Vikram walked out of the washroom, contemplating on changing in the room instead of his closet. But on second thought, he dressed up in the closet, not wanting his wife to think he was upto something.
He was not.
He just didn’t like wearing his clothes in the closet.
Vikram wore a pastel blue Sherwani with a golden border. His hair gelled and beard trimmed.
He walked into his room to see his wife stuck to the dressing table, clasping a chain around her neck.
He hummed to himself as he picked his phone and walked out of the room, wanting to give Keerthi some time and privacy to get ready.
Keerthi adorned her wrists with bangles, concentrating on the order. It was such a task to get ready. Though she didn’t like dressing up too much, she found it necessary then. It was her wedding reception, after all.
As she was getting ready, Keerthi thought back to her conversation with Vikram the previous day. She didn’t really know if she was ready to be his friend, even. But she knew she was wrong if she wouldn’t even try. But the thing was, she would be happy with minimal to zero communication. This whole marriage thing was tiring her out. She just couldn’t be herself. It’s like she belonged nowhere. The only place she felt at home right now was her Office.
But it was wrong to punish Vikram for nothing. It wasn’t his mistake she had to marry him. It just had to happen that way, she didn’t know why. She didn’t know if she could ever do justice to their marriage. How long will Vikram be nice? He would crack, eventually, finding it useless to even try. Keerthi knew herself. She would take a lot of time to warm up to Vikram, especially in that sense, or even just in general. She knew it was not the movies that the guy would just wait for her for however long. It was reality. Things just didn’t work like that.
She decided she would see how things go by, let things flow. She was determined to at least try though, since she had promised already. She would wait, for things to turn ugly. And when Vikram himself would be tired of her and ask her to leave for good, she would do the same.
Keerthi knew she was being pessimistic, but she also knew that’s the reality. Just because they exchanged a few words and had a conversation didn’t change anything. They gave a word to each other they would try. And she would, sincerely. But she already knew the end result. Men just weren’t cut out for that. It was a waste of time.
She had a lot of thoughts in her head, she knew it wouldn’t be a bed of petals. Her mother was the most patient woman she had ever seen, and still her marriage was in rots. Keerthi was not even half way there. Though she didn’t know if Vikram was similar to her father, in spite of him denying multiple times, she knew how dominating and demanding men were. She wasn’t born yesterday. She knew how Indian society worked.
She closed her eyes, taking deep breaths to calm herself down. It wasn’t a time to get a panic attack.
Deep breaths. In. Out. In. Out.
In. Out.
Keerthi took another deep breath , calming herself down, as she gulped the water on her side table.
She shook her head, clearing her thoughts, restless, as she walked out, desperate to get out of her head.
Vikram was on the way to his room when he saw Keerthi shut their bedroom door. He didn’t want to be such a man, but he couldn’t stop himself from checking his wife out. He was a guy, after all. He was tuned to check girls out.
Keerthi wore a pink blouse and skirt(lehenga) with a blue dupatta which had silver work all over. Her neck, ears and wrists adorned with the simplest and elegant jewellery. Her hair in a bun, a few strands falling onto her face left intentionally open. She looked stunning, Vikram thought. All of her curves proportionate and in the right place.
He quickly averted his gaze as Keerthi approached, hoping she didn’t catch him check her out.
“You take so long to get ready!”, Vikram exclaimed, playing reverse strategy, to distract her if she wanted to tell him off for checking her out.
“I took fifty minutes. That’s a lot less compared to a lot of women”, Keerthi rolled her eyes , surprised and irritated that their outfits somewhat matched.
“Whatever. Come on. Let’s go.”
*****************************************
It was getting difficult and irritating for Vikram, his wife’s discomfort. He only hoped that other people wouldn’t make it out.
“Ma’am, please turn to your left”, the photographer advised.
Keerthi sighed softly, starting to get pissed off with the circus she was forced to perform.
She forced a smile , moving closer to Vikram, whose hand closed around her shoulder, the photographer’s courtesy.
She flinched slightly, wishing Vikram didn’t notice, but knew he did when he turned to her and gave her a hard look.
Vikram was getting irritated, the whole fake smiling and laughter and his wife’s behaviour, especially.
He just didn’t get it. It wasn’t like he was groping her. He literally just kept his hand on her shoulder, the touch so light and superficial she wouldn’t even feel it over her heavy clothes.
But leave it to her to flinch all the fucking time.
Vikram wasn’t like that. At this point, on their wedding reception, he didn’t know what to do to prove the fact.
Though he was attracted to her and found her breath taking that day, her behaviour was off putting. It wasn’t like he wanted to jump her. He rolled his eyes.
Vikram glared at the photographer when he was asked to wrap his arm around Keerthi’s waist.
Keerthi was uncomfortable, since her waist was nude due to her blouse.
Vikram sighed placing his hand over Keerthi’s skirt clad hip, unwilling to touch her.
Keerthi sighed in relief though she jumped slightly.
At this point, Vikram was worried they would start getting weird looks. They were married for a few days now. It would be strange if Keerthi jumped each time he touched her, in stranger’s eyes.
He was determined to make their reception drama free.
“Can you stop acting like this?”, Vikram hissed in Keerthi’s ear though he outwardly maintained his smile.
Keerthi remained mute, forcing a bigger smile on her lips, her jaw aching.
They just wanted to get over with it.
“Okay, last pose now”, the photographer announced.
Keerthi turned towards Vikram, looking at him , as she placed her hand in his shoulder, Vikram’s hands on her hips.
“You look so good together”, Sakshi sighed.
Everyone was tired. The reception and the photoshoot. It was too exhausting. Especially for the couple, physically and mentally.
They called it a day, not making any conversation when they reached home, quietly changing and getting under the sheets.
They knew they would fight, if any of them spoke, silently mutually agreeing to throw the reception under the rug for the time being.