Edited on August 11th, 2020
| . . . C H A P T E R . . . 3.16.5 - S W E E T P E A . . . |
"I can't hike... you do remember that?"
"Which is why..." I nodded my head towards the chopper overhead starting its decent to the ground.
She must have thought it was unrelated and just another chopper - while it was in air - and that it would just pass us by. Hence, her jaw drop. "What the hell, Arnav?"
"What?" I innocently raised my voice to be heard over the sound of the chopper.
With her hair flying in all directions, she tried to glare at me, but I only grinned. She couldn't be mad at me even if she wanted. She had to know me before falling for me. She had to know I do things like this for people I love. And, why the hell not? I earned that money. I could choose to spend it on whatever and whoever I wanted, however I wanted. Besides, she said yes to marrying me two days ago - making me the happiest guy alive.
That itself called for a splurge.
No take backs.
I had touched her heart by the grand gesture, proposing on the yatch, having all her closed ones there - except her parents because as much as I wanted to fly them out as well, it wouldn't be comfortable for her father to make that long journey and her mother wouldn't feel right leaving him to the care of hired help.
But, after having shared our celebration with everyone else, I had wanted to do something private for just the two of us. Our own celebration to mark the moment as a milestone in our lives.
Hence, this hike... which wasn't really a hike given the chopper. The point was, I wanted to show her this place and there were only two ways to get there. Well, only one given she couldn't put her body through the strenuous activity of hiking.
She pointed a finger between us, "You and I? We are going to have a long conversation afterwards on how recklessly you spend your hard-earned money."
"Mhmm," I replied, allowing her to think she had any say in it... or that she could change my mind and stop me from doing things for her. I had no intention of stopping. "Come on," I grabbed her hand and tugged her along, settling inside the chopper and strapping in.
From there, it was a quick 10-minute ride to our destination.
After we were dropped off, the pilot confirmed he'd meet us tomorrow morning when he'd come back to pick us up. Khushi kept her question to herself till we were left alone, "Why are we staying here till morning?"
I raised a teasing brow, "Don't you trust me?"
She bluntly replied. "No."
I laughed, slipped my fingers through hers and tugged her along, "Too late. You're stuck with me rest of your life - let alone till morning."
Tugging at our hands, she pulled back enough to stop me from walking and expressed, "Arnav, seriously, if you are going to be making these types of overnight plans, you need to give me some warning. You can't spring stuff like this on me - surprise or not."
I get that she might be concerned about staying outdoors overnight and other essentials considering she hadn't brought anything along with her. But what kind of a person would I be if I didn't think ahead before making such plans? I had already come by earlier in the day to set up everything.
Turning to the right, I pointed ahead in the distance. "See that tent? It has everything you could possibly need before we get back to the house in the morning."
She crossed her arms over her chest, making her point. "Is it going to have a bathtub? Warm water? Privacy? My Chapstick? Hand moisturizer? A..."
Rolling my eyes, I closed the distance between us to cover her mouth and her list of exaggerated demands with my palm. "Khushi. Those are all things you can do without for one night. Though your chap stick and hand moisturizer, yes, probably. I have a feeling they'll be there given Riddhima packed your overnight bag."
She moved my palm away, "Even so."
Exhaling a sigh, I accepted my defeat. "Okay. Alright. I'll give you a heads-up next time. Can we please not fight now and enjoy the..."
She scoffed, interrupting. "Who's fighting? I'm not."
Damn it. This woman.
She started walking towards the tent, "Why did you want to come here, anyway? Couldn't you find a spot with lower altitude?"
"I know a few, but they don't come with this view."
"Oh, wow." She confirmed my point just then as she reached the edge of the cliff from a safe distance and looked at the horizon, The view of the city beneath us. It's nothing like Shimla in the winters, but it is still a breathtaking one. Her eyes quietly scan around us at the 360 view for a few minutes, and I let her take it in.
The first time I found this place, I had taken my time admiring the nature's work as well. It's one of the few places I found peaceful. A place I could escape to. A place I hadn't shared with anyone until today.
Standing behind her, I loosely draped my arms around her front, speaking softly. "I used to hike up here whenever I needed a moment to just be, you know? To self-reflect. When I wouldn't feel like talking it out with Lavanya or di."
Her head rested back against my shoulder. Remaining in my arms, she just listened. It was a different wavelength for us. Between us, she was normally the one sharing and I would be listening. Knowing this feeling, though. There is this content within me.
Everything is perfect.
And, I couldn't imagine it any other way as I tell her about the different times I had found myself standing in this same spot over the past five years of my life. Always alone. Except now. It was different now. My heart didn't just belong to me. It wasn't alone. It had her.
She turned in my arms at one point to look at me, "Can I ask you something?"
"Anything," I said in a heartbeat. There was a point when I wasn't comfortable using words to express myself. Over the months, years, that had changed. When it came to her, I was learning to share my feelings, and that meant conversations with her. Endless conversations where we discovered each other all over again.
"Why do you call me sweet pea?"
I smiled back. I had always wondered why she never questioned why I called her that. It had come out of my mouth the first time without much thought. But, since then, I had put in the thought questioning myself to since it's not as common of a term.
"For most, it is just an endearment. Doesn't really mean anything. It's a flower that blooms for one season only and they're colorful and their fragrance... it lures you in. But their seeds are a little bit toxic. Mildly poisonous. They may also not regrow after they are dead but if you save the seed and plant it again the next year, they grow again. It can take three to four months for them to flower so you have to be patient with them. To sum it all up, that's you. Someone who is delicate and kind with beautiful brown eyes. A sweet voice that can draw anyone in. A smile so bright that I couldn't help but fall in love with. Someone who had cut off from the world, but when planted in the right environment with just the right kind of people and love, they flourished. Bloomed into an extra-ordinary being. One so full of life. Someone who needed to be tended with care, with patience, but all quite worth it.
"Arnav?"
"Yes?"
"Thank you for sharing your space with me."
I smiled down at her, brushing the back of my fingers to her cheek and wiping away any remnants of tears. She gets emotional so easily and it might be partly because I don't often verbalize my feelings. But, I'm constantly working on changing that. I want her to know what I am feeling. I want her to know every part of me, including my silent thoughts.
"You are the exception to everything in my life, Khushi. You and only you have the right to know every single thing about me. Past, present, and future. And I make one promise to you today: here on out, there will be no secrets from you. We kept things from each other too long and we suffered for it. If we had just talked to each other, we could have avoided a lot of heartache. All those secrets almost ruined us. For a while there, it did break us. But, never ever again."
"No more secrets. I think I can manage that."
. . . ∞ . ∞ . ∞ . ∞. . .
"I was serious the other day." I turned my head to the side to face her as we laid on the sleeping bag we dragged out of the tent by the fire we had going so we could gaze up at the starry night.
"About what?"
"Getting married."
Her head shifted on my chest as she glanced up at me, "Ofcourse I know. I said yes, remember?"
I clarified for she wasn't getting the hint. "About getting married soon." She opened her mouth to react, but I didn't give her the chance so I could express my thoughts and feelings over this. "I know that you think it's too soon and that we are too young. You are only 22 and I, 24. I understand your hesitancies, but haven't we already gone through the ups and downs of a relationship that perhaps even most married couples don't go through?"
She sat up as the conversation turned serious and she probably needed the space to think. Even I pushed myself up on my elbow. She brushed it off lightly on the yatch but I really wanted to talk to her about this. I wasn't joking when I'd seconded Anjali di saying I didn't want to wait.
"Maybe I am not presenting the best case to convince you to get married sooner rather than later, but what you think we need to build - that balance you want in our lives - we can do that together, right? What difference does it make if we do it as engaged or married? It's not going to change anything between us because I want to marry you, Khushi. I cannot wait to call you my wife. You took two years before accepting me as your fiancé. Please don't take that much longer before you allow me to be your husband. I'm telling you - I won't survive it."
"Okay, okay. No need to be dramatic." She crisscrossed her legs. "But, come on, we can't get married in a month or something. It takes time."
"Why not?"
She was quiet for a hot second, debating before raising a brow. "You're not serious?"
"I am. Listen, if Kripa, Di, Lavanya and Aarav are there, then that's all I need. I don't need the entire city there. I doubt even you want to make a spectacle of it. You want it intimate, don't you? That doesn't take long to arrange."
"I love that you are this eager to get married, but we are not going to be impulsive and do it right now, Arnav."
"Everyone we would want present at our marriage is already here, Khushi. Except your parents, I agree, but we can go to Shimla from here."
She remained stubborn, "No, Arnav. I am only getting married once and you are not taking this from me. You are right that I want an intimate wedding, but that does not mean we skip all of the ceremonies or rush it. I want the bridal trousseau - however heavy it might be and however much I might complain about it on the day. Di will design it. I want the sangeet, and you are going to dance with me if it's the last thing I have to force you to do."
"Oh, come on, I don't do Bollywood."
She ignored my one-liner. "I want the mehndi and my color better be as dark as they come."
"Can you even sit still for that long?"
"Will you stop interrupting with your one liners?" She glared with irritation. "Point is: I want the whole deal and you..."
"And if you'll stop talking, I can tell you that you can still have that now. I think you underestimate how eagerly di has been waiting ever since I shared my plan with her to ask you on New Year's Eve. She already has the lengha ready. And, everything else? It can be arranged like that." I snapped my fingers for effect. "All you need to do is let everyone who cares about us put it together."
"And say yes?"
"And say yes."
"Yes, then."
My eyes widened. "Really?"
She laughs at my shock, "You just spent the last half hour convincing me, Arnav. Are you still doubting yourself?"
"Well, I was making the most important negotiation of my life. I couldn't know which way it would go." I shyly scratched the back of my head.
"You were prepared for me to say no?"
I decided it was safe to lie back down, conversation returning to a light space. "I sure as hell was going to exhaust every manipulation tactic in the book before accepting a no."
"Oh?" She raised a curious brow. "What other manipulation tactics have you up your sleeve?"
Folding an arm under her head, I reached for her hand with my free one and nudged her to lie down too. "Trust me, sweet pea, you couldn't have resisted."
I felt her shaking her head once she rested it against my arm.
This trip to Australia had been the best one in years and I knew in my gut that it's only going to get better from here on out. We were going to get married and our life together was going to be beautiful filled with so much love around us and so many people who all loved each other. It was going to be a happy life and I was ready for it.
. . . ∞ . ∞ . ∞ . ∞. . .
∞ author note ∞
There you go everyone! One more new .5 chapter from Arnav. I wanted to bring up the conversation where she asks about why he calls her sweetpea much earlier but it just never fit anywhere else...
What do you think? I love writing Arnav's chapters so hope you enjoy reading them as well. Let me know!