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"Why don't you try with sex?"

The casually asked question was ringing in his ears as Om walked into his two bedroom apartment. As he locked the door behind him he knew without even turning back that Gauri would be popping her head out of the kitchen. He had never rang the bell for her to open the door, he had always used his key and walked in and knowing that she had always made sure not to leave her key in the keyhole. Om turns back and looks right at her and she hesitantly smiles at him, even after almost a year of marriage, her smile was that, hesitant. He smiles back at her.

"Would you like to have tea?" Gauri asks him formally like an air hostess.

And he was no less than a traveller on a plane, "Yeah, I would like that."

Gauri nods in reply right before she went back to the kitchen and Om headed to his bedroom to have a shower.

As he stood under the shower, his thoughts went back to the conversation he had with Rudra earlier that day. Rudra had dropped by at his office and after initial talks, he had casually asked him about his married life, and thinking about Gauri, his smile had dropped.

"No change?" Rudra asks surprised.

Om shrugs in reply.

"Isn't it a year since you got married?" Rudra asks frowning.

"A year?" Om asks surprised and then thinking at the date he says amazed, "It will be a year in two days."

"You forgot your anniversary? My wife would kill me if I ever forget."

"I doubt Gauri remembers it." Om mutters as he looked aside.

"Is she very reserved with you?" Rudra asks.

"And formal." Om tells him sighing.

"Do you try talking to her about it?"

"She just goes into a shell whenever I try to talk." Om says tired.

"Hmmm..."

"My brother abandoned her at the mandap and I married her to save face, everyone knows that but I think she is still stuck on that day."

"Maybe she still loves him." Rudra says hesitantly.

"I doubt it. She said that they had a disagreement and he left the mandap. She wouldn't say the reason just that he realized that she was not good enough for him." Om says tiredly.

"Why would she say that?"

"How would I know? She wouldn't talk past that." Om asks exasperated.

"Did you talk about babies? Maybe, if you had a baby then things would change. Babies bring in a lot of changes." Rudra advices him.

Om gives Rudra an exasperated look.

"What?" Rudra asks shocked.

"We have to at least sleep in the same room for that, right?" Om asks him irately.

"What?" Rudra shouts in shock.

"What?"

"You two have no physical relation?" Rudra asks shocked.

Om shakes his head tired. He had needed to talk to someone about his married problems and Rudra was his best friend and confidante.

"Oh!"

Om closes his head tired and a little relaxed having passed his headache to his best friend for a few minutes.

"Did you try to get close to her physically?"

"No. she is so reserved with me." Om says exasperated.

"Oh my!" Rudra suddenly says grinning.

"What?"

"In 6 months you are going to be 30, right?"

"Yeah... so?"

"A 30 years old virgin!" Rudra chuckles.

"Shut up!" Om snaps at him.

"Mr. I-will-wait-for-marriage, now see what it has got you." Rudra teases him.

"I don't regret it."

"I don't remember your wife much... is she hot?"

"Damn." Om sighs remembering Gauri.

Rudra starts chuckling softly.

"What is so funny?" Om snaps at him.

"Cold showers... huh?"

Om furiously looks at Rudra then giving up he says, "I can't sleep at night."

Rudra chuckles.

"We won't talk about that... tell me what should I do? I want to make this marriage work but she is so..." Om says helplessly.

"Hmmm" Rudra hmmms as he thought what possible way could help Om and Gauri and then asks, "Why don't you try with sex?"

"What?" Om asks shocked.

"Don't act so shocked... marriages works on many things... at times, to build the base you need to start with physical relation."

"What are you saying? She doesn't love me."

"Do you love her?"

"No."

"But you want to bed her."

"She is my wife." Om says.

"Right... So start with sex, once you attain physical compatibility work on others."

"But... how? What about the other things?"

"Om... not every marriage starts off with love... the truth is most of the arranged marriages starts of with physical compatibility. We get physical first then develop a deeper bond and love. It is not always like in the movies that you wait to fall in love to consummate your relation." Rudra tells him.

"It's not?"

"No... a marriage is just as complex as humans... there are no set rules on how you make it work. You tried other things, now try the physical relation."

As Om came out of the shower, he had made up his mind and he calls up Bittuji to book flight tickets for Gauri and him. They were going to take a trip and maybe a change in surroundings would help them along.

Om comes out of his bedroom to find that Gauri had already kept his tea on the dining table. Oh God! He could predict that in exactly 7 seconds Gauri would be hurrying out with biscuits for him.

And just like that, Gauri hurries out with biscuits and seeing him she says, "Tea is ready."

Om pulls up a chair and sits, and Gauri sits opposite to him, not because she wanted to because he would ask her to sit, and he knew that also.

Om sips on the tea and mentally flinches, Gauri still hasn't learned to make tea the way he liked it but then she never knew that he liked his tea with less milk and cardamom.

"I have an office trip coming up." Om tells her.

Gauri nods her head in reply.

"I want you to come with me."

And for the first time in his life, he saw her composure slip, "Me? Why me?" Gauri asks in panic.

"Because I want you to come with me." Om replies with a shrug as simple as that.

"I won't be comfortable." Gauri tells him getting back to her reserved mode.

"I'll be with you the whole time." Om says knowing too well that the whole not comfortable for Gauri meant Omkara Singh Oberoi.

"Why?" Gauri asks.

"What why?"

"Why suddenly you want me to come?"

Om shrugs in reply as he got up and walked off, having completely finished the tea.

"Flight is at 5:00 pm."

"Where are we going?"

"Goa."

Om and Gauri walk into the honeymoon suite the next night after dinner. Om had waited for the very last required moment to bring Gauri to the room because he didn't want her to panic. Gauri looks around the room in shock seeing the room decorated for as in a suhag raat and then turns to look at Om with eyes wide in panic.

Om gently locks the door and turns to look at Gauri. Gauri's face was filled with questions. That was the most emotion he had seen on her face in this one year.

"I lied." Om tells her as he gently walked towards the table and took the champagne bottle. Om turns to look at her and realizes that she hadn't taken her eyes off him, he opens the champagne bottle and gently pours into two champagne flutes. "I brought you here for our honeymoon."

Om watches as the confusion turned to panic and she going completely pale as he walked towards her. "I am tired of the way how our life is, Gauri. I want this marriage to work."

"A friend suggested sex is a very good first step." Om tells her very softly and very carefully.

Gauri stops breathing as her mouth drops open slightly.

"Don't think too much, Gauri. Let's just dive in and take that first step." Om tells her.

And in the one year of marriage, for the first time, Gauri addressed him by his name, "Omkara..."

"Have this. It will help you calm your nerves." Om suggests as he passed the flute to her. Gauri looks at the champagne in panic.

"No..."

"For one year we have been living in that house like strangers. I am sick of that. When I married you, I had every intention of making this marriage work. I don't know what happened between my brother and you that he left without giving us a reason. Whatever it is, it is long over. I am your present and future. Stop fighting the truth." Om tells her.

Gauri starts breathing faster as her panic increased, "Water... I want water." Gauri tells him.

"Have this." Om says offering her the champagne.

"Water."

"This." Om insists. "It will help you calm down."

Gauri takes it and gulps it down shocking Om completely then she takes the other one he was holding and gulps that down.

"Easy... easy."

"I want to tell you something." Gauri starts.

"No." Om stops her. "I don't want to hear anything."

"I want to tell you why your brother..."

"Sshhh." Om gently keeps his finger on Gauri's lips, "He has no place in our marriage. Today is for just us, Gauri."

Gauri looks at him dumbstruck hearing that. Om moves towards her to kiss her lips when Gauri turns around and moves towards the window. "Omkara... I have to..." and she stops in shock as she feels Om moving her hair aside from her back and then sensations she had never experienced in her life burst in her when she felt his lips on her lower neck and shoulder blades. His cold lips and hot breath, and the tingling effect his kisses were causing in her body wanted her to curl up in passion. Om gently turns her around and as he kissed her neck, he gently pleads her, "Give us a chance, Gauri."

She didn't know whether it was the champagne, his touch, his kisses, his words or the way his eyes were pleading her that she gave in.

Gauri was lost in her thoughts as she looked outside their window watching the waves when she hears Om walking up. She stiffens realizing that he was awake but resists turning back and looking at him. She could hear him moving around but she remains still. She knew, she had to face him but she didn't have the courage to do that. She couldn't, because at the end of the day, she was truly a coward.

Gauri stiffens in shock when Om hugs her from behind and gently whispers to her ears, "Happy Wedding Anniversary."

Gauri turns to look at him in shock, eyes wide hearing him, this is not what she had expected to hear from him.

"I know, you might have forgot... but still... today is your day. You can decide how we are going to spend our first wedding anniversary." Om says as he gently caressed her hair. When she remained silent, he asks her, "Do you want to go to beach, shopping, site seeing?" then with a sexy smile he asks as he nibbled her ears, "spend the day in bed?"

Gauri turns to look at Om not knowing how to talk to him or behave with him. seeing her hesitating, Om turns around and walks to his bag, "I got a present for you. come here." Gauri automatically walks towards him as he picks out a gift wrapped box. Om offers it to Gauri with a smile. Gauri takes it from him as she looked at him wondering if he was for real. "Open it." Om tells her smiling.

Gauri turns to look at the box in her hand and then she looks at him.

"Open." Om says with an excited smile.

Gauri gently keeps the box on the bed and asks him as she looked at the box on the bed, "Why aren't you asking me anything?"

The smile drops from Om's face and he turns around as he ran his hand through his hair agitatedly, "I don't want to talk about it."

"I want to." Gauri tells him as she looked at him with tears in his eyes.

"I said I don't want to." Om tells her sternly.

"I want to!"

Om looks at her furiously and then asks, "You want to talk about it? Okay, let's talk. I never had sex with anyone because I wanted to wait till marriage and I expected that from my wife. But you were not a virgin. I couldn't sleep last night because I felt betrayed!" Om says furiously.

Gauri closes her eyes in tears.

"But you never wanted to marry me. I was forced on you as you were on me." Om says in a gentle tone. "I didn't know what I should do or what I wanted from this marriage any more. I was angry and furious. I felt robbed. I kept thinking why this had to happen to me. then I don't know how, but I started asking myself why it mattered if I was not the first man to touch you when I know that in the last one year, when you didn't know me or care for this marriage, you had remained faithful and loyal to me and this marriage. So did it really matter if there was someone else in your life before me? And I realized that it didn't matter because I trust you to be loyal and faithful to me."

Gauri looks at Om in shock as tears fell from her eyes.

"Gauri, I have made my peace with it but I don't want to talk about it." Om tells her helplessly.

"But I want to talk about it." Gauri pleads him.

Then she sees the helpless look come over his face and finally he giving in as he turned away closing his eyes in pain, letting her unburden herself on him. He was willing to take pain upon himself for her. No one had shown her this much kindness ever. And in that moment she irrevocably fell in love with her husband.

"Your brother... when the proposal had come and he had come to meet me, he had casually told me that he have had affairs, flings and one night stands... I thought my past wouldn't be a problem for him but I didn't have the courage to tell him then. But I couldn't marry him before telling him truth and I told him on the day of the wedding. He said he didn't want to marry a fallen girl like me." Gauri tells him.

Om flinches hearing that, his brother had no right doing that to Gauri. he remembers how Gauri had said that she was not good enough for his brother and that is why he left. Om was ashamed to say that he was his brother, that hypocrite who had made Gauri feel she was not good enough was still partying somewhere in Vegas, the last they had heard of him.

When Om remained silent Gauri tells him, "There was this guy in our locality. He was so cute and charming, every girl was behind him. I was just 17 years old then."

Om swallows hard hearing that, he didn't want to know.it was a strange thing, he didn't love Gauri, he didn't know her enough to love her but still he couldn't hear of the other man in Gauri's life.

When Gauri remained silent, Om curiously turns to look at her wondering if she had finished telling him what she wanted to tell him but she had been waiting for him to look at her, with tears in her eyes she whispers to him in a heartbreaking voice, "He said he loved me."

Om's heart stops beating seeing the raw pain on her face. Her pain touched him like nothing has ever touched him. In that moment he fell in love with her.

"Do you still love him?" Om asks her softly knowing his very life depended on her answer.

Gauri shakes her head in negative, "I trusted him. I gave him what was yours." Gauri tells him as she broke out into sobs.

In two strides Om was next to her and he cups her face and tells her, "It doesn't matter, Gauri. You are mine now as I am yours, and that is all that matters. He is long gone from your life. You are mine as pure as one can be."

Gauri breaking out into loud sobs hugs him and says, "I don't know whether I loved him or not. Now, I know that I love you."

"I love you, Gauri." Om says hugging her as he cried silently with her, washing away all their pains and past.

A year later.

Om starts furiously ringing the doorbell. Hearing the insistent bell, Gauri hurries to open the door giggling. She opens the door happily, "HEY!"

"What was so important that you couldn't wait till I got back in the evening?" Om asks her, she had called him out of a meeting saying that he had to come home that instant.

Gauri smiles sweetly at him, "Have I ever told you how irresistible you look when you get angry?"

Om grins hearing the compliment, he knew he was so shallow at times!

"Pick one!" Gauri says excitedly as she held out two envelopes in front of him.

"What is this?" Om asks curiously.

"Pick." Gauri insists as she jumped in joy.

Sighing Om looks at the envelopes and picks the right one.

"Open... open!" Gauri says excitedly.

Om rolls his eyes at her excitement and then couldn't help smile at her childlike innocence, after their honeymoon she had blossomed into this adorable person who took a month to learn to make the tea the way he liked exactly. He opens that and pulls out the card in it.

Gauri looks at the card he is holding excitedly and screams out "It's a girl!"

Om looks at her confused and seeing her excitement he finally understand. "You are pregnant?" Om asks excitedly.

"A girl!" Gauri tells Om excitedly in reply as she hugged him.

The End

The whole OS is inspired from this scene from A Night Like This by my FAVORITE author, Julia Quinn.

"He said he loved me," she whispered.

Daniel swallowed, and he had the strangest sensation, almost a premonition of what it must like to be a parent.

Someday, God willing, he'd have a daughter, and that daughter would look like the woman standing in front of him, and if ever she looked at him with that bewildered expression, whispering, "He said he loved me . . ."

Nothing short of murder would be an acceptable response.

[Quote credit ]

I know, my story is nothing compared to this beautiful scene, but couldn't help jot it down, sorry if I offended any JQ fan. I took the scene in my story differently as I didn't want to ruin that scene for anyone.

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- Lazy