Is Love Enough ??

Chapter 3

Kirti toyed around with her food at the dinner table. Toyed around with the food Maan had made for her.

He was an excellent cook. Even better than she was and this was when she had been cooking since the age of twelve. Well, technically, since she was fourteen the previous two years she had tutored under her mother who was a firm believer that every girl should know how to cook. Her pet dialogue had been 'Tomorrow when you go to your in laws' place they shouldn't complain that I didn't teach you even this much' and the other one 'The way to a man's heart is through his stomach'. And where she had always listened aptly and tried to imbibe what her mother said, Anika had always made fun of her notions 'No wonder papa's stomach is bigger than his heart'. Something that had irritated her mother to no end. Not that it had stopped Mrs. Kamal Singh from dragging Anika to the kitchen every chance she got. But where Kirti knew how to cook a variety of dishes most of them were Indian, okay, so all of them were Indian and very much Punjabi, Maan's skillset boasted of being global. He could cook different cuisines, a variety of dishes and that too professional scale. She often teased him about being her own personal Masterchef. Not that he minded. And today he had cooked her favorite cuisine. Italian. There was chicken marsala with capers and three cheese ravioli. And all she was doing was pushing the food around her plate. A little more of this and Maan would surely know that there was something wrong with her today, that is if he hadn't summed it up already.

There was very little that escaped his notice anyway. He had that uncanny knack. Initially she used to think it was only with her, but she realized later that it was with everyobody and everything. Any new change, whether it was in somebody's mood, attitude or thought he would be aware of it even before it was highlighted. But she never found his astutueness irritating or annoying, it was impressive. His keen intelligence and habit of perfecting what he did had always amazed her. She had found to her amazement that she had never been shy of talking about how she felt or what she thought. And he had always had respect for her thoughts. Not even once in all the time she had known him or lived with him had he ever made her feel inferior to him. She may have asked tons of dumb questions or acted weirdly at times but he had been patient, reflective but never opinionated. She had often wondered if it was a part of his inherent personality or a result of his troubled past. Only she hadn't found her answer yet. But coming to today's dilemna, she was hesitant. She didn't know why. She had never felt this hesitant to talk to him over anything. Never this reluctant. So why? It should have been easy. But to talk about their respective families or Chandigarh or how things had been and how they were now had never been easy. It didn't matter that their relationship had progressed or strengthened, that was one big topic they both had mutually agreed to not delve upon. Maan did know she called her sister on occasions. He had never stopped her nor had he ever asked for details. If she wished to share she did, and he listened. That was it. On his part, he never spoke of his family, well, she knew all of them on a personal level as they had been family friends so she wasn't really new to any of them or their relationship equations. But Maan himself never opened any topic which might even remotely relate to them. And out of consideration for his feelings neither did she. She wasn't liking this. This...this reluctance. It was an unfamiliar feeling. What was she fearing really? She didn't know. And it was the not knowing of his reaction, not even an honest guess at it was what was stopping her. She hadn't even decided if she wanted to go or not. And she would have gone on thinking if a deep voice hadn't paused her efforts in reaching a frustration level

"It isn't that bad," it said with amusement.

"Huh," Kirti said. Both looking and sounding confused as she looked up towards where Maan was sitting opposite to her.

His chin resting on one hand supported by his elbow on the table.

"Dinner," he said with a half smile, as he watched her, "it isn't that bad, Kirti," he told her.