Short Story Husband-Wife – Days of a Married Couple
Photo credit: earl53 from morguefile.com
No offence to any young or teen couple, but true romance happens once you are married.
Smita called me and bursted, “When are you coming home?”
“I will be late. Have dinner sweetie.”
“Dont sweetie me! This is 3rd time this week! If I had to eat my dinner alone, I could have done at my mom’s house also!” raged, she disconnected.
I sighed. Four years of marriage and she still wanted all the attention.
I didnt remember when was the last time I went out with ‘the guys’ for emptying beer buckets. After slogging the entire week at office, today i secretly wanted to, but not at the cost of making her upset.
I BBMed her: Dont be angry, we will go out for dinner tomorrow?
Smita: :(
Me: I am really, really stuck
Smita: :( :(
Me: Okay we go out today
Smita: I will be ready in an hour. thank you sweetie :)
‘Dont sweetie me’ i wanted to remind her. But I didn’t. And so, another Friday night without having beer & pool with guys…
On our way to the restaurant, she insisted to go to the suburbs. 1.5 hour drive from home. I couldnt refuse. Five minutes into our journey and her mother calls up.
“Hello Mumma!” she quipped.
“Yes we are going somewhere.” she added.
“No No, he takes good care of me.” she laughed.
“Really!” turns to me to inform, “Richa got engaged.” and continues to get details from her mum.
And so, the only unmarried and cute sister-in-law is also officially off the flirt-me zone. So no beer and no more unmarried sister-in-laws. And I am going to celebrate.
For the 40-45 minutes, mother-daughter continue their conversation. Daughter caring the least about her husband driving listening to FM, feeling left out. Mother, well has little clue either. Just as she hung up she blurted at me again –
“Where are we?”
“NH-8, we will reach Gurgaon shortly..”
“Why are you being so silly! We should have been driving to Shalimar Bagh. Mumma’s place!”
“But you said you had to dine at…” I smirked.
“Richa is getting engaged and you think we will go to some restaurant?? What is the matter with you??”
What am I supposed to do if i cant read cues. How would I know if she’s getting engaged right now? I quietly went off the highway looking for a u-turn.
After another exhaustive drive of an hour, we somehow reach her maternal place. Thank god for lesser-than-usual traffic today. Once there, they are all standing outside to welcome us.
“Namaste mummy-ji” i said and bowed down to take her blessings. Sister-in-law is standing right there and came to half-hug me.
“So Richa finally found her prince eh?” I teased her.
Smita pulled her away from me. They became girls and soon disappeared inside the house. Rest of the evening, well is spent entertaining the new member in family and his folks. I dont have to do much, except smile at them purposelessly.
At 12.30 in the night, we finally board our over-run car to go back to home which is on other side of Delhi by-the-way.
“Richa will also go away, mom-dad will be all alone” she started sobbing.
‘Their responsibilities will be over, they might be happy’ I wanted to tell her. Like most things, I didnt.
“The groom sounded like a nice fellow. Richa will be happy with him.” i told her.
“I wish he will be as good as you.” she stopped crying and told me.
I applied semi-brakes to the car. Turned to her and said, “Wow. You think I am good?”
“You are the best. The best companion one could ever hope for!”
“Really you mean it? I mean, the way our day went, it is hard to imagine this coming from you.” I smiled.
“I have only you to complain, to fight with, to crib with and to cry in front of. If I do all this, it doesn’t mean my love for you is getting any lesser. It only increases as i see you come home skipping all appointments, drive for 2-2 hours tirelessly, and then behave so nicely in front of my family – to make me happy.”
I didnt miss boys-night-out anymore.
__END__
