My Introvert Wife

Chapter 3

I enter the kitchen right away and my mom eyes me from top to bottom and lets a satisfactory smile in her lips.

“You look gorgeous my girl.”, she said caressing my hair.

I just smiled at her remark.

She hands me a tray which has tea in it and seeing that I raise my eyebrow in a questioning manner.

“Just serve them the tea and sit near you father.”, my mother answered my unasked question.

‘Indian people and their formalities’, I shake my head in disbelief while getting the tray from my mother’s hand.  Weren’t they present in the house even before I entered so that says they might have had their drink even before they arrived, but why did they choose me to serve them?  That’s a big question but I buried that question deep inside my brain and brought my hundred dollar smile before entering the living room and serving the guests with tea.

Like any other typical India girl I put my head down not looking at people’s eyes, ooh! You could say that faking the shyness or in my case masking the uncomfortable feeling to look into people’s eyes and serve them the tea. 

Once serving the tea was completed I stood near my father like a mannequin doll at a display to people watch me and judge me. 

A few minutes went in silence with people stare me conspicuously.  This whole process I didn’t dare to make an eye contact with the people present here.

My mom served the guests some eatables and then the lady whom I presume to be Aarav’s mother spoke, “Please sit down, dear.”

I just looked at her for a second and smiled at her genuinely before sitting beside my father.

They talked for what felt like hours and the kids were playing with Sakthi and sometimes I found Aarav steeling glances at me once in a while.  I am feeling so bored.  I’m exhausted not physically but mentally as I battling my uncomfortable feeling surrounded by people.

I was brought back to the earth by my father mentioning my name, “Naina and Aarav can speak in Naina’s room.”

I just smiled at him and nodded my head as an answer and stood up from the couch and so did Aarav.

I took the step to walk and noticed my mother get up from sitting and I said, “I will walk him to the room myself mom.”

She smiled accepting my idea and Aarav followed me silently.  The whole way to the room was beyond awkward as I didn’t know how to guide him to my room and him trailing behind me like a toddler.

I mentally face palmed myself for rejecting my mom’s guidance to my room.

I opened the door and held it for him to enter the door and once he entered I closed the door.

I looked at him clearly for the first time.  He was wearing a light blue full sleeve shirt with his sleeves folded till his elbow and shirt tucked inside his navy-blue pants.

I cleared my throat once he found me checking him out and he let out a slight chuckle.

He pulled out the chair that was near him and he looked at me questioningly.

I tilted my head not understanding what is bothering him and once I looked at the chair I smiled at him and said, “You can place Mr.Box over the table.”

“Mr.Box?”, he questioned.

Realization hit me; I smiled and said, “I mean the stuffie in your hand.  You can place him over the table.”

He chuckled and placed him over the table and sit in the now empty chair.  I sat in the couple couch which held my two other stuffed toys and pillows.  I fancied different types of pillows.  You could say that I have the hobby of collecting unique pillows.

We sat there in some awkward silence when he decided to speak, “Umm… Do you like purple so much?”

“Why do you ask?”, my non-socializing ass asked the savage question without my knowledge restricting our conversation to build further.

Thank god!  He didn’t mind my savage question and replied, “Well……, that was bit rude but I will answer your question.  I noticed that your walls are painted purple and your bed covers were also in different shades of purple.  To be simple you room holds different shades of purple.”

I smiled at his honesty.  He checked out my whole room within less than five minutes.  My room was neither so big nor so small.  I had enough spacing in the room even after accommodating my queen sized bed, a couple couch, a tea table, a night side table and finally a study table.  The mirror was inside the walk in closet leaving the room for me to enjoy the garden through the window.

“Umm… I like black the most.  My parents didn’t allow to me paint the walls black so I chose my next favorite color, which is purple.”, I said and he nodded his head in response.

A few minutes silence again.  Fuck this awkward silence.

I just looked into every picture of mine that was hanging in the wall as if I was admiring them for the first time in my life.

“Let me get this straight to the point.”, I stated as I couldn’t tolerate the silence between us anymore.

“Ok.  Go ahead.”, he said while motioning his hands to go further.

“Are you really interested in marriage?”, I asked it really straight forward.

“What do you mean?”, he asked scratching his neck to avoid the awkwardness in his voice.  I think I have found my new interested word ‘AWKWARD’.  I have been using this word pretty seriously today.

I smile at my new invention about myself but still compose myself and answer his question.

“I mean its literal meaning.  Are. You. Interested. In. Marriage.”, I split every single word and gave it a pause.

“Ummm… you could say I’m ready for the commitment.”, he said.