His First And Only Love (Rikara)

Chapter 1: The alliance

"Gauri, the boy and his family will be coming tomorrow. You're ok with it right?" Gauri's mom asked as she cut the call.

The call of the devil, the marriage broker. Gauri thought to herself.

"Yes ma." She replied reluctantly and left for her room.

She didn't want to marry. Her parents' marriage made her terrified of the concept of marriage. They would constantly fight but somehow either of them never left eachother. But that was not all, she believed in love, the kind where both the people would lose themselves in eachother. And for some reason, she never felt like that for anyone. She was scared of her emotional disbalance, she never really felt the same about anything, her feelings about a certain thing always kept changing. She wanted love to be constant, not a mere attraction.

What if I I never fall in love with my husband, whoever he is? Gauri couldn't help but worry.

However she couldn't convince her parents to delay her marriage anymore. She was 25 now and they considered it to be the age she should get married. There was no escape from her marriage now. And she didn't even once bother to listen to her parents tell her about the boy and neither did she check him up. She just didn't want to. So, she decided to finally get some sleep and just go with the flow. Her destiny was now in the hands of her Shankar ji.

******
"This is our daughter Gauri"
Gauri heard her father say as she walked in with the tray of tea to the boy's family. She looked up from the tray and glanced around at the family. And then her eyes locked with a pair of brown eyes that were already watching her and she almost stopped breathing, standing rooted to the ground.

Him. Is it really....Him?
How?

He smiled brightly at her as if the shock on her face wasn't visible to him. Quickly, turning her gaze away she looked at the other people around. A middle aged man and woman, unmistakably his dad and mom were smiling at her and then her eyes fell on the girl sitting next to him, grinning at her. She was a little younger than Gauri, probably 21 or 22.

Is it her? She grew up so much..
Gauri thought as she felt a little warm seeing the young woman infront of her whom she last saw as a kid.

It was only when her mom nudged her to go and serve everyone the tea that she realised the situation she was in. Gathering up all her courage, she stepped ahead and served the tea with a smile. His mom, his dad, her dad, his sister and then finally, him.
He looked at her the same way he always did in the past while she looked on nervous.

"Thank you." He said as she handed him the cup of tea. Her heart skipped a beat listening to his voice, it had been years since the last time she heard him and his voice had changed quite a lot.

Puberty phase 2, maybe. She thought.

Still surprised, she nodded and quickly took her place next to her mother. She was so damn nervous. If she could, then she would just run away and lock herself up.

But instead of looking away, she found her curiosity rising up. She was now looking at him, looking at the changes he had over the years, he looked so different now. He had grown his hair, and even though she didn't want to admit it, he looked damn handsome in it! And then, a thought crossed her mind. She wanted to touch his hair, move her hands through his tresses!

Realizing her thoughts were going in the wrong way, she quickly shooed them away.

What was he doing here? Isn't he over it already?
She thought.

Although deep down she felt a little happy, she jerked away those feelings.

Why does he affect me so much? Every damn time!