A Chance to Love

Chapter 39

"What do you mean where it came from? It was always there, just hidden behind the fog so I can surprise you all with it later on." I tell her

"It's nice Jiju," Aman said.

"Yeah, but how come I didn't see it when I came before," Anand ask confused.

"I had the fog machines installed before I called you so you didn't see, that's why" I tell him and then notice the elder's confused faces, "Actually the basement was not in use till now and therefore no one knew about it" I tell them.

"Wait!" Kiran exclaimed, "So the reason you didn't allow us to prepare any of your upstairs room was because you already had a room downstairs?" Well looks like my Bitto is getting smart.

"Yes Bitto, you got that right," I tell her. "Anyways, come on everyone, I'll tour you all around the house, because I'm sure once the kids reach downstairs, they are not going to come back up easily." With this, I took everyone around the house. We started from our rooms; it was fun to see Maa-Papa's reactions when they saw Preeti's room. However, we told them we wanted her to have her personal space whenever she's over, so no unnecessary questions were raised. Then they were surprised to see Bitto's room and just like their daughter, they said that I went too overboard with the toys, but I appeased them by informing that I have a playroom downstairs where all the extra toys will go when Bitto is ready to grow up. However, Ms. Chaudhary did point out that Bitto is already grown up, but Bitto instantly denied saying she is still my baby, which she will always be. Anyways, after knowing that I had rooms for Anand and them as well, they were really happy, however, when Aman asked why I didn't have a room for him, I told him that I have one downstairs to which he got really happy. By the time we reached Kitchen, Preeti was almost done with the cooking as she kept the dinner light after the whole day of eating different food and extra snacks while touring. Therefore, we waited for her to finish while chatting away in the kitchen itself and then went downstairs.

Downstairs we had the living area as well as the bedroom in the centre hall as already apparent from above, and then we had a small kitchen to which Preeti asked whether I was trying to separate her from her kids by dividing kitchen, which was laughed at by everyone. I told her that the kitchen is just enough for her to use for storing few necessary things as it is too small for cooking with little space left after installing a small refrigerator, microwave and coffee maker. I told her that there was only an induction cooker available in case she needs to cook some instant food, as there was neither space not supplies for her to use for more cooking. The kitchen was just made with the thought that she or the kids don't need to climb up for even a glass of water. Next, were the en suite and the walk in closet cum dressing room, which the kids really liked, as they also had a column to store their excessive clothes there. Then there was the library cum study room. As I had my room upstairs almost turned into an office with all work stuff I had stored there, I thought to use that as my home office while changing the office I had made downstairs for the kids to use as a study room. Moreover, since it was big enough, I even arranged a small library into it keeping in mind Preeti and Bitto's love for books. Afterwards there were two rooms, which were empty, as I didn't have any use of them for now, then we moved towards the kids room which was actually a play room filled with toys for Aman. It was bigger than an average room so there was even a small bed added there for Aman to use, which made him happy as he said now he too had a room like Bitto, filled with toys.

After staying downstairs for some time, we moved upstairs, I turned on the glass roof and fog machines in the centre again which left the kids in awe. They asked why I added the glass roof to which I told them that I didn't want to risk any accidents with the kids so I added them. They also enabled the lights to pass through completely from the glass roof above so the purpose to have natural light in every room during the day was fulfilled since there were no windows in our room, also they were sound-proof so they helped keep the surprise intact when I had to work something down here in their presence. They can also only be operated from downstairs, which meant that kids won't get to leave them open in our absence since I was still going to keep the basement locked when neither me nor Preeti was at home to ensure their safety. No one argued as technically it was our bedroom downstairs so we had the right to privacy.

Therefore, we all moved upstairs to enjoy our dinner in the dining room with fun and talks, before retiring to our rooms. Aman came with us downstairs to sleep in his new room and Ms. Chaudhary occupied one of the guest rooms, to which I told her choose the one she liked the most as I was going to renovate it to make it her permanently as now she was also family, to which she felt really touched.

Preeti went upstairs to ensure that everyone was settled comfortably in their rooms after changing, so I also went to check on Aman to find him wide-awake and still exploring his room. I told him to sleep so that he can explore tomorrow with fresh mind, to which he listened and after staying for some time to ensure that he does sleep, I went back in time to see Preeti coming down. We both retired to bed and I explained her why I decided to expand the house in the basement. I also told her how I was thinking on adding another floor above in future and bring Maa-Papa and Aman home to stay with us, to which she said they might not like that, as this will never give them a chance to strengthen their bond with Aman, especially Maa; so I dropped the idea.

We kept talking about anything, everything until sleep took over us, and we both went to sleep peacefully in each other's embrace.

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