Shape of the Sun

Specifics of domesticity

Manmeet fitted the lid onto the box of movie DVDs. It was Rajkumar's and while it was great to find out that they had similar tastes in movies when they were younger, she was too tired to unpack anymore. Saturday had come too fast and she and Rajkumar found themselves having to move all their stuff into vans and all the works such as buying some new furniture, kitchen utensils, and food. Thankfully, their families were there to help them with most of the big stuff. The little stuff, they had to do on their own, and the box of DVDs was the last thing out apart from their clothes. Manmeet thought that it could really wait until tomorrow.

She rested her head on the lid, her eyes going to and resting on Rajkumar, who was pacing at the far end of the dining table, just behind the balcony. He was talking into a set of Airpods, on a FaceTime audio meeting, and it was all so fascinating to Manmeet just how casual it all was. She couldn't help chuckling at the sight of his bare feet against the black linoleum flooring, which came to be as soon as they had moved in, Rajkumar immediately ditching the pair of sandals that he had been wearing. Gunjan had joked that his feet were too beautiful for a man's, which even he agreed to. Really, it was no lie. Rajkumar's feet looked delicate, complete with clean, cut toenails. It put Manmeet's to shame, despite that she was a woman.

Rajkumar from his vantage point, resting against the dining table, could easily tell that Manmeet was done for the day. Her inactivity spoke volumes.

"Please hold on a minute." he pressed the hold button, effectively excusing himself from the meeting, and motioned to her, his finger pointed to a door on the far left. "Manmeet, you can move into your room if you are tired. No need to wait up for me." The rooms were already cleaned up and ready for occupancy.

Manmeet, for her part, was surprised at the door that Rajkumar was pointing at. That was the bigger room and she had thought he'd be the one staying in there since it was technically his apartment. The 'O' shape of her mouth reflected her feelings. Rajkumar didn't even want to explain how cute that was.

"The big room." she pointed at the door and then back to herself, "For me?"

The way she broke down her reply made Rajkumar chuckle, and he decided to follow her example but in a more dramatic manner.

"Big room, you." he pointed at her and then at himself, "Small room, me. Because I, one." he raised one finger, "And you, two." Then, he added another finger before gesturing a rather large semi-circle with his hands, to signal her pregnancy.

Manmeet was honestly speechless at what she had just seen him do. It was like he was trying to dumb down to the level of a kindergartner and her jaws, hanging wide open, just reflected her shock. Rajkumar chuckled at that expression, finding it even more cuter, before pressing the hold button again and returning back to his call. He was confident that Manmeet knew what to do now, so there was no need to delay his meeting any longer.

"You were saying, Dr. Patel....?" He carried on the meeting, walking into the balcony.

And Rajkumar was right though. Even though Manmeet was stunned at his method of delivery, she stood up and rolled her box towards the bigger room as he had pointed out, her earlier feelings of shock, now embarrassment. She understood that he was taking a cue from her now. Tsk. How could a grown man act so childish? But even though she said that it in her head, she was still unable to suppress the rising corners of her lips.

Manmeet finally came out of the room after a while, having spent a full hour in there. It had been a hassle to get her clothes into the walk-in closet, and she still wasn't done. She had opted to put it off for later since there was no rush to finish it all at once, anyways.

The living room still looked the same as she had left it, only that now, Rajkumar was sitting on the chair-and-a-half, the same box of DVDs from before in front of him. He had been taking them out and wiping them with a dishcloth, before placing them on the wooden table. Manmeet could see that he was halfway through.