Akshara heard the front door slam shut and felt the loud banging of a man's footsteps against the hard stone floor making her aware the her dear husband had finally managed to find his way home. She felt the rush of his presence around her as he moved past the kitchen where she was busy cooking to go to their bedroom.
Akshara paused chopping the green bell peppers, "Well, good evening to you too," she mumbled to no one in particular.
Just then she heard a loud bang of a door closing and the sound of the shower turning on. Raising her eyebrows, frowning at the sudden urgency in Abhimanyu's demeanor, she deduced that husband dearest was either having his time of the month or he had a bad day at work.
Feeling it was none of her business to interfere in Abhimanyu's matters, she acknowledged she was better off not wasting her time trying to understand that puzzling man. And so she went back to focusing on chopping the remainder of her bell peppers.
After it had been a couple of minutes, she heard the shower turn off. Akshara had finished sautéing the bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms and just about had finished adding in the cheese cubes when she heard the sweet, sweet sound of her husband's voice.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!"
"Ah, and there it is." She smiled to herself, fully prepared to go to battle.
"AKSHARA!" Abhimanyu's voice boomed across the apartment making Akshara roll her eyes.
"Yes, I'm here!" She chirped, cool as a cucumber. Silently enjoying her raging husband. "What's caught your panties in such a twist?" She teased, wiping her hands on the apron she was wearing, walking towards their bedroom.
Except the sight of what she witnessed in the room caught her off guard —enough to faint.
"What the —" Akshara stopped her words midway as she clasped one hand over her mouth in order to muffle her laughter.
In front of her eyes stood Abhimanyu, wearing a pair of sweatpants, his hair damp from the shower, looking miffed as he had one arm slinging through the neck hole of her cotton shirt. A shirt of hers which looked no less than a handkerchief trying to cover his hard, abs-olutely chiseled body. Her eyes roamed down to his sweatpants and then to the outline of the large bulge which he carried.
What? She was a girl. How could she not notice a hot man when he stood right in front of her? And Abhimanyu Birla was an exceptionally hot man.
"What are you wearing?" Akshara questioned, unable to stop herself from laughing.
"What do you think I'm wearing? Where the fuck are my clothes?! What the fuck is this?!" Abhimanyu shouted, bewildered.
Akshara controlled her laughter, clearing her throat before answering him. "Calm down, Dr. Banner. No need to go all Hulk on me." Akshara paused, amused by her own words. "Wow! What apt comparison. Good job, Akshara." She patted herself on the back, feeling proud.
"Have you ever gotten yourself seen by a psychologist? If you haven't then you should. I highly recommend it. Perhaps they could be able to answer why only you find your stupid dumb comparisons to be funny."
"Don't be jealous. You'll learn to make good jokes one day too." Akshara replied back, mockingly, earning a glare from Abhimanyu.
"Akshara, I'm going to ask you again. What the fuck is this?" He asked, circling back to their original topic of discussion.
"It's my shirt." She answered, catching a hold of her lewd thoughts and bringing her back to reality.
"No shit, Sherlock." Abhimanyu responded, miffed and trying his best to not end up in jail for homicide. "What I mean is, what is it doing in my closet?" He asked calmly.
"Our." Akshara corrected, knowing full well she weds pushing his buttons. But enjoying it thoroughly.
"What?" Abhimanyu asked, "Do you moonlight as an English tutor? Trying to give me grammar lessons right now?"
"No! Do you need grammar lessons though? I know a guy though. He's really good. I can —" Akshara began rambling off.
"What..." What the hell was this girl going on about?! Abhimanyu's eyes did a double take as his confusion, agitation, and pounding headache became worse than it needed to be. "Akshara!" Abhimanyu shook the crazy rambling girl in front of him by the arms, trying to get her back to focus.
"Anyway, no! It's our closet now. Yours and mine. Ours. Not just yours. In fact, the entire room is ours now. Joint custody. See?"
Abhimanyu followed Akshara's line of vision and a sense of unease began to take over him. "My room! What did you do to my poor room?!!" He whined, horrified at the state of his room.
How had he not noticed before that the entire trajectory of his room had been altered? Oh right, because he had been seething due to his conversations with Sir and Parth that he hadn't paid attention to anything else.
But now he was! Oh god! His poor room! His pillows! Where before there had just been two pillows, now there were six! And all different shapes, sizes and textures too! What the hell! And the blanket was replaced by a comforter. A silky baby pink comforter. And plush carpets lined both sides of the bed with small blankets —throws as he'd heard girls call them —laid out on the armrest of the sofa.
And if things weren't bad already, that's when he saw them. Candles. Candles were kept on both night tables.
Nauseous.
He was going to be sick. His poor bachelor pad —was no longer a bachelor pad. And he didn't even have a chance to mourn the departure of his best friend.
"What did you do to my room?" Abhimanyu pleaded, trying his best to not shed tears.
"Made it better. Feels more homely don't you think?" Akshara clapped her hand together, feel proud of her interior decorating skills.
"Makes me feel homeless." Abhimanyu mumbled to himself.
"Sorry what?"
"Yah, it's good. Very, very good." Abhimanyu grit out, grasping onto the last of his patience. "Now what did you do to my clothes? Hope you didn't burn them or something?" At this point, Abhimanyu was only half joking, because knowing Akshara's knack for reorganization, he wouldn't be surprised if he found his clothes in the trash somewhere.
"No, no. They're here." Akshara turned towards the closet, sliding open the door.
Abhimanyu watched as the more of the closet door Akshara slid open, the more her clothes came into view. A further crack of the closet door and all he saw was more of Akshara's clothes gracing the hangers and shelves of the closet.
"Hold on, they're here somewhere!" Akshara announced, making Abhimanyu fold his arms around his chest in annoyance. She slid the door back a bit further. "Ah, here they are." She announced, sliding the last bit of the closet door open revealing a small portion, roughly 20% of the closet space dedicated to Abhimanyu.
Flabbergasted.
Appalled.
That's how he was feeling. In a matter of 10 hours since he had left Akshara on her own accord, he was beginning to feel like a guest —a stranger in his own apartment. An apartment which was supposed to be his safety haven was now tarnished by the wicked witch's presence.
"So, what do you think?"
"Speechless." Gutted. "The change you've brought to this apartment in a matter of a few hours —absolutely phenomenal. I feel like giving you a big round of applause." And pinning you to the wall to practice my knife throwing skills.
"If you don't like it, I can change things back to the way they were." Akshara offered after witnessing the sarcasm dripping like fire from his voice.
Abhimanyu sighed, not wanting to disappoint Akshara or diminish her cheerfulness. "No, it's fine. I'll get used to it, I guess. But I do expect to get half of my closet space back."
Akshara nodded her head eagerly, accepting of Abhimanyu's truce. "60-40?"
"50-50."
Akshara narrowed her eyes, getting ready to argue but decided to it push her luck. "Fine. 50-50."
"Good. Although I would have accepted the 60-40 too had you stood your ground." Abhimanyu winked at her, satisfied by the deal, flashing her with a teasing smile as he grabbed his shirt from the closet and made his way out the door.
"Damnit! I'll get you next time Birla!" But truth be told, she was happy with whatever she was given. She had made some big changes to Abhimanyu's lifestyle. It was only fair the man got to keep 50% of his closet space. He deserved that much at least.
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Update: I think there has been a problem with Wattpad app and people aren't getting notifications for story updates. So hopefully that is fixed soon! But thank you for reading this chapter to those who did manage to read it!
Ah. Let me know what you guys thought! And remember, the nights not over yet. Akshara's cooking dinner. Only question is will Abhimanyu eat it??