"Manik" she whispers
I smile finally hearing her call me by my name
"Yes Nandini"
"You don't think you are making a mistake?"
"Nope"
"What if cabir doesn't like me and what if mumma says I am not a good daughter in law, what if"
"shhh, we can't live on what if's plus cabir loves you already. Ma and mumma both love you and the rest doesn't matter to me. It's them and you who matter to me now. I know that the way things are going and things turned our today, it will take soloing for all of us to recover from it and deal with it but we will together okay"
"You will be here?" She asks
"Always, as soon as I had put the varmala on you and that sindoor touched your hairline you were declared mine, not just by our moms but by god and by everyone in this world so yes I will be here no matter what. We aren't two individuals anymore, we are one and I am ready to be here and be in it for the full ride"
She sniffles a little rubbing her nose with the back of her hand
"I don't even know what to say" she mumbles
"Nervous?" I ask
She nods
"I know how weird this is"
"No no, this is obnoxious. It's like one of those horror stories I would hear people talk about on the train. worse than being kidnapped" she rambles
"Excuse me? You think I am worse than a kidnapper would be?" I ask
"No what? Who said that?" She asks
"You just said that this is worse than being kidnapped"
"No I mean okay no" she was a bit hassled now which was only a treat to watch
"What I meant was this is bad, you didn't even want to come to the wedding and now here you are married to me. You don't even know me, hell you don't even know me but you see the problem is that once you realize how bad of a person I am you will also leave like aman did. I mean you did kinda save me from that vicious person mhm no okay forget I said that because he is still your cousin" she was straight on just saying every single though of her
Some of what she said made sense but the other went in one ear and right out the other.
"Bacha you are not making any sense to me, can we speak clearly please?"
Her head tilts a little before she takes a deep breath
"What I am trying to say is I am sorry that you go caught in the middle of all of this"
"I didn't get caught In it and I could have easily denied the request. There were tons of guys at the wedding Nandini including cabir, I could have asked him to marry you"
"Oh no, I call cabir bro sometimes" she says like a child proving her point
"Right, the point is we are married, it doesn't matter how or in what circumstance it happened. We are married and I am ready for that commitment, I can support both of us financially, emotionally, phycially, all of it. Yes we don't know each other at all but we can learn each other's likes and dislikes. We can explore this relationship as friends first before we take it further. Does that sound fair to you?" I ask
"Super fair" she says
"Good so now tell me if you don't want this marriage. I mean if you love aman and I'm sure you do, if you aren't wanting to commit to this marriage and if you don't want me as your husband that is totally fine and I get it. If that's the case you need to tell me now, id rather know early than late" I tell her being honest
Here is the thing, I don't love Nandini, of course I don't, I just met her right but I do respect her and I respect myself as well so if she can't think of me in her future or if she can't take us seriously and don't want to work not his with me then I can't force her to, nor will I try to
"I didn't love aman, did Mumma tell you did?" She asks
"No, it's jsut me asking"
"I didn't love him, it was a mhm well I will tell you some other day but can I tell you something else?" She asks
I nodded leaning back
"I will work on this relationship with you and you are right about everything. This is really new to me and I will make mistakes but you can punish me, that's okay. Mhm I do see you in my future and I see us together in this marriage as one in the future too" she says looking up at me
"Punish you? Nandini everyone makes mistakes, punishments aren't really a thing in a relationship" I tell her
"Oh, I thought punishments is how you learn to correct a mistake" she says
"No bacha who told you that?" I ask
"Forget it" she says shaking her head
I wanted to know but it's too early to ask questions like that and I want her to be very comfortable with me before I can start asking questions
"Come on lay down, go to sleep. You must be exhausted" I say opening the blanket
"Im not sleepy" she says but lays down anyways
She pulls the blanket all the way up to her chin making me smile a little, I laid down as well looking at her.
I can't believe I was single 24 hours ago and now I am married to a beautiful girl but we aren't even friends, I wouldn't say we are strangers because I know her from when she was developing in the womb, I know that every time I would poke her mom's belly she would kick back haha so I know her
There is almost a special bond or connection I have with her but I just don't know how to explain that in normal sentences you know.
Her eyes slowly close but she opens them again as if she falls a sleep it will be a crime or something. she doesn't say anything, just stares at me, I wasn't sure if she was scared, I mean she didn't look scared but you never know
"How are you not sleepy little one? It's 4 in the morning and as far as I know you have been up for more than 24 hours now" I ask
"Who told you?" She asks pouting, her eyes squinting
"Your mom, she called my mom yesterday morning around 3 asking something" I tell her
"Bad ma" she says like child
"Should I go tell her?" I ask
"Hawww nooo, I thought we were friends, you would tell on me, bad bad" she says
"No baba I won't tell on you but you need to close your eyes and sleep bacha, it's really late" I whisper closing the lights
Immediately she shifts closer, her hand touching mine slightly
"Do you want the night lights on?" I ask wondering if she was scared of darkness
"Please" she whispers
i flick the dim lights on, she releases a breath finally sighing a bit
"You don't like darkness?" I ask
She just hums, her eyes close but she opens them again wider than before making me chuckle
"What's wrong?" I ask
she shakes her head jsut looking at me.
Hesitantly I lift my hand placing it on her head caressing her hair very gently making sure my eyes stay on hers to see if she is uncomfortable but as soon as my fingers run over her scalp her eyes start drooping again
A few minutes later her eyes close, her breath even as she turns towards me falling a sleep, my hand stayed still on her head until she was in deep sleep. Gently I moved my hand back closing my eyes as well, I was so exhausted so it didn't even take long for sleep to take over me
YOU ARE READING
His Burden
RomanceA little short story on arrange marriage of two individuals, one who was about to get married to someone else and the other was a guest at the wedding, but both of them end up getting married.
