Chapter 68: chapter 68

SRUTHII push the shopping cart to the soap section. The fragrance of different sweet smells hit my nose. My eyes scan the shelves for the product I need. When I find it, I pick it up. I am about to put it in the cart but I am stopped by a hand on my wrist. I look at Madhav with a frown on my forehead. We are in the supermarket to buy groceries. It has been two weeks since I was discharged from the hospital. I have been recovering well, thanks to Madhav. After he opened up about his past, things changed between us very drastically. We have been talking and getting to know each other a lot. He has become a good friend to me. I can see why Vikram keeps him around. Madhav listens with no judgments to all my thoughts and opinions. Our views on the world are different yet similar. I have learned a lot about him in the past two weeks. This man likes to sleep with pillows surrounding him. He hates business suits but likes tuxedos. He doesn't drink nor smoke and surprisingly has never been with any woman like the media portrays him. I tried to get him to talk about the woman he has in heart but every time we went near the topic he would skillfully change the subject.“What are you doing?” I ask looking at his fingers that are gently wrapped around my wrist. Another thing that I find growing inside me is the attraction I have for him. I still remember our first meeting. The moment our eyes met, I felt my belly drop low and I felt something pull me towards Madhav until that ugly fight broke out and pushed me far away from him. If that fight hadn't happened, then, I am sure things would have been different between us.  I am starting to feel like that silly teenage girl who had a crush on her brother’s best friend whenever Madhav gets close to me. “A quick question,” he says his eyes twinkling in curiosity, “Why lavender flavour?”“I like the smell of it,” I answer with a shrug.“So, your favourite smell is Lavender?”“You could say that,” I answer and Madhav lets go of my wrist. I place the soap in the cart. Madhav picks up a charcoal-flavored soap. It feels intimate to know the kind of soap he uses. We proceed further down the aisle. Strangely, it feels nice to shop with Madhav. We reach the noodles section and I grin in glee. Madhav groans. After his first experiment with noodles, he tried it another couple of times but he seems to have some bad luck with it. He messed up the dish somehow. One time, he poured a lot of water and made the noodles into soup. The other time he poured less water and the noodles were half-cooked.“Do we really need those?” he asks.I smile at him, “Of course. We need them.”He shakes his head, “Of course. You need them.”“Don’t worry. I will cook these for you.”He opens his mouth to protest but his phone rings. I am spared from his lecture about how I must take a rest. Madhav frowns at the screen and then looks at me with an apologetic look. I nod my head at him, “You can go, take the call.”“Thanks. I will be back quickly.”He is been busy with a lot of things. The jewellery expo that is going to happen in two weeks is taking up a lot of his time and he is been receiving all sorts of calls at random times. What makes my heart flutter is that even in his busy schedule, he insists on cooking for me and giving me the tablets after every meal. With each new day we spend together, I am starting to look forward to this relationship. I know heI am looking at the washing liquids contemplating what to take when someone clashes my shopping cart with theirs. I turn to find a woman in her late twenties. She looks familiar. What is surprising is that she looks unapologetic for what she did and dares to glare at me.“Excuse me?” I say in a polite tone.She sneers at me, “How does it feel to jump from one man to another in a matter of few hours?”I frown at her, “I am sorry but I think you mistook me for some other person.”She shakes her head, “I didn’t. How can forget your face when you were paraded with my lover everywhere.”I watch her closely and HOLY SHIT!She is the woman Praveen left me for. I am staring at her in shock and confusion. I do feel a surge of anger at her words but nothing more. I never imagined a scenario of meeting her. So, I don’t know what to expect from her but something tells me that things are not going to be good with us. Though she may be the woman who captured the heart of my ex-fiancee, for reason I am not threatened by her. I may have felt like that in the past before what befell me but not now. She looks different in real life from the social media photos. Her skin is not as smooth as seen in her photos. There are dark circles under her eyes and her hair is in disarray. But she has a wonderful figure and her choice of clothing is also nice.“Why do you always want to be in the spotlight?” she spits out in anger. I sigh. I have met these kinds of people in my life. This is going to take longer than expected. I look around and Madhav is nowhere to be found. I grin internally. I was worried that I would be bored out of my mind while waiting for him but this woman is making things interesting for me.“Look here, miss. I don’t like it when people beat around the bush. Just get to the point directly.”“You want me to get to the point directly? You stole the fame and name that has to been mine. I wanted to be known as Praveen’s bride. I wanted our wedding to take place grandly and all. We had a good relationship but I broke up with him to see what extent he would go to get me back. You were just a part of his plan to woo me. Nothing more. It would be best if you had stopped seeing him after that one date. I should have been the one to get engaged to him. My photo should have been the one that must come when someone googles Praveen’s fiancée. I should be deserving the spotlight for loving him for six years. Not you. A nobody who lives off her brother’s name. ”I take a deep breath, “If you have to blame someone for what happened, then it must be Praveen. He was the one who proposed to me on our fourth date. He was the one who approached my brother for my hand in marriage. I had no idea that he was still hung up on you. He never looked heartbroken while preparing for the marriage. On the contrary, he looked happy and excited.”“That is because he was afraid of your brother’s wrath. He had to put an act to fool others and your brother. He was afraid of getting killed by your brother. But, you have no right to talk like this when you were also in love with someone else.”Oh God! I had forgotten about the PR lie Madhav and I had to sell at our wedding. Of course, she would think like this. I laugh, “I was in love with someone else but I didn’t cheat on him like he did.”She gasps, “How did you know?”“If you don’t want to get caught then you mustn’t have posted about your nighttime adventures with him in the first place. Just so you know, if my brother ever gets to wind of this, he will make both your lives hell.”She sneers, “I hate the type of you. People who think that they own the world just because they are the sister or wife of someone important. Being dependent on men for a living.”“Woah there, slow down. Will you? I work as a preschool teacher and have my salary. Besides, what is wrong with me being dependent on my husband? Who are you to judge me when you are depending on Praveen’s name and fame to make it big on social media.”She flushes in anger, “You? What do you know about me? Do you know the hardships I faced?”I sigh, “I am sorry but I am not interested in your biography. I still have a few items to pick up on my list. So, I will get going.”I steer the cart away from her and push it toward another aisle for toothpaste. After picking it up, I move the cart to the snacks aisle. I am about to take a packet of chips when someone grabs my hand. Why are people so annoying today? Why can’t I shop peacefully?I turn around and the air is punched out of my lungs when I take in the man standing before me. I wasn’t prepared to meet him here. Of course, if she is here, he must tag along with her since they are in a relationship. Why was I so thickheaded to think that he wouldn’t have accompanied her? He still looks the same. All hot and handsome and perfectly put together. Madhav’s face flashes in my mind and suddenly I don’t find my former fiancée handsome. No, for a reason, I prefer Madhav’s messy hair and casuals to Praveen’s neatly combed hair and business suit.❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥