Better Together

13 | engagement

Chapter 13 : Engagement 

Ruhaani tugged at the end of the sleeves of her sweater usinger her fingers to cover her hands. It was best to stay indoors on such chilly nights. But Ruhaani had preferred to take a stroll around the building all by herself.

She needed some space and alone time to process everything in her head. She was tired of hearing her aunt giving her suggestions to be a good wife. Like the first time around was all her fault. Her uncle had been real sweet to her off late. The taunts had almost ceased. He was trying to put ideas into her head about Arti's marriage to Abhi. He wasn't even subtle about it. Arti was annoyed with that too. Every time he bought up the talk which was at least once or twice in a day, there would be an argument between him and Arti.

Ruhaani felt relieved that she didn't have to put up with all these everyday nuances for long. Now that Pari was growing up to understand the world she wanted to be away from them as much as possible.

However she had no clue what awaited her on the other side, at the Sehgal household. Shelly Bua didn't make it a secret that she didn't like her. But overall the siblings were okay. They all seemed to accept Pari. That was all she needed.

About her fiancé, she couldn't comment much. He tried to keep himself away from her as much as possible. At this point, she could bet her colleagues and manager knew her better than the person who was going to marry her. Aadarsh made no attempt to get to know her more. It was almost like he avoided her as much as he could without making it obvious, of course. 

However, his behavior with Pari was different. After the dinner last night, Pari was talking about him— how he helped her make a tower of the blocks, how he taught her how to run the car from a remote, how he carried her so that she could reach up the wind chimes to touch them. From her daughter's narrativ, he seemed like an altogether different person.

She couldn't even complain. He was pretty good with Pari. He was making genuine efforts to know her, to understand her, to get into her trust circle. It was essential if he was going to be her father. And that had been  all she wanted so far.

However, there were zero efforts from him towards getting to know his bride-to-be, her. Ruhaani had a fair share of experience. Last time, Harsh had made efforts to know her. Even if her last engagement and marriage was just as rushed as her present one, there was genuine efforts from Harsh. He took out time and went out with her. He asked her about herself. He tried to get to know what she liked, what she preferred.  Granted that he was on vacation while Aadarsh was the chairman of a big company. Still, even bare minimum was missing.

Or she was expecting too much. She knew he was a logical person. He didn't do promises. He didn't believe in love. Maybe he was not much of a romantic either. She sat on a bench tired, both mentally and physically.

Somewhere deep down in a heart and mind, she still had expectations. Maybe she should tone down her appetite for reading romances. They were giving birth to hopes on life and setting the bar too high.

Aadarsh would have been the standard recipe of a male protagonist, if this was a book. Rich, tall, muscular, handsome and the one in charge. Somewhat like Mr. Darcy. A bit uncaring, turning a blind eye towards the female protagonist, that would be her. However he was better than Darcy at least. He wasn't plainly selfish or self-centered, he was definitely not judgemental or insensitive. 

In every character in a book, there was an element that came out only later in the journey. Her gut told her the same was true for Aadarsh. There was something. . . Something that made him who he was, something that defined him to be what he was. She wondered what that something was.