Tale of Two Lovebirds

Chapter 40

Hope you had a merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year! Hope 2016 brings you all lots of happiness and many, many good things. I apologize for taking so long to update. You already know I'm slower than a snail at this. Thank you for still reading.

Edit: Please google "how to play UNO" if you're confused by the game part. UNO is a pretty popular card game and I believe there is a picture of Deepika playing UNO with her team. That along with Faridoon's rapidfire interview and Deepika's competitiveness inspired the game part of this chapter. I don't have the picture saved so if anyone has it, feel free to share! Also, happy belated to one of my first readers, Ayushi, congrats on your friendship (lol).

Chapter 40

"I really have to go to school?" Little Ria complained on a sad morning as her papa kneeled on the floor in front of her, helping her step into the skirt of her uniform. She wasn't cooperating much, she didn't want to go to school...

"Yeah, baby. No choice." Ranveer said feeling sorry for her. If it were up to him, he wouldn't take her to school yet. Luckily though, he wasn't raising her by himself or else Ria would be the most spoiled girl in the world, as she would always get away with whatever she wanted.

"Yes choice." Ria argued and Ranveer chuckled. "Here is more fun and I'm gonna miss Dhruv so much. I want to stay here with him." She continued. Couldn't he understand she waited so long for him to be born? And now she couldn't stay with him. He wasn't even a week old yet. She hadn't had enough of him yet.

"It's only for a few hours... You'll get to see him again afterwards." Her papa said and Ria pouted. She really loved her baby brother. She loved being around while he was awake and she loved holding him the most.

"I'm so sad, papa. I no like this." Ria said, her eyes getting wet with tears. Not only Dhruv was with them now, papa was not working these days and he was home all day long. Even Nana and Nani were home and Dadi visited all the time. She was going to miss out on all the fun because she had to go to school. It was so unfair.

"I'm sorry, Princess." Ranveer said giving her a hug. He was tired, it was too early for him to be functioning and on top of that, he was running on only three hours of sleep and hadn't had any coffee yet. "I don't make the rules. Kids have to go to school. If I was a real King, I would let all kids with baby brothers and sisters stay home all day so they can play a lot. You can play at school too, na? You have your friends there. I'm sure they miss you."

Ria nodded, now that he mentioned it, she did miss her friends. She hadn't seen them in four days because she skipped two days of school, plus the weekend. "I love Dhruv very much, papa. He no play or talk but he so cute." The little girl said still pouting.

"I know... he loves you too. He doesn't play or talk yet but he will soon. You've done a great job being a patient big sister." Her papa smiled, giving her a hug and kissing her cheek before standing up. "Do you want me to do your hair or do we ask nani?" Ranveer asked, unsure whether his daughter would want him to do it himself when Nani was also in the house. Nani, though, was in the kitchen cooking breakfast for Ria and Deepika was still in bed with the baby. He hoped Ria wouldn't want her mommy to do her hair even though he knew Deepika wouldn't have a problem doing it if their daughter asked her to.

"You do it." Ri said. He had done her hair before and while he couldn't do all the different hairdos mommy could do, he still did a decent job. She had no complaints. Ranveer smiled and picked her up, sitting her on her bed and then he sat down too.

"You know I can't plait very well but I can do a ponytail." He said and Ria nodded.

"Ponytail is okay." She said. He did okay ponytails...