Five Weeks by Shruti Omar (any book recommendations .txt) 📕

“You are late, ten minutes precisely.” Yuvraaj pointed out, glancing at his watch as he heard the footsteps reaching closer and looked up to see Anahita. She was dressed up in black slacks and white crochet top, leaving her copper hair open on her shoulders in flames. Her glossy lips were colored pink and up closer, he observed that she had lined her almond eyes with kohl. She smelled great and looked stunning.

“Oh, shut up, you stopwatch!” She rolled her eyes, moving past him and opened the passenger door for her. Yuvraaj frowned, immediately disliking her attitude. He leaned on the window and glared at her, “Watch your language, Anahita. I am your husband, talk to me with respect.”

Her fingers paused on the seatbelt and she faced him, smiling tightly. “You are not my husband, yet.”

His lips crooked in a sinister grin as he stared at her, “Smart eh? That ‘yet’,” He air quoted the words, “doesn’t matter because I will be your husband and that is final, Mrs. Yuvraaj Prakash to be.”

“Exactly,” she clicked her fingers, reminding him. “It is ‘to be’.” Yuvraaj shook his head, ducking inside and winked at her. “And, that will be, sweetheart. Don’t you worry! We will get married, Anahita.”

“Aren’t you overconfident, Yuvraaj?” She asked, softly hissing through her clenched teeth. She was gulping down her anger but she didn’t know how long she could contain the tornado in her if he didn’t stop provoking her. Unaware of that, Yuvraaj merely shrugged, “There is no one who can complement you better than me,” he grinned cheekily at her. “You should thank your stars that you are getting married to me.”

“Aren’t we getting late now?” She yawned, boringly. “Aai is waiting for us and I have better plans for the evening than listening to your crap.”

“Showing off this not so impressive attitude, you are just adding on to your sufferings.” He chuckled, belting himself and ignited on the engine, “I will make you dance on my tunes for the rest of your life.”

“We will see that.” She batted her lashes dramatically at him and looked away, cursing him inwardly with thousand names.

“We have all our life to see each other.” He told her in a sing sang voice. Anahita totally ignored him. He hadn’t changed at all. She had met him after straight four years with no or minimum contact on the engagement day, hoping he might’ve improved. But, he proved her wrong. He was still the same obnoxious, haughty, super rude and ill-mannered Yuvraaj Prakash that she had known all her life. People like him can never change. She sulked, inwardly.

And, what did she expect? When her family was hell bent on making her his slave, how could he not take advantage of that? Her family had already tortured her enough with drilling Yuvraaj’s likes – dislikes, his choices and his lifestyle in her mind. They were just so obsessed with this relationship that they refused to notice it was killing Anahita to be someone’s perfect choice. She hated the transformation her parents wanted to see in her just so she could balance Yuvraaj. It made her feel inadequate and unimportant. She was realizing that she was full of faults and the fact that everyone wanted her to be unflawed for someone else was revolting.

She thought it would end if she revealed about Mukund but her father let her down and immediately got her engaged to the devil. That was the last nail in the coffin for her and she stopped convincing her parents, instead focused on dealing with the matter in her way. Somewhere in her, the reluctance of her parents was still aching but she was strong enough to overcome that.

The car screeched to a stop and she jerked forward, almost hitting herself on the dashboard. She glared at Yuvraaj who unbelted himself and cocked his eyebrow. “Why didn’t you tie the seatbelt? Did you want to break that little nose of yours so that I don’t marry you?”

Anahita pushed the hair off her eyes and straightened up, scowling. “Why did you apply sudden breaks?”

“We are here.” He informed and she noticed they had reached the mall. “Mom will be at entrance and I will join you there.”

“Where are you going?”

He leaned towards her, eyeing her face with a devilish deliberation. “Why? Can’t bear this little distance between us?”

Anahita pressed her lips together and stepped out without replying him but she did hear his rich laughter. She shook her head and noticed her mother in law. She scurried to her and hugged her in bear hug, “Aai, I missed you so much. How are you?”

“I am good, baby. And, you just met me two days ago, Anu.” Mrs. Prakash laughed, caressing her head. Anahita pouted, pulling back, “So what? Can I not miss you just like that?”

“Just like you miss my son?” She rolled her eyes as Mrs. Prakash teased her and sassed. “You just got my senses bitter, seriously. I don’t miss your son, even by mistake.”

“Oh, really?” Mrs. Prakash raised her eyebrows, teasingly. “Then, what took you so long? Romance, hah?”

“Ugh,” Anahita gagged, dramatically. “Romance with your terribly boring son? Oh, puhleaseeee!!” she showed her palm, “I don’t want to die before I hit thirty. And, I don’t have such a bad taste.”

“Hey,” Mrs. Prakash slapped her shoulder, taking objection. “What’s wrong with my son? He looks exactly like Tom Cruise.”

Anahita gasped, cupping her face, “Tom what?”

“Anu!” Mrs. Prakash faked annoyance and grinned, kissing her forehead. “Don’t underestimate my son; he can make you fall head over heels for him.”

Anahita just smiled. If she was tolerating Yuvraaj and his vicious behavior, it was because she loved his parents more than she loved her own. In her days of doom, they would stand by her and support her especially before her parents. They loved her more than her own parents and told her that she didn’t have to change. They kept her sane. They were very much an integral part of her life and Anahita couldn’t just break their heart, announcing her love life to them.