Akshita
"Ok, I am done." I came out wearing my clothes from before and Ashish got the other dress packed.
"I am sorry we have to halt our shopping spree for this nonsensical lunch." I felt so guilty that our trip was cut short because of me and now we both would have to endure a dreadful afternoon with devil spawns.
"Who said we are stopping it? We will continue it after this 'Bff's lunch'." Ashish smirked air-quoting his words making me laugh. This guy could lift my mood at any time.
"Can I say it again that you are crazy but you are my crazy?" I said giggling and stepped closer to him to plant a kiss on his cheek. He looked at me with an open mouth because there were people around who were looking at us and Ashish would have never expected me to be so open in public.
"Close your mouth, baby," I said winking at him.
"Man, I am definitely dreaming, this can't be my shy wife," Ashish muttered under his breath.
"I heard that," I said pulling him with me outside the store. He chuckled at my childish behaviour. We started looking for the restaurant where we were supposed to have lunch with my schoolmates.
"Hmm, so let's see where this restaurant is. Oh, see there it is." Ashish said pointing at a restaurant. I felt uneasy about meeting my old schoolmates and stopped for a few minutes. Ashish turned around and looked at me with a smile as he saw my fidgeting fingers.
"Don't you know we are stronger together? Who can dare to hurt my queen anyway? Don't fret over it and relax. I will be there with you, my love." His words brought a big smile to my face and I truly felt like a queen because he is my King.
"Let's get it over with," I said sighing and held Ashish's hand tightly to calm myself.
We both entered the restaurant and my eyes wandered around to look for my former bullies. Before we could spot any of them, they spotted us. There were ten of them, six girls and four guys from my school. I remembered each one of them.
"Ashish, here. Please come." Sameera came bouncing towards my husband and tried pulling him with herself. I muttered some colourful words in my mind for her.
Ashish pulled me alongside and whispered, "Feels like I am meeting my schoolmates." in my ear and we both chuckled.
I strode along with my husband towards the group. As we stopped, I gave them one of my brightest smiles.
"Hi, guys," I greeted them all with a confident smile. They looked at me from top to bottom, with shock written all over their faces. I knew they would be surprised because not only my appearance has changed but my way of talking has also changed, leaving me with kind of a new personality altogether.
"Oh wow, Akshita. You have changed so much. You look sexy, I mean beautiful." One of the guys commented giving me a flirty grin.
"Thanks...uh... I am sorry I don't remember your name." I said making an innocent face. Of course, I knew his name, he was Sameera's pet in school after all. Ashish stifled his laugh with a cough.
"Uh... I am... Vishal, you remember I used to sit behind you." He sputtered, clearly feeling embarrassed. All his flirting was gone now.
"Oh, ok. This is my husband, Ashish." I introduced him to my schoolmates. He smiled and shook hands with them. I could see they were all fawning over him and I should be happy about it but I was getting jealous and possessive over him.
"Hi, Ashish. We didn't know Akshita got married to such a handsome man." Shamya said fluttering her eyes rapidly at him in a flirty manner. She was the same girl I thought Ashish would look good with when he came to see me for the second time. My apologies, she doesn't and would never have looked good with Ashish. Ashish is only Akshita's.
"Why? A beautiful girl like Akshita could have married any handsome guy but she chose me. I feel so lucky that she said yes to me." Ashish said lovingly kissing my hand. Our audience had their eyes bulged out of their sockets but we were not concerned about it.
What Ashish said made me realise that this lunch was insignificant. There was no desire in me anymore to prove to anyone that I had become a better and stronger person. I just felt genuinely happy from inside. I smiled and looked over at Ashish, he also looked at me.
We sat down on the chairs and decided to order the food. From the expressions of the girls, I knew they were ganging up against me. They handed the menu to me so that they could prove to Ashish that I was an unsophisticated person who never went to restaurants and didn't know a thing about western food. I was before because my parents never took me to restaurants and I never had friends to go to restaurants with. Even with my colleagues, I was not very close because I had to go home right after my classes ended. But after meeting Ashish, I am a changed person. I have improved myself and also worked hard to learn and observe a lot of things.
Everyone waited in anticipation to hear what I would order, it was so childish of them. I ignored their clown-like expressions and carefully looked for food I wanted to eat. If only they knew that I have been to more restaurants in the few months of my marriage than they have been to their entire lives. With the courtesy of my husband, I have tasted several different cuisines and amassed ample information about food.
"Ah man, they don't have parmesan pasta salad. I was really craving it." I said pouting at Ashish.
"It's ok, I will make it for you at home," Ashish said smiling at me. I ordered Ashish's favourite pasta but there were chances he wouldn't like it because he liked his food in a certain way and was a little picky about it.
After I ordered the food, the girls looked at me with wide eyes. I raised a brow at them which made them look away.
"So Ashish, man, what do you do?" Tarun asked, breaking the awkward silence.
"Oh, let me guess, you are a model. With these looks, you definitely got to be a model." Sameera purred at Ashish seductively. I mentally face-palmed myself.
"Thanks for the compliment but no, I am not a model. I am a chef and a restaurateur," Ashish answered with his heart-melting smile. The charm of this man could melt any girl's heart.
"Wow, you are a chef. That's kind of sexy." Shamya replied in her disturbingly flirty voice. It seemed like there was a competition going on between Shamya and Sameera to see who would grab my husband's attention first. Their friendship towards each other has always been totally bogus. In school, they both had this unannounced competition going on between them, about who would have most guys after them. Everyone knew about it but they all pretended to not know and went on with this plastic friendship. From inside, all of them were insecure and envious of each other.
"Akshita, what do you do?" Tarun asked me unexpectedly.
"Oh, let me guess, let me guess. She is a housewife." Sameera said, feeling smug over her answer. She gave me a mocking smile thinking her answer would make me feel insecure.
"Aww, Sameera all your guesses are wrong today. There is nothing wrong in being a housewife, it's a full-time job but I am a Science lecturer in a college." I replied smirking at her. Her smile fell and a scowl formed on her face.
"That's so cool. I always knew you would make it. I mean obviously, you were so intelligent." One of the girls commented. Shamya bumped the girl with her elbow under the table and glared at her because she was not supposed to compliment me.
"Well, I am a model," Sameera announced proudly, even though no one asked her.
"Yeah, she modelled for Kundali Sarees last week," Shamya commented in a snarky tone and all of us tried to control our laugh. Sameer gave a nasty icy glare to Shamya in return.
"Oh, the food is here," Vishal said to save Sameera from embarrassing herself more.
I tried the pasta and it was average but Sameera and Shamya made annoying moaning noises as if it is the most delicious dish they have ever eaten.
"Umm, this is so delicious." Sameera moaned.
"Yeah, yum." Shamya moaned to compete with her.
I looked at Ashish once and I knew he was getting annoyed by them. I smiled apologetically at him to which he just shook his head smiling.
Everyone kept talking and laughing. I was bored out of my wits. Why did I never realise that these bunch of people are absolutely boring and classless?
To add to their fun, they started bringing my embarrassing moments into the conversation to humiliate me in front of Ashish. I guess flirting with my husband was not enough for their appetite.
"Remember that one time, Akshita fell on her face when Rohan threw the basketball at her. I mean, like, it was an accident." Sameera said laughing, the other people laughed too but Ashish didn't. Their laughter or their judgements didn't matter to me, what mattered to me was what Ashish thought of me. Was he embarrassed by me or was he sad for me? I couldn't decipher his expressions.
"I wish Akshita had been in my school. I would have gotten a beautiful and reliable friend in her." Ashish said to them unexpectedly.
"Are you kidding me? She was a nerd who..." Ashish didn't let Sameera complete her sentence.
"You guys missed having a great friend because all you saw was the exterior, nobody ever tried to talk to her. If you had, then you would have realised she is so delightful to talk to and much much more interesting than you guys. You guys never made any effort to include her. You isolated her purposely because it made you guys happy. You are sadists, finding pleasure in others pain." Ashish said looking at them. They wanted to say something but kept their mouths shut.
"If it had been me, I would have made her my girlfriend. I would have shown her off to the world proudly because damn, I have never seen a girl so beautiful in my life." Ashish finished talking while looking intimately at me.
************************************
Ashish
I would be lying if I said that I wasn't hurt knowing Akshita was bullied in school. At just Sameera's one glimpse, I knew the woman is the definition of shady so when Akshita told me that she was her bully, I wanted to really throw that woman somewhere outside the Universe, if possible.
Having to endure an afternoon with them was even more difficult because the girls wouldn't stop flirting with me. It was so annoying when they kept flirting and purring like weird nutjobs. It was awful and on top of that, they were making loud moaning noises to catch my attention. I mean the food was terrible and they were moaning as if they never tasted pasta before.
All their attempts to embarrass Akshita were failing so they attempted new methods. Now they resorted to telling me her school stories which according to them were embarrassing but it made me love my wife more because she is so strong to have gone through that and still become a better human being.
"You guys missed having a great friend because all you saw was the exterior, nobody ever tried to talk to her. If you had, then you would have realised she is so delightful to talk to and much much more interesting than you guys. You guys never made any effort to include her. You isolated her purposely because it made you guys happy. You are assists, finding pleasure in others pain." I said looking at them icily.
"If it had been me, I would have made her my girlfriend. I would have shown her off to the world proudly because damn, I have never seen a girl so beautiful in my life." I finished while staring at Akshita. My beautiful, strong Akshita.
"You are saying it because you never met her in school." Shama or Shamya, whatever the name of that annoying girl is, said to me sarcastically.
"What are you trying to prove here? Is it not enough that we had this horrible lunch with you guys? Get off your high horse. Look at the world around you, nobody cares who Shamya is or who Sameera is. Who are you to insult me anyway? I am way ahead in my career than you, I have seen life better than you and the kind of restaurants you go to, I don't even look at them. You guys are still stuck in high school. I am glad you guys never made me your friend because honestly, I would be doomed if I had plastic friends like you." Akshita said calmly, she didn't yell and still made her point while maintaining her dignity. She made me prouder by standing up for herself.
"How dare you insult..." Sameera was about to shout but Akshita cut her off.
"Why? Can't take the truth? This is the real world. You need to learn to take the truth. If you have the guts to insult someone, have the guts to bear insult too. For the past hour, you guys have been trying to flirt shamelessly with my husband, now should I ask how dare you do it? You have absolutely no manners and no class at all. He was so annoyed because of your behaviour but he was still polite with you because he has got etiquettes which you people are severely lacking. God, what a waste of time!" Akshita finished and stood up, holding out her hand for me. I held it grinning foolishly.
"Oh and this food is terrible. Terrible enough that it doesn't deserve the moaning noises you both were making. Have some brain, he is a chef, he knows the difference, idiot." Akshita's last comment was the final nail in the coffin. It made others chuckle, they were trying to hold their laughter so hard but it was still sputtering out.
"Also you are not even one third of my wife so lets not talk about if she is beautiful or not. She is a Queen. Nothing and no one can change that." I said turning at them one last time.
"Thank you for inviting us but I hope we never cross paths again. You guys are not my friends and you will never be." Akshita said to them before we both left the restaurant.
"Man, that was so hot. I am totally in love with this side of yours. I could kiss you right now." I muttered as we came outside the restaurant. Akshita didn't respond, she just grabbed my hand and pulled me somewhere with her. We were in a random shop's trial room.
"What?"
She snaked her arms around my neck and raised herself on her tip-toes.
"Kiss me hard." She whispered in my ear. I didn't need further explanation as I slammed my lips over hers. A shallow hum escaped from within her in response to our kiss. I could feel her body responding to mine. She breathed heavily which woke a hunger that was still not sated. A wave of lust swirled within me, I slowly calmed it down as my lips became more subtle and tender against hers. Pulling back a little, I looked at her.
"Are you okay?" I asked, brushing my nose against hers.
"Yes, now I am." She whispered placing a kiss on my lips.
"I love you for everything that you are." She said placing her palms on my face. Her eyes teared up a little and she smiled through it.
"Thank you for being my Soulmate, Ashish. Thank you for making me your Queen."
I kissed her forehead, her eyes, her nose, her cheeks and lastly placed a little kiss over her lips.
"You are my whole world," I whispered to her.
______
We boosted our mood by continuing our shopping and bought too many things for each other. I modelled for Akshita wearing the clothes she chose while she sat on the sofa giving her opinion. She giggled and whistled when I walked in front of her with an attitude.
"Ooh, Hot." She muttered fanning her face with her hands dramatically. I chuckled and changed into my last set of clothes. We paid for the things we purchased and decided to go back. The activities of the day were absolutely tiring.
As I parked the car outside her parent's place, I looked at her resting my head on my seat. She did the same and looked at me. I grabbed her hand and interlaced my fingers with hers. We sat in the silence of the night, looking at each other holding hands.
______
Hola!
When I wrote the last chapter, I was so sure I am going to update another chapter in the next two days because the content was in my mind. I even told one or two readers that I will update earlier than usual but here I am, a week later. Honestly, it was such a busy week. Too many things to do.
I was so overwhelmed when I read the answers you guys left for the question I asked in the previous chapter. Ah! It was so adorable.
So this time, you guys ask me a question. Ask me anything, it can be ridiculous, silly or personal or just anything. I will be waiting.
If you liked the chapter, hit the star icon at the bottom to vote and do leave your feedback in the comments.
Lots of love
❤K