We were casually talking after eating our late lunch when my phone indicated I had a new message. Knowing it was definitely Kartavya, I moved towards my phone with a smile.
"Oho madam ki smile tho dekho." I just rolled my eyes and took my phone.
(Oh look at her smile)
Unknown number: Bohat din rukh gaya abh intezar nahi hora. Jald hi milenge.
(I waited long enough for you, not anymore. We will meet soon.)
What? Who was this?
"Hey guys suno." I called for everyone's attention. "Kya tum log iss number ko jante ho?"
(Hey guys listen)
(Do you guys recognize this number?)
"What number?" They all came and stood next to me. I showed them the text.
"Who is this?" Shaurya had furrowed his eyebrows. "Let's check this number?" He took his phone out and checked the number to see who this was. "Arrey yeh koi Rishab hai janti ho kya ise?"
(It's someone called Rishab, do you know him?)
"No you know all my friends right. I don't know any Rishab."
"Wrong number ho ga. Maybe text back and see what they have to say?" Sakshi said.
(Maybe its wrong number)
"Haan text back and see." Shaurya replied to the text.
Me: Who is this?
We were waiting for the person to text back but he didn't even after ten minutes.
"Let's wait till he texts back okay." I just shrugged and we all went back to having fun.
"So when is Kartavya coming?" Sakshi asked after we all settled down.
"He should be here by 4:30." I looked at my phone to check the time to see it was 4 o'clock.
"Atul do you have a girlfriend?" Ishani asked out of nowhere. He blushed so hard his whole face was red. "Arrey itna kya sharma na bhai.'" We all laughed seeing him shy.
(Why are you so shy?)
"Tho hai kya girlfriend?" I wiggled my eyebrows at him.
(So do you have a girlfriend)
"Kya Anika aap bhi. Pata hai na aap ko mujhe abhi sirf apne job and college pe concentrate karna hai."
(Anika not you too. You know right I'm only concentrating on my job and college)
"Haan I know." I smiled. He was trying to provide for his family and pay his brother's school fees. "Acha phir Riya kon thi?" I asked, trying not to laugh. The poor guy looked like a deer caught in a red light and blushed hard.
(So who is Riya then?)
"Acha Riya. Kon hai yeh Riya?" Shaurya nudged him with his elbow.
(Oh Riya. who is this Riya)
"Aapko kaisa pata?" He questioned.
(How do you know?)
"I saw you looking at her photo smiling at your phone and I was right behind you." I laughed, I don't think he could turn anymore red.
"She's my classmate but I don't think she likes me." He slumped his shoulders. "And she is from the popular group so I don't think she will even notice me."
"Aww don't worry I'll help and be your perfect wingman when you want to pursue her." Shaurya wrapped his arm around him.
"Don't take his advice Atul, ever. He will give the most absurd ideas and the girl will run for the hills." I snickered.
"Hey, I'm not that bad." We heard a car in the driveway and a few seconds later someone knocked on the door and I knew immediately who it was and jumped from my seat to open the door.
"Whipped." My friends shouted behind me. I just flipped them off. I went and opened the door.
There he stood in all his glory. "Hi sweetheart." He wrapped his hand around my waist and pulled me to himself.
"Hi Kartavya." My hands went around his neck.
"I missed you."
I pulled away and looked at him with a smile. "What? It's only been 7 hours since we saw each other." I laughed
"Doesn't matter I still missed you." He kissed my forehead. "Ready to go?" He asked.
"What? No. I want you to meet my friends. C'mon." I dragged him inside to the living room. "Guys look who's here."
"Hey jiju." Sakshi was the first one to come out of her trance.
(Brother-in-law)
"Hi." He looked at me and raised an eyebrow. I just shrugged my shoulders. After that everyone greeted him and introduced themselves.
"Oh you didn't meet Atul right. Kartavya, this is Atul and Atul this is Kartavya, my husband." He squeezed my hand lightly.
"Why don't you sit, we were just having a little fun." Ishani said.
"No, actually we have to go. We are leaving for Udaipur in two days and Maa is expecting us home early." He explained. I forgot to tell them about Udaipur. I mentally facepalm myself. They are going to grill me afterwards.
"Oh okay then. We will meet later, Ani." Sakshi said.
"Okay, guys we will leave then." I moved towards my bag and collected it. "Oh I completely forgot Atul, do you want to come or do you want stay here?" Kartavya squeezed my hand a little harder. I looked at him to see a blank expression on his face.
"No I will come with." He looked around. "Wait let me look for my phone." After finding his phone we went outside. I hug my friends and promise them to call later.
"Bye guys." We made our way towards our car. "You drove here?" I asked, looking at the three other cars behind his own. He just hummed and opened my car door. Atul sat in the back seat. Kartavya started driving.
"Atul address bolo tumhara." He told us his address and we started towards his house.
(Atul what's your address)
"Anika, how many days are you going to Udaipur?" Atul asked, sounding sad.
"I don't know." I turned towards Kartavya to ask him. "Hum kitne din rukenge vaha?"
"Two weeks." Kartavya grunted.
"Oh man, two weeks without you is going to be so boring." Atul huffed. I just laughed. We finally stopped at the address he gave us.
Atul got out. "Thank you Anika, Thankyou Mr. Raichand, for the ride. I'll see you tomorrow at work bye." He went away waving.
"You're welcome bye." Kartavya drove away. He didn't speak to me, he just drove silently. "Why are you so silent? Is everything okay?"
"Two weeks without you is going to be so boring." He mocked. " Isn't he your junior? Why are you letting him call you by your name?"
"Did you just mock him?" I giggled. "He isn't just my junior, he's also my friend. I brought him here, shouldn't I be the one to drop him off?" I raised and eyebrow
As soon as I said that he reached for my hand and brought it towards his lips. "I thought we would be alone but you brought some dude. I was just waiting for us to be alone."
"He's not some dude Kartavya, he's my friend and we are alone now. So stop being grumpy." I said turning my body sideways to see him properly. In the beginning I wasn't able to look at him like this with open adoration. Now I just want to keep staring at this perfect specimen.
"Whatever." He rolled his eyes. I just noticed we have the same habit of rolling our eyes when we are annoyed.
"So why did Maa want us home early?" I asked playing with his left hand while he drove with his right.
"I don't know, she just told me to be home early ." He murmured interlacing our fingers to change the gear.
"Oh okay so let's go then". I noticed he was taking a different route than usual. He took a turn into a secluded area and stopped the car. "Kartavya kya kar rahe ho?" I asked, looking around.
(Kartavya, what are you doing?)
He just turned the engine off and brought his hand onto the nape of my neck and kissed me. I just sat there with widened eyes for a few beats, when I felt his lips move against mine I kissed back with equal fervour. I wanted to kiss him again since I received the bouquet since it wasn't possible and I wanted to kiss him since the moment I saw him. And I guess he wanted the same.
I removed my seat belt and put my other hand in his hair and pulled him closer, he groaned in my mouth. We kissed like there was no tomorrow. When I felt like I couldn't breathe we broke the kiss. We were breathing fast.
"Hi." He whispered, kissing my forehead.
"Hi." I smiled shyly. "Ghar nahi jana?"
(Don't you want to go home?)
"We will, don't worry." He scoffed. "I wanted to be alone with you before we go home because as soon as we reach home you completely forget about me and go to Bhabhi and Aarav."
"That's not true, I won't completely forget about you. I was just doing what you asked me too, I was trying to stay out of your way." I pouted.
"I was an idiot for saying that. Don't know what I was thinking when I said that I'm sorry again for causing you pain"
"You don't have to-" He interrupted
"Yes I do and you should stop spending so much time with them. Now I want all your time." He pecked my lips twice.
"Acha ji?" I teased, He just hummed leaving open mother kisses on my neck. It was getting so hard to concentrate when he was doing that. I ran my hands in his hair massaging his scalp. He groaned.
(Oh really)
"Did you eat?" What? Is it really the time to ask that? I rolled my eyes.
"Yes, I did. Did you?" I asked.
"Yes, let's go home then." I moved closer to him and placed my lips on his. We continued kissing for some time. He moved back and started the car.
"Didn't you say you wanted to spend some alone time with me?" I recalled.
"Yes, I want to but Maa will nag me if we don't reach on time and we can always escape to our room whenever we want." I hummed. He took hold of my hand, interlaced our finger and placed it on his thigh and we headed home.
We reached home after 20 minutes and suddenly I'm shy to go inside. We never came together or went out together. So this is gonna be so awkward. We got down and he made his way towards me and held my hand. I looked at our intertwined hands for a second too long.
"Is something?" And as if sensing my thoughts he let go off my hand and suddenly my hand felt empty. Shaking my hand I reached forward and held his hand mine.
"I don't have any problem. Let's go inside." He smiled and we went inside. When we entered the house I could hear chatter coming from the living room. We went towards the living room to see Maa, Choti Maa and Dadi were talking.
"What are you guys talking about?" Kartavya asked as we moved inside and greeted them.
"Oh you guys came back. Come sit, the other's are also coming." Maa patted the space beside her. We went and sat beside her. "We heard you guys were on a date last night. How was it?" I blushed. Kartavya squeezed my hand.
"Who told you guys?" He frowned.
"Of Course I told them Chote." Aviraj Bhai and Bhabhi entered the living room with Aarav right behind them. "I see you guys had fun." He gestured towards our entwined hands. Kartavya shook his head and I just wanted to hide somewhere.
"You guys are so damn nosy." He grunted.
"Of course, family kis liye hai." Bhai snickered, sitting next to Kartavya.
(What is family for?)
"So how was your date?" Maa repeated her previous question.
"It was good now, will you guys please stop?" He groaned. I remained silent all this time. Kartavya's watch was more fascinating.
Maa huffed angrily. "Tum bolo Anika kaisa tha date, yeh khadoos tho bol ne nahi valla."
(You tell us Anika how the date was. This grump won't tell us anything.)
"It was great Maa. He decorated the terrace so beautifully for a candle light dinner and he also cooked for me. I had such a lovely time." I said with a small smile. Everyone had a happy expression on their faces.
"See I told you Anika is the one for him." Dadi got up and kissed Kartavya and my foreheads. "Always be happy like this."
"You really mean what you said, about having a good time." He murmured lightly so only I could hear. When I turned my face to look at him he was staring at me with a tender look in his eyes.
"Yes I did, and last night was the first time I was genuinely happy since our marriage was fixed." He smiled and kissed my temple.
******
Hey guys,
Another day another update.
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