Ruhaani had slept like a baby without a care for the world. Perhaps it was the exhaustion. She wasn't the only one. Aadarsh had slept in too. They both hadn't cared to put any alarm. However, Aadarsh had been up before her. In fact she hadn't even realized when he had gone to bed beside her. He had been in the bathroom when she had woken up. He had ordered some milk tea and biscuits for them while she had quickly brushed her teeth.

They had bare minimal interaction while they had their morning tea. The silence was short-lived for the other Seghals had pounded on their room door. They were all ready for the beach. Pari included. Dai Jaan had followed them in. And then Badi Bua and Shelly Bua had. Suddenly, the dead room that was as silent as a graveyard had come alive with chatter and cross conversations.

The siblings wanted Aadarsh and her to accompany them to a famous beach that was twenty kilometers away but Badi Bua was trying to convince them to stay for the pooja. Finally, it was decided that the newlyweds would stay for the pooja while the other youngsters and kids would go to the beach. Ruhaani was reluctant to send Pari with them. Dai Jaan had probably understood her hesitancy and volunteered to tag along with the kids.

Ruhaani wanted to go too, the last thing she wanted was to be stuck with her broing husband. Luckily for her, a spa session had been booked for the newly weds. Thankfully, they had separate female and male wards. That one hour of pampering was everything she needed. 

The pooja, their first as a new couple, had been over in and hour. It was still noon and Ruhaani had a lot of time to spend until lunch. She looked at Aadarsh, who was apparently doing something on his phone. They had been sent to their room to rest until lunch. He had spoken to Abhi on a video call, some time ago, where the latter had told him about what he was missing on namely— a good weather, a clean beach and hot chicks. Abhi probably had no idea that she was in the same room, out of the frame, but within the range of listening clearly.

Aadarsh had become visibly uncomfortable after the call. So had Ruhaani. She didn't particularly like Abhi. He gave her a spoilt brat kind of vibe, but the guy definitely had a heart of gold for his family. She had particularly noticed him around his younger siblings. He was just as responsible as Aadarsh was when it came to that. However he stuck to his role of being an elder brother, he fought with them, teased them, made fun of them. Unlike Aadarsh who was not at all playful, far from it, and assumed the role of a father in their lives.

"I think, I will go walk around the resort," she spoke up, getting up from the bed correcting the pleats of her saree. Aadarsh kept the room too cold for her liking. She thought it was best to go bask in some sunshine. Anyways they'd be in their freezing city again tomorrow. Apparently last night in Delhi had recorded a temperature of fouron the centigrade scale.

"I can come along," he said, causing her to look up at him surprised. He was volunteering to spend time with her, to do something with her, out of his own free will; when she hadn't even asked. One had to be shocked.

"Sure," she said, walking across the suite to her luggage. She wore her sandals, the flat ones. She turned to find him wearing his shoes. He wore a plain sky blue shirt with black trousers. There was no sign on him that he had been recently married except the ring on his finger which mildly hinted he was in a relationship. Men had it so easy. 

At the same time, here she was, dressed in a beige saree that had red leaf prints, henna designs on her hands and feet, a huge sat of red bangles— that had been proved to be quite a bit of trouble, getting in the way of her usual day to day movements— a chain of black beads and gold pendant around her neck and the red color on her hair partition. 

They had quietly walked out of the room, towards the front lawn of the resort.

"Uh, for earlier, Abhi isn't used to having a brain to mouth filter so uh... you know,"

Ruhaani found a guilty pleasure seeing him struggle with words. "You mean the hot chicks part?" She asked quite explicitly turning to look at him, he looked at her with eyes widened a wee bit. 

"Yeah that," he muttered. Ruhaani turned the other way grinning. She absolutely loved seeing him in a fix. The otherwise composed man who knew exactly what he was speaking was reduced to a man stumbling for the right words. It was an amusing situation that she decided to have full entertainment from.

"So you're the kind of man who goes to the beach for the bikini bods, eh?" She asked turning to him. She would have never imagined herself to be the kind to say that to her husband. Then again, she had never imagined her husband to be so uninterested in her, in general.

"What?" He said incredulously. He couldn't believe she had the guts to ask him that. 

"What?" She shrugged. "Men, in general, love beaches for that. It's an unsaid rule, I suppose."

"No, it is not." He countered.

"Well again, no man ever admits to it." She said.

"What are you trying at?" He asked shaking his head lightly.

"Whay do you mean?" She asked confused.

"Never mind." He muttered, looking around.  "Do you want to walk down to the private beach?" He asked.

"No, the saree is new, I would want to get it's ends dirty." She wished she could have changed into something comfortable but then she had to look presentable and dressed like a new bride at lunch. She would rather stay in it then change it for just going to the beach.

"There's a paved path, at the end of the stairs, we can take that. It should be comfortable." 

"Okay," she agreed as they walked towards the stairs. "You dodged the topic," she said softly.

"Wasn't going anywhere," he answered.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Hmm,"

"Have you ever been in love? The romantic kind of love?"

He stopped in his tracks and looked at her. She paused too sensing his halt and turned to him, just as they reached the fleet of stairs that led down to the beach.

"I just realized, I never asked you," she added.

Aadarsh had no clue where her curiosity had stemed from. He wondered if someone in his family had brought it up. "Yes, I had." He answered honestly looking at her.

"What happened then?" She asked, her voice growing serious. She had thought a lot about him, especially in the last few days. His cold behavior seemed to be reserved just for her. It wasn't like that before their engagement. He had started being reserved after that. People usually acted like that, if they had something to hide, or if they had something to lose or if they feared being hurt. She had thought it was best to ask him about his past, she expected a back story there.

"We broke up."

"Clipped responses." She voiced her observations. "I guess you don't want to talk about it." She managed a small smile and looked ahead climbing down the steps. He blinked looking at her. He then slowly began following her trail.

"You can ask me whatever you want about it, I have nothing to hide," he said as he closely followed her down the steps. Clearly, she made a lot of assumptions.

She turned to look at him, "okay then," she turned ahead to step down, "whaaat–" her footwear stepped on the end of her saree and skidded and her body swayed back.

Aadarsh acted on reflex and his arms went around her just in time, and he pulled her up and  back, to avoid her from tumbling down the steps. She gasped and closed her eyes. For a minute she thought she was going to go down, like gravity had full power on her. But somehow a strong protective hold had saved her. Her heartbeat had skyrocketed. Her breathing had gone uneven. She slowly opened her eyes, the more she looked down, the more the fear sunk deep into her bones. It would have been a nasty fall.

"Fuck! Are you okay?" He muttered, his hands on her waist, slowly pulling her towards himself, such that she was not close to the edge of the step. The steps were uneven, sized differently, covered in moss at places. She had probably missed to notice it or perhaps it was the saree that came in way or her sheer stupidity of looking back at him to just talk, he thought.

She stumbled a bit as she found her balance and stood on her feet. Slowly turning around to face him. His arms were still around her torso.

"I am fine," she blinked disoriented. Her hands gripped onto his arms, taking all the support he had to offer.

"You should look and walk, the steps are uneven." 

"Yeah," she said, slowly looking up to realize how close he was to her. His gaze was looking down at her, their faces aligned as she looked up and he looked down at her. She felt his hands slowly move away from her waist, but he held her elbows in the next second. It was like he didn't trust her to keep her balance.

"Do you want to go back up?" He asked.

"No, no. I am fine. Just a minor slip..."

"Not minor. " He spoke up interrupting whatever it was that she was about to say. "If I wasn't there to hold you, you'd be sliding down in a very ugly way."

She blinked, raising her gaze to look at him through the length of her eyelashes. She hated to admit that he was absolutely right. "Thank you," she whispered gratefully. 

He nodded. "Go down slowly, and look where you step," he said, his one hand moving down from her elbow to her wrist. She nodded turning to the front. She needed to move away. There was something about him that left her at unrest. It gave her heebie-jeebies. She was about to use her right hand to hold the pleats of her saree together when she realized he still held her hand. She tried to free her hand subtly pulling it away from him but he refused to leave it.

"Leave my hand, I will be fine," she said, slowly turning her head to look at him.

"I don't think so," he said stepping down to the same step. She stared at him as his hand glided down from her wrist to her palm holding it securely.

"Let's go," he said and she used her other hand to hold the pleats of her saree up and stepped down matching his step, which was slow. His grip on her hand was very firm.

"You know, I am perfectly capable of going down on my own." She said as they were halfway down. His hand now holding hers like she was a small kid who had just learnt to walk.

"Sure, depends on how you'd go down."

A ghost of smile lingered around her lips. The man did have a sense of humor after all, dark, hidden and rare.

She shook her head. "So, tell me about your love story,"

"Is this a good thing to talk about on our first day of being married?" He asked.

"And then you say, you're not trying to hide." She remarked.

"I said I have nothing to hide," he corrected her. 

"Then go on tell me, I am curious." She said turning to him as they reached down the stairs to the paved clay path that ran along the cliff, giving a clear view to the beach that was a little distance away.

"We went to the same school. We were friends since primary school. We started dating in eight grade. Broke up in the final year of school."  He said. 

She gazed at him, as he looked away towards the sea. "You didn't date after that?"

"I had other priorities," he answered.

"That's unfortunate. Why did you break up?"

"We realized we wanted different things from life."

Ruhaani found that hard to digest. "You two might have known from the start what you both wanted, right? I mean she was your friend before. So you could have worked it out, reached a middle ground."

"Yeah, but the thing is that time changes equations."

They walked ahead quietly. Ruhaani was thoughtful. The way he spoke about it, it seemed like it still hurt him. She gazed down at their hands as she she slowly felt him release the hold on her hand. And slowly it struck her, it would have been the same time as his mother's death. He was about eighteen when his mother passed away.

"You didn't try to get in touch? To find her?" She asked softly.

"No." Was all she got for an answer.

"Why not? Maybe things would've worked. Sometimes the timing is not right when everything is. Maybe the right time wasn't back then."

"Maybe," be sighed. "But sometimes by the time timing is right, people have changed. Besides, there's no point talking of it now."

Ruhaani managed a smile. "It is. I should be aware if there's a probability that your ex returns and then our marriage is threatened. It's never bad to be prepared."

He chuckled, surprising her. He also turned to look at her, to bore his gaze into hers. "Isn't it bad omen to talk of all this on our first day as a married couple?"

Ruhaani ended up grinning, "you married a bad omen," she deadpanned.

Aadarsh blinked uneasily. How could she easily say that with a smile? It was unsettling, to say the least.

"Don't worry, I will try to not be one." She added in jest.

"So, do you always use humor to deal with it?"

Ruhaani was surprised he even noticed. She turned to meet his gaze. "It's really better that way,"she said softly, then looked down walking ahead. He still was in love with her ex, that was what her gut told. It explained everything. His hostility towards love and romance, his lack of enthusiasm for the wedding, his stoic behavior, his coldness towards her specifically. She smiled to herself, he was a such a classic example of a brooding male protagonist of a romance book. 

She stopped on track as she spotted a white shell. She immediately crouched down to pick it up. "Look," she said standing again, showing him the shell.

"Seriously?"  He muttered.

She rolled her eyes. "It's nice, you know it's so rare to find sea shells these days on beaches. Wait till you see Pari's fascination for it."

They were slowly approaching the other fleet of stairs that led back up to the resort's lawn. "If she ever comes back, you don't have to worry about our relationship getting threatened. I am over her." He said.

"Glad to know," she replied in a soft voice. Somehow she didn't belive his last statement. She stopped by a stone bench, "Do you want to sit for a while?"

He glanced at his watch. "Well, we have time." He said stepping ahead and sitting on the end of the bench. She sat at the other end. Their gazes looked towards the horizon. 

The sky was pale blue, a color that almost resembled his shirt. The water was a greysih blue that met the shore in white effervescent waves. It was a serene sight. She had always dreamed of vacations by the beach. Soaking in the sun and then in the cool salty water of the sea, the breeze on the face. They sat quietly lost in their own private worlds. The sun felt warm and nice on her skin as it was accompanied by a soft cool breeze. 

Aadarsh watched the waves closely. They came like a charging hungry wild animal but lost their vigor as they reached the shore. 

"We'll go to the beach for a honeymoon," Siddhi said decisively. "The clear sky, the blue waters, the cool waves. It will be epic!"

Aadarsh chuckled. Siddhi had been a mood today. She was planning almost everything other than her study plan for the coming exams. It was just one of the days of the month where her hormones were all hyped up, she was distracted easily and had no mood to focus on what was important.

"Don't laugh. I will change my husband otherwise." She threatened.

"Whose going to marry an absolute idiot like you other than me?" He asked only to get a glare from her. 

"Aadi, don't be oversmart huh. There's going to be long queue of suitors from Kashmir to Kanyakumari for me. I am just being kind and choosing you, okay?"

"Really, Miss?"

"Really Mister!"

"Reality check Dumbo, I am the one whose in basketball team, who is a rank holder, who aces chemistry and guess what I am tall, fair and handsome. You are lucky that my heart chose to come upon you."

She smiled in awe and pulled his cheeks, "look at you, my Romeo."

"Please not Shakespeare!" He said pushing her hands away.

"Okay, so humor me and discuss our future." She said, closing the notebook he had open in front of him.

"Siddhi, we should get back to our time table, we need to do chemical equilibrium after that."

"Aadi, please. Five minutes. Let's think about our future."

Aadarsh chuckled. "Okay, so honeymoon at a beach. Then?" He said paying attention to her. 

"Then on every wedding anniversary, we'll travel to new places. Paris, Greece, Norway, Venice, Kashmir, Bali..."

He laughed. "Okay, then?"

"Why are you laughing?" She whined.

"Because you're talking nonsense. We are here to make a study plan and you're making a vacation plan for what fifteen years from now?."

"Gosh, you suck at being romantic."

"Oh, really? Who got you roses then?" He waggled his eyebrows.

"You did. But giving roses is not enough to be romantic."

He quickly leaned forward and kissed her cheek, grinning ear to ear. "Now?"

She blushed. "If my mom sees you being all cheeky, she's never going to let you step in. In the name of helping me in chemistry, you are totally taking advantage of this time.

He leaned closer, his face hovering over hers. "Your mom loves me. She adores me. She will be more than happy to know that I am your boyfriend."

"Shut up! Someone will hear," she whispered. 

"Okay," he whispered back and leaned closer, his lips inching towards hers.

"Aadi..." she drawled, almost a whisper.

"Yes,"

"What are you..."

"This..." he whispered pressing his lips on hers, keeping it that way for some seconds.

She blushed looking at him through the length of her eyelashes as he pulled away, almost reluctantly.

"Romantic enough?" He whispered, raising an eyebrow.

"Manageable."

"Okay then how about," he used his index finger to tip her chin up and shifted his face closer to hers once again.

"Don't,"  she whispered, nervously looking at his lips.

"Why not?" He breathed.

"Coz my mom might walk in and then I will never be able to meet her eyes." She murmured with a shy smile.

He burst into peals of laughter. "How about in the library tomorrow morning?" He said suppressing his laughter as she hit him on the shoulder, gesturing him to be quiet.

"Despo!" She muttered.

"And then you call me un..."

"Aadarsh," he heard and then a snap of fingers.

Aadarsh blinked turning to her. His gaze taking in her face. She was not Siddhi. Why was he even thinking about her now?

"Hmm,"

"I asked do you like the beach?"

"Yeah, I mean... I like swimming."

"Beach or Mountain?"

"Forest." He answered, surprising her. "There's a thrill in forest. You don't get that by a beach or a mountain."

"What if the forest is by the beach or on the mountain?"

He turned to look at her. "Anything."

A silence fell again. They spent some more time sitting quietly until Aadarsh got turned of his thoughts that were nothing but memories of the past. He looked at his watch. "Shall we go back up?"

"Hmm," she agreed. She could spend the whole day looking at the waves. However, they had a family lunch to be at and then there was the reception in the evening. Everyone was looking forward to the reception, they had combined the Sangeet with it. So everyone was eager to perform and be an audience to other's performances. 

"After you," he said standing by the steps. 

"So that if I trip and fall, we both go down?" She remarked with amusement.

He sighed, "no, so that I can save you again."

"Well then, thank you Mr Sehgal for being my savior!" She smiled turning to him.

He exhaled sharply, "how about you just focus ahead and walk."

She rolled her eyes. The man was a lost cause. With every step she braced herself for dealing with the man on a regular basis. 

Aadarsh stared at her back shaking his head. The woman and her humor. His eyes unintentionally noticed the strings tied on her blouse whose back was a deep U. Now that she had tied her hair up into a bun there was a lot of skin at display. His gaze slowly cascaded to her waist and then lower as she climbed up. He looked away blinking. He couldn't believe he just checked her out. 

At one point, Ruhaani pretended to lose her balance and swayed  back with a gasp only for Aadarsh to place his hand on her back, saying, 'careful'. 

"Just kidding," she sing songed quickly running up the final steps and finally turning to him with a grin. He sighed, almost glaring at her. She turned around and walked ahead laughing to herself.

The marriage would turn out to be way more than he bargained for, he already knew that now. Just a day in and he felt it. Ruhaani wasn't as simple as he had judged her to be. He would need every bit of patience he possibly possessed to keep his sanity while dealing with her. The vows had been exchanged, the legal papers had been signed, the marriage was as real as a relationship could get. The dynamics of this marriage were to be seen and determined.

• — • — •

Excited to read your comments and thoughts. 

Next : Friday

—Anami!♡