𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴

• 13 •

The night was approaching near and Sameer was reclined on his plush office chair staring the ceiling with his fingers interlinked with each other, lost in thoughts how to let the cat out of the bag. He couldn't think of any other plan to take hold of the situation. In his opinion, revealing their marriage would definitely shut those filthy mouths who were making things up about him and Naina.

When Aarav had shown him a top magazine's article earlier this evening, his anger had no bounds. He just wanted to thrash that person who had dared to write that shit in the magazine. An amateur writer had published an article mentioning about the spicy affair between the CEO of the well known 'Maheshwari Industries' and an employee and apparently, they couldn't even keep themselves away from each other taking their fling to the office too which costed them to lose a massive deal.

He knew media would definitely try to poke its nose in this matter, but couldn't think of any plan earlier to prevent them from doing it. He put on his thinking cap to list out the ways they could disclose their marriage in a prudent way since they were already married. They had come to terms of demuring this relationship, not being ready for it but now they would have to act accordingly. He couldn't let his company's name to be drowned just because of those petty pictures. He sat racking up his brain for about an hour and finally came up with a conclusion. He just needed to inform Naina about it.

In the Maheshwari House, Naina jad just entered in her room after having her dinner. Not having anything to do, she was getting bored in that giant house. Her leg was much better since she had spent most of her time sitting on her bed. When she had come out of her room having enough of getting bored, she had seen Ramdhari bringing out some wooden boxes, taking them towards the porch.

Being curious, she had sauntered over him to ask about them. That's when she came to know about Nanaji's fondness of collecting antiques from all over the places he had travelled. The wooden boxes had some intricate patterns on it lending a look of some ancient entity. Ramdhari told her about every souvenir along with the respective places they had been bought from and she had listened to it very keenly.

While chattering over them, he had told her about how it was a dream for Nanaji to travel all over India instead of abroad owing to his loyalty for the country. He had also told him how Sameer had committed to make his dream come true even if he was busy with his work. He would make him go alone even afters his complains of not accompanying him and sometimes he would himself go with him enjoying with his Nanu. She had picked up their photos which portrayed their surreal bond of affection and love. He really loved his Nanu a lot. The thought itself brought a smile on her face reminiscing how Nanu used to tell her about his grandson with utmost admiration in his eyes.

They had talked for some more time with Ramdhari telling her more of Sameer-Nanu tales which had made her laugh. After cleaning them, he had kept them back to their places and made his way towards the kitchen to prepare the dinner while Naina helped him trying to learn more of it.

*****

It was a bit late when Sameer had reached his home owing to the impromptu visit to the market to bring some things he had listed out. As usual, the lights of the living room had been turned off giving him the notion that Naina had already eaten her dinner. He needed to talk to her but saved it for later since he was starving. After a quick change of clothes and freshening up, he had stridden towards the kitchen to barge on his food.

After satisfying his tummy with the not-so-delicious food cooked by Ramdhari, he decided to finally talk to her. He knew she would be awake. In these few days, he had gotten an idea of her sleeping time even if they stayed in separate rooms. Turning off the lights, he ascended the stairs and stepped towards her room giving the door a gentle knock. He had heard some footsteps coming behind the door before it opened, revealing Naina in a creamy white plain Kurti and pink salwar pairing them with a silk white dupatta.