❝ Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation. ❞
~Oscar Wilde
***
Except for the morning's conversation, the entire day went quite peacefully for Anika. She actually enjoyed her mother-in-law's company. When Nirav and his dad were off to work, the two ladies had the whole house to themselves. They had a long talk. Asha told her about their family rituals, about their relatives, and most importantly about Nirav. Anika learned many new things about Nirav, some of which were really hard for Anika to believe. Asha told her that Nirav was a very talkative person once, very jolly and always happy. He was very naughty but very smart and brilliant too. He has always made his parents proud. Anika sensed it from Asha's talk, the feeling of pride for her son. It was difficult for Anika to believe that Nirav was a very talkative and naughty person once because she hadn't yet seen his that side yet. What she had seen was a quiet man, who tried to make her smile sometimes but she always had a thought that he speaks less, not with her, but with others. She hadn't seen him talking to people much. Asha also added that he changed himself, behavior wise, in the period of his college days. After some period he never tried to get involved in the family talks or anything. Even he doesn't talk much with her or with his father. Maybe he has become more dedicated towards his work and his mind is always be thinking about it. But she mentioned it for like fifth time that she never left a chance of making them proud. She also told Anika some of his childhood memories, even showed him his old photographs. Anika couldn't help but smile at that innocent looking face in the photographs. He still looks innocent in the same way, no doubt, Anika thought. Also, she had to watch those typical melodramatic daily soaps with her mother-in-law, not to mention, forcefully.
The day passed quite quickly than Anika had imagined. She was never used to sitting at home for whole one day. Back at her parents' house, she was always busy with some or the other work. Monday to Friday she had her office, and almost all the weekends she used to spend with either her best friend Vidhi or at home reading books. Life was awesome back then, she thought.
Later that evening, she even cooked food for everyone. Asha tried to stop her saying, "Its okay dear, you can take rest for a few days and take the responsibility of all this work after that."
But Anika persuaded her saying that she had nothing to do sitting at home and she was bored, at least cooking will divert her mind. Few minutes after she finished cooking, the doorbell rang. The sound of the doorbell excited Anika. Even she was surprised by her excitement. She just couldn't decipher what her excitement was for, because in 23 years of her life so far she was never so excited about hearing the damn doorbell. It surely annoyed her at times, but excitement, no ways. Was she excited to see Nirav, excited to talk to him? Pushing all the thoughts aside, she ran towards the door and opened it. She was greeted with a pleasantly smiling Nirav at the door. She felt happy seeing him, she didn't know why but she was happy.
Vijay appreciated Anika's cooking skills later at dinner.
"Asha, you have a competitor now. Till now in this house, only you were the one who cooked food and trust me, too damn tasty food. But now, Anika is also there who can also cook equally good food. Correct me if I am wrong Nirav.", he said teasingly to Asha. Nirav just gave him a smile and continued eating.
After helping Asha in the kitchen, Anika finally went back to her bedroom to find Nirav sitting on the bed busy studying some file. She went and sat next to him waiting for him to notice her, put his file aside and talk to her. She was never excited and even not happy about this marriage at first but she liked talking to Nirav, and he surely knew how to make her happy. Nirav sensed her and immediately kept his file aside and looked towards her giving her his innocent and adorable smile.
"You want me to talk to you, isn't it?", he asked giving her his innocent smile.
Oh my god! Did he just read my mind?
"Um... why you think so?", she counter-questioned
"I thought you might have got bored for the whole and wanted to talk to someone about it, and since your bestie isn't here, you would probably like to talk to me.", he answered with a smile pasted on her lips.
She gave him her childish pout look. "Well, yeah you are sort of right. Since Vidhi isn't here, I have no other option than you. I'll have to manage with you."
How cute was that, he thought. He stared at her face, adoring her changing facial expressions. "Has anyone ever told you that you look like a cute five-year-old with that pout face?"
"Is it so? Unfortunately, no one ever noticed it I guess, except for you! Thanks though. Were you doing some important work? If you were, you can continue with it, we can talk later. Sorry to disturb you!", she said
"Woah, Woah Woah! Slow down, girl. It isn't more important than you, so take a chill pill. And now talk to me!", he said in a go.
"Why me? Can't you talk?", she folded her hand over her chest and asked raising her brows.
"Of course I can but I want to listen to you. So speak up girl!"
"Well okay! By the way, how was the food? Didn't you like it?", she asked.
"Who said I didn't like it? Of course, I did."
"You didn't say anything at the dining table so I thought you didn't like it!", she said with a shrug.
"Oh! Now I get it. You wanted me to appreciate you! Stop racking that brain of yours. The food was too damn yum, seriously. I wanted to appreciate you but not there, I wanted to appreciate when we both were alone.", his words lightened up a delicate smile over her lips.
Anika dramatically bent her head down in a gesture to bow him. "Thank you, thank you! But may I know mister that why didn't you appreciate me back there?"
"I don't know but I just didn't feel like appreciating you in front of my parents. Also if I had done that before, I would have missed seeing this dramatic Anika.", he simply answered with a mischievous grin on his face.
Anika giggled on this. Did I just giggle? Was it too girlish? She thought for a second and then came to a conclusion, 'who cares'.
"So tell me, what did you do for the whole day? I am sure my mom must have forced you to watch those stupid daily soaps. I don't know why is she so obsessed with it. Ugh! I just hate it!", he asked making an irritated face for his last words.
"Yeah, you're right. I had to watch those daily soaps and I too hate it. But seriously she gets so engrossed in those serials damn, she even cries over those silly emotional scenes."
Both of them laughed about that and the conversation continued. Anika told him about her day and so did he.
It was a start of a strong bond.