Marry Me

Chapter -8 PANCAKES & HEADACHES

When I come out of the room, changed in frayed jeans and a white t-shirt, with trickles of fresh water coming out of my freshly washed hair, I am not expecting the image of him, looking so at home, I have to stand back and process for a minute. He is sitting on the yellow chaise lounge he called hideous before, a tweety pillow on his lap. His face is up towards the mantle, concentrated at the TV screen, watching the morning share market news at CNBC. The chocolate pancakes are properly garnished and plated with chocolate syrup on the coffee table. He mutes the news and turns his head towards me, as if he recognizes my presence, his eyes move up and down once, without any expression. Then he motions at the plate on the table.

I move and sit on the chaise lounge, a respectable distance away from him. He raises his eyebrows, gets up from the lounge and a minute later he is standing in front of me with Ben and Jerry's vanilla ice cream in his hands. I resist the smile threatening to sneak on my face. He scoops it perfectly and places it on top of my pancake.

My mouth is already drooling when he hands over the plate to me and sits a little bit closer to me, so that our knees are touching each other's. The smell of chocolate, vanilla and pancakes is already so heavenly that when I take a bite of it I almost groan. "Oh my God," I gasp. "How do you do this? I hate you."

The warmth of chocolate with cold vanilla ice cream is the best combination ever. I don't know what I am doing in a chocolate daze until I habitually take a spoonful of pancake and move the fork towards his mouth.

He stares at me for a second. My hands freeze when I realise that maybe I shouldn't have done this. He is not the old Kiyansh, we don't feed each other like we used to. My hands are halfway back when he grips my wrist moves forward and takes the bite of pancake, his tongue sneaks out and he licks the chocolate from his upper lips.

I suddenly feel warm and hot, I hope that's not showing on my face. I clear my throat and say, "How the hell I can't make such fluffy pancakes when I am the one who taught you in the first place?"

He smiles at me, and Oh god. "Because I am supposed to make them for you," he then surprises me by taking the plate from me, he digs the fork and offers it to my lips. The unexpected brush of his knees on mine and the cold and warm combination of pancake on my lips surprises me so much that my lips open immediately and I take the whole fork in my mouth. "Ouch" I say when the pointed edge of fork pokes inside my mouth.

Kiyansh immediately places the fork and the plate aside and takes my face in his hand. "Hey are you okay?" his eyebrows creases together in concern. His eyes moving up and down my face.

His concerned voice reaches my stomach, and I get a concern of my own. "I.... I am." I stutter and move far away from him.

His hands stay up in the air, and he looks at me like he would like to ask thousand different things from me and honestly, I don't know what is going inside my head right now.

His face becomes stoic and he hands me back the plate without a word.

I continue to eat and awkwardly offer him the plate, he shakes his head and goes back to watching the share market news. The thing is, I know he isn't. Because there's this thing he does when he is thinking, he fidgets and touches his jaw.

It gets confirmed when he suddenly turns towards me, his eyes burning serious. It's that gaze again, the gaze that makes you feel something when they are focused on you, like it can see everything. "So you won't say yes." Here it is.

"No Kiyansh."

He nods as if he is considering something. "May I ask why?"

I sigh and painful, subterranean truth comes out of me, "Because you don't love me and you can't expect me to marry you just because Sahana broke up with you."