Lover Is A Day

Chapter 21

He gave me onions, chillies, and garlic to cut. And did something with the cooker and the things we just brought. At first, nothing happened, but then I started tearing up and the tears just didn’t stop. As if I was crying.
He laughed at me. And I tried to wipe the tears, without directly touching my eyes. He washed his hands, and took a cloth to dry my eyes.
‘Thanks’, I said and sniffed
‘You have to cut them in smaller size’, he said
‘Smaller than this?’
‘Yeah’
He washed and rinsed the rice multiple times. Before putting it in the cooker, which we had just brought.
‘And wash the rice three times’, he said
‘Why three?’, I asked
‘To clean it’, he said
‘Roughly half a finger… but if you are cooking just for yourself, then take less rice and less water’, he said
I looked at my index finger, my hand was bigger than his.
‘I’m not going to make it’, I said
‘You should! See… I am teaching you this so you can cook food for yourself’, he said
‘I can cook food’, I protested
‘Just maggi and omelet with bread is not enough’, he said
Since the cooker was small, he could only cook one thing at a time in it. So, he had already cooked the dal beforehand.
I passed him the chopped onions. He put some things in the kadhai and it made sizzling noises. He did all of the cooking, and I could only watch.
‘How did you learn all of this?’, I asked
‘I actually learnt it from my mummy, sometimes she comes home late from work, and so she taught me and Shreya how to atleast make Varan Bhat, so we wouldn’t starve. What about you? How come you don’t know how to cook anything?’, he stirred the kadhai
He attacked me so plainly. And I sound soo privileged next to him.
‘We had maids at our house so I guess I just never learned’, I said truthfully
‘Then, you should thank me, because now I am teaching you’, he said
He opened the cooker. And it smelt nice.
He served the Varan Bhat on a plate and gave it to me. So, I took a bite. I could feel his gaze on me.
I looked at him and said, ‘Its good!’
‘Is it good? Do you like it?’, he asked happily
I nodded. ‘It’s really good, I like it’, I said
‘Ofcourse its good! I made it’, he said proudly
It tasted mildly spicy. Which is perfect. It is nothing like restaurant food or like the food our maids made back at home in Delhi., this has more homely taste to it. Salty, simple and maybe a little sweet. But it tasted like something more which I couldn’t pinpoint was what. It tasted abit buttery. 
I saw him serve some for himself, and I saw that he added something on top of the Varan bhat. I asked him what it was.
‘Its ghee’, he said, ‘Makes Varan bhat taste a 100 times better’
'I like it', I said and took another bite
We went and sat on the floor at the foot of my bed like we always do, while eating. I only sit on the floor when I am with him. Usually I sit on my desk to eat.
‘Sit on the bed’, I told him
‘Nah, this is better’, he said
‘We forgot to buy some coriander, it would make this even better’, he said
‘Next time’, I said, and ate. Which implied that we should do this more often, but I had not intended to say it like that.
‘Okay’, he said and smiled
Once we were done. He got up and went to wash his plate.
I told him not to, since he did all the cooking, I'll wash the dishes. And, he listened to me, which he doesn't usually do, and kept his dish in the sink.
He went and sat my bed. After I was done with the dishes, I also went and sat on my bed next to him.
Now what? I thought.
‘We should study’, he said. And took out a textbook from his bag. He was still in our college uniform; I had changed to tshirt and sweatpants when he was cooking.
His textbook was thick and had a lot of diagrams of human body with big words and small texts.
‘Engineering is easier than this’, I said, he chuckled
I sat next to him, on my bed and continued to read my textbooks.
He sat with a bad posture, slouching with his legs crossed. While I was resting my back on the pillows and stretched my legs out. He took out a highlighter, and appeared to be deeply focused while reading. I tried to sneak glances at him, from time to time, sometimes he would highlight the text, or he held his chin with his right palm.
He was actually studying!
And I couldn’t even focus. I read a simple paragraph 4-5 times, and still didn’t understand a single word.
I didn’t look at him directly, but sometime later., from my peripheral vision., I saw him rest his side on the pillow to my left. Maybe its just that I am hyper aware of him, when he is around. But somehow his presence is really calming yet it stands out.
After a sometime, his heavy book slipped from his hand, and aimlessly fell on my thigh. I looked at him this time. And saw that he had fallen asleep!
His head was just a few centimeters away from my back. He slept peacefully in the pillows, with his body crawled up, and his feet, outside the bed.
I set his textbook aside. And didn’t change his sleeping position. Instead, I laid back further, on the pillows which made his head fall on my shoulder. I closed my eyes.
Sometime later I woke up. And felt that he was no longer resting on my shoulder. He was slouched up again and reading his textbook, more diligently this time. He must have woken up when I slept.
It was deep into afternoon now and not yet evening. And I no longer felt like studying. So, I got up.
‘Chai?’, I asked him
He nodded, while silently reciting words. I went to the kitchen.

It was only after I handed him the cup of tea, that he put his textbook away.
‘Thank you’, he said
I nodded.
‘Ugh… my shoulders hurt’, he said
‘That’s because you were slouching the whole time’, I said
He stretched.
‘Does your building have a terrace?’, he asked
‘Yea, why?’
‘Let’s go there’

Authors Note: Just wanted a chapter of them being domestic 🥹 (more cute chapters are otw)
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