SERENDIPITOUS|✓

Chapter 19

"Yes, ma, I am coming back. I'll be at home tomorrow." Krishn said to his mother across the screen.

He had his laptop perched on the table in front of him while he sat on one of the beaches spread out in the huge garden.

"But, sweetheart, that wouldn't be a nice thing to do. We've already promised Rakesh and Mala." His mother warned him using a pet name, his cheeks flushed hearing it in open.

"No, ma, don't worry about that. I'll convince Uncle. I'll tell him that I had work in the office. I'm pretty sure he'll not mind. I j-just don't want to stay-"

"Your juice," a small voice came, startling him easily and cutting off his rant session to his mother.

Krishn looked up to see Radha standing there with a glass of juice in her hand, looking anywhere but at him.

He swallowed thickly.

On one side he was convincing his mother to let him come back whilst here, Radha was standing in front of him, unintentionally convincing him to stay, a little bit more.

He didn't want to leave her, but he should.

"Thank you, Radha," he murmured quietly when she handed him the juice, their fingers brushing accidentally, leaving a trail of spark behind them.

He wanted to hold her hand and brush his lips against them.

What?

He jolted back at this absurd thought and immediately came back to his senses.

"Who's there, Krishn? Is it Mala? C'mon, let me talk to her." The voice came from the laptop startling both him and Radha.

Radha took it as her cue to leave.

"It's Radha, Ma," Krishn said glancing at her retreating back, an unknown longing evident in his eyes while unintentional crack present in his voice.

Both things enough to make Radha stop dead in her tracks.

"Radha? Is she the bride to be? Can I talk to her son? I haven't even seen her face," his mother asked him gently not trying to force Radha into any kind of unwanted interaction.

But anyone could hear the plead in her voice.

Who could blame her? She really wanted to see the girl, his son never stopped talking about. She wanted to see the face that had Krishn entranced. She wanted to know what was so special about Radha, why more than words, her son's mouth emitted long sighs. She wanted to know the girl behind her son's sleepless nights.

"Would she talk to me, son?" she asked again and Krishn's eyes snapped to Radha who was still standing there fiddling with her fingers, her back to him.

He sighed staring at her and cleared his throat discreetly. "Um... Radha," he called shyly, much to his mother's surprise and gulped inaudibly.

Radha turned back to him with her ever so soft gaze, his chest pained from fondness.

How can someone be so beautiful and soft, so effortlessly?

"Will you t-talk to my mother?" he asked stumbling over his sentence.

"Please," he added for good measure.

Radha shrugged lightly not knowing what to answer but still walked back to him and he released the breath he didn't know he was holding.

His heart fluttered in his chest when he saw Radha adjusting the strands of her hair that happened to fall into her eyes.
It felt as if he was introducing his future wife to his mother and not his friend's.
And this scared him as well as angered him to no limits. Why would he even think of such things? Tomorrow, it will be the day of Radha's engagement with Abhi, today was the day he was going back, what even was the point of thinking this stupid stuff?