now...?"

" Yes..."

And he did the needful.

" These are not fresh enough Dada...! I told you I would not pay you in full if they looked like these...!" Now what was she going to do ? She would have to hand pick the good ones on her own.

And she got busy picking good flowers out along with Bihari. She heard Aniruddh approaching them, deep in conversation with the man beside him.
He stopped near them.
" What about the other party ?" He asked his companion.
And completely took her by surprise when he came and sat on the floor in front of her. She was on a stool. He was sitting down on one knee.
This was enough to halt her busy tiny hands clutching flowers in them and stare at him.

" Wh..." She started but her voice had gone unnoticed.

" They...they agreed on having a formal meeting with our...party..." His assistant replied, not quite able to understand the scene in front of him.

No one understood.

Aniruddh took her left feet in his hands and placed it on his knee.

" Good...! Ok ..! " He said, his brows furrowed. " They will try to negotiate but we don't want that."

Bondita didn't know what was going on. Her foot was tinkling and it had nothing to do with the fact that she was ticklish. What was he doing...?!! Every one was staring at them...!
He examined her foot while maintaining a conversation with the man who was looking at them with a quizical look.
Aniruddh found the cause of her limp.
She felt his fingers reach for her toe in which she was wearing a toe ring and it took her everything to not hold on to his shoulder in shock. She had been limping around because her toe ring had loosened and was freely moving, pinching her delicate skin. She was thinking of tightening it but something or the other had constantly been coming up. She would have done it later...!

But the pressing point was why her pati babu had taken it in his own hands, quite literally.

" We can't let them negotiate, they need to be punished. Money doesn't work everytime. If they try to negotiate, they already are halfway to accepting they are wrong" he said while holding the toe ring around her tiny toe and adjusting the band.

He examined her toe for a second and looked at her bobbing his head as if asking " is it ok now...?"

She shyly nodded a yes and Aniruddh got up and left to see his friend out.

It looked like he didn't even notice what he did had left her utterly spell bound.

Yes...this, and many such stories, were not worthy of garnering attentions of the hyped up women she was surrounded by right now.

The fact that she did not have an ordinary married life was pressing hard on her heart. How would it feel like to receive a compliment of her pati babu on how she looked ? She knew he cared for her but not in that certain way.

" You must know how it feels to lose interest of your husband." The comment pierced her heart. " He lost it to the point where he brought a second wife...!" She snickered.
So this is why her pati babu didn't want her to be in such a company.
" It must have been awful...!" The assault went on, this time by another. "But you took the right decision of not leaving the house. You would have become a chhodi hui aurat and nothing more. You are here thanks to your decision."

" That decision was nothing else but me giving up all of my self respect..." She retroted, trying to control the bubbling anger with in her.

" Self respect of a woman has no place in this society."

" My self respect has a place in my pati Babu's heart and he guards it with everything he has..." She was about to give a piece of her mind to this woman.
" And yet he once threw you out of the haveli and brought a second wife." They were done being subtle.

Piece of mind won't do. A slap, on the other, just might do the trick.

Just then, she saw Aniruddh descend the stairs. He looked... uptight. He was looking around as if looking for something.
Did he want something ? He could ask for it from her maa. She was standing right there, near the stairs.
" I should go to him. He looks uncomfortable asking for whatever it is that he wants." And she started getting up when their eyes met.

It felt, just for a moment, that his eyes smiled. She was sure she imagined it. She noticed his tensed shoulder now getting relaxed. His neck no more turning his head having found the object of his search. His Bondita.

Even if she was asked to share accounts of precisious moments with her husband, she could not for any price share with anyone what she felt at times like these. Not because no one would understand but because these moments were her own. Moments she felt like his wife. She would not share it with anyone, not even him.

She was settling comfortably once again, now knowing that her pati babu needed nothing but to see her. Which he had and now was visibly relaxed when she saw him coming towards her.

Okkk...he was now standing at the head of their little circle.

Scanning the circle briefly he turned his eyes to Bondita.

"Water...I wanted water..." he said before he was whisked away by thakuma to where there were arrangements of the meal.

She smiled to her self. He had never voiced it but he really really didn't like her being in such company.

She didn't need to explain these low lives, yes, about what bond she shared with her pati babu.
No one here shared half the bond of a husband and wife as she shared with her pati babu. These people, their marriage, their love, their bonds were a mere mockery in comparison of her own.

He did not consider her his wife in a conventional sense but she knew she was the only one in the room who actually held the respect and love and care a wife should get from her husband.

She was her pati Babu's wife, in every way she had an understanding of.

She held out the glass to Aniruddh. He held it but didn't take it out of her hands rather tugged her towards him.

He had sensed Bondita's discomfort when she sat there with those women. If it was upto him, he would just shield her from all the world. Ironically he was training her to fight the said world. He himself was confused at this very moment about what he actually wanted.
He never wanted to tell her what she could or could not do. But today he was on edge.

" Try...not to spend...I.. I mean...just spend less time with such people..." He looked into her eyes. She was smiling." You...you might not like it...I think... that's all" he added and took the glass and drank the whole content in one go.

" I know..." She said smiling. He was her pati babu.