Spoiled • 18+ • Arranged Marriage Story

Three

     
    THEN:

             For Siddharth, his phone was his safe haven. He was accustomed to looking into his phone whenever he was in social situations. And it worked always. He had mastered the art of frowning and looking at the screen as if he was focusing on something important. He found that people didn't bother him when he did that.

    On the contrary, he was always high alert even though his eyes were downcast. He knew this because he was always aware of where she was. When she used to sit close to him, he could smell her scent, she smelled like roses.

   That was enough to cloud his mind. He didn't know what was going on at the table until she grabbed his thigh. He looked at her and she smiled, her stained lips parting. But her eyes were that of a huntress.

     "Honey, your uncle and aunt are asking about when we'll have a baby?"

   He almost sputtered. A baby was far from it. She had touched his thigh for the first time today and that was already making his systems override. He started sweating. God! He hated putting himself in social situations like this. "We haven't thought of a baby yet." He lied. As if they could ever have a baby. As if she would touch him and let him touch her. That was never going to happen.

   His legs were beginning to shake and he picked her hand and brushed it away. He didn't want her to realize that his legs were shaking. He looked at his phone again and his heart started slowing down and he started feeling relaxed.

NOW:

   "It's making me go insane." She told Dhruv. 

      Dhruv smiled at her through the screen, "When we're children, things are very simple. A boy pulled out hair, Katti. He got us chocolate the next day, batti. But as adults, we tend to overcomplicate things. Why is he doing this? He must probably have an evil intention? Or else why would he be kind to be? The answer is simple is, isn't it? I want you to think about why you think that you don't deserve kindness. Maybe, he made you feel so. But I want you to list the reasons and we'll discuss them next week."

     "Maybe. But living with him is hard. I don't want to live with him. At all."

   "Think of him as a friend or simply an acquaintance or a roommate. Since everyone is stuck at home now.  And the thing is you don't have to give this marriage a chance. You can always walk away. It'll always be your choice."

    Her eyes snapped when the door clicked open. He walked in, she muted Dhruv and closed her laptop, "I knocked but you were busy so..." He grabbed his laptop. "I needed my laptop." He walked out the door shutting it.

    She opened her laptop to see she had been disconnected. She messaged Dhruv that she'll meet him next week.

   ***

    Siddharth took a deep breath when he shut the door.  He had heard it all, about how she said she didn't want to live with him and to him who advised her to look at him like he was her roommate? Who was that guy anyway? He walked towards the office where he had spent last night.

    As he kept walking, he felt his heartbeat furiously. Was that why she wanted to leave their marriage? Was that guy the reason? She had a boyfriend on the side?

    Soon enough as he reached his office, he felt hot all over. He put the laptop down and removed the T-shirt he was wearing. He put on the treadmill and started walking and drifted into a sprint.

    "You were an incompetent husband to me." Her words had kept ringing in his ears all night long. She wasn't wrong. He admitted that. All of five years his arrogance and his anger had burned all the bridges between them.