Typed: 10/12/2023
Chapter 12: The Touch

Author's POV:

The honeymoon wasn't until three days later. Yug had picked Manali as their destination after asking Khushi various questions before they got married. One night she got a message from Yug, just after ten, which was unusual because he slept pretty early.

Yug – Summer or winter?

Without thinking twice, she replied, 'winter.' A minute later he messaged.

Yug – Interesting. So, I'm assuming mountains over beach?

Khushi – Without a doubt. Why?

Yug – I'm trying to understand how alike we are.

Khushi – Are we then? Alike?

Yug – I'm yet to come to a conclusion, Miss Lawyer.

Khushi – Let me know when you have an answer Mr. Artist.

Putting both winter and mountain in mind, Yug couldn't think of a better place than Manali. During the winter, when they're expected to get married, Manali would have plentiful of snowfall with opportunities to go skiing, something he couldn't wait to do with Khushi.

It was shortly after the elders had left the house, leaving just the three of them. Harsh ever so respectful, dipped his head, mumbling a goodbye, "I'm thinking of meeting some friends during my leave, so I'm off."

He wasn't meeting anyone, but he was sure he'd go somewhere. After an anxiety-ridden morning, he wanted to leave his brother and sister-in-law to think this through and speak, mending their relationship slowly but steadily.

There was an awkward silence once Harsh had left. Yug mentally cursed him for going. Khushi cleared her throat, making her presence known. Yug automatically looks up. "Hmm." He hums, eyebrows quirked, waiting for her command. "I'm sorry." He wasn't sure what else he was supposed to say.

Her posture was a bit egoistical by nature—something she's been mechanized to do and be because of her profession. It instantly relaxes at his generosity. "I'm sorry too." She's as reflective as he is. "Sorry for not being who you thought I was."

If Yug wasn't so emotionally mature and aware, something which his brother and friends always taunted him for, labeling him as 'old man Yug,' then he would have jumped to the conclusion that Khushi was being narcissistic. But he was emotionally mature, therefore, her honesty, her vulnerability didn't irk him or be misinterpreted by him.

What irked and hurt him was how she felt. All because of him. "Khushi," he breathes her name out, already accustomed to it. So effortlessly he rasps her name. "Don't say that." He reaches out to touch her hand but stops himself, thinking better off it. I have no right to touch her currently.

He pushes his short hair back, as if to find proper—appropriate words to articulate how he feels. "When someone purchases an artwork with the thought of a particular artist in mind," she's intelligent enough to know that her husband speaks with purpose. Not only were his words purposeful and rightly chosen but so were his eyes as he spoke. "The artwork doesn't lose it's value just because another artist had painted it. It's still valuable." He nods at her, zoning out as he watches his reflection on her soil like brown eyes.

Usually, Khushi finds this effect on others like Yug has on her right now. The effect of brain freezes or going speechless. In her professional life, it's all facts and logic, no room for emotions. Emotions that's she's worked so hard on to control and hide to become the advocate that she is. And her husband seemed to embody the emotions she's locked in a room.

He spoke to most precious words so elegantly. He called her valuable. He rubs his hand on his thigh before standing up, and starts walking to their bedroom. "We need to get out marriage certificate sorted out to—oh," he stops, looks over at her shoulder, remembering that's not a concern, the lawyer herself is in this relationship. "—you could do that."

Khushi follows him in like a lost puppy. His carefree nature is commendable. After a big bombshell that dropped, he's so—oblivious in the sense that he couldn't care less to acknowledge what just happened.

"How are you so—normal?" She's genuinely curious as she watches him carefully set aside her veil that was on the floor.

He turns, a tiny cheshire grin, so tiny that it could easily be missed if Khushi wasn't watching. "Because I don't know how many days I have left, Khushi. Life is unpredictable. Nor do I know how fortunate or unfortunate I will be in the future."

She avoids the answer from reaching her, "you're not answering my question."

Not only are his features gentle but he is too. On top of that flawlessly light broken skin and earthy eyes that cannot be recorded down as less than mesmerizing, he was the kind of person one would want to know and cherish. He spoke that way too, "I am, though. If a case doesn't have the outcome you wished, would you give up and resign? No."

"Outcome." She whispers to herself.

The way her face turned, Yug was alert. He approaches her. She watched as he moved closer to her. There was this warrior like personality and nature he had as he walked to her but it was also combined with this gentleness that made her heart reach out. He was so competent and flawless for a man even with hard features.

He's so divinely cautious as he raises his hand to touch her cheeks. She flinches but doesn't take a step-back. It's not that Khushi thought he'd hit her but it's her naturally instinct to move back feeling threatened. That's how she was with Samar.

Yug noticed. He absorbed the reaction and reflected. Although she flinched, her eyes didn't blink nor move away from his face. She didn't move back too. All of this gave him permission to touch her. He rightfully did so.

His left hand—his fingertips grazed her rosy cheeks, tenderly moving downwards. The light and pleasant touch went from her cheek to her chin and when he was sure that Khushi feels secure, his palm touches her cheeks. Not just her fingertips but his hand. His hand was on her cheeks.

Khushi closed her eyes in reaction. She couldn't remember the last time someone had touched her cheek—her face—so delicately. With so much care and assurance—even waiting for permission before touching her.

Khushi was big on boundaries. And even though they never had a conversation over boundaries and consent, the fact—just by his gesture, she could tell he felt the same way. Yug Verma wasn't just a man who knew how to draw and do exceptional artwork and run a company, but he was a well-raised man.

Yug Verma was much more than his comfortable bank balance.

Her face looked so peaceful, so compassionate and the way her body relaxed as his touch, Yug could sense that falling in love with Khushi wouldn't be too hard.

He'd already admired her and was close to falling in love with her—a different face doesn't negate all her talents, her assertive nature and her.  She was still the woman he couldn't wait to marry. Nothing changed. Nothing at all. And Yug accepts that.

He questioned whether to touch her with his other hand. He chose not to. He should ease into this, so should she. "If you're an outcome," she opens her eyes, locking with his. Their face so close. Her hands—to her shock—find his arm gracefully. "—then you're the best outcome I've had." His eyes so moist with honesty.

She bit her inner cheek, suppressing her sobs. She's never been this tongue-tied. It'd only been less than fifteen hours of being his wife and he's already exposed her to so many emotions.

Yug Verma felt like an emotional roller-coaster to her. A pleasant emotional rollercoaster ride that she'd never trade for anything though.

When Khushi thought she could say formulate a sentence or express of gratitude to him, his young and lively face breaks into a smile, making him more divine than ever. More than he looked in Goa, too. In that particular moment, Khushi felt her body flush warm. Warmer than the breeze in the summer.

This was the person she knew had a lifetime to get to know, to explore, to love but in that moment—in that moment what Khushi felt, she knew that this is the guy she could love forever.

His hand stayed lingering on her skin. It had been a while since he last spoke so there was no need for him to stay standing so close to her. They were just a slight touch away from their body making contact. Regardless, they stayed there, frozen.

A heartbeat later, he nods towards her eyes, "these doe's look tired." His voice sounded tired too. His free hand smudges off the dried skin underneath her eyes. "You should sleep, Khushi."

Khushi, as if second nature, moves her face deeper into his hand which was on her cheek. She doesn't speak. She didn't need to. Her actions spoke more. "Are you happy that I chose Manali for our honeymoon destination?" She nods. "Khushi," he rasps in eagerness, "speak."

She doesn't smile when she opens her eyes. Khushi only stares, afraid if she blinked he'd disappear. "Yes." She says for the sake of it. She doesn't even remember hearing his question, if he even asked one.

He chuckles. It's not the toothy chuckle that is infectious but it's not less adorable. His laugh was like a peeking sunlight of dappled woodland, so lively, so playful and encouraging. The kind that forces you to laugh along. So, she does, Khushi giggles and the touch of her cheek on his hand as she laughed washed over him. Washed over him like she's just shared her light and her sunrays to him—shared it with only him.

~

They leave for their honeymoon today. Yug's house help, a married woman in her late thirties named Kamla had come every day and left just before six every evening. It was new for Khushi. Not just sharing her kitchen with someone who wasn't family but having someone who cooks, cleans and helps.

Nor are her parents that financially off, but they simply never needed anyone to do their chores. It was always her mother and her. Kamla was as likeable as her mother-in-law. She was kind and minded her own business, above it all, she knew the brothers for six to seven years.

"So, you leave at six every evening?" Khushi asked, pouring some milk in the pot, making chai early in the morning before they left.

"Yes," she answers, refilling some spices. "I make breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I leave at six. They have dinner and Yug bhai like to wash dishes, so he does that at night. I do dishes other times, except dinner ones."

This came as a surprise? Not entirely, it makes sense that he likes doing dishes. He is humble. "He likes doing dishes." She says more to herself than Kamla. It was two minutes later that she heard her in-laws walking into the house with their loud merry voices, greeting their sons and asking for Khushi. "Coming," she calls out, putting four cups of chai in the tray.

Upon seeing Khushi, her in-laws face lights up and Yug's face beams too. When she'd asked whether Harsh wanted chai, he'd originally said no, so Khushi only made chai for four people. As she placed the tray on the table in their living room, Harsh was the first to grab a cup, mumbling a thank you and started reading the newspaper.

Her eyes peered at the clock attached on the wall behind her. They had to leave in less than ten minutes. It didn't seem appropriate to make chai for just one person. Yug watched attentively as he spoke to his father. "You didn't take your cup," his wife mumbles after a moment.

Yug looks up from his watch momently, flicking his eyes from the cup to his wife's face. "I'm fine, I have trouble drinking super-hot chai. You have it." He's not ordering her and nor is his voice suggestive, he's just so casual when he speaks. So casual that Khushi doesn't doubt it and grabs the hot cup in her hand.

It wasn't until they were all downstairs, bidding each other goodbye when Yug helped Khushi sit inside the car, holding her saree's long pallu from getting dirty and touching the floor. When he was sure she's comfortably seated inside the car, he said to his brother while hugging him goodbye, "next time, don't drink or eat something you didn't want before."

There was no anger in both the brother's voices, but pure suggestion for future references. "Matlab?" (Meaning?)

Yug patted his younger brother's cheeks lovingly, "matlab, it's not just a 'all mens' house anymore. You need to be more aware, in general because you have a Bhabhi too now." (Sister-in-law).

Harsh rolled his eyes on surface level but made a mental note to be more present because his brother was right. There was a woman in the house after all. With a push on his back by Harsh, Yug got in the car and sat next to his wife, grinning.

"Are you excited to go to Manali?" There's humour in his tone. Humour that Khushi wouldn't have ever experienced if he wasn't the way he was mature.

"Hmmm," she hums into the cold morning, resting her head on the window. "We need to stop on the way and get you chai. I know you didn't have any because of me."

He sees a smile washing over her face, her lips curved in pure happiness, eyes closed. He'd thought he was a clever liar and a convincing one too, but he'd forgotten: I'm married to a lawyer. Of course, she knows.

The Unwanted Bride

I probably won't write another chapter until tomorrow because my Macbook is now charging.

PS, if you're a ghost reader, pls do vote. Ngl, if I see way too many reads and fewer votes, I'd automatically be demotivated to write 4 chapters per day and probably upload none.