My heart calls your name

Chapter 08: A Home-Cooked Meal And Heartfelt Conversations.

Ved

I felt my body relax as my mother hugged me. Her full height reached my chest as she tried to rub my back.

"At least let him come in", Baba said chuckling from the sofa. Aadarsh Jiju waved at me. Soham comfortably engaged with this plushie on his father's lap.

"Come in", Aai pulled me in. I removed Loki's leash and let him run around.

"Heyy! How are you?", Neeti Tai said as she engulfed me in a hug.

"I am doing good, Tai. How are you?", I said hugging her back.

"Khup chaan*", replied, beaming at me. (Very Good*)

I sit down on the sofa beside Baba holding the glass of water my mother passed me. I take a few sips and place it on the coffee table.

"You've grown bigger since the last time I saw you", I said tickling Soham's plump belly. He extended his arms towards me, I scooped him in my arms and he stood up on my thigh as soon as I held him near me.

"You're a big boy now. You're so adorable my little potato", I said cooing at him and he continued his gibberish, giving me a toothy smile.

"Don't call my child a potato", Tai smacked my head.

We all share little snippets of events from our lives that happened since the last time we saw each other. Tai and Dada couldn't visit a lot because of Dada's hectic schedule. We all snacked on dry fruits as Aai Baba narrated their super happening Kerala trip. I made lunch for Loki real quick and called him.

We shifted to the dining table as I mentioned my yesterday's little adventure. Both Aai & Tai were clearly in shock.

"Well, Thank God both the mother and child are safe", Tai said as she adjusted Soham in his meal chair.

"Good job, Beta", Baba said patting my back.

"So, you have worked with her for how long?", Dada asked adding pickles to everyone's plates.

"Three months roughly", I replied as I served Shrikhand.

"What's her name?", Aai asked.

I look up to find everyone expectantly looking at me.

"Meera Deo", I said trying not to show I noticed their attention on me.

We all were eating lunch, and Dada, Tai and I discussing work when Aai changed the topic. She pushed her phone in Tai's direction.

"See, I thought I heard that name somewhere. We received her profile", Aai told everyone.

"Profile for what?", Confusion visible on my face.

"For marriage of course. Rishta for you", My food was stuck in my throat as soon as she said that.

"Show show show", Tai said the moment Aai brought up the topic of my marriage.

"Ved, She's gorgeous. Look at her qualifications", Tai said zooming in on Meera's picture. "She looks so graceful. You both will definitely look good together. You will have pretty babies too."

They didn't give me a moment to recover from my coughing fit when my eyes bulged out at her baby comment. Dada patted my back asking me to look up.

"Let me see", Baba asked.

"You too?", I gave him a puzzled look. "Is this why you called me? To lure me under the false pretences of feeding me good food and then breach the topic of my marriage?", I said looking at all of them.