4. Its A Yes

Aryaman's POV

I reached home holding the hot maize cobs in my hands trying to not burn myself.

"Avii, Aaaru" I screamed for my siblings who came running from out floor.

"Makai" Aaru ran at a much greater speed than Avi despite those dwarf legs she has. Food does bring out my sister's true potential. Both of them stood infront of my like hungry puppies. If am not mistaken I even saw both of them salivating at the sight of the maize cobs.

"Pick one" Before I could even finish, both of them took one and kissed my cheek. Eww!!! Wet kissy, I hate wet kissy! Aaru kissing me is understandable but why is Avi kissing my cheek?

Dirty fellows. I wiped my cheek with my t-shirt and saw both of them devouring the maize cob.

"You didn't get me one" Mumma came rushing seeing the commotion. Ohh shit, I forgot to get her one.

"Here" I forwarded mine to her. Its okay, I had one earlier, if I eat alot then I might get constipation or diarrhea. Mumma took the cob and showed it to dad happily. All the three kids of this house, not me but my mumma for sure, sat on the sofa, placing their legs on the sofa and ate it happily. Mumma shared with dad who simply looked at the cob as the most unhygienic thing receiving mumma's most famous glare. Hehehe

"How did this magic happen Aryu?" Avi asked as I laid down my head on the sofa tiredly, yawning.

"I went to talk to Maitri that's when we saw a vendor selling it so I bought it for you guys" I said cutting the truth at different intervals and joining it. I don't want them to think that I'm doing this because of her. Nope...never.

"Ahh yes, what did you two talk about?" Avi asked interested. He wiped his mouth with his t-shirt and looked at me questioningly.

"Nothing...I tried explaining to her that it doesn't matter to me whether am a king and she's a simple girl. True social differences exist but why should it matter? Getting married is about the families and the bride and groom. What the world says doesn't matter? And am ready for an official meeting" I ranted everything together, so they don't eat my head with questions. Getting up, I stretched my body and went to my room.

Maitri's POV

After going home, all three of my family members looked at me expectedly.

"Both of us aren't ready for marriage but we want time to know each other first before we give our final decision" Giving the maize cob to Divi, I walked to my room where Divi followed within minutes.

"Yes jiju or no jiju?" She asked teasing me as she sat on the chair close by.

"No for now. Later I don't know. You know it was easy for my to converse with him. He has a progressive mindset, he didn't feel offended by my questions. The conversations just seemed to flow between topics" I told her excitedly which caused her to smile teasingly at me.

"Jinke aage ji... jinke peeche ji... jinke aage peeche jiji" She started singing loudly. Before I could reply mum called us downstairs. New drama alert!

"They want us to meet formally, even if you two are going to take. It is good for parents to know each other" Mum informed me.

Chalo meri mummy aab mujhe kaal aaram se sone bhi nahi degi. She'll wake me up early in the morning and doll me up, make me cook weird foods. I hate marriages! Meri ho ya kisiki bhi, I hate them!

Throwing my phone somewhere on the bed, I covered my ears with my pillow and fell asleep soon. Afterall what a tiring day it was. Divi hugged me tightly, digging my back with her head. Hate to admit but this kid, is always going to be my first child, no matter what.

MORNING

I was not even 1% wrong when I said that my mum will wake me up early, she did. She woke me up at 6, made me dust the whole house, made Divi sweep the whole house, removed the special glass plates, made me wash them and dry them until then she made snacks and the utensils used in them were to be washed by me and Divi.

Oh, it doesn't end there, she made us arrange our wardrobes, why? Its not like they will directly enter my room and open my wardrobe and judge that. Somethings are just unsensible.

Now am standing in front of the mirror looking like a lemon because mum think I look extremely beautiful in yellow.

Marriage... Sounds like such a huge responsibility. There're two pathways of what a marriage could look like, good and bad. You get a good life partner, life is all sunshine and rainbows, but if you get a wrong partner, fuck your life, every day is a battle where you lose every single time and you just hope for your life partner changes and respects which will never happen, Every day starts and ends with tears.

"They are here di" Divi said running inside from our balcony and informing me.

"Di, now you can sing, mera piya ghar aaya o ramji, mera piya ghar aaya" I threw the nearest object at her, making her run away from the room. Arranging the pleats of my saree properly I peeped outside to see them sitting.

Where will I sit? Unke saar pe?

"Mayuuu" Papa called, and I nearly even stepped out in my usual self until I saw Divi coming to me and getting me from my room like I need a helping hand to walk. Placing a shy smile on my face I walked out wishing not to trip on the saree.

See I wear saree everyday but there are some days where you are god's most hated child and that is where you embarrass yourself in front of a good public.

Mum and papa made space for me as I sat in between them with a shy smile, doing namaste to sir, ma'am, McSteamy and Miss Cutey and then Aryamaan who was dressed in formal white shirt with beige pants.

"Uncle can we talk in private?" Maan asked papa who nodded his head and looked at me.

"Go show him the house beta" Kyun dikhao? Mera ghar hai, nai dikhana, bilkul hi nai dikhana. Ghar hai museum nahi jo sabko dikhati phiru mera ghar. (Why should I show? My house, I don't want to show. I won't show at all. Its my house not a museum that I should show people)

I have 0 idea at why I am so angry, probably side effect of being woken up early on VACATIONS. Not wanting to create a scene I stood up and showed Maan the way towards my room.

We stood in our balcony in silence.

"Why do you look so annoyed?" Maan asked looking at the other buildings.

"Don't ask the torture I've been through. My parents have lost it. They are losing their final brain cells. Am on VACATIONS and they are making me do things from which I came here for a break" I complained looking at him pouting my lips out with a sad look on my face.

"My condition is no better. Aaru thought it would be great to run a fashion show early in the morning. Its just not your family who has lost its brain cells, mine is included" He said leaning onto the balcony.

"Will they remain calm until we give our decision?" I asked worriedly.

"I mean they can't make us get married at a gun point, can they?" He asked looking at me smiling.

"Not by having us at gun point but they can definitely emotionally blackmail us" I said asking him to seat on the swing while I sat on the other one in our room.

"True" He nodded his head, staring out of the balcony.

"Hmm... how long are you in India for?" He asked me suddenly.

"One more month. I've been offered a permanent place in your New York branch so will start that by the end of the year" I said smiling widely, proud of my accomplishments.

"That's amazing. You must be really good at what you do if we've offered you a permanent job" He said swinging on the swing.

"Trust me I am. I can talk math anytime, anywhere. My friends used to tease me that on my wedding night, my husband will solve accounts problems and that would turn me on" I laughed remembering the undergrad days when the whole group of friends had visualized my wedding night. Aryaman chuckled loudly as if he too imagined it.

"Would it though?" He turned towards me and asked.

"I don't know. No one has talked numbers to me in that kind of a setting" I replied confidently.

"Guess we will have to wait to find out" He murmured softly.

"But why would one talk numbers on their wedding night when they can talk about literally anything else?" I couldn't help but question.

"You just said that you could be turned on by that, the guy might want to place in efforts, try to impress you so you sleep with him" Aryaman said teasing me. I looked away trying to hide my red cheeks.

"How come you knew Divi but not me?" I asked the question which had been bugging me for a while.

"I know Divi because of Avi. Both of them are always at odds with each other and them pulling pranks on each other is hilarious. I think they met at one of the office parties where families were invited and from then onwards we have them as frenemies" Aryaman explained making me rethink about the times Divi asked me for a good prank idea.

"By any chance has your brother gone to work in pants and returned in something else?" I asked to confirm if it was the same guy Divi was experimenting my pranks on.

"Yupp, I think last year. He went to work wear pants and returned in beach shorts. It was a sight to behold, amazing he looked. Allegedly someone had applied super glue all over the chair and he didn't realise" Arayaman laughed loudly as he opened his phone to show me the pictures of my successful prank idea.

"I might need to apologize to him since the idea was mine. Poor boy. I really thought he was disturbing Divi so that's why I came up with the idea, who knew he was actually sweet" I felt bad for McSteamy being harassed by Divi. She can be convincing when she tells you about someone she hates. If she hates someone, I hate them too, no logic there, only simple agreement.

"Oh no need to worry about it, I know Avi, he'd have taken revenge on her. Its better not to get involved in their matters" Aryaman waived off my apology and soon we were in a flow of conversations ranging on different topics.

"How much more will you two talk? I really can't bear that gorilla anymore" Divya walked in with food seeming completely annoyed with McSteamy. Both of us stood up but before we left the room, McSteamy walking in.

"Done talking?" McSteamy asked standing beside Aryaman, wrapping his arm around his shoulder.

"Yupp, just getting to know each other" Aryaman said with a shrug.

"You always wear saree?" McSteamy turned towards me and asked. I nodded my head, unsure of what to say to him because what was my relation to him at this point?

"Having fun without me is literally equal to having no fun" Miss Cutey walked in with a plate of snacks. Love her. Anyone who brings food is an angel  and she also looks like one. Sweet and innocent.

Divi, McSteamy and Miss Cutey were now around us teasing us.

"What did you get to know about each other so far?" Divi asked as she sat on my bed.

"Kyun batao?" I looked at my younger sister with scrutinizinf gaze.

"So you won't tell me? Should I tell mumma about where her vase is?" That little snitch! Kya karu, maar bhi nahi sakti, itna pyaar jo karti hai yeh. I'll teach her a lesson later when it's just us two, for now she'll just shut up seeing me glaring at her. No one is allowed to do that to her except me by the way because tedha hai par mera hai. She is my sister, mine only, all rights reserved.

"Kids, chale?" Sir said knocking on my door with a smile.

"Yupp, let's go" Akdu stood up the first one while the rest followed.

"Suniye" I stopped him once everyone left and it was just us.

"Your phone number?" I doubt it will remain as just friends seeing the connection between us but its too soon to say anything

He gave me his number before running away to his family.

Once they left I removed the saree and wore a simple t-shirt and shorts. The saree was heavy compared to what I wear generally. Eating the snacks on the table, Divi continued teasing me while mum and papa talked about how happy they were with the alliance.

Hua nahi hai but they weren't ready to listen, they are in a different zone itself.

Chalo atleast they are happy. This might not be as bad as am thinking and they'll understand 'taking slow' at some point.