Snuck-in Bride

8.Ice cream babble

Pani puri is delicious, which is higher than tasty on the taste scale.

But the salt content in it triggers the body to retain water. Which is why Arjun was currently walking through the hallways in the dark of the night.

His brain knew the path even though his eyes couldn't see things clearly.

He might've tripped once or twice and walked into a side table, but that was just his sleep.

Two cheat days already, and the month has just started. But it warded off feelings of deprivation and improved his ability to stick to his diet.

It was still dark when he reached the kitchen with an empty water bottle in his hand.

He's never easily startled. Except when he switched the lights on and found his father sitting on kitchen island.

"Sh!t," Arjun dropped the empty water bottle in his hand as Sachin looked at him.

"Arjun," he held a bowl of ice cream in his hand. "Why're you awake? It's 2 am."

"Yes, it's 2 am. Why are you awake?" The question went back and the bowl of ice cream was hidden. Or just tried to be.

"I couldn't sleep," his dad replied and knowing that wasn't convincing, gave up on trying to hide the bowl.

"I needed water," Arjun raised the bottle in his hand and walked towards the glass jug on the marble countertop.

He filled the water bottle first, then accepted a spoon of ice cream fed to him.

"Nice flavor, right?" Sachin asked and he nodded in agreement. "I just woke up and realized I haven't eaten ice cream since your sister's wedding."

"I had one last week," he recalled as he moved to sit beside his father on the island.

He was happy with another spoonful of ice cream, and just proceeded to stare at the cabinets. With ice cream and silence, he was fine. Until.

"Have you been seeing someone?"

Arjun, who was fine with ice cream accompanied by silence, hadn't expected the abrupt question.

He turned his head towards his father, not really knowing where he was coming from. "Why so out of the blue?"

Only a shrug was received in response as Sachin continued eating the ice cream.

"You're missing often after practice these days," he started. "You smile randomly, even without your phone. Also you've started watching too many romantic movies. It's like the starter pack of falling in love."

"You think?" Arjun asked, placing the water bottle aside.

"You remind me of myself when I met your mother," his dad answered.

"That bad?" He smiled a little, earning a nod.

Once again, he stayed in silence as the bowl of ice cream was being completed.

"Y/n," he finally said. "Actually, she snuck in-" He stopped, redid that sentence and said, "I met her at Sara's wedding."

"Do I know her?" Sachin asked since you seem to have been 'invited' to the wedding.

"No," Arjun answered quickly and pursed his lips in a thin line. That'll be a story to share some other time.

"Can your mum and I meet her sometime?" His dad asked and he looked at him.

"We haven't been seeing each other for too long," he replied. "Just over a month."

"But you look like you really like her," Sachin got down the island with the empty bowl in his hand. "Maybe even more than 'like.'"

He vaguely gestured with his hands before sighing. "I don't want it to become a 'right person, wrong time' story. I like her too much, but I don't know if she's just as serious about us. Sometimes I think about her with me, when I look at you and mom."

"Do you steal ice cream from her fridge too?" His father enquired, washing the bowl and spoon in the sink.

"As in the way you look at each other, papa," Arjun gave another slightly exasperated sigh. "But yeah, I stole ice cubes from her freezer. I could look at her forever when she smiles or just explains that our son did something exciting that day. She's effortlessly awesome, two years older than me, sometimes clumsy but she made me fall every time she fell too."

Sachin stared at him for a few seconds before asking for confirmation. It couldn't possibly be, right? "You said, 'our son.'"

"Oh, Biscuit," he smiled as he said the name. "Poodle."

"So I thought," his father mumbled to himself, placing the washed bowl and spoon in their place in the cabinet.

Hopefully, they'll be dry before anyone can notice in the morning.

"If it's the right person, there's no wrong time, Arjun," he was making sure there was no evidence in the morning, even if the domestic help were investigated.

He placed the ice cream tub back in the freezer and walked back to his son.

"And your mother can never know," he said in a serious tone and pointed to the freezer.

But not more serious than the havoc in the morning, when it was discovered that three-fourth of the 'unopened' ice cream tub was missing.

Arjun didn't say a word, and nor did his father.