Winner of Wattpad India Awards 2020 (Judge's Choice) in the New Adult category.
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"The lights are cheeky, you can't live without them, and yet if you get too close, they'll blind you. Darkness? Well it doesn't cheat. It's cool and soothing. It's r...
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October 2007
The air smelled like rain. And rain like moist soil.
Curled up under the weight of her blanket, Madhulika's limbs had finally let go of the outside chill. Turned towards the wall, her eyes were fixated on the unrepaired leak in the ceiling, more pronounced than usual. The pleasant evening drizzle out in the courtyard had evolved into a midnight hailstorm. Her new phone glowed on the side table. She closed her eyes and let it ring silently.
Mahesh Lal Thakur had never been a whiny man. Until now.
Her toasty cocoon was punctured when a hand snatched and raised the edge of the blanket. A gust of wind stabbed the skin of her torso the ridden-up kurti had left exposed, all these hours of nurturing body heat gone to dust as Nakul's icy fingers settled on her stomach, cold feet nudged hers and frigid nose buried in the crook of her neck. He covered them both with the blanket, but now she was cold again.
Apparently, he disagreed.
"You're so warm," came his voice. Low. Slurred. Tired from a whole day at the plant. Her last day here. And he'd spent fourteen hours away. "When's your flight?"
She shifted, turning on her side to face him. "Tomorrow, nine."
"We'd have to leave for the airport at six then."
Six hours. That's all they had until the next two months. Or maybe forever. She hated the doubt her father had planted in her head. "How was work?"
His eyes were shut but he had the aid. "Dheeraj got into a scooter accident so I had to man his job till ten, some babus cut our power supply because Sattu and his principles got in the way of their hand grease, so it took double the initial amount for them to be happy, and out of the three mechanical graduates I interviewed today, two couldn't tell the difference between caustic embrittlement and annealing."
"It's hard to set up a business in this state."
"Is that why your dad keeps trying to convince me to shift to Delhi?"
"What? When did he say that to you?"
Nakul's eyes were not shut anymore. "Yesterday. He faxed me some information, said you would've told me already. Told me what Madhulika?"
Forcing her would be too on the nose, so Mahesh Lal Thakur preferred going behind her back for her to get in line with his vision of her future. Madhu was more tired than angry at this point. "Papa is under the impression that you'll move to Delhi if we get married."
His laugh was a second long but enough to ease the tension in her gut. "What gave him that impression?"
"He thinks it's fiscal insanity to start a factory in UP interior instead of a metro-"
"No not that. I get that, and I agree it's a stupid decision, told you so on Diwali too remember?" His palm had long stopped being cold, and she could feel it inch across her stomach, move up her waist, coil around her back to pull her closer. Their faces aligned, breaths mixing when he spoke, "About the getting married part?"
