Air Beneath My Wings(On Hold)

Journey

"How's your kid? Still playing football?" Alex asked Khushi.

"She gets antsy sometimes." Arnav said.

"She? Did you ask?"

"No. He just likes the idea of a daughter. Wait when she's old enough to date, he'll be running around the city with a pitchfork."

Nancy laughed at Arnav's annoyed face. "You guys! Thank you for inviting me, though. I never thought ASR would want to meet me his first day."

"He doesn't give the best first impression, does he?"

Alex shook her head.

Khushi laughed.

"So mature." Arnav muttered.

Once the table was set and they started digging in, talk turned to the move again.

"So this place is rented?" Alex asked. "Can I get in on it?"

"Get in on?" Khushi asked.

"Oh, I live quite a way from the office. I was looking for something nearby."

Arnav looked up at her. "I'll talk to the owner."

"Thank you, ASR. It's a lovely place. I hope my boyfriend likes it. We live together."

Arnav and Khushi looked at each other and an understanding passed.

"What is it? Alex asked.

"We used to live together, too. Hated each other's decor." Khushi said.

"Oh. I just can't imagine how you got together. You're like two different sides of a coin."

"But they go together." Khushi pointed out.

"Indeed they do. So, ASR, you promised a story. Something you haven't told your family?"

"There's a good reason for it." Arnav said. "Khushi is from a very conservative family. The no boyfriend, no dating, no sex before marriage one."

Alex was taken aback. "So, when you said, you might tell me, you assumed I'm not?"

"Generally people outside India, are a little broad minded."

"In some matters, yes. Depends on your own belief."

"Also true. The thing is when I saw my wife for the first time, I lost my control."

"On the first date?"

"No. We barely knew each other then. We had a... hate relationship for nearly a month. She hated that she liked I got to her."

Alex was gaping at him.

"And when we did start dating, it was purely physical. Of course, her family didn't know that. For obvious reasons."

Alex nodded in understanding.

"And then, before I know it, I actually fell for her."

Khushi giggled like a schoolgirl.

"I think it was the fact that she owned up to what she wanted. But this idiot, kept her patience on for weeks, not telling me that she wanted more."

"You would have ran." Khushi said.

"It took some time. But eventually, we renegotiated our terms and I decided that we should be dating, actually dating. The problem is our families had a history we didn't know about."

"So when they found out you guys were dating, they were against it?" Alex was curious now.

"She ran away from her home to mine."