O Saathi Rey

Chapter 12

Month 7

"Shiva, choose something nice na, tu bas khade hoke dekh raha hai! Ye dekh!" Raavi held the tiniest piece of clothing in front of Shiva's face, and he just smiled.

Raavi insisted that they go shopping today, to buy a drawer full of clothes for their mini- Pandya. And maybe pick out some looser clothes for herself.

Which she did not intend on doing, because Shiva's vests and tracks were the comfiest clothes in the entire universe.

But he didn't have to know that. Or maybe he did, the one time he walked into the room and she was lounging around in his clothes, looking like a cute, tubby human.

"Accha okay," Shiva looked at the pile of clothes on the counter, and the salesman behind the said counter, who had a look of 'khareed bhi lo, warna biwi toot padegi aap pe. Personal experience, sir.'

"Ye kaisa hai?" Shiva asked, picking out a cute purple jumper that had 'Mumma's boy' written on it.

"Shiva, tujhe kaise pata ladka hone wala hai? Ladki hui toh?"

"Arre nahi pata, mujhe bas ye cute laga toh utha liya. Ek kaam karte hai," He reached for another yellow jumper on the far end of the counter, which had "Dadda's favourite girl' written on it." Ladki hui toh ye, ladka hua toh ye. Baaki neutral options le lenge. Done?" He pointed at both jumpers, and Raavi nodded.

They picked out a lot more jumpers, socks, mittens and baby caps, where half the time Raavi was squealing at how tiny baby clothes were and the other half she sat down on the stool and made everyone in the shop run around for all the different baby blankets she wanted.

Luckily, it was a Friday and there wasn't much crowd in the afternoon.

About 2 hours and one tornado later, they had picked out all the necessary items, narrowing it down because the baby would outgrow them at the snap of their fingers.

"Ab bill kardu, madam?" The shopkeeper asked.

"Haanji, kar dijiye. Waise aap ye kaam karte thakte nahi hai?" Raavi sat up straight, striking a conversation with the shopkeeper.

Trust his chipkali to talk to no ends with anyone possible. She was a very jolly person like that.

Shiva walked over to the counter on the other side of the wall, and proceeded to pay the bill for their shopping spree.

"Shiva?" A voice called from beside him.

Shiva turned around to see who it was, and got a pleasant surprise. Vartika.

"Vartika? TU?! Zamane ho gaye tujhe dekh ke, kaha bhaag gayi school ke baad?" Shiva exclaimed, as they stretched their hands out and hugged each other.

"Kahi nahi. Bas US mein thi, school reunion miss karke." Vartika stepped back, beaming at Shiva.

They spoke for a bit, caught up on life, while the shopkeeper figured out what was wrong with his billing machine.

"It was so good to see you Shiva. I think school ke baad tu hi mila mujhe pehle, I'm surprised to see you in Mumbai." She  grabbed her bag that the shopkeeper handed over, apparently billed a week earlier.

"Haa. Idhar hi shift ho gaya." He chuckled.

"Vaise," She shuffled her feet, before asking him, "Tu next Saturday kya kar raha hai?"

"Kya kar raha hu matlab? Ghar pe chill karra rahunga? Kyu?" Shiva punched in the pin to pay.

"I was wondering if you'd like to go out, with me?" She asked with a smile.