Chapter 13

Gautham woke up when sunlight came blaring through his windows. When he came to bed last night, he was so tired that he forgot to draw the curtains on his windows. He strolled through his room and drew his curtains and flopped back into his bed. After a while, he searched around his bed for his phone. He knew he can go back to sleep, seeing as today was a Sunday. But he wanted to make sure he did not sleep throughout the day. When he found his phone, he saw that it was just 7.30am. He was just about to go back to sleep when he noticed that Sindhu had texted. His breath hitched in his throats when he saw the message.

Sindhu: Is it okay for me to say yes?? Even when I am not willing to share everything about myself??

His sleep flew out his windows just like that. He sat up straight on his bed and blinked and rubbed his hands over his eyes several times. He couldn't take his eyes off his phone. He even pinched himself several times to make sure he wasn't having some sweet dream in his sleep. His arms started turning red from all the pinching.

Once Gautham came out of his daze, he quickly got out of bed, got ready and was out of his house in a flash. He did not even bother with breakfast.

His mind was playing tricks with him. He was in heaven one second and hell the next. He will get all excited thinking of how Sindhu was thinking about marrying him but then the next second he will get depressed with all sorts of "What if's".

What if she just asked casually??

What if she is one of those people who think of doing one thing but always ends up doing the opposite??

What if she changes her mind??

The negative thoughts were endless. That is why he wanted to make things clear as soon as possible before he drives himself nuts.

At 8.10am, he was outside Sindhu's apartment. In his haste, he did not even realize that Sindhu would still be sleeping.

The doorbell blared throughout the apartment and Sindhu jolted awake in shock. When she suddenly woke up, she rolled down from the beanbag and hit her head on the floor.

"Ouch!", Sindhu exclaimed and when the doorbell rang again she stood up and went towards the door while grumbling under her breath, "Who on hell is it??? so early in the morning?? That too on a Sunday." She thought it was some delivery guy. But when she opened her doors and say Gautham with a goofy smile plastered on his face, Sindhu simply shut her doors on his face and walked back to her bed. Sindhu was not exactly a morning person. She hated it when someone woke her up.

Gautham's smile froze on his face. What just happened??? After a while, he tried to open the door and signed in relief seeing as Sindhu did not lock him outside. He quickly went into the apartment and locked the doors behind him. That's when he noticed the apartment was dark. He saw that all the windows were locked shut with curtains fully drawn.

Then he heard shuffling noise from Sindhu's bedroom and Gautham followed the noise and found Sindhu snuggling in her bed.

That is when it hit Gautham. He realized he must have woken her up. That too this early on a Sunday morning!! She just shut the doors to his face. He was grateful that she didn't lock him out.

Gautham looked around and that's when he realized something was not right. He saw an open door leading to a room and the cupboard was nowhere to be seen. Curiosity got the better of him so he went inside the room to explore. The room must have some sort of motion sensor, as soon as he stepped inside the room, lights came on. And Gautham stood awestruck seeing the paintings on the wall. The whole wall was mesmerizing for him. He did not even blink. More like he could not.

It may be because Gautham had not been exposed to any form of fine arts before but somehow he felt Sindhu's paintings to be pretty damn amazing.

Gautham looked around the room and gave attention to every last detail.

Sindhu woke up a little before noon. She was rolling around on her bed and browsing on her phone when she heard clinking noise from outside. She hurriedly went outside and she found Gautham in her kitchen.

"What are you doing??", Sindhu asked.

"Oh! You're up. And this... I was going to make something except there was nothing in your fridge. So I ordered takeaway. Go freshen up and come. We will eat.", Gautham said in a warm voice.

Sindhu just stared at him for a while but then obediently went inside to freshen up seeing as her stomach was growling at her.

When Sindhu came back, she saw that Gautham had already served two plates. Gautham was about to offer to go to the living room and eat but Sindhu simply walked into the kitchen and hoisted herself on top of the kitchen counter and beckoned him to give her the plate. Gautham let out a chuckle but gave her the plate.

Sindhu ate hurriedly but seeing that Gautham was simply standing there and watch her eat, she gestured him to sit beside her. Gautham followed suit. But for some reason he found watching Sindhu eat was more interesting for him than his own food. So he will take a slow bites here and there but kept eyeing Sindhu. Once Sindhu was done eating, she felt Gautham's eyes on her. She turned around and frowned seeing his goofy grin.

"Come here," Gautham said gesturing Sindhu to lean forward. Sindhu, instead of leaning forward she just frowned. Gautham simply extended his hands and cleaned the morsels of food stuck around her mouth and said, "You eat like a kid when you are hungry."

Sindhu slightly stiffened at first but when she heard the adoration in his voice, she felt something fuzzy inside her. And she just gave Gautham a big goofy grin in return.

"Go on. I will clean up here.", Gautham said and took the plate from her hands and started washing them.

Sindhu did not move a muscle. She just kept staring at Gautham. She did not know how to explain what she felt at that moment. She felt so overwhelmed that a lump formed at the base of her throat.

For once, without second-guessing herself or over thinking, she went and did what she wanted to do. She strode towards Gautham and hugged him behind and rested her cheeks at his back.

Gautham was so surprised that he almost dropped the plate. But then he composed himself and finished washing the plates quickly. He then took Sindhu's hands in his and turned around and faced her. He tucked a few stray hairs behind her ears and asked, "Are you okay baby??"

Sindhu first nodded but then slowly shook her head looking down. Gautham took her face in his hands and made her face him. What he saw in her face shocked him. Her eyes were brimming with unshed tears.

Gautham's heart ached to see her like this but he kept calm and asked her in a soft voice, "Hey, what happened??"

Sindhu looked down and asked in a very low voice, "Can I really say yes??" It was barely a whisper.

Gautham lifted her face to make her look at him and asked earnestly, "Do you want to??"

Sindhu stayed quiet. She just stared at his eyes without saying a word.

"You promised, remember?? You said when you do say 'yes', it will be your own decision and nobody else's. So it is not fair of you to ask me to make the decision for you. Given the chance, I would just drag you to Register office and marry you. Everything would be done and dusted before you even realize what was actually happening. But I do not want to force you into something you're not sure about." Gautham said softly bringing Sindhu into an embrace.

"Take your time Sindhu. I will wait. But be sure when you make the decision." Gautham said and planted a kiss on top of her head. He was about to let her go when Sindhu circled her arms around him and hugged him tightly to herself. Gautham let her be and rubbed his hands on the back of her head in a soothing manner.

"Thank you," Sindhu said. Sindhu's voice was muffled from her face being buried in Gautham's embrace.

"For what??" Gautham asked confused.

Sindhu let Gautham go and face him and said, " For putting up with me."

"It's my pleasure", Gautham said with sparkling eyes.