Arranged Marriage ✓

Chapter - Thirty-seven.

Nishita.

Some hot breaths on my face made me wake up. I lazily opened my eyes up and saw I was curled up in a ball in Darshan’s embrace. I smiled. Nothing new to me. I rubbed my eyes when I realized I wasn’t wearing the same clothes I wore, last night.

Without getting up, I searched for my clothes. They looked like they were thrown by someone who was too angry. ‘Why on Earth would I be so angry that I will throw my clothes on the floor like this?’, I thought. I scratched my head and Darshan moved a little. My head hurt.

Darshan.

Wait,… what? Who?

Darshan…

Beer…

Drunk…

Shouting…

Last night…

Kisses…

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

Oh yes, he ‘kind of’ fucked me.

Am I regretting it now?

Guilt...

Regret…

Darshan…

I mentally slapped my forehead and told myself, “Why the fuck did you do this? You fucked it up all!”. No wonder why, I found myself blushing when I said, ‘fucked’ and ‘it’.

‘Stop blushing, Nishi!’, I told me. Nishi. Darshan calls me that. And I think, it’s sweet… isn’t it? Yeah, it is… I know, right?
I glanced over the clock nailed at in the wall. ‘11: 50 am’, showed the clock.

Darshan suddenly moved from his left side to his right; meaning on my side and I felt his hot breath against face, again. I brushed my fingers in his hair and he snuggled closer. Apparently, he loves whenever I do that. There's this guy I married who calls me a kid and likes to be pampered like a kid. Now, who’s the kid, again?

His eyes shot open. A huge smile spread on my face, without any reasons. He quickly shut his eyes. “Hey”, I said, trying to get even more closer, “Good morning”. “Hm”, he lazily said, “morning”. “Wake up, you lazy ass!”, I laughed, trying to get up. He pulled me back, and I fell on him.

“Ow!”, we both said in unison. “Darshan! I’m heavy, you could have got hurt. I could get hurt. Don’t act childishly every goddamn time!”, I frowned. He simply ignored me. “Moreover, I am still sore from last night, too weak”, I softly told and he wickedly smiled.

“Really? Are you?”, he sat up and helped to sit, as well. I nodded in response. “Tell me about it”, he pressed on. I opened my mouth to say no and then suddenly my phone rang. I searched for my phone on the bed and finally found it.

I smiled, widely when the incoming call was coming from Ma. I answered the call and said, “Hello?”. “Where were you? What took you so long?”, Ma questioned. Darshan sighed and got up to use the bathroom.

“I was sleeping”, I told her. “Sleeping? For so late? Surely I have told you to wake up, make breakfast, take a shower, do your bed, do the dishes and do all the household chores, but you never listened to me—”

“Ma, I hope you do remember telling me to stay up until my husband sleeps? Darshan… came late last night. And we were stay long for some reasons and that’s why we woke up late.”, I explained.

“Oh”, she said. “Um, yeah. Why did you call, by the way?”, I asked, secretly hoping that she had called to wish me. “Nothing, just like that. Was sitting so thought of ringing you, do you have any plans?”, she asked.

Maybe to invite us for dinner? “I don’t know, I think… Darshan has some plans for today but, why do you ask, though?”, I told. “I told you, nothing”, She said, “Why does Darshan have plans?”. “Um, Ma it’s— it’s 12th of March, today” I said. “Yeah, so?”, she asked, “Does his family have a special occasion for that day?”.

“It’s my birthday, today.”, I softly said, my gaze fixed at my nails. “Oh”, she exclaimed, “Ah, yes yes, today is your birthday”. “Yeah, I think Darshan is calling me and I need to go”, I lied. “Yeah, go”, before I could even mutter a ‘goodbye’, Ma cut the call.

I looked at my phone for awhile and then I saw Darshan leaning against the wall. “Hey—”, he intervened, “Don’t you dare to act normal in front of me, I heard she forgot your birthday, now tell me all about it”.

“What do you want to know? She just forgot it and… and people forget so many things! I wonder if Khushi and Nabiha even remember it or not but I’m glad that you did”, I walked towards him and placed a small peck on his cheek, “I’ll be right back”.

I stood in front of the washbasin in the bathroom and tears trickled down my cheeks, I covered my mouth with my hands, so that Darshan would not hear me cry. I didn’t want him to.

Even though, I told him that people tend to forget a lot of things, as they go through a lot in their lives, but deep down inside I was hurt. I felt sorry for myself that my own mother forgot my birthday. Who am I kidding? She never remembered it! She was… always busy.

I quickly washed my face and brushed my teeth. When I came out I saw Darshan sipping his coffee and he held my cup for me. “Thank you”, I told him, taking the cup from him. “Tell me one thing, Nishita”, he took a sip, “What’s your story?”.

I looked up at him, confused. “What do you mean?”, I asked him. “I mean, you and I are married for about three months, now. And I barely know you! It’s not that, that I don’t know you, at all. But it’s just that, I just want to know more about you. You know?”, he said. “My story…”, I said.

“It’s boring, pathetic, irritating and… and painful.”, I added. “Every single living human being has been through pain at some point in their lives. Just tell me about it”, he encouraged.

I wanted to tell him everything. Every possible thing. But I was afraid. I was afraid to be judged by him. What if he judged me? What if he judged me on the basis of what I had gone through…?

“I can’t”, I bit my lower lip. “Nishi”, he nudged me, “look at me”. He said in a commanding tone. I could not help but look at him.

“When a man marries a woman, he doesn’t marry her to continue his bloodline. He marries her to have someone to spend the rest of his life with. He wants a partner; a lifetime companion. Someone who will never leave him. Someone who will always choose him, over probably anyone else. Someone with whom he can share all his secrets. To have someone who will give as much as he will give her”, he said. “And of course someone who will give him mind blowing sex”, Darshan — being completely incomplete without talking about sex — joked.

I pursed my lips in a thin and smiled. “You can trust me with all you have, Nishita. I promise to never break it, I’ll be there always. No matter what”, he said. He said, ‘always’. He didn’t knew what always meant to me. As a Potterhead, I learnt that saying ‘always’, it could be a way of saying, ‘I love you’.

“Now tell me, please!”, he snapped me out of my chain of thoughts. I took a sharp drag of breath in and began narrating from the start.

Cliffhanger 😋! I know that after the previous chapter you guys want more of romantic scenes between them and trust me, I do too! Gonna write a romantic part soon but next chapter is gonna be kinda emotional. Don’t cry. Don’t hate me for the cliffhanger, stay safe and DON’T LET THIS CHAPTER FLOP! -_-

Also, I would like to take a minute and appreciate Khushiddz ‘s editing skills. Thanks bub for the new book cover! Ihy, fy! 😏♥