The Curious Case of a Marriage (Part-II)

"Nice" K almost whispered and made a futile attempt to hide his exhilaration. She smiled mildly as if she knew what exactly he felt and said "So where are you taking me today?". K thought now that the dust is settled this is the best time to ask the question. Who is she? Where has she come from? What does she want? Who all are behind this conspiracy? What are they trying to achieve by playing this stupid game? What are they after? "How about Italian?" she asked before K could frame his question. "OK, let's go" K said lost in his thoughts.

It was a five minute walk to the restaurant from the parking lot. The streets were still buzzing with the evening traffic. They needed to cross the street and K could not help being irked seeing a scared Suvaasini trying to cross the road. It was as if she had come from a planet where people did not have to cross streets. She would take a couple of steps and immediately retreat seeing a vehicle that was still light years away. K was on the other side of the road and after waiting for a couple of minutes he casually crossed the street to be on her side to help her out. She held his hand. He had never held a girl's hand in public, in fact he had never held a girl’s hand. He grew too cautious to be able to walk let alone cross the street. They remained stuck on one side of the road for minutes. "This is ridiculous. Someone's trying to play with my mind". After several attempts they finally crossed the street.

If eating food was optional then K would have taken a pass at it. He knew all the food joints around and would always order one fixed item depending upon where he was. "Chicken penne pasta" he ordered as soon as they were seated. "K, Not again. Why don't you try something new today?" Suvaasini said scanning every item on the menu. "No, that's the only thing they prepare well. I don't want to try anything else" he said irritatedly. "Come on K. Let me order the pasta for myself and something else for you. In case you don't like it you can have the pasta" she said. K felt incapacitated once again. Let me ask her the question before she spoils my mood further he thought. He prepared to frame his question in the best possible manner and just when he was ready she started talking.

"I had a wonderful day today at office. My boss praised me today and seems to be mighty pleased with my work" she said and that was just the beginning. She spoke about her colleagues Madhulika who she thought was a bitch, Madyaa who was jealous of her, Kshanika whom she thought was the dumbest girl on planet earth, Sushobhita who was having serious issues with her authoritative husband, Aarambhana her college friend who was pregnant and Vreetika her niece who was wasting her life at Art of Living. She spoke about her company's managing director who was having an affair with the office receptionist. The food arrived. He looked at the Baccala that she had ordered for him as if the fish was still alive and was ready to pop out of the plate. With all sorts of doubts in his mind he took a bite. It took a few moments but he liked it. "How is it?" she asked. "It's OK" he said mincing his words. Suvaasini continued. "I'm waiting for the end of the year. It's been so long since I saw an SRK movie. You know what, I have seen 'Kal Ho Na Ho' three times in the movie theatre and twenty nine and a half times on television" she smiled. "Why I am telling you this? I know you already know". The irony was that he did not. Even more ironical was the fact that the same movie was playing on TV when they got back. She immediately got hooked onto the TV. "Let the movie finish and that's when I will ask her". He could not because tears came flooding out of her eyes as a melodramatic SRK died on the screen. After a while sobbing softly she put her arms around him and slept off. K couldn't help but caress her hair.

K woke up the next morning to realize that Suvaasini was nowhere to be seen. The house was spick and span but there was no signs of her. He rushed to the kitchen looking for her but did not find her. "Thank God. Looks like the game is over. Heaven knows who played it, but it's over" a voice came from his mind. Despite that voice he searched the entire house. "Suvaasini, Are you there?" he said looking for her. "Why am I worried?" the mind spoke again. He thought he heard her. The voice had come from the patio. He got there and turned back with a heavy heart after he didn't see her there. He thought for a moment and rushed to his cell phone and scanned to see if she was there in the directory. He found her there. He thought of giving her a call but pulled himself back. "Why are you feeling relieved?" his mind asked. It was then that his eyes fell on a small note lying on the bed side. "Sorry. I had an early morning meeting. Did not want to wake you up. The breakfast is in the refrigerator. Didn't have time to cook lunch. For a change enjoy your office canteen's food. Please don't forget 6 pm today. Love :)".

Lunch didn't taste good as it had done a day before. The day chugged along at a deadening pace. K could not get his mind off the question. "Can't be late today. I need to close this chapter today" he thought. He cancelled an important meeting and was there at the sandwich tasting event fifteen minutes prior to its commencement. He had framed the question in his mind, every word of it. Suvaasini reached just when the clock struck six and was visibly miffed. "I tell you this girl Madhulika is so annoying. She was bitching about me with the boss today. She spoiled my day". "It's OK. You should not be bothered by what people that don't matter have to say about you" K said. "You are right. I am such a fool. I haven't had my lunch in anticipation of the event" she held his hand and dragged him to the sandwich counters. "I am going to try at least half of them" she went berserk seeing at least fifteen types of sandwiches. K was amazed at the fulminant change in her emotion. K picked up a chicken panini and munched on it while she hopped from one counter to another like a small boy would do in a toy shop. She would take a couple of bites, leave the rest of it and move on to the next counter. "Panini! Not again. Leave that and try the smoked meat, its yummy" she handed over a half eaten sandwich to him. "Let's go have some drinks" she said when she was all done. 

They went to a TGIF. "The happy hour is ending K, let's place the drinks order right away" she said and ordered four long island ice teas for herself. She gulped the first one as soon as the drinks arrived. A soft music was playing in the background. "Go slow Suvaasini" K said. After sometime he found the opportunity he was looking for. "I want to ask you something". She smiled and said "I already know what you are going to ask. I know it because you have asked it to me so many times before". "I have asked this to her before?" K thought. "You want to ask how I can be so crazy for sandwiches". She gulped another one before K could blink an eye. "I don't know why myself" she kept on smiling as K slowly sipped his scotch. "I am dizzy already" she blabbered and stroked her hair. She was tapping to the music and K's heart skipped a beat. "No, that's not what I want to know" he said and waited for a couple of seconds to recollect the question he had framed. "Who are you"? That was not exactly what he had framed. "Who am I? I am a witch and I will suck your blood tonight" she said enacting dramatically by smacking her lips and showing her long painted nails and then she laughed. The laughter continued. K could only shake his head. She dropped on the table before she finished her third drink. The distance from TGIF to the parking lot was a tough one. She was sloshed totally and K had to hold her tight as he dragged her to their car. 

"I have missed my cab. I am so late and my head is still spinning. Can you drop me to the office?" were the first words K heard the next morning. She guided him to her office and got herself coconut water. "Coconut water is the best recipe for a hangover" she said and then started to complain endlessly. "You should have stopped me. Why did you let me drink?". "I did ask you to go slow" K defended himself. "No, you did not and even if you did you did not pressurize me". K shook his head and could only offer a meek smile.

She came late that night. Ankh and Aaradhaya had a dispute over their marriage preparations and she did her best to patch them up. She did it convincingly. "You are lucky to have Suvaasini as your soul mate. She is a complete package" Aaradhaya texted him.  A week passed by. His curiosity to find what was going on had only grown exponentially but asking the same was becoming harder by the day. He got to know her better. She was beauty in the simplest form. Little things that K never paid heed to made her extremely happy. One moment she was upset the next she would react as if nothing had happened. One moment she would be stupid the next as if sensibility was her name. She was irrational and rational at the same time. An esoteric smile sat on her face most of the times. She handled the household with amicable dexterity. "She is happiness personified" K's heart would say staring at her picture on his office desk. Underneath that chirpy cloak of hers sat an untainted soul. She had the multidimensional personality that amazed K. "Who is she?" his brain would ask. 

"I will be at Madhulika's place this weekend. She just broke up with her boyfriend and is feeling very low. I am really worried for her. Can you drop me to her place?" she said on Friday. Just a couple of days ago she was the biggest bitch in the world. Once again K could not help but smile.  On their way out K turned on the music and played Nirvana. "How can you listen to this crap? I still haven't understood" she said and changed the song to a mushy Bollywood song. It was a song K hated. She hummed the song along. On his way back after dropping her K to his surprise played the same song and seemed to like it. He missed her that Friday evening. He missed her all throughout the weekend.

Two months passed and he grew to like her. Her delicate touch, her detailed hourly narrative of how her day was, her exquisiteness, her warmth, her jolliness, her lovingness, her eyes, her naivety, her bravura, her colours, her charms. Love can was away all the cynicism. K missed her when she was not around but the question still haunted him. "I need to ask before I get used to her. I don't want to be in a situation where I am used to her" he thought. Asking her directly was an option he wanted to avoid. He wrote a small note. "I like you. There is no two ways about it. But deep down inside I know that we never were married. It was a crazy morning two months ago when I got up to see you. I have wanted to ask you this from day one. Who are you? Who all are involved in this prank?". He was trying his best not to fall in love. The harder he tried the more difficult it became for him. The war between the heart and the brain is the oldest and has been fought more than any other battle on planet earth. K found himself discombobulated and didn't know what emotion to express.

He held onto that note for several days and then slipped it in her bag one Sunday morning. He knew she would go out shopping. He remained at home the entire day waiting. Every now and then he would check his cell phone to see if there was a message or call from Suvaassini. She came back in the evening. K heard her footsteps. He could hear her rush towards the bedroom. She entered the room and threw her shopping bags. She was completely drenched. "Are you stupid or what?" she remarked. "How dumb can you be? You don't know, do you?". She must have read the note. He was all ears and ready.  

"You don't know it's raining outside. Enough of your cricket match. Let's have some fun. Let me show you something". She dragged him outside. "Look at that. Isn't it beautiful?" she said pointing her fingers towards the rainbow. There was not a sign of single cloud in the sky.  The sun was nowhere to be seen. "How is it possible? How can it rain without the clouds? How can a rainbow appear without the sun? There is no moon either. Just the light from the glowing rainbow. Also, do you see this rainbow has nine colors" K asked looking up in the sky. "K, Please. Not again. Enjoy this moment. Savor this weather and please for God's sake stop searching for a cloud or the sun. It doesn't matter" she said annoyingly. "It doesn't matter". The words ringed in his mind. It was after a long time that he got soaked in the rain. He let the rain fall on him. To cleanse him, his anxieties, to wash away all his fears. Then he held her tight for as long as he could. He no longer needed to know. It didn't matter. Nothing matters when you are in love, not even the fact that you are in love. "I love you" he whispered. "I love you too K".

Once they were back in the house K decided to remove the note from the bag before Suvaassini finds it. He quietly went in the bedroom and found her bag. The note however was no where to be found.

~The End~