Married To A Stranger

Karthik Pov:

It’s been 3 months since our confessions. Everything changed. A good kind of change of course. It was pure bliss to just hold her in my arms. Before you guys began to assume things, No, we didn’t do the deed… yet.

I know she was ready for this, but I want to wait a few more days. I want it to be more special. I have been planning something more special for her. She was dropping a lot of hints to make me understand that she’s ready to take our relationship to another level, but I have to play dumb. One day she was infuriated by my nonchalant behavior and next thing I know; I was covered with water which leads to a water war later. She ended up in our bathtub filled with cold water. Which results in a lot of pranks from her.

If you thought Anju is a prankster, just know my Sree is a pro in it. One day she gave me black coffee, my favorite with lots of sugar in it. I don’t like sugar in my coffee. But I punished her with a long kiss than usual, and she loved it too. Which resulted in me in getting late to a very important board meeting and non-stop teasing from Nihal.

We invite our friends for dinner at least once a month. Let me tell you we need to survive a lot of bickering from Nihal and Anju, A very long staring match from Tej and Anvika and very lovey dowey sweet talks from Ved and Niya.

Yeah, Niya is the one who Ved was in love with. Thank god for that. I had to explain about the threats against her to Sreesha, because she caught Julie taking care of a few guys in her style. She confronted us. I’ve no other choice but to reveal the truth to her. She was quite shaken for about one week but with the help of her friends and my charms, she’s fine now.

At least I hope she is!

We still didn’t know anything about her stalker and the slips are less due to tight security around the house. But they didn’t stop completely. I wish this all will end soon.

As Sreesha now knows about Julie being her bodyguard in-home and Ron and Sean outside the house. She took it well I guess; I didn’t get into more trouble than sleeping on the couch a few days. No biggie!

Who am I kidding? Those days were like hell. She didn’t even allow me to touch her and sleeping on a couch in nights without her beside me was pure and utter hell. I used to sneak into bed in the middle of the night and hold her in my arms before sleeping. You know what she would do in the mornings? She used to pinch me hard to wake me up.

Ouch!

I know right!

“Karthi, hey! come out of your dreamland and help me with cooking. They will be here in less than an hour” she said waving her spatula before my face. She started calling me Karthi after a few days of our confession. I love it when she calls me Karthi and hates it when our friends tease me using it. I smiled and pulled her on my lap, she shrieked a little, alerting Julie who came running towards the living room. One glance at us, she got the message and left us shaking her head. Sree and Julie get along well after the revelation of the truth behind Julie’s arrival.

“You Idiot let me go! What will Julie think? Leave me, unlike you I need to cook” she said smacking my back of the head. She became more violent. I now know, why Tej and Ved used to say ‘I pity you, bro’ comment.

“We can always order from our restaurant or your husband is capable of hiring a chef for you wifey,” I said winking at her, she just rolled her at me.

“You want us to be teased by all our friends including your parents? You know we can’t hear the end of this when it comes to mom” she said rubbing her forehead snuggling into me. I kissed her forehead and circled my arms around her waist making it impossible for her to escape. Not that she’s going to leave me like that, but I just want to make sure she won’t leave now. Who cares about this dinner anyway?

“I need to go and cook” she whined.

“Julie can do that” I said kissing her hair.

“She’s not our maid Karthi, it would be rude to leave her alone in the kitchen. Let me go” she said not even trying to get out of my hold. I smiled and started pestering small kisses on her cheek and then her jawline and then her neck…

A snap sound of a camera and a throat clearing bought us back to the real world. There stood my enemy a. k. a my mom with a smug face holding a camera and beside her stood my dad grinning ear to ear. Why the hell is everyone hell-bent on interrupting us?

We stood up instantly which lead Sree to drop her spatula on my head. I groaned and look back at my mom who’s holding her camera snapping more pictures while laughing at me.

“Aww look at this picture Vinay and this one was hilarious” showing the pic of me holding my head. ”They’re so cute, I think its Instagram worthy picture” showing her achievement to my dad.

“Mom, don’t do that! You know I hate it when you upload my pictures on social media right? Please, mom” I pleaded her when she narrowed her eyes when I shouted at her first.

“Leave that poor boy alone Malini, we’re way more romantic than them in the earlier days of our marriage. He didn’t get any of my charms thou” dad said shaking his head.

“As if! You always used those cheesy Pickup lines and failed miserably. I don’t know why I married you in the first place” mom said huffing.

“What? You didn’t want to marry me? Then why did you say ‘yes’ when I proposed to you? I could’ve been a free man and got many ladies using my charms” Dad said shaking his head feigning a regretful look.

“Yeah, and I might have married my longtime crush Harish and…” my dad cut her off shaking her violently “what? Longtime crush? Who’s he? How dare you say that you wanted to marry someone other than me? What about me huh?” Dad yelled shaking with anger and hurt look.

“You’re the one who started it. You’re the one who said you could have got more ladies if you didn’t marry me. Do you regret marrying me? I always thought you’re the best husband but here you’re talking about other ladies” mom said feigning tears.

“Oh no Mali! I was just kidding when I said about other ladies. Who want others when I have you with me forever? I love you and only you. Stop crying. You know I love it when you cry in happiness, not with sadness” dad said wiping her tears and hugging her.

“I love you too,” mom said and winked at us.

All this is an act? I should have known!

Sree and I looked at each other and sighed.

I’m glad Sree is not spending more time with mom.

I cleared my throat to remind them that their son is still here with his wife. They released each other and rolled their eyes at me.

“Next time remember you’re no teenagers and you’d a son who’s married,” I said in annoyance.

“He’s just jealous dear, let me go and help Sree in cooking I have a hunch that your son didn’t let her finish cooking,” mom said smirking.

Not again!

The sound of doorbell saved me from their non-stop teasing. My parents must have used the spare key. I opened the door, revealing Tej and Anvika. I raised an eyebrow at them, they just shrugged. I just let the door open for others who will be here at any moment.

A loud bang followed by a string of curses fills the house indicating the Tom and Jerry of our friends Nihal and Anju’s arrival. How did they end up in the same car without trying to rip each other’s heads off?Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

In less than ten seconds after their arrival, they started their bickering again. Why don’t they realize that they like each other and save us from this show? Not that I’m complaining, its quite entertaining but they need to stop once in a while at least.

Veni arrived a bit later.

Sree finished cooking and entered the living room with a smile on her face looking at our friends and gave each of them a hug.

We’re all waiting for a lovey-dowey couple of our group enjoying our personal Tom n Jerry show.

A loud cheerful voice interrupted saying

”Guys, we’re getting married”