Discordance

Chapter Seventy-Five

Abhimanyu covered his eyes from the bright lights suddenly shining in his eyes, his heart jumping at the loud surprise. What the hell was going on?

Slowly blinking he looked around trying to gather his wits as he looked at what looked like a huge crowd of people gathered in their great hall with streamers and balloons and confetti. What were they surprising him for? He tried to think of any important dates but nothing was clicking just yet.

With confusion writ large over his face, Abhimanyu looked at the gathered crowd, spotting his mother front and center and his heart swelled with happiness at the wide grin stretched across her face. All his other family, his friends and a lot of his colleagues were crowding the space but the one person he was looking for wasn't present amidst the crowd, where was she? She would probably tell him what was going on.

His heartrate picked up as he heard her "I'm here I'm here" as she giggled from behind someone in the crowd to loud cheers and he felt ill at ease needing to see her. Slowly his wife came into view and Abhimanyu almost took a step back because while Akshara always looked stunning, she was a vision right now in the tiniest scrap of a blouse held barely together by thin black straps with her body wrapped in a chiffon black saree with tiny silver mirrors all over it. Her face looked so stunning and he couldn't quite get past the tiny bindi on her forehead or the way she had done her hair or the makeup. He had never been more thankful to god than in that moment for letting this beautiful woman love him and for him to call her his.

With the quiet jangling of her silver bangles she walked over to him, clasping his hand in hers but all Abhimanyu could focus on was the way the blouse was tied at her back, unfurling one knot was all it would take for him and he lost his focus for a second as he rubbed his thumb on her back making her breath hitch before she glared at him and smacked his hand away, bringing him to the present.

"What's going on?" he whispered quietly as they walked to the waiting crowd

"It's a surprise party silly" Akshara said with a small giggle and sparkly eyes and again he lost his thread of thought mumbling a "what for?"

"For your Birthday Abhimanyu" oh right... his birthday? Oh. In all of the stress, he had forgotten that it was his birthday the following day. He had never celebrated his birthday with his family or otherwise since he was a teen because he had always been busy or not interested but if Akshara looked like this, he wanted his birthday to come every week.

"Oh and also our anniversary" the little monkey said before running away to hide behind his mother, her words registering only a second later as he glared at her until she hid her face behind his mother's pallu. She knew how he felt about their wedding date and he desperately wanted to scrub it from his memory. Just thinking about the way he treated her when she was hurting was torture and now here she was wanting to celebrate it? Did she not realize how ashamed he was of himself?

"Abhi, stop glaring at my poor baby and come here and give me a hug" Manjari said calmly and finally Abhimanyu's feet unlocked from his place and he went over to his mother to hug her and thank her but all she did was shake her head, "I did nothing, poor Akshu has been working day and night to get everything together." She said as she stepped away so Abhimanyu could see the little monkey hiding behind her.

She looked so damn adorable and he kicked himself as his heart slowly started working at its normal pace and he pinched her cheek making her huff loudly but the huff turned into a satisfied smirk when he folded her into his chest, kissing the top of her head.

Their small moment was broken by the rest of the guests as he was pulled in all directions and he hugged his friends, family and just about everyone who showed up when all he wanted to do was unwrap the saree from Akshara's body and kiss her until she was moaning under him.