Page 89 of That Same Old Love

Mahi didn’t look bothered by his furious expression. She smiled at him serenely looking lost as though she was recalling those moments that had happened a couple of days ago.

“Those were our private moments. I trusted you to keep them private and not announce everything we do to the whole world,” he growled.

She smiled, pulling his cheek as though she found his furious expression adorable.

“I don’t tell the whole world about us. Just to my friends. And I don’t tell them everything. Only whatever was impressive or memorable,” she told him.

“Everything I do to you is impressive and memorable,” he told her with a scowl.

Mahi raised her eyebrow at his statement. “Mehh… then how come I don’t have a bragging right about the usage of honey in an inventive way like Ashu does?”

“What? No. Don’t tell me. I really don’t want to know,” he gritted.

Mahi grinned at him. “Relax Samrat. That’s what a lot of close women friends do. They share a lot of things going on in their lives. And intimacy is a part of it. I brag a lot about us and so do my friends about theirs. They don’t mean anything by teasing you a little.”

His scowl remained.

“Well, I’m still not comfortable,” he said gruffly.

He was grumpy about it for a while, but eventually he had made peace with the fact that Mahi’s friends knew some of their intimate details.

Mahi was smirking smugly. “See… aren’t you glad my friends and I share a lot of useful information? You went and bought the plastic teddy bear shaped honey bottle, even though we had an organic locally grown glass bottle of honey at home.”

He smiled. She was right; after she told him about the honey usage, he improvised a little, making it more interesting with a spill proof plastic bottle. It was less of a mess. “So anyway. As a compromise, I will agree to sleep at your house during the nightsif you promise to have all your meals in my house when my parents are visiting,” he told her.

She felt torn. “Samrat, it’s your parents’ house, not yours. I’ve shared some meals with them before from the past two months. But I can’t simply just be there by default. We are not married,” she said in frustration.

He felt frustrated too. He had casually suggested marriage a few times. He told Mahi that they should get married in a low key ceremony to obtain a piece of paper, announcing the legalities.

He hated the way some people spoke about Mahi at work behind his back. No one was downright rude to her except that one time when some mad man attacked her in the parking structure.

And even during some of the weddings or other functions they attended together, Mahi was treated with disrespect by some people. Mahi brushed it off and ignored those whispers and rude stares, but it broke his heart, watching her being treated that way.

He knew they both loved each other deeply, even though both of them weren’t the kind to talk or declare it to make an event of it. Instead they preferred to show it in actions or gestures.

He felt that getting married was the wisest choice for him to offer Mahi the protection and respectability in the society. But Mahi laughed at him whenever he suggested that they marry and called him old fashioned and what not.

“Fine. We’ll stay the nights at your place and you can join my parents and me for some of the meals together,” he suggested.

Mahi nodded and closed her eyes to go to sleep while he kissed her forehead and held her.

He knew that suggesting marriage was a complete opposite from what he said a year ago; when he warned her saying that he would never marry anyone. But now that she was part of hislife and he loved her, he just wished they would come to a stage whereshealso wanted to get married again.

CHAPTER 33

It was the first week of June and the summer heat still lingered in the air at nearly nine thirty in the night. Mahi was talking with her friends and Sidhu regarding a reunion for their college group later that year. They were all at Ananya and Samrat’s father’s 60th birthday celebrations.

Srishti joined them. “Papa, mummy asked me to tell you that they are going to start dancing in fifteen minutes.”

Sidhu nodded and put his arm around his daughter’s shoulders and kissed her affectionately on top her head.

“Wow Srishti, you look so grown up and pretty cool in your ghagra. I haven’t seen you from the past one month. How was your summer trip from school?” asked Mahi.

Srishti smiled. “It was fun. I had a great time. I wish we could have stayed longer.”

Mahi smiled and was about to ask her more, when Srishti’s cousins Abhijeet and Abhinav came towards them. Srishti asked them to give her five more minutes until she joined them on the dance floor.

“They seem nice. Are they behaving well with you these days or are they still teasing you at school?” Mahi asked Srishti.

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