-UNEDITED- [ONLY THE FIRST FIVE CHAPTERS ARE EDITED]
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•Indian Arranged Marriage•
I had heard of him but never actually seen him. I never thought, in my wildest dream...
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"Hey." His voice's merely a whisper. Our eyes meet. "Hello." I clear my throat before smiling at him. My heart pounding so hard in my chest, I'm afraid he can hear it. I wait for him to lead the conversation.
He clears his throat, his feet tapping against the floor as his eyes roam my face before they return back to my eyes and his lips parts, "I believe you already know my name. But I'd still want to start from the beginning, Manik. Manik Raj Malhotra." He speaks, carefully. As if he's scared of saying something wrong. Guess, I'm not the only one nervous here.
I stop myself from wiping down my sweaty hands on my outfit. "Dr. Nandini Murthy." My eyes goes back to his tapping foot—if it's just him being nervous like me, it's fine. If it's an habit, I'm changing it the first thing after our marri—? What? Where did that come from? My thoughts makes blood rush to my cheeks more profusely. I feel my ears warming up.
"I don't know how much you know about me. I'll start with my work. I'm the CEO of Malhotra company and I'm also the lead singer of Fab5– a band I created with four others back in school. Music is my passion but it's not something I see myself doing 365 days with the creativity it takes to make, hence the CEO position. I'm really hardwor—" He stops speaking when I stand up from the couch. His foot stops tapping against the floor. His eyes on every move of mine. I reach for the water bottle on the coffee table and pour some in the glass. I forward it to him, he looks at me confused but when I nod at him, he takes it from my hand and takes a sip. I settle back on my seat.
"I'm not interviewing you for a job position." I smile, he looks down biting his bottom lip. A bright smile on his face. He's blushing, I look down facepalming myself. I look back at him, feeling his burning gaze on me. Our eyes meet again, this time both of us smiling the widest. The nervousness settles down a bit and a sense of calmness takes over. I exhale a soft relaxing breath.
"Of course, I'd want to know more about your work life. But today I'd just want to know you as Manik and not the CEO or lead singer this world talks about. I'd want to know you as you. Your dreams. Your goals. Your expectations from your wife to be. Your family. Friends. Past relationships. If that's alright with you?" I try to lead the conversation this time. Maybe he's meeting someone for marriage for the first time as well, hence the nervousness.
'And you said it's not an interview." He teases, I bite back on my laughter, but the smile stays both on our faces.
"Let's start than shall we?" He speaks, I nod.
"Hello. I'm Nandini." I give a little wave making him chuckle. He stares me for a second before something comes to him. He closes his eyes, I keep looking at him confused. His eyes flutters open and the shine in there, the warmth in those orbs makes my breath hitch.
"I'm going to be really, really straight forward here Nandini. We can go back and forth of hi and hellos the next time we meet after we are rokafied, but I only have these few minutes or even less to convince you to say yes to me. I really wanna make this thing work between us. I just closed my eyes and I could see myself spending my life with you. So there's a few about me— I really love my family. Like a lot. Mukti is like my first kid even though she is elder to me by like five minutes. She is my twinny winny. My friends, we have been together since our kindergarten days. We eat, work, fight, celebrate. We do everything together. I have no other friends than those four downstairs. They all mean the world to me. Shit. Fuck. Am I ruining it? I don't mean to say my world is restricted to them. I wanna make you a part of my world too and..." He trails off, taking a breath. I hold my breath. He runs his fingers through his hairs, showing how he's a ball of emotions, nervousness and jitters. Just like me.
