"Happy Married Life, Shivya Pathak" I weakly smiled seeing my condition, mangalsutra dangling in my neck, vermilion in hair and both hands filled with gold bangles.
"Come out quickly or do you want me to break the gate," my husband knocked again...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Vedant sat silently on the sofa, his entire attention fixed on one particular betrayal happening right in front of his eyes.
His wife, who used to look at him with those warm, green eyes was currently ignoring his existence completely because of a tiny ball of fur curled against her stomach.
The kitten they had brought home,somehow, within a few hours, it had managed to steal the position he had spent months trying to earn.
And the worst part? Shivya didn't even realize it.
The entire day had passed with her heart completely occupied by the little creature. She had cooked his favourite lunch while occasionally stopping in between to check if the kitten was comfortable.
Then, after finishing her work, she had sat with a book in her hands, the kitten sleeping peacefully beside her as if it had always belonged there.
Meanwhile, Vedant had been sitting across from them, pretending to focus on the property calculations he had received from Vivaan a few days, complaining that his calculations are not matching with the one he had sent him before leaving the haveli.
Vedant sat down to re-check every paper but the numbers refused to settle because every few minutes, his eyes automatically moved toward Shivya. And every single time, she was looking at the kitten, not him.
Now, in the evening, they were sitting together on the sofa they had bought a few days ago. After finishing his chai and watching her take small sips of her coffee, Shivya suddenly looked down at the kitten sleeping peacefully against her stomach, hidden safely beneath the edge of her saree.
"Vedant," she whispered as she looked down at the kitten. "Hum iska naam Laila rakhe?"
Vedant lowered his gaze toward the tiny creature hidden comfortably against her saree, almost entirely protected by the warmth of her body. "Laila?" he repeated, his eyebrows lifting slightly. "Thoda sa insaano wala naam nahi lag raha hai?"
(Laila? Doesn't it sound a little like a human name?)
Shivya immediately looked at him with confusion. "Insaano wala naam? Yeh kya hota hai?" she whispered, careful not to raise her voice and wake the sleeping kitten, "Naam toh naam hota hai na?"
(What is a human name? A name is just a name, isn't it?)
Vedant shifted closer to her, unable to stop himself from admiring the way she was speaking in whispers as though the kitten was a newborn baby. "Humara matlab," he explained quietly, lowering his voice as well, "aisa naam sochiye jo lage ki ek jaanwar ka hai. Jaise uss kaale bille ka naam rakha hai Zumo."
(I mean, think of a name that sounds like it belongs to an animal. Like how that black cat is named Zumo.)
The moment those words left his mouth, he regretted them because Shivya turned her face toward him slowly, her eyes studied him with such seriousness that Vedant immediately realized he had made a mistake.
