Fear & Love

Six. 2

Gita was just too elated when she reached her home. She had such a good time with him. She remembered him as a snob few years back and she thought he would still be the same person, but to her surprise, he was so warm to her. She had a wide smile the entire time. Suddenly, her mom entered the room with her evening chai and sat on her bed. Gita could tell her Maa wanted details of the meet over a cup of tea.

"So, he is a nice guy? I see you smiling ear to ear." Her Maa started teasing her.

"He is. He behaved so..so friendly which I didn't expect." Gita was at loss of words, so she went with the word 'friendly' to describe Anand's behaviour.

"See, people change and perspectives too. According to you, he was rude. But what you might not have considered is that he must be not a people's person. Not everybody is comfortable around pool of people to have chit-chat with them."

Possibly, thought Gitanjali. Anybody who had seen him in the past, can tell that he was not a talkative guy but today, she saw such a drastic change in him. May be her mom was right, he is okay with one-on-one conversation and in big groups, he is the observer who keenly sees people's movements and try to analyse people.

Earlier, Gita would have scoffed at the thought of Anand and her having, what could be described as, 'such a chill' conversation, almost like friends. Was this the same guy who never broke into a smile years ago? And today, they shared a laugh.

"Thanks for meeting with him, Gitu. That's what we wanted. You think we are forcing you to marry whereas, we don't want to let go of a good guy for you. His reputation and success is just a plus and a sweet girl like you deserve all this."

"But Maa, I am just so scared of the marriage. It's such a huge huge decision and I felt you guys are telling me to hurry up. I was just asking for you all to slow down."

"Baccha(child), most people are apprehensive about marriage. But one has to set a foot in the water to learn to swim. The same way, for you to get to decision of marrying him, you have to meet him, get to know him. I don't think, we as parents are wrong for wanting your good."

Gita just nodded at what she said. This topic was closed and they started talking about more random things.

At night, she messaged Ami and Shaina all about today's meeting with Anand. Ami was not online so Gita knew she can't expect a reply for atleast another hour. Shaina's chatbox showed blue ticks and Gita's phone rang. As soon as Gita picked the call, her ears were assaulted with a shrill voice of Shaina just saying 'eeeee' in excitement. Gita had to keep the phone miles away from her ears otherwise she would go deaf.

"Are you done? " Asked Gita.

"Yes. I see he took you to THAT EXPENSIVE RESTAURANT!"

"You have to calm down Shaina. I have never heard you so excited. It's not even my wedding yet. " Gita tried to calm Shaina down.

"Just marry the guy already and we can eat everything from these high class restaurants. Next time, please call me." Shaina was still on about the restaurant.

"No, I am not marrying someone so that he can take us to all the restaurants of the city. Can we please come to the topic?" Gita asked Shaina.

"By the way you wrote, I see you are already so impressed with him. Hmmm is he the one?" Shaina asked teasingly.

"I don't know if he is the one, but I can tell you I had a nice time with him. I was so happy. May be because, I never expected anything like this from him?" Gita asked.

"No, even if you didn't expect anything from him, you wouldn't be so happy. I am glad that he was nice to you. Otherwise, you were so scared of him being arrogant."

"And what more do you think?" asked Gita awaiting Shaina's judgement.

"I think you should meet more and get to know him. Go on real dates, Yaar!"

"He is a very busy person, I don't think he will have time to go on dates every month."

"Hmm understandable. If people like us are so busy, I can't imagine how much busy the owner of a big company would be. He has so much to look after. So, try to be on facetime or on chat. That would do." Shaina stating the obvious.

"But did you all talk about the main thing - your marriage? Did you tell him about how you want the decorations at the wedding to be? Or your outfits?" She was now chuckling on the phone.

"Shut up, we didn't talk about all this.
Who even talks this on their first meet? I am just happy we talked beyond the awkward hellos." Gita said.

"Okay now seriously, I don't mean to upset or offend you, but you should have the real talk with him, you both come from such different families, your backgrounds are so different and how much ever you deny Gita, the fear you feel regarding this marriage and him roots from this basic difference in you both."

She understood what Shaina was saying and somewhere Gita had countlessly pondered on these questions which bore the reasons of her fear. She didn't want him to marry her because his family wants it. She wants him to marry because he likes her or has an interest in her. And the second question is the difference of background in them. Today, Shaina had this question and she is sure a lot of people will look at it that way. Gita comes from a well to-do family but Anand comes from immensely rich family, the one that has established an empire. It is just fair that he marries someone of his status. Will she be able to adjust in his ways of life?
Gita didn't want people to think that she is marrying Anand for his money. Money sure has its important but not while choosing a life partner. All these thoughts again invaded her mind. But she stopped her mind and told her that their would be many meets with Anand where she would get to know him and the answers of these stupid questions.

She kept her head on the pillow, lying on the bed but going back to the time with just him and her at the restaurant. She kept her hand on the mouth to stop the smile that was on her face for the entire evening. She was relived that he is not as cold as she thought of him to be. And she thought she had just a tiny tiny bit of a crush on him.
"It's okay Gita, he looked so cute. This is just me appreciating him like I appreciate good looks of models and actors. Nothing else." She kept on saying to herself and went to sleep.

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Plz VOTE !!

comment what you think? Is she denying the crush she had on him?

I just wanted to write on what both of them feel and how they see things after their first meeting.

Sorry for not proofreading. Will do soon. Also, some changes in earlier parts to be made.
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20/10/2020