Unkept Promises

Down the memory lane

Avantika's POV

"Momma, Aaru wants Chiku.", Aaru sat on my lap with a pout on his face.

"Aaru, Chiku stays with Patel uncle and aunty, how can we take him home?"

"But momma.", Aaru whined in response.

"Hmm, how about we do one thing Aaru?", his dadda who had come to pick us up and was sat on the driver's seat offered.

"How about Aaru gets a new plush toy which reminds him of Chiku, and when we come to nanu and nani's, Aaru gets to play with Chiku. How does it sound, hmm?"

Aaru's sulking face morphed into a delighted one, and my little boy giggled happily at his father's words.

"Okay dadda."

A mischievous look then took over his face, and I cannot help but feel amused at how similar he looked to his father in this moment. Abhiram's facial muscles too contort in the same manner when he's being mischievous.

"Aaru wants one more thing.", he demanded.

The both of us stared at him, waiting for him to complete his words.

"Ice cream.", he squealed with delight, his eyes hopeful.

This naughty nugget. It had been quite a few days since we have had ice cream, and so, today wasn't a bad idea at all. Abhiram and I glanced at each other, nodded in unison, and off we went for that ice cream.

Later at night, I was curled up on the ottoman in our bedroom with my laptop.

'That the present petitioner has not filed any other petition in any High Court or the...'

Goodness!

I simply wasn't able to concentrate. It must have been the thousandth time that I must have read this line form the petition Rahul had sent for review. Right since the time, I had that conversation today with mom and dad, my mind was stuck on taking a stroll down the memory lane.

Of all the moments I have lived with Abhi - lived and cherished and loved.

He was sat on the chair attached to the study table designing floor plans for a remodel project. My gaze travelled up to him and fell on to his side profile.

The first time mom and dad had sent me to a restaurant to meet him, I was a whole twenty minutes late because of the traffic, which was quite unlike how I preferred - arriving on time. While I had expected this man to get annoyed or be at least slightly irritated, he was sitting there, calm and collected.

That was my first impression of him - patient.

He had greeted me with a polite smile which was very formal and which matched with mine.

We did not really waste any more time in small talks, since being the busy bees that we always have been, we had to get back to work. And so, the meeting proceeded with our expectations from this marriage, and opinions on the general things about marriage - making things work, a few habits here and there, managing finances if we get married, opinions about relationships and a lot of other things which come into picture.

My second impression of Abhiram that day was that he wasn't your stereotypical person, just abiding by things and norms merely because they exist. He loved to challenge things, challenge the existing ways of doing things, challenge his ways of doing things if there's something even more logically sound as a counter-argument. He was receptive of new opinions.

While I had planned to meet the concerned person for just an hour or so, our talks surprisingly extended to more than three hours.

And when we spoke of marriage and career, marriage and settling down after that, marriage and kids - there I formed my third impression of Abhiram.