One Cuppa Chai

•13•

Chapter 7
Love Shmove

2008

"Go, he's alone outside. Greet him!" My sister prodded and I gave her a withering look.

"You go, he'll wait," I said.

"I'm getting ready until then you have to keep him company!" And she pushed me firmly out of the door and I stumbled outside.

The man was nervously taking a sip from the cup of coffee and looked up at me in surprise.

"Heyy... I mean, Namaste..." I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear and sat on the opposite couch.

We both were quiet in silent contemplation.

He cleared his throat, "Never saw you around much after the engagement..."

I smiled, "Actually, I had my coaching for my board exams and I come home in the late evening..." I gave a toothy smile and then fell silent again.

He nodded and looked into his cup, "How do you feel about adding me into your...you know, family?"

What was this? An interrogation?

I was supposed to keep him company and he wanted an opinion about the marriage as if it mattered.

He was hunching his back and huddled in the corner of the couch, his checked shirt neatly tucked into his dress pants and his hair combed back, I realized I had nothing valid to complain about him. There wasn't even a speck of dust on his clothes. He was too well-groomed for my liking. Not that it mattered. Or not that it even concerned him in any way at all but only owing to the fact that he was an unknown man all my life and my parents were letting him whisk away their daughter into his life.

I couldn't imagine personally; being married to a stranger and being pressurised to fall in love with him one fine morning.

The thought made my stomach twist in dread.

Love, itself was a questionable emotion because I didn't exactly decipher what the prescribed emotions were before throwing the word around.

However, I did have sort of a tender, unreasonable, fluttery feeling for one person you might have heard quite a lot about from me.

The china teacup wobbled in the man's hand before me and I realised that in my thoughtful state, I was giving him a piercing glare unconsciously.

He adjusted his shirt and straightened his spine.

Was I imagining it or did it seem like he looked a little nervous?

His eyes occasionally darted to the door behind me.
Oh, that's what he's been expecting. Right.

"It's nice to have another....um, member in our family. It's nice." I said finally, hoping I convinced him. "Oh, and please have the jalebis. They're getting cold."

"Oh, right...." He nibbled on one that he picked from the corner of the plate, "Where are your parents?"

"They left last evening to our hometown to give out the invitations... Actually..."

I lost his concentration when the door handle turned and my sister stepped out, clad in a baby pink Kurti, fastening her delicate watch to her wrist.

I flipped my head back to her fiancé, who was inconspicuously ogling at her, not in a lewd way, but in an admiring, love-struck kind of way.

Second date together and the guy was a goner already.

"Are you ready, shall we go?" She asked him with a smile.