Bound by Fate | [✓]

24. Good Morning Mrs. Roy

My low spice tolerance had never been more of a blessing than it had been today and also my darling's tender heart. She wanted me to say no to a wedding. Our wedding just because she served me salty tea and spicy food?

How much more adorable can you possibly get Evara?

And even though the moment I took a bite of that food. And felt suffocated by all the spice. My ears had gone numb and my hearing had faded due to absolutely spicy food that you had prepared. It all dulled in a low and melodic harmony the moment you handed me that glass of water and fed me that sweet curd.

It is true when the old wise men said that when someone you love feeds you food... even the simplest thing feels like nectar. That simple sugar and curd had been the sweetest thing I had eaten in my life. And this is coming from one of the biggest sweet tooths in the world.

It is ironical how our taste in food was so diverse. Just like our cultures.

I loved sweets.
Evara hated sweets.

She always scrunched up her face when I ate too much sweet and she would scold me just like maa telling me how 'Too much sweet causes cavities.'

Evara loved spice.
I hated spice.

The memories of her eating spicy vada pavs, pav bhaji and pani puri invaded my mind. I remember how she had shoved a pani puri into my mouth saying it tasted like paradise. No it sure as hell didn't taste like paradise. More like water with tamarind and abnormal quantity of spice.

Regardless, I had called it delicious. Just to see that twinkling in her eyes and the precious smile on her face.

But, right now as she stood in front of me worry oozing off her body. For no there reason than putting too much spice in my food.

She was sweating. It was as if she had eaten food that was spicier than my own. It was as if she felt a hundred times more pain than I did. Spice was never a problem for Evara. In fact the spicer the better. But today it seemed as if she felt spice for the first time in her life.

"I... Was the food too spicy for you, Atharva?" Evara asked her voice was at the brink of tears. In her haste and worry her ghungat slipped and fell on the floor. Yet she couldn't care lesser to pick it up to hide her face.

Her concern was no longer fixed on us not seeing each other but rather on the pain that I might have felt.

And I felt a garden of butterflies flutter to life in my heart.
My darling can never change.
The same simple, kind and stubborn girl.

Even in her hate there was love.
Even in her vengeance there was limitations.
Even in her disapproval there was approval.

I slowly picked up the dupatta from the floor. And walked closer to her. She had made a promise that we wouldn't see each other till our wedding. And I wouldn't break it unless she asked me to do otherwise.