Unnamed Thoughts

6. 'Exercising Rights'

She swung back and forth, back and forth, smiling endlessly at the thought he remembered today. It was a cool night for a August night and sitting under the gleaming full moon, Sonakshi couldn't think of anything but Dev Dixit.

But, although, she was smiling, she couldn't stop thinking about his behavior earlier. He seemed more distant than he had ever been. Moreover his words haunted her: he loved someone else. Who was this someone else?

Dev walked into Sonakshi's room to find her, but she wasn't there. He looked out her window into the backyard and saw her swinging on the swing, with that same pleasant smile on her face. He let out a slow sigh and folded his arms and leaned against the window just to watch her. She was the most beautiful creature God had possibly made, figuratively. But to his eyes she was and she was his wife. The thought gave him peace. At least they were married, now he just had to make her fall in love with him and forget Jatin, her past. He turned around and decided to go sit with her.

Sonakshi didn't hear him open the sliding door from the kitchen that lead into the backyard. When he sat down beside her, startled almost, she looked at him. Purposely he sat on the other side of the swing, leaving a large gap between them. He would simply have to stay away from her and let her come to him.

"Need something?" She asked him annoyed at the fact he was sitting miles away from her.

"What makes you think that I need something whenever I see you?" She was hiding the look of annoyance again, luckily he read it in her eyes. "Well I do actually need something."

"I knew it," she mumbled under her breath and smiled at him. His head was slightly tiled and his look was killer. "Coffee?"

She was so uncomfortable, Dev had to smile and straighten his look. And, he didn't want coffee. Something else, what could he possibly need at eleven o'clock at night?

"No. I don't need coffee."

Now it was her turn to tilt her head slightly, "then?"
You, he thought with a grin that played in his eyes instead on his lips. Instead he cleared his throat and deleted the thought from his mind for the moment. Ok, he found the topic. "Viola Love." He said and read suspicion in her eyes, grinned and moved beside her. It was fine, he told himself. Sitting together wouldn't harm a thing.

When Sonakshi expected him to put his arm around her, he didn't.

He folded them-on purpose- they both knew that. Sitting beside her was fine, touching her wasn't. The game had rules and he would play by them.

"Viola Love?" Sonakshi finally said shifting in her seat and moving her knees, that were almost jamming into his chest, to the other side. Because she shifted her weight they weren't exactly sitting close anymore.

"Isn't she that Italian fashion designer, daughter of a Indian mother and Italian father." That lady had quite a reputation, and she had dated Dev Dixit before they were married. The last thing Sonakshi needed was her husband's ex-girlfriend hovering around her office.

Her office? Sonakshi thought annoyed. Since when did Dev's office become hers?

"Ah! Her father isn't actually Italian. He claims to be since he was born there but his parents are actually English, from England. Bloody!" He mimicked the British accent.

Sonakshi rolled her eyes, she didn't want to enjoy this conversation with him. "Didn't you date her for a few years?"

"Up to the day we got married Sonakshi." He tucked his tongue at his cheek to hide that smirk coming his way, "why?"

She gave him a sharp look when she heard that glint of proud and importance in his why. When that twinkle in his eyes was gone she spoke. "You are not that important, Mr. Dixit."