Birds of a Feather

Chapter 23: Choice

"And that everyone thinks that we are not real... as in real like a husband and a wife."

Arnav simply smiled, and kept his eyes trained on the road, which was deserted owing to the late hour.

"So?" Khushi pressed when she understood she wasn't going to get an answer.

"So what?"

"So why does she think that?"

"Because we are not... a real husband and wife."

Khushi rolled her eyes. "Well obviously! But how does she know that? Did you tell her?"

"I don't need to."

"So what then?"

Arnav shrugged. "There is nothing to explain here... she is my best friend. She is the first person I told when I started dating my first girlfriend. She is the one I go to when I am pissed off or happy, usually in that order. I would be stupid to think that she didn't notice what kind of a relationship you and I share."

Khushi nodded, seeing the affection in his eyes. No wonder his sisters loved him. "You do know that she is crazy though, right?"

"You don't even know the half of it," he replied, laughing. "But she means well... genuinely that is."

"I have no doubts about that," Khushi said, who had warmed up to Lavanya's attitude over the last month. "But don't you think she told the rest of the family about us? Because how can they all think that you and I don't....?"

"They don't all think like that," he answered, unperturbed with her questions. "Just my Mom, Dad and Di... and it's not because of Lavu."

"Then who?"

He took a deep breath, hesitating.

"What?"

"You sleep on the couch."

"So?"

"A real husband and wife as you put it, don't sleep in separate rooms."

Khushi didn't follow the point he was making. "Yes, I know. But we sleep in separate rooms in our apartment, not when we visit your family."

"Oh, so that's why you sleep on the couch?"

Khushi was now aghast and slightly irritated. "Am I missing something? And since when do you have a problem with me sleeping on the sofa? Isn't that the whole point of this cover-up? We pretend to be husband and wife, not actually be husband and wife?!"

"I don't have a problem with where you sleep Khushi, but I certainly don't see why you have to sleep on the couch when there is a much more comfortable bed available."

"So you want me to sleep on the bed? With you? Everyday?"

Arnav sighed. They had arrived at their building, where the valet was waiting for them to descend the car. "I don't want you to do anything, I am just saying you can sleep on the bed... I had just assumed that you liked sleeping on the sofa all this time."

Khushi racked her brain. All she could recollect was his cold glares from the early days of their marriage, which used to make her wish the earth would just open and swallow her up whole. What else was she supposed to assume of his stony silence? If he was okay with sharing the same bed, couldn't he have just said so?

A dim bell rang somewhere. He had said it. Not once, but twice. On the day after karva chauth, when they were hammering out the fine details of their deal, he said, quite clearly "the bed is not so bad to sleep on you know". The second time had been in her dimly lit bedroom in the Gupta Manor, when he had said, "the bed is big enough for both of us".