Aeipathy

११| Little things

“There were now sweet little things in her daily life she had started looking forward to.”

°°°

Early mornings were becoming a habit with the passing days. Mihika had just come out of the shower, her hair was wrapped in a fluffy towel and yet the bottom of it still couldn't stop the trail of water escaping and wetting her clothes to an extent. She noticed the door was open, there was no bedsheet on the mattress and Aarush wasn't in the room. She took out a fresh set of bedsheet and pillows covers from the uppermost compartment of the wardrobe and evenly spread it over the bed.

Aarush had bought everything she'd written in the list of things she needed thankfully. The big bottles of shampoo and conditioner were probably going to last a few months for her and the new slippers were soft and comfortable enough. Once done with arranging the bed, she gently unwrapped the towel from her head and stood near the dressing table, wiping off the remaining water. Her eyes were unsure about using the already plugged in hair dryer that was kept by the side.

When Aarush had walked back inside the room, he found her sitting near the window on a chair, reading something on her phone with a plate in her lap that had half a paratha left and chai in a coffee mug. It hasn't even been a week since she'd been discharged from the hospital and yet here she was, back at her old habits.

“Mihu.” Aarush called out finally after not being able to grab her attention by his mere presence in the room. Mihika was startled by the sudden voice. She turned around with her mouth still chewing on the last morsel of the food with her eyebrows raised in question. Her eyes caught the attention of the thin rectangular box he was holding in his hands. “Han?”

“Come here.” He gestured to come near the bed where he kept the box and waited for her to come over before opening the box to reveal heavily embroidery done on a blood red salwar kurta and a matching jutti along with kaleere and matching set of jewelry. “It’s my mother's.”

She could guess that much but the anticipation remained while she intently looked at it, giddiness was starting to swarm around like worms in her stomach. They were a beautiful set of traditional wedding dress and jewelry, not very heavy and yet drop dead gorgeous. Mihika looked at him wordlessly asking for him to elaborate when he hesitantly held her hand. Aarush slipped out the small wooden box and the nuptial necklace he'd taken that day and kept them on her palm. “Get ready. We're going to the gurdwara and after that we'll get the pictures taken there itself.”

On getting no response, Aarush finally held her gaze that showed nothing but a hint of hurt. His lips pressed in a tight line and he bowed his head. “I’m sorry for that day.”

Mihika said nothing, waiting for him to continue as he looked hesitant. “We are going to the gurdwara today, you know that right?”

Looking for specific words was seemingly too hard at the moment. Aarush took another pause of several seconds before speaking again.“Since we have to perform some of the rituals properly because we couldn't on our wedding day. So, I was thinking why not just do everything all over again to start over afresh.”

Aarush wavered in his speech, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles unconsciously. “What I mean is that we can take the chance to get married again in a low-key manner in the gurdwara if you're fine with it?” 

Was it impulsive or a compromise? Not really. On his part, he knew what he wanted from his life. Marrying her might have been too abrupt but the future he'd once foreseen with her in his teenage years had already started taking shape. Now that there was a mold in his grasp, Aarush wanted to be selfish and give it a shape he'd once dreamt of.