The Marriage Contract

75 - A Slight Shift in Paradox

The night, as they were sleeping, Abhimanyu felt a slight unease in his demeanor, keeping him awake. He looked at that time to see it was a little past 2am. He looked over to see Akshara laying on her side, the covers pulled up to her bare chest.

His eyes darted to the door to see it was still closed. He got up, put on his underwear and made his way to the kitchen.

He saw Taco was still sleeping soundly on the bed Akshara had made for him in the living room.

Abhimanyu walked over to the fridge, opened it, took out a bottle of water and began chugging it. He turned around again and saw Taco was wide awake now, fully paying attention to what Abhimanyu was doing.

Abhimanyu turned around and without giving Taco so much so as another glance, walked towards their bedroom.

As he entered the bedroom, he mistakenly left the door slightly wedged open. He then went to the bed, put his bottle on the side table and settled under the blanket.

Damnit! There are so many pillows here! Abhimanyu shifted around in the bed before throwing a pillow onto the ground beside his side of the bed.

Just then, he heard the little pitter-patter of steps making their way into the bedroom before settling down on the ground beside his side of the bed.

Sneakily, Abhimanyu peaked over the bed to see Taco had settled onto the pillow he had thrown onto the ground.

Feeling satisfied, Abhimanyu turned to his side and pulled Akshara into his arms, snuggling her tiny body up close to his larger one.

~*~

The next morning, Abhimanyu woke up and was just about to get up to go to the bathroom when he slipped his feet into his slippers.

He felt a wet liquid touch his feet and he immediately opened his sleepy eyes only to see his slippers were soaking wet in what looked like a puddle of yellow liquid of watery consistency.

He turned to look at Taco, who looked at Abhimanyu innocently before hiding his face in his paws.

"Akshara!" Abhimanyu yelled, walking up his wife.

Akshara rolled around in the bed to face Abhimanyu who by now was seething.

"What happened, Abhi?" She asked, yawning.

"Your dog peed all over my slippers! That's what happened!" Abhimanyu explained, loosing his cool.

"But how? Isn't he outside?" She looked at him, puzzled.

Damnit! Not her remembering Taco slept outside last night. "I went to grab a water bottle during the night and I think he may have sneaked his way in without me noticing. I was too sleepy to pay attention." A little white lie never hurt anyone.

"Oh, I am sorry. I'll clean it up right this moment!" Akshara frantically got up and quickly collected Taco off the pillow he was laying on.

"Bad dog! You don't pee on slippers!" She scolded the little puppy, worried that the 7 day leniency Abhimanyu had given her would quickly be shortened if Taco kept on making the wrong impression on the judge.

Taco whimpered at Akshara's scolding, prickling Abhimanyu's heart. "It's not his fault. He must have not been able to hold it in. Just take him out and let him do his business."

Akshara looked over at Abhimanyu and nodded her head. "Okay. And I am sorry again, Abhi."

"It's okay. Just make sure it doesn't happen again."

"It won't!" Akshara blurted out apologetically as Abe carried Taco to the living room to leash him up for his morning stroll.

Abhimanyu watched Akshara and Taco leave before turning back to his pair of slippers which would need to be discarded. He shook his head, sighed deeply, picked up his slippers and hopped on one foot towards the bathroom.