PLEASE READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE END
11:20 a.m., the time on her smartwatch read. She was twenty minutes late in reaching the cafe. Overthinking got in the way and she spent way more time calming her mind than getting ready to meet her mother's selection.
Scanning the rooftop, her eyes landed on a man dressed in all black, he had his shades on and his hair was swept back, not a strand out of place. His left leg was stretched out and he glanced at his watch with his eyebrows furrowed. Straightening her kurti that her mother forced her to wear, she made her way to him.
"Hi! Arnav?" The man looked up from his watch and removed his shades. He got upand extended his hand towards her. He sure does look the same as his photo, Kritika thought.
"Hi." He greeted back, curtly.
"I'm Arnav Randhawa. Please sit."
"I'm extremely sorry about the wait. I was stuck in traffic." She apologised, feeling embarrassed. "I'm Kritika, by the way."
"No issues." There it was again, his words were too short and curt.
Kritika didn't know how to talk further, all her preparation flew into the sky the second his eyes landed on her. He was too intimidating for her.
"I thought I was being stood up." Arnav spoke up, breaking the silence. His voice now carried an undertone of ease.
"You're sitting, though." His change in expression gave away that her joke fell flat.
"I was joking," she clarified. Her voice got lower as she finished that sentence. They were definitely not vibing.
They haven't even properly introduced themselves yet and things have gotten too awkward. Running a finger on her temple, Kriti decided she needs to take charge of this meeting for it to reach an end.
"Tell me about yourself," she asked.
"My name is Arnav Randhawa. I'm 33 years old and I've recently retired from the army." He answered, like he was reading off a teleprompter.
"You're 33?"
Wrong question, Kritika! She chided herself upon seeing his questioning gaze.
"Yes. Tell me about yourself."
"I'm Kritika Singh. I'm 27 years old and I'm currently working as a Marketing Manager." She said, matching his no nonsense tone.
"Why did you retire?"
"I had an ACL injury. I had to undergo a surgery 2 weeks ago for my left knee. Currently, I've got physiotherapy going on."
Kriti absorbed his words, one by one. "How are you dealing with all this?". She internally winced as those words rolled out of her. She sounded like a therapist. It didn't help that Arnav seemed nonchalant about all this.
Shockingly, Arnav's face of calm and cool slipped away. Even though it was just for a second, she noticed. He didn't expect her to ask him this particular question.
Straightening himself, "it hasn't been easy but so far I feel like I've made okay progress". As expected his answers are always short and straight to the point.
"Is this your first time meeting someone for marriage?", Kriti asked, sipping her latte.
"Yes."
"Figured. You haven't asked me much and all your answers aren't longer than two sentences." Arnav suddenly felt like he was the biggest jerk on the planet. He wanted this. No one forced him and it was time to act like it.
"I'm sorry. I'm not used to all this," clearing his throat, he continued, "Why did you agree to see me? Any specific reason?"
"To be honest, my parents made me come here. This is the 13th time I'm meeting someone like this. They want me to get married."
"What do you want?" His question caught her off guard. None of the guys she had met till now bothered to ask for her preference.
"I want to get married too, just haven't found the right person yet". Obviously, she couldn't tell him the real reason. It was too early for that or was it? Either way, she decided she wasn't going to spill everything just yet.
"Do you want to take a walk?" She was already halfway up as she asked. He too seemed relieved to walk after sitting for a long time.
With their respective drink in hand, they made their way downstairs to walk along the garden.
"What about you? Why did you agree to see me?"
"Same as you. My parents have been wanting me to get married forever and I always gave them my profession as a reason to not settle down. However, Now that I'm back home, I think I'd like to get married." Swirling his coffee cup, he looked straight ahead as he answered.
"Do you want children?"
"Yes, in the future, I'd like to have one or two. What about y-" Arnav's footsteps came to halt when he realised Kritika wasn't beside him. Turning back, he saw that she was rooted to her spot, her face was pale and she had a blank look.
"Are you okay?"
"I cannot conceive. I cannot give birth." She admitted. Her voice was low but thick with sadness. Her face was getting paler by each passing second.
Arnav guided them to a bench nearby and went back into the cafe. He reappeared a minute later with a water bottle in his hand, "here, drink this."
Thirty seconds later, Kriti's face regained colour as she held the now half empty bottle in her hand. "Thank you for this."She held the bottle up to her shoulders.
"I'm diagnosed with Endometriosis. Though I'm on medication, it affects my ability to conceive. Too much risk, the doctors said" Silence was all that Arnav could offer in response. Neither did he say anything or nor did his face hold any expression. He looked right into her eyes.
Kriti wasn't offended in any way upon getting no reply. Most people didn't know what to say after getting to her condition. She was grateful that he didn't say anything negative or seemed to pity her.
"I got to know after my college. My boyfriend of 3 years left me after hearing that."
"Well, he's an idiot." His immediate response about her douche of an ex boyfriend brought a small smile onto her face.
"He was.", she softly uttered.
With the gentle wind blowing, their conversation picked up for a few more minutes before both of them decided it was time to end the meeting. As they made their way back to their respective homes, one was sure that this proposal too had closed its door to her and the other one was deep in thought, yet to come to a decision.
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You Guys! They met and Kriti's big secret is revealed.
Ik that alot of women go through endometriosis and they've various pregnancy complications. They ares still able to conceive with proper care and medication ( whole infertitlity due to endometriosis happens only in rare cases) but for the sake of my story, I might've made it impossible for her to conceive. I could've opted other methods but that would involve my heroine being a whole lot sicker throughout the book and I didn't want that. And I assure you, I'll deal with the issue as gently as possible.
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