Yours, With Love

To meet you

Radhika was still in disbelief that he had come home, met her, spoken with her, accepted the proposal, and would soon be her fiancé. Since the time they had left her home, and after the conversation with her parents who had confirmed if she really wanted to go ahead with Rajeev, she had stuck to her room.

Reason?

To hide her apparently creepy smile which in fact was a large grin, but she considered it to be creepy - intrusive thoughts, and to hide her blushing cheeks.

"Ahhhhhh.", she stuck her head in between the two pillows placed on her bed and muffled her squeal of excitement.

"Oh my god, I must be going crazy.", she muttered to herself, and then again put her head in between those pillows, the blush and the smile refusing to leave her face.

He was such a wonderful man. If she had to honest, after the VP of product department in her company, Mr. Mehta, who was an ambitious yet at the same time grounded man in his early 40s, Rajeev was the first man she had encountered who was actually such a mature and sensible man, truly wonderful to be around. Yes, she loved and respected her dad, but the same can't be stated about his thoughts.

Rajeev - she was glad her instincts had proven to be true. The other day, she was mesmerized by the person she saw, and today, she was mesmerized by the person she met. She had never been this frank and direct with someone, or spoken what she truly felt, and it surprised her the way she felt comfortable with him in the first meeting. Comfortable enough to share her opinions about things.

That was really important for her - being vocal about her own opinions without worrying about the reactions of others, or frankly speaking without having to constantly walk on egg shells around them.

She came out of reverie hearing a knock on the door.

"Radhika.", her bhai's rather soft voice called out to her.

"Please come in bhai, the door's unlocked."

She composed herself, sitting on the bed now instead of lounging around. It saddened her that the comfort which they once had in between them - to barge into each other's rooms without having to worry about anything had been lost.

"I wanted to speak with you.", he declared as soon as he had entered the room, and made his way towards a chair alongside the bed. Radhika too turned her face in his direction, waiting for him to take a seat, as her brows furrowed with confusion.

"Yes bhai."

"Have you accepted this proposal on your own accord, or did someone force you?", his question was direct, and so was its impact.

Here Radhika was flabbergasted. She did not actually understand what to make of this question. Firstly, it had been a lot of days since her bhai had come inside her room to enquire after her - the last being some three months prior when she had sprained her wrist badly, and he had come inside, placed his balm on her study table, glanced for a whole long five minutes at her wrist, and sparing her face a last glance walked out of the room.

And secondly, it was more perplexing - forcing her. Did he mean their parents, or Rajeev? Her eyes widened. She frantically shook her head wanting to assure him.

"No bhai. Please don't think in this way. No one has forced me at all. Its all with my willingness. Rajeev is a nice guy, and I really do wish to take things ahead with him. So, I said yes. There's no force. Seriously.", she explained him.

Kartik stared at his little sister. While he had an inkling this was how things were, in fact, but he wanted to hear this from her, because he very well knew the way his parents were in matters as such. He also knew that Rajeev was a nice man just as his sister had said, but being a nice man, and being a nice prospective groom were two different things.