Love and More

Chapter 21

At Present

"What have you done to yourself, Amar Vidrohi? Look at yourself now, it's not even a day since you got married and you're already out of your room!" Amar talked to himself while he furiously paced outside his room for Haseena won't let him in until she changed her clothes. And it seemed to take her forever to do that, "This! This is what happens when you get married! Diwan Ji was always right. I should have listened to him and never gotten married." Amar took a pause and then again the intrusive thoughts took over his mind, "This is just the start, Amar. First, she got you out of your room and then she'll make you sleep on the couch. And then you'll be washing the utensils, doing the laundry, cleaning the house! She'll make your life a living hell!"

That is when he heard the clicking sound and understood Haseena have finally unlocked the door. He entered his room while Haseena nervously stared at the romantically decorated bed. To her, it was less romantic and more dramatic for all she could see was rose petals and flowers. And to her luck, she's allergic to flowers.

"This is great!" She muttered to herself in a sarcastic tone. While Amar heard her words but missed the sarcasm.

"What is so great about this?" But before Haseena could explain, Amar added, "Oh, I get it. You girls love flowers. Sleeping on a bed decorated with flower petals must be great!" He commented sarcastically.

"Are you dumb, Amar Vidrohi?" Haseena narrowed her eyes at him, "What are you even talking about? I'm allergic to flowers." And he nervously laughed at her revelation.

"Oh, I'm sorry... I thought you loved it." He said pointing at the decorated bed while continuing his nervous laugh, earning an are-you-serious look from Haseena and finally stopped laughing, "No one at my place was aware of your allergy. I'm so sorry."

"They anyway had to do something like this. After all, it's our first night!" Haseena sighed throwing another sarcastic comment.

Tired, Haseena sat on the edge of the bed. And then let out another exhausted sigh. She was very tired from the wedding rituals and all the commotion. And Amar reluctantly took a seat beside her. Then carried on staring at his own feet.

"Haseena." Amar finally spoke breaking the long awkward silence, "I know, none of us have wanted this but can't we handle it like adults?" Amar said turning his head in her direction, fixing his gaze on her.

And he could not think of anything else but how beautiful she looked even without makeup.

"What do you mean by that?" Haseena was not in a good mood, "When did I behave immaturely?!" She spoke in an offended tone.

Amar looked into her eyes and tilted his head in a way as if telling her to confront herself, "Look at yourself. You're smouldering at me for small things. Even for things I didn't have anything to do with."

"Yeah, right! You just cut off my blouse's string a few minutes ago and you're telling me that you didn't do anything." Haseena shot.

"I didn't say... I'm not saying that wasn't my fault but I didn't do it intentionally." He took a little pause, "And despite I didn't do it intentionally, I apologize, I'm sorry." Haseena looked at him and realized he wasn't wrong.

Suddenly, Amar stood up, "Let me clean it up." He said and Haseena stared at him in confusion, "The bed. Let me clean up the bed. You can't sleep with the flowers. You're allergic to them." He explained looking at her confused face. And Haseena silently stood up and moved to a corner. She stood silently wrapping her arms over her chest, lost in thoughts.

What's next, Haseena? You're married! And now that you're married, what will you do next? Forget about everything and start a family with this guy? You don't even love him. And now that you've married him willingly, even though our families emotionally blackmailed us to agree to this marriage, now we're stuck and can't even get a divorce! Haseena thought but could not think of any way to get out of this situation.

That day, when Amar and Haseena had safely returned to the police station after getting the goons caught, they decided it was their chance to reveal everything to their families and so they did. And after that, their families did exactly the opposite of what the two had expected.

Instead of breaking off the wedding, they convinced both Amar and Haseena to marry each other for the families of each liked the other very much and thought, they were perfect for each other. And at the end of the day, Haseena and Amar were forced to pretend they were happy for they didn't want to hurt their families and willingly performed all the wedding rituals. Now, left with no other choice but to accept their fates and continue life as husband and wife.

"It's done." Said Amar bringing Haseena out of her thoughts, "You sleep on the bed. I'll take the couch." Though Amar was complaining a few minutes ago about how Haseena was going to make him sleep on the couch, he decided to take the couch himself. Maybe because he suddenly thought to be polite. At least, that's how he reasoned his care for her.

"No..." Haseena said taking Amar by surprise, "It's your room, you should sleep on the bed. I will take the couch."

"It is no big deal. I can sleep on the couch." Amar insisted.

"No, last time, you slept on the couch, you had back pain. Let me take the couch."

"I'll sleep on the couch and that's final!" Amar declared, getting irritated by the silly argument. "And who told you that I had back pain for I had slept on the couch?"

"You didn't have to tell me. Remember, I'm a police officer too!"

"Oh really? So, the supercop Haseena Mallik can tell if someone has pain or not by only looking at them!" He taunted.

"Yeah, for I could see you, pressing your shoulders and stretching your back all day. Now, don't tell me you were just flexing your muscles." She shot back.

"How do you know if I was stretching in pain or flexing?! And I was flexing!" Amar stated suddenly striding toward her.

They were still standing at a good distance from each other. And Haseena swaggered toward him to shut him up with her last reply when she slipped as the floor as well had flower petals scattered all around the room. And Amar jumped at her to hold her from falling but the two landed on the bed. Luckily, they were closer to the bed and fell on it instead of the floor.

Meanwhile, Amar fell over Haseena and Haseena fell on her back. Amar opened his closed eyes. And he saw her, eyes shut, hands clutching onto his shirt, head a little tilted to the right, a few strands of hair fallen over her face. For a moment, his breath stuck in his throat. He had never in his dream imagined seeing her from this close. Scanning her face, his eyes suddenly stopped at her lips. And then Haseena opened her eyes and winced as Amar's whole body was weighing over hers.

Getting back to his senses, Amar immediately jumped off of her and rushed to the couch,

"I'm taking the couch. No more arguments!" He muttered, declaring his decision in a lowered voice.

...

So, I'm not writing the wedding sequences for I think that'd be a lot to explain. Moreover, I couldn't decide whether the wedding should be in the Hindu way or Muslim way or both ways 😅
At last, I'm skipping on it 🙂

Just imagine whatever kind of wedding you want for them 😉