Her Unreasonable Love (Completed)

Chapter 17 - Rayan

3 years ago

“Please don’t do this”, he said with a lot of pain in his voice. I had never seen him with so much pain. He always brightened up the room as soon as he entered, just the way he had brightened up my life. I loved his free spirit and that’s what attracted me towards him, more than I ever wanted.

I couldn’t believe what I was doing but I had to, there was no other way. Not that I could see any.

“You will regret this.”

“Please don’t make it more difficult”, I tried to sound as stern and as emotionless as I could be. Trying to suck back my tears, I turned around to face him. There was longing in his eyes, the first time that I had seen desperation and pain in them and it hurt me to see him that way and it killed me to know that I was the reason for it. “You are younger than me and there’s no way this can work. My parents will never approve of you and I don’t want to be put in a situation where I'll have to choose between them and you.”

“But you are doing it right now.”

“You don’t get it, it’s only going to hurt us more later.”

We were at our favorite spot, the most beautiful lake in Bangalore. The sunset making the lake shine and the wind blowing the water in soft waves, reflecting the sun rays. We sat on a bench next to each other facing the lake and yet the calming ambience couldn’t calm the tension between Rayan and me.

“Well it doesn’t have to. You are giving up on us based on assumptions”,  he said and sat on one knee in front of me. He held my hand and was looking at me intently, trying to find something in my eyes. “We have known each other since six years and been together for the past three years. Not once has our age been a concern for us even after the remarks of our college friends and colleagues. I’m just two years younger to you and it’s almost nothing.”

I glared at him and he understood. He continued, “ok not almost nothing but it’s a very small difference. Just think about it. We will literally grow old together. Our hair will go grey at the same time and we won’t even have to dye it to make each other feel younger. We will be the coolest parents at PTA meeting, don’t you want our kids to show off that their mom is elder than their dad. They will b the cool kids. Come in don’t do this to them.”

“Yeah, cool for the wrong reasons. Is this a joke to you?”, I pulled out my hand from his and continued, “this is what I’m saying, you’re not just younger by age but maturity too. You have just started your life and I don’t want to be the reason why you miss out on anything. You are just 21 now, it’s not your age to think about kids and getting married. Like seriously what were you thinking when you proposed to me in office, in front of our colleagues, in the cafeteria!?. Do you have any idea how embarrassing it was?”

“How was that embarrassing for you. You straight up said no to my face and walked away. Do you have any idea how much effort it took to make that banner and the amount of courage it took me to propose in front of our friends?”

“Oh yes yes. I’m sorry for not appreciating your effort and courage. What you did is truly commendable”, I said sarcastically and clapped.

He sighed and sat next to me. He was looking at the water when he said, “do you know what’s happening?”

“What?”

“We are having our first serious fight and there’s this heat between us. Our relationship is heading to a whole new level”, he said and looked at me with a small smile which was almost impossible to notice.