Along the Lines of Love | ✓

Chapter 36 : Sprouting Appetency

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Is pal ko milke aa jee le zara

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Sharanya sat on the chair placed near the window in the room. She was tired of it all. One after the other problems would crop up in her life. She had no clue what to talk about with others and how to avoid the awkwardness around the family so she decided it was best to stay I the room. She was almost sure that people will doubt that her mother-in-law's decision to live separately rooted from her arrival into the family. She sighed, she should have taken the lady's hints from before. Maybe even spoken to Nikhil about it before their engagement.

She was disturbed by the opening and closing of the room's door and looked at Nikhil. His gaze met her eyes briefly, before he moved to the washroom.

Sharanya took a deep breath and prepared herself to talk to him.

When he came out, she handed him the hand towel, silently. He accepted it, wordlessly with a nod of head. He was about to pick up his laptop when Sharanya took a step towards him and spoke up, "Nikhil,"

"Hmm," He said placing the laptop a little ahead on the bed and keeping the pillows against the wall.

"Can we please talk about what happened?" She asked, a little irked by his passive interest.

He turned with her drawing put a sharp breath. "She had made up her mind." He shrugged.

Sharanya was beginning to get angry now. "So you're not going to convince her to come back?"

"She won't deter." He sighed, placing one hand on his hip, waving the other in the air.

"Is it about me?" She finally asked more directly. "I won't lie to you, and I don't intend to offend you in any way, but I think she's not happy because of me. I mean, I know we had her blessings, but I just... don't know Nikhil." She shrugged, "it is as if she doesn't really like me. I understand, that it can be because of whatever happened at the wedding reception night or I don't know, maybe something else. I can't figure it out and it's bothering me way too much now." She bit her lower lip and looked away, realizing how bad it made her feel. Maybe she was never really marriage material.

"Sharanya," He said softly, feeling bad for her. He took a step closer to her and held her hand. Almost immediately, her gaze flee back to his face. "I hate to say this, but it's just Maa's age that's making her irritable. Ever since my father's demise, she has been that way. Sometimes, I think, she's not even recovered from the loss. To add to that, differences between me and Saahil have always troubled her. It's not about you. It's about her. About me and Saahil and the fact that things didn't go as she thought they would."

She stared at him, feeling the warmth of his fingers that were wrapped around the back of her palm. Did he mean that or he was trying to pacify her?

Nikhil felt an inexplicable urge to comfort her and put to an end the misery she was subjecting herself to. He had to admit, he had genuinely begun to experience feelings he hadn't discovered before. Like right now, making sure she was not upset felt like the most important task to accomplish. He took forward his other hand and held her hand in both his hands. "Trust me, it's just that."

Sharanya began to feel a wave of ease spread all over. Maybe she was just overthinking, maybe it was really not her. Perhaps it was just the timing that made her to believe Nikhil's mother hated her existence. In that moment of relief, she closed the distance between them and hugged him.