Too old.
Too tall.
Too rich.
Too out of my league.
That's Aryan Arora, the billionaire CEO for me. But apparently, he is the perfect marriage material guy according to the world's pushiest parents of mine.
Getting married was neve...
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"Yeah, yeah, It was okay. Edible." He said, indifferently.
I scoffed, "It was Okay? Your brother just described it as 'great', all while you were sitting there licking your fingers."
"I certainly did not lick my fingers!"
"You don't sound so sure of yourself." I raised my eyebrows at him daring him to say that I was wrong.
He exhaled noisily.
"Oh Ria, that's the best meal I have had in a while," He said in a high-pitched female voice, impersonating his mother's dialogue. I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Was that a satisfactory enough appraisal for you?" He smirked, taunting me as he opened the fridge to pick up the water bottle.
"I will complain to your mother about this!" I frustratedly retorted.
He unscrewed the cap of the bottle before taking a sip and then patting me on my head like I was a dog and said, "Snitching is not going to get you anywhere, little child."
"I am not a child, and I am not little. Stop annoying me." I huffed, swatting his hand away from my head.
"I will stop annoying you when you stop getting annoyed at such small jabs. Toughen up, little child." He patted my head again.
I am so going to break his arm.
"Stop calling me little child," I instructed in a calm voice.
"But you are so little. See. You practically are living underground." He put his arm on my head like I was his personal armrest. I fumed.
"Acha, okay, you don't like little child. I will give you another nickname then. How about mini minion?"
"How about I give you a nickname?" I pretended to think about it deeply even though I had been calling him by that name in my mind since the start of the morning today, "I will call you man-baby. Because just like a baby, you are afraid of needles, knives and blood."
"That was merely an accident. And I am not afraid of needles and certainly not of knives or blood." He gestured towards his well-built body, haughtily, "Have even seen me? Knives are afraid of me. I am not afraid of them!"
Having enough of this stupidity, I just breathed out loudly and smiled fakely at him, "Sure, as you say. Now come and help me take the dessert to the table." I instructed and then added in doubt, "You will be able to do this, right? There are no knives involved."
"Of course, I can do it." He replied, his ego clearly having taken the hit.
I shrugged, pointing towards his wounded finger, "I couldn't be too sure after the stunt you pulled this morning. Just don't drop it, I have put in a lot of work for preparing this." I extended the tray towards him, "Here, take this. I will bring the other one."
He tossed the empty water bottle into the sink as if it were a trashcan before trying to take the tray from me. I just glared at him, with my jaw clenched. My eyes warned him to put the waste bottle into the dustbin and not in the sink.
He combed his fingers through his hair, placing one of his hands on the counter before asking, "What now?!"
"What's the difference between a trashcan and a sink?" I questioned as calmly as I could, while I just wanted to hurl him across the kitchen to teach him some much-needed house etiquette.
His lips pursed in confusion before the realisation dawned on him. He quietly picked up the bottle from the sink before properly disposing it in the dustbin.
I nodded in approval, "Good. I hope you won't make it a habit of putting things in places where they don't belong. Since we want to live peacefully, in a shared space." I put an extra emphasis on the term shared space so that he can understand that I won't tolerate this kind of disorganization and carelessness because this was my house now as much as it was his.
He hummed, grabbed the tray from my hand and went out of the kitchen as I followed him.
When everyone was done with the meal, Aryan's mom called me, "Ria Beta."
I answered, "Yes Aunty?"
She did a 'come here' gesture as I went to stand beside her chair. Then she did the most unexpected thing ever.
She removed the peacock-patterned emerald-studded thick gold Kada from her wrist before handing it to me.
"This is a family heirloom. Aryan's grandma gave it to me on my Pheli Rasoi, now I am passing it to you. Keep it safe." She tenderly placed her hand on my cheek, before putting the bracelet in my hand.
I was too stunned to refuse her. I glanced at Aryan and the panic must have been visible on my face because he mouthed the words 'Accept it'.
She then took out a jewellery box from her life-sized purse, before opening it and showing it to me. And I suddenly had a hazy vision because of the shine that the peral-embedded diamond necklace was emitting. I was no expert in fashion and jewellery but it had to be the most elegant necklace and earrings that I had ever seen. Which means that it had to be extremely expensive too.
"I can't accept this, Aunty." I shook my head, as I closed the top of the box, handing it back to her.
"You are saying no to my gift?" She looked at me with big sad eyes. "Oh, you don't like the design? That's no issue. We can get another one of your choice."
I took her hands into mine, before saying, "It's very very beautiful but I just can't accept it. A lot of precious jewellery was gifted to me from your family during the wedding so I can't accept this one now."
"Beta, that was just the amount of gold that was required at the time of rituals, those were compulsory gifts for the bride but this one, I want to give it to you from my side. It would make me feel happy if you accept it." She gave me a motherly smile, urging me to accept her gift.
I looked at Aryan again, he nodded his head.
"Why are you looking at him, huh? I am the mother here, if I want to give a gift to my daughter, I would do so. You don't have to ask for his permission," She ordered, but what she didn't understand was that I wasn't asking for his approval.
I just didn't want him to feel like I was hoarding all the costly gifts that his family had bought for me when I was just his roommate, not his real wife.
I smiled and accepted the box, "Thank you. It's beautiful."
"I need to see you wear it! Aryan, come here. Help your wife with the necklace."
***
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