Sanam walked into the bedroom one evening returning from her shift at the hospital to see Arjun walking about the room with a towel wrapped around his hips. Freshly showered. She cleared her throat to mark her presence. He looked up from his phone where he was texting Parth.

She felt the need to be suspicious. "What are you two friends up to again?"

Arjun pulled an innocent face, "Hmm? Nothing. Today's Holi; so, just heading over to temple."

She nodded, recalling he had mentioned if a few days ago. "Right, the bonfire."

He gave her an admonishing look, "Sanam, you know it's much more than that."

She smiled walking up to him and with a hand on his shoulder, pecked his lips. "Yes, babe. I'm aware." Then she patted his arm, "Now, if you don't want to be late, get dressed."

He wrapped his arms around her lower back to hold her captive against him. She raised a brow, aware what he was trying to do even before he said the words in a quiet whisper. "You sure you don't want to come?"

He was trying to make her weak by seduction and talk her into going with him. She pulled her bottom lip in to not roll her eyes at his attempt. "My answer is the same as when you asked the last twenty times. I'm not going to the temple."

He sighed. In one of those twenty times he'd asked her, she'd caved in and told him that she hadn't been to temple in years and that she didn't like to go either. She didn't feel it right to go for the sake of pretense when in her heart, she didn't have faith.

He tried another tactic, "Rashi will be there. Please, save me?"

She ruffled his damp hair, "Arjun?"

"Hmm?" He lovingly answered thinking he was winning by that soft expression on her face and getting lost in the feeling of her fingers playing with his hair and unconsciously leaning closer to try and kiss her.

She tapped his forehead back, scolding. "You're a big boy. Take care of your own issues and learn to say no to people."

His lips turned upside down in a frown, "But I can't."

She made him understand, "Babe, you have to eventually disappoint a few people in life. It's unavoidable. We're married; and she has to accept that, and I can't save you each time to give her that message. She won't listen unless it comes from you."

"I guess you're right..."

She pulled out his loose hold around her, "I am right. Now put on some clothes and get out of my house."

He gaped at the later ordering tone, "Excuse me? My house too! I pay the bills, you know?"

She rolled her eyes and swatted his shoulder, "Kar di na mardo wali baat." (What a typical guy thing to say.)

His jaw truly dropped this time, "Did you just hit me? We don't endorse domestic violence in a relationship, Sanam Mehta."

She opened her mouth to retort but then caught his diversion and scolded again, "You, mister, leave before you get late. Today, you are going to talk to Rashi and sort everything out."

"Damn." He muttered for he thought he could get out from it if he just dallied in the moment and then he could pull the 'it's already late' card and not go altogether. "You're sexy when you order me around."

Even if she thought he might truly believe that, she didn't react and fall for it. Instead, she added further instruction, "If you don't, you are not touching me for rest of the week."

He laughed in disbelief, "Sweetheart, you wouldn't torture yourself."

She readjusted, "Fine, then I won't talk to you till you talk to her."

His laughter faded for that, he couldn't handle. He knew it would be quite a punishment. Sanam's upset mood for not sorting it with Rashi was not worth it.

She knew he had him and so continued while walking around him to get her towel. "Now, I'm going to go shower this hospital stench off me. You better be gone by the time I get out."

He grumbled, "I hate you for making me do this."

She didn't mind his words for she knew he was just dreading a conversation with Rashi. "It's okay. I can handle your momentary hatred for the peace you'll have afterwards." Then she reached up on her toes to kiss his cheek in a good bye. "Have fun, now." She mentioned that towards the rest of his evening, not the talk with Rashi.

His fingers wrapped around her elbows from the back to stop her and leaning into her ear, whispered a mischievous threat. "I'm going to get my revenge tomorrow."

He was talking about the Holi celebrations. She wasn't afraid for she didn't think he played Holi indecently. She didn't believe he had that in him. She shrugged out of his arms, running away before he could think of holding her again. "I look forward to it, dearest hubby."

It was going to be their first Holi together and she did look forward to it.

~

Parth nudged Arjun on spotting Rashi walking out of the temple after aarti. Arjun sighed when she caught their eyes and waved at them before starting to walk towards them. Parth offered, "Want me to handle it again?"

If not for Sanam's earlier words, arjun would have taken him up on the offer. Bracing himself for it, he shook his head, "No, I got it."

Parth raised his brow in surprise since Arjun never willingly would agree, "Seriously?"

He briefly turned to his friend and replied, "Yeah, I'd rather put up with one uncomfortable conversation rather than having her put Sanam down indirectly like this. I mean, Sanam's my wife and she's got to accept them."

Parth commented with a sense of pride even though his tone may be snarky, "About damn time." When Arjun raised a brow, he added, "I mean, you are my best friend and all, but it was starting to get a little bit on my nerves how you weren't standing up for Sanam."

Arjun didn't pretend to be blind to his past inactions, "I know I should have maned up and just talked to her but my only reason was our relationship with her dad. Not to say it was a rational excuse, but..."

Parth nodded along in understanding, "I get it, man. There's a thin line and by breaking Rashi's heart, you don't want to jeopardize the family relations but truth be told, she had it coming long back. Even a blind person can tell you were never interested in her."

"Yeah..."

"I don't get it; why do girls not have the self-respect to know when to chin up and walk away? Not be so desperate, you know?"

Arjun chuckled, "Okay, to be fair, let's not pretend we boys don't get desperate. We are probably more desperate than them to feel loved, be in a relationship, and all that."

"Yeah, but come on, it's one thing to want emotional connection with someone you have a chance with and another to refuse to accept the reality," Parth argued.

Arjun did see the difference but did not follow up with a response as Rashi was only steps away.

Reaching them, she started to go for a hug when Arjun leaned away to stop her, "Hey... Rashi."

Her brows pulled together in confusion over his actions, "Hi?" She replied questioningly. "Everything okay? Why are you being weird?"

"Listen, Rashi, we need to talk about something."

"And you can't atleast give me a hug first? Or did your so-called wife get jealous and tell you that you can't even hug me?"

Before Arjun could respond, Parth awkwardly interjected, "I'm... gonna give you two a moment." As much as he wanted to be there and witness Arjun shutting off Rashi once and for all, he deemed it safer to do so from a distance. Besides, he could always get the exact words out of Arjun at a later time.

Once the two were alone, Arjun replied, "Look, Rashi, I didn't want to say anything to hurt you, and because our families are good friends, but you keep putting me in a tough spot. It's inevitable now. You need to accept that Sanam is my wife."

"You mean your contract marriage that's not even real? She challenged, "Come on, that's a joke."

He tried to bite back his irritation as he answered, "It's not a joke to me, Rashi. She's my wife whether you want to accept it or not and I've had feelings for her since I first met her. I didn't say anything up till now, but I won't have you insulting her anymore. And just because she doesn't come to temple with me every week or at some of our social events does not mean something is the matter between us and so you can make advances towards me thinking you've got a chance."

Saying his piece, believing he couldn't have made it any clearer, he exhaled a sigh of relief. Honestly, Sanam was right. Just letting it out instead of keeping it inside of him out of wanting to be polite felt must better.

After a momentary pause, she asked in an empty tone, "What do you see in her?"

He said her name in a warning tone, "Rashi..."

She shook her head, interrupting to explain, "No, really. I am not asking out of malice or anything. I just... can't understand it. She doesn't run in the same crowd. She doesn't believe in half the things you do. The two of you are more different than alike. So, I don't get it."

The only conclusion Arjun could come to was that she was genuinely curious to understand this. Otherwise, after years of knowing her, he could safely claim that he knew all her different and hidden tones, but this one held nothing.

"Because... despite beliefs, likes, dislikes, family lifestyle... she sees me - who I am at the core. Neither of us are perfect, Rashi, no matter how much the world paints us out to be. Others might easily think that she is only focused on her career because no one sees us together at events as she's always having to study, but do you know what I see? I see that if she can be so dedicated to her career, just imagine how dedicated she will be to her family and those she loves? She will give it her everything. And, when it's just the two of us at home, she does. So it really doesn't matter to me if she isn't able to keep up with everything else I have going in my life because at the end of the day, she keeps up with me. Asks how my parents are doing. And, that's more than enough for me. I don't need her to believe in same things I do. I don't need her to like the same things I do. I don't..."

He suddenly stopped on realizing how much he'd spoken. That was one of the things about him. When he talked about Sanam, he would tend t forget other things.

Reeling it in, he changes the course of the conversation back to their initial point, "I'm sorry. I didn't say any of it to hurt you. Are you okay?"

She let out a sarcastic chuckle. "Okay? Am I okay? What do yo think?"

He realized it was the wrong question to ask, "I'm sorry."

She swallowed her feelings, shaking her head, "No, why are you sorry? You haven't done anything wrong? You never gave me a hint that you were interested in me. It was me who kept hoping... However crappy I feel right now, it's my doing."

He would have to admit... he wasn't expecting her to say this any time soon. He had thought he would get more of a resistance from her rather than accepting her own role. He started to wonder if he had perhaps said a bit too much and it was affecting her more strongly than she was letting on.

As if seeing the worry on his face, she pushed a smile on her face, "I'm fine, don't worry. I thought I would be devastated or something when you'd finally tell me what I didn't want to hear, but surprisingly... I'm okay. Maybe because a deep part of me had already accepted it and I was desperately trying to hold on to something that wasn't there to begin with. I guess a part of me thought that if you weren't saying anything to me, then it must mean something. But, seeing you talk about her and finally taking a stand for her in front of me... it made me realize. You've never talked about anyone in your past this way, and most definitely not me. So, I guess the only thing left for me to accept is that what you feel for Sanam is real. It may take me some time to be cool with it, but I'll get there."

He didn't know what to say seeing her take this sportingly. He had prepped himself for the worst. For there to be arguments. For her to throw a fit. Say a few more insulting things for Sanam. But there was none of that. And his older belief about her was reiterated. She wasn't someone with an ill heart toward others. Over all, she did try to a nice person. But the same way he had flaws, she too had them. It helped him see her in a different light. She wasn't just a girl desperate to grab his attention. She did have a heart underneath that.

~

Arjun walked in closing the main door quietly behind him noticing the lights in the living room were turned off. He knew Sanam's habit for studying. She would never study in the bedroom. She would always be on the couch in the living room or the dining table in the adjacent room. He walked down the hallway towards the bedroom and had rightfully assumed that she had chosen to call it a night early considering they would be spending all of tomorrow with family and friends celebrating Holi.

Not wanting to disrupt her precious sleep, he walked around the room quietly to make his way towards the washroom to change. However, when he turned on the bathroom lights, it illuminated on her face before he had entirely closed the door. Her sleep did stir. She snuggled into the pillow, sleepily making note of his return. Minutes later when he returned, he left his phone on the side table in its do not disturb mode that he had set to daily from 10:30 to 6:30. Then, he slipped into the blankets and settled in.

Vaguely registering the mattress shifting to accommodate for him, she turned towards him, inching closer to his warm body. She murmured, "I waited up for you."

He asked in slight amusement, "Really?"

If her eyes were open, she would have surely rolled them at him. In her very sleepy state, however, she only lifted her head into his welcoming arms and placed it at the crook of his shoulder. "I didn't say I was successful," she mumbled.

The amusement faded on his face as it replaced with a somber smile. It was brief moments like this one that touched his heart. It didn't matter if she wasn't able to stay up and wait. What mattered was that she'd atleast tried. These were the moments in daily life that let him know their love was real and reciprocated.

She added after a brief pause when he hadn't said anything in response, "It go okay?"

In her clipped words, she was trying to enquire how his conversation with Rashi went.

He replied by wrapping his arm around her back to rest on her hip and nudging her closer, if it were even possible. "I have never felt better."

"Hmm," she said knowing it would have this effect afterwards even though he had been anxious about it before.

"Honestly. I don't know why but it feels like a huge burden has lifted from my chest, you know?"

"We usually make conversations more dreadful than they need to be."

He agreed silently. He knew it were true. For months leading up to tonight, he had played it in his head, dreading it over and over simply at the thought of having to have the conversation. But after, it was a relief and even during the conversation, he didn't have the time to feel awkward or out of place. Or, even if he did, he didn't have the energy to focus on those feelings as he had to pay attention to other cues.

Lastly, she asked, "Is she okay?"

His chest lifted as he inhaled deeply. This time, even though he didn't smile, his chest did expand with pride that she was his wife. She had empathy even for the girl who had been insulting her since the start. If it wasn't one of the many qualities that had attracted him to her, making him irrevocably fall in love with her. And when she said these simplest and smallest of things, it still had the biggest impacts. It had him falling for her all over again.

He whispered the response, "She's okay."

"Good night, then." She wished in a mumble. Her heart at rest and giving herself the permission to pass back into oblivious sleep state.

With those apprehensive feelings from earlier in the evening replaced by calm and loving feelings for her, he wished her back and closed his eyes to join her in a dreamless state. He quiet looked forward to tomorrow, and every single one of tomorrow's they would have for years and years to come.

~

author note;

Hi everyone! How are you doing? I just want to take a quick moment and thank you for continuing to read this despite my irregular updates! Your patience means a lot <3

How are you liking the flow so far? Things will pick up soon... hopefully, not too soon, but yeah. You know what I mean? 

Back to current chapter, I brought back Rashi, yes. That chapter needed to be concluded. She couldn't just disappear, haha. Surprised by her in this chapter? You gotta understand that people grow up/are not as they appear on the surface. Everyone had multiples layers to them. Some they show, some they don't.  Hence why we say human beings are complex creatures ;)

And Parth <3 Always ready to take on Arjun's troubles himself and stand in the way. Someone find me a friend like that, lol Hope you're liking the subtle romance (hope it's coming off the way I think it is). 

Let me know your thoughts!

PS. Read the story details section again for a newer excerpt!