Once Upon A Mr. Goody Two Shoes

Chapter 45

"Stop pacing around like a madwoman, Aashi," my mother berated from the couch she was perched on elegantly, maintaining a deceptively calm facade on her face. I rolled my eyes and continued pacing across the room. The last week had passed perilously slow, making me impatient with each passing day. I hadn't been able to see Abeer after the afternoon at my place last Sunday. We both had been busy, yes, but more than that, it was my parents. They had refused to let me see him, outright and then gone to great lengths to ascertain that I didn't meet him behind their back by taking me for outings over outings the entire week.

I had reached my limit. It was Sunday again, and Abeer and his family were going to come for lunch to officially meet my parents. It was quarter past twelve on my watch; they had to be here in fifteen minutes.

My mother chuckled from behind me. "The last I had seen you this anxious was the day of your twelfth standard board results. You had taken to pacing around the living room just like this," she giggled and continued to do solve her sums in her notebook. My mother had this weird obsession with sums. Whenever free, she would take out her notebook and begin doing her math, referring sums from her mobile phone. I had always thought that as an extremely weird habit of hers. It took her mind of things, she always used to say whenever I had commented upon this absurd activity of hers. 'And makes your brain shaper; why, you should do it herself'; I always took that as my cue to shut up.

Just as I was beginning to lose my track of thought, the doorbell rang, making me jump in my skin. My mother was on her feet in a jiffy and called out to my father, who was lounging peacefully in the balcony with not a care in the world.

I strode forward and pulled the door open before my parents could say anything. It was considered rude for youngers to open the door when there were elders in the house, but I was past the point to care about all that. I blinked twice as I saw an older man, dressed crisply in a black shirt that fit him snugly. Abeer's dad looked painfully fit and grim, standing there on my doorway, towering over me in an intimidating fashion. Abeer definitely didn't inherit his warm smile and comely features from his father, I thought wryly as I managed a smile in his direction. He didn't return the smile.

I was part thankful when my mother grabbed me by my arm and pulled me back, taking my place on the porch, smiling at the guests in our house. My father stood beside me and welcomed Abeer's dad, his two sisters and an older lady inside, motioning them to take a seat on the couch in the living room.

I looked over my mother's shoulder at Abeer's elder sisters, smiling kindly at my parents and exchanging pleasantries. I had to agree; the Sen siblings shared the most beatific smile I had ever laid my eyes on until Abeer waltzed in my life, and it decidedly didn't come from their father. They smiled freely, without abandon, unlike their father, who only managed a half tilt of his lips when his daughters nudged him to do so. I could make out who was who from the pictures Abeer had shown me of his sisters. But mostly so because of the way they carried themselves.

Abeer's eldest sister, Adhi, looked like she meant business. She was quieter, and more poised than her other sister. Adhira, on the other hand, was more vocal and firm, her eyes sharp as she regarded the lot of us.

"We had been told you both are married. Your families didn't come today?" My mother asked the both of them as she passed on glasses of water around.

"No aunty, they didn't come down to India with us. Since we gave them such short notice, they couldn't manage to take a leave," Adhira said, taking a sip of her water.

Mom nodded, and sat down beside my father. "And you are...?" She asked, smiling kindly at her.

"Oh yes, introductions! How silly of us," Adhira laughed and nudged her sister to take it from there.