The Ideal NRI Couple mistake

26: Bali beginnings

NEIL

Bali was beautiful, the landing on a tarmac right across the sea made me happy. Plus I couldn't wait for Ishani that was probably my real happiness. I needed to turn a page over, be more like my Ish to make her feel alive. This brooding office man, I had become was undoing us at a fast pace and it scared me. Ishani was always the alive one, and here I was making her regret and question us. Why did marriage always make us men think it's done and over? Why can't we work on it a bit daily? I needed to change. We needed to change and Bali was going to be all that and much more.

I heard Rianna whistle at the arrivals area as I was finishing my coffee still in thought. Out came Ishani looking anything but like Ishani. Her choora was virtually shorter, her hair omg! She had chopped them they were now shoulder-length with some weird silver brown stripes. And it did not end there, she wore fluorescent green minuscule shorts with a matching jacket with huge white sneakers and her trusty LV bag. She looked like an actress, glamorous and so sexy. How did she board a flight full of men in that, my anger was starting to boil when she ran over to me and hugged me. I managed a small smile. 

What was with my Ishani and her avatar, I wondered as we went to our cab. She was all smiley and talking to Rianna as I just stared.  I just hoped that this was one attention-grabbing outfit and not a personality makeover. As soon as we made it to our beautiful lush sea-facing property, Rianna called it a cocktail hour in the pool. Despite being tired and in need of sleep, we agreed to meet in 10 minutes. I wore my swim shorts and went to the balcony and when I turned around in the room was Ishani looking like a white mermaid in a barely-there bikini and white sarong. I wanted to throw her on the bed and worship her, as beautiful as she looked as she applied peach lipstick, I wanted to stop her from wearing this out. But somehow I knew it's not gonna happen. 

While the cocktails started, i could see every eye was on Ishani who drank her pineapple cocktails. I smiled remembering they were one of the reasons we started seeing each other. "What are you thinking Neil? We asked you twice about the night plans.:" She questioned me while sipping her drink. I cleared my throat, "couple spa and a nice dinner sound good. I'm tired and our last clubbing did not go exactly well." I smiled putting back my aviators. "I wanted to know what were you thinking, "how these pineapple drinks are similar to the ones you got drunk on that Diwali." I said and saw Ishani blush. The rest of the Bali vacation was about us going on walks, hiking, even clubbing once. While we came closer, their was an unsaid tension, and every time I tried to face it Ishani brushed it off. Today was our last night and we had a dinner on the beach planned. After a hearty meal with champagne, Ishani dropped a bomb, "next week our final rounds for the Ideal NRI couple start. upon reaching home you start your dance lessons. That is all I want from you, will you do it for me Neil?" I just nodded as my stomach wanted to spill out the entire dinner. I was not a public person.