Silver Lining | Grooms #3

XVII. Snowed In

Early in the morning, the door bell rung repeatedly, annoying Esha and forcing her to give up the warmth of her blanket and couch. She'd fallen asleep eating ice-cream and watching TV after she'd come back from the party last night, pissed off at Nikhil. He'd tried calling her and had even left a voicemail and few messages. She hadn't answered to any of it.

Seeing Nikhil standing at the other end of the doorway, her anger returned. She crossed her arms across her chest, "What are you doing here?"

"We agreed on spending the day together." He nudged past her with a brown paper bag of breakfast.

For a second, she was too taken aback at how easily he did that, as if it were a normal and everyday aspect for the two of them – to bring breakfast and eat together. "That was before what you did last night. Thank you for breakfast, but leave."

He made no attempts to, however. If anything, he walked further inside the apartment towards the kitchen to get two plates and forks. When he returned, she was still standing by the door. He let out a sigh, placed the utensils on the dining table, and walked up to her.

He forwarded his hand towards her head, but she inched away from him, thinking he was going to touch her. Instead, his hand went to the door behind her and pulled it shut.

"I apologized to you enough last night, and you'd know that if you would bother to check your phone." That was him telling her he was done apologizing, whether she forgave him or not. Then, he placed both his hands on her either shoulders, and turned her around so he could nudge her to walk towards the table. "Now, I don't know about you, but I don't carry yesterday's grudges to today in my personal life."

He made her sit, and standing behind the chair, he leaned over to place a quick peck close to her collar bone. Before she could open her mouth to realize his actions and scold him, his eyes had traveled to the couch.

He questioned, starting to walk to the chair across from her, "Did you sleep on the couch?"

She shrugged, "Fell asleep watching TV. And whether or not you carry grudges, I do."

He raised a brow, taking out the box of pancakes from the paper-bag. "I'm guessing I'm not forgiven?"

"No."

He nodded and without another word of asking her to forgive him, he placed a box in front of her and one in front of him. She let it be for a few minutes, before she questioned, "Does it not bother you?"

"No." he simply answered and it was true. He knew she was a hard person to appease. So, instead of asking her forgiveness yet again on something he didn't understand, he asked so he could try and understand the reason behind her anger. "Why does it bother you whether or not your coworkers know who you are dating? Its none of their business."

"That's not the problem, Nikhil. My problem is that I don't like just anyone knowing what goes on in my personal life. That's my personal life, and I like to keep it like that. Private. I don't need people commenting on it. Especially when the two of us are working together on a project." She was aware that they worked for different people, but it was still a complication and she preferred to keep her work and personal life separate. Nikhil couldn't be helped given the events of their drunken night leading her two lives to be woven together, but she was damn well still going to try and strike a balance.

Nikhil could see how both of their bottom point was that it was none of the business of other people. They just had a different way of expressing it. "So just don't answer any questions they ask, and eventually they will stop asking." He offered, taking a bite. "Why aren't you eating? I thought you liked pancakes."