The days of the festival were as they should be, festive. The male members were decorating the house while the ladies were in the outdoor kitchen. Geetha, never a fan of elaborate cooking, could be seen around Ramit from time to time. When her mother-in-law realised that she sneaked out of the kitchen for the fourth time, she walked to the couple.

Ramit was standing on a chair, taking mango leaves one after the other to decorate the entrance from Geetha. Beside them, Kunal was sitting idle, pouting at Geetha for snatching away his employment.

Ramit's mother spoke to the cute boy first. It looked as if the two adults bullied him into a corner. "Beta? What happened?"

"I want to give leaves. But!" He pointed at Geetha.

"You're short. He has to bend every time." Geetha said, turning around and glaring at him. "Go watch your kite." She shooed him off with one hand while the other held up a leaf. The kite was still up in the air. She was very surprised at the fact. In a home of a large family with kids Kunal's age, it was hard to accept that no one got jealous and cut the string off. If the kite was hers, she'd have guarded it at night and kept vigil even during the day.

Kunal pouted again. Ramit's mother sighed and said to Geetha, "Sit still for sometime. You are worrying me! If something happens, how will we run to the hospital?"

"Maa... I am very healthy." She really was a very healthy one. Sports were a favourite during school and later on she kept an hour for fitness every day. "If I sit, I'll feel lazy. I'll feel like I'm wasting my life. And it's boring." Moreover her belly was not that big that her legs would hurt from the weight. She looked down to check. It was a little big, but not that big.

Her mother-in-law walked towards Geetha, who quickly covered her ears.

She shook her head. All the ladies in the kitchen had so many things to say and gossip, yet this girl was bored. She kept staring at everybody and played with the sugar tin. When someone asked about what she thought about something though, she gave an objective and unbiased opinion, surprising people that she was actually listening. There were times she held back too. Some laughed at her words and some cleared their throats. She, however, felt a little proud to have a daughter-in-law that could actually speak well. She could shut their mouths or pull them onto her side as needed. But for one thing, her daughter-in-law was a little clueless about traditional delicacies.

Ramit, who was silent all along, laughed softly. He could see his wife's words coming. It felt gratifying when he thought about it.

"Tsk! Stop laughing and tell her to sit!"

"I will." He was almost done with the torana.

He climbed down the chair shortly after his mother left. "It's rare to see you bored."

"You know how hurriedly we packed. Do you think I had the time to remember to carry a book?" Moreover the house did not have a TV for her to watch a lion hunt and devour a deer.

"I saw you checking pardada's books with him yesterday."

"I read some... I don't have the mood for them anymore."

They walked away from the scene talking and holding hands, leaving a sad Kunal behind. He hopped down from the cot he sat on to find his big brother.

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Ramit took her to the room they were staying in. He had her sit on the bed and sat along with her.

"What are we going to do? Have a 'friendly' chat?" she said.

Irked all of a sudden, he scoffed and said, "Exactly!" He wanted to let her rest and keep her company in case she got bored. She did not look like she needed any rest though. Still he said, "Lie down and let's talk!" He moved to the chair beside.

"Please, I don't sleep at odd times. And I'm sleeping 9 full hours nowadays."

"Just lie down..."

She shuffled in the bed as he liked. "Now talk. I don't want to fall asleep."

"Okay! Can I say anything?"

"What do you want to say?"

He paused. "Some things I don't like about you."

She blew out a short whistle. "Finally!"

He frowned. Nobody wanted to hear bad things about themselves, did they? "Really?"

"Of course! I don't want to spend too much time thinking about what makes you angry so suddenly every time." She reached her hand out and stroked his thigh. "Not because I don't like thinking about you and your actions, but because after thinking so much, I still don't understand the reasons many times. So tell me."

"Okay! Then look, you are arrogant towards me!"

"Stubborn is the right word."

Same difference! "You don't care how your words affect people."

"That's called being truthful and not mincing words. But I'll keep it in mind. Anything else?" Her other hand grabbed her phone and she typed in what he said, just in case something slipped her mind. Rarely was this guy so easy. This is how it should be, not the silent treatment. She had to think about this list of issues and decide if she wanted to change or if they were passable.

He scoffed at her. "Take your hand off! You are shameless!"

She stroked him again with her hand. He has to improve his vocabulary. "I'm bold. I'm a go-getter."

He covered his face for a moment. "When did you learn to flirt, hm? Who all did you flirt with?" He put her hand back on her bulging belly. "I'm just saying you seem to be good at it."

"Ha! You won't be able to handle it if I actually flirt with you. Just say you like it."

He clenched his fist, so as to not rub the back of his neck and prove her right. "Who all did you talk like this to?"

Geetha sighed. He really knew how to lose focus. If she was even a slightly bad person, she'd have thought he was deliberately diverting topics. But she was an angel in his case.

"I read a paper published in the Socio-cultural Issues Research Journal. I got a gist of it. Then every time I watched anything on the TV I started observing this with a lot of attention. I got the hang of it soon. I get it naturally, you know, maybe because I read all the romances I could during highschool. Should I make a guide for you? There's a lot of logic and science behind this." That journal was one that she followed without missing a single issue.

"Shut up!" This woman flirted with 'logic'! He did not want to know! But there's something else he wanted to know. "Did you read in secret?" If so, what kind of books were they?

"I read during classes and during break time. It was after you left so you don't know." Those last three years of highschool, there was no one interesting to talk to. Every lunch hour, she did not sit with even her own two friends of the same class, whom she sat with the year before. She sat at her desk, the last one by the window, and read as she ate. The two girls pestered her to join a few times. They even said she liked one of the two senior guys they often had lunch with, Abhay or Ramit. One bet on one guy and the other on the other guy. Geetha then looked at the idiots, thinking where in their memory was the fact that she and Ramit dated for a few weeks? Then again, that remained between just the two of them.

She told her friends to stop saying the same things on repeat or to stop talking to her, but they had their fun. Having enough of their nonsense and constant annoyance, Geetha unleashed all of her vengeance during PE class. She kicked them out first in every kho kho, after deliberately becoming the leader of the opposite team and choosing to be the chaser every time. After a few times they stopped bothering her during lunch and she had all the time to herself.

Ramit nodded. If she had read them at school, they must not have anything spicy. Little did he know, some people, like his wife, had too much control over what face they made, what vibe they gave off, and what they gave out. Knowing she could talk about sex between marine tentacled creatures over lunch, he could have guessed better.

"If you're done, then say something good about me now."

"Why should I?"

"Balance. It is important."

He remembered how she'd be adamant about nothing in this world being inherently good or bad. "I like how you think."

"That's hard to believe. Almost everybody, including you, doesn't like it when I speak my thoughts raw."

"That's right. That's what I'm trying to say. I like how you think but I don't like how you talk."

Geetha frowned. "So there's a difference between my thoughts and words? Then how do you know what I think when what I say is different from my thoughts?"

"I know you."

She tilted her head. She knew him too. But she failed at understanding his thoughts. It became so difficult that she had to force him into telling her what's wrong.

Seeing her confusion, he thought she was worried and felt exposed. He said, "I can guess your thoughts and your words most of the time. Not always." He hoped it gave her a little solace.

"Fine." Whatever. She didn't get what he meant but she would look into it later. She pursed her lips as she typed it in. She asked him about good things and now she had to add one more to the list of bad habits. "Next," she asked.

He laughed a little and said, "You're cute."

She smirked. "And?"

There were a lot of things. She was an incredible person. The most interesting one and the love of his life. But he did not feel like saying any of it. He was unsure, hesitant, insecure and did not want to risk it all again. He turned his head away from her for a few moments. Deep down he was waiting. Waiting until she no longer felt guilty towards him, until her unexplainable motivation to force herself died down, and until she was satisfied that she paid him back enough. Knowing her, she had always been a person to pay back, good things or bad things.

"That's it. Your turn."

"You want me to tell you what I like and dislike about you?" She looked sceptical.

"Hm. Why not?"

"As long as you don't stop talking to me."

"Why will I stop talking to you?" Wasn't he speaking with her so peacefully even after everything?

"Is that a promise?"

"Okay. Promise."

Then came an onslaught from her.

Geetha said with a straight face, "All of your living spaces are messy all the time. You're bad at staying focused on one thing. But let's just say you are a multitasker. You take things too personally. If I said something in a situation, it is just about that situation and very little about you as a person." She sat up to continue, "You do things without a plan. You don't like it when someone points out your flaws." These were all the things she only found out recently, when they started working together. Finally, there was one important thing she left out. She took a deep breath. "Most of all, you give me the cold shoulder."

He looked down instantly. Well, this was what she meant. Although he looked as cute as a puppy, it came with its own disadvantage of being mute.

"Okay," he said, "Just so you know, multitasking is what I wrote on top of the list of my strengths on my resume."

She rolled her eyes. "But how much do you really get done?" She had seen him working and had worked with him to know about this.

"I get it!"

"See? You don't take criticism well. You have a huge ego given that you are rarely assertive. Isn't that paradoxical?"

He held the sides of his face as he bowed down his head.

Geetha got off the bed and stood in front of him. She caught his hands and pulled them away. "Listen, I'm not saying you are always like this. That said, you act like this most of the time. Don't be so sensitive." The more sensitive he was, the more doomed she was, she knew.

He still did not look at her. "You are amazing, in fact.

"You're brave. You have big dreams and that's all that's needed."

That's when he looked at her with a small smile. "You're surprisingly good at talking."

She smiled. "That's because I've learned not to get impatient, especially with you." She retracted her smile. "But, would you please stay on topic? Spare me, I'm bad at multitasking."

"But... When will I get the right time to say or ask about something again? Should I keep track of every thought and wait for the opportunity? How do you do it? I haven't seen you talk anything off-topic ever." Ever since she asked him to focus in the office, he actually kept track of his tangential thoughts. She was so good at sticking to the issues at hand until finding a solution. He, on the other hand, often got lost in thoughts.

She was stumped for words. "Actually, I just don't have any other thoughts worth saying out loud." She gave little importance to the fringe details and she felt any thought she had that did not contribute to the discussion was simply an unnecessary comment.

"..."

"My mind just can't think too much at a time, I guess. I don't know... But you... can't lose too many opportunities. I didn't think from your point of view. Now that I do, speak whatever you want! I'll pull you back anyway."

Ramit laughed. "You're cool."

She shook her head. "I'm not. Unlike you, I get very frustrated when things don't go as planned. I hate change and then there's you, out on an adventure without a plan."

"What did I do?" he asked, confused at her accusatory tone.

"Resigned at Chimera. Moved to Paris while the office is in Delhi. Hidden was in infancy and you just left like that. That was very risky. I know your reason and I feel bad for being that reason."

"Hm... But I still managed well. So... don't feel bad." he said. There was a flicker in his eyes. He was right after all. She had a great guilty conscience. But what good was that? It can never be the cornerstone of their relationship. He would never accept that.

When he decided to marry her, he thought that since they were already great friends and had a good companionship, it was going to be a nice journey. But when he went against her constraints, none of that was strong enough to hold their marriage. Forget about him accepting, her guilt would not be enough in the first place.

She sat close to him, with his right hand still in hers. Unsuspecting of his true thoughts, she leaned on his shoulder. "You're too kind."

"Hm! You think?"

The sudden increase in the volume of his speech, although by a small degree, spooked her. She looked at his face. From her angle, she could only see a part of his lopsided smile. Then for a brief moment she caught his eyes when he turned to her. They looked grim, but in the next moment, he smiled softly and she doubted what she saw. She leaned her head back, shrugging it off. "You are."

∼•∽