That fool really wanted to marry her

By the time her senses crawled back in her head, her father was already halfway past the staircase. She shook her head, trying to check if what she heard was true. Then she saw the expression on her mother’s face and the receding figure of dad and decided, yes, it was true.

“Marriage?”, she screeched in an abnormally loud voice, and he stopped in his tracks.

She ran to her father, and with pleading and shocked eyes, repeated, “Marriage?”

“You seem surprised”, her father answered, confusion clear in his eyes as he stared down at her.

“I cannot marry”

“Why not?”, he asked with the cool confidence of someone asking for the time.

“Because… Because… I’m nineteen. I’m only nineteen”

“You are going to turn twenty soon”, he scoffed and then added, “Besides, the age of marriage for girls is eighteen in India so I don’t see the problem? Also, it’s not like I’m going to marry you off right away”

She took a breath of air, thank goodness! He wasn’t gonna marry her off soon, she and Vansh could enjoy a long engagement, a year or two at the least and… before she could think any further, her dad started, “You will get engaged soon but only after you are done with your final exams will you marry, so say in about four months?”, and looking at her mother he asked, “That must be enough time to make the preparations, right?”

“Dad! You can’t seriously be thinking about this!”, she groaned/shouted as she pulled her hair.

“Of course I am and why not? You seem to be in love with that guy and who am I to stop you? You are your own woman, afterall”, he shrugged and started turning around to get back in his room.

“Dad, please. I can’t marry”, she grabbed his hand and turning to look at her mother, she pleaded, “Tell him I can’t marry”

“Why not?”

“I just… I just don’t want to”, she stomped her feet and glared at him.

“I don’t understand what your problem is. You said you love him then why don’t you want to marry him? Listen, I’m an old man and both I and your mother are not liberal enough to let you continue dating him for the rest of your life. Either you marry him or you stay away from him”

Shreya stood still. She didn’t know how to answer him. It was an ultimatum. Her father was asking for reasons but how can she answer when she didn’t know it herself? How to tell him why she didn’t want to marry when she didn’t know it herself?

She searched her mind for reasons but came up blank or a counter-argument ready on her subconscious’ tongue.

She had dreams: Are you telling me your boyfriend is a douchebag who wouldn’t allow you to follow your dreams?

She wanted to further study: Always possible after marriage

She wanted to travel: Honeymoon, please!

Now, this ended every argument. But…there was a way that could work. If reasons don’t work, maybe an attack to his fatherly instincts will?

"Won't you miss me?"

"I will, and the best part about this marriage is that you will be right next door. I can come by anytime"

“Dad, are you really going to marry me to a man you don’t know anything about? Where are your protective genes, father?”, she asked in a soft, fake hurt-laden voice.

“Of course not”, he scoffed again, “I might not know Vansh personally but I know his father and I’ve heard about him. He seems like a good boy. But if by some reason, he turns out to be a douchebag – I still can’t do anything about it, can I? My daughter seems to love douchebags”, he laughed and went away.

Well, that didn’t go as expected, she thought and with a glare directed at her father’s back, she left to find her phone and call Vansh.

What would he say?

How would he react?

Would he blame her for this?

Would he leave her and stay out of this marriage-shit?

What will he do?

These questions kept repeating in her head and she held her phone in shaking hands. She didn’t know why she was so afraid. That man had already proposed her, for god’s sake! Was it because she didn’t like marriages?

She had always thought it was sexist that a girl had to take a man’s name and that girl was expected to serve her husband and his family all through the rest of her life. That girl had to say goodbye to all her blessings because the only blessings she would receive now were for her husband’s health.

But in her heart she knew, it wasn’t because of that.

It wasn’t because of the unfamiliar treatment brides and grooms got. It didn’t even bother her as much at the moment, because the reality was far worse.

She was afraid.

She was afraid of commitment.

Vansh was her first boyfriend, and in the span of three months they had already broken up twice. She couldn’t even last in friendship then how in the hell was she supposed to handle a relationship for the rest of her life?

More importantly, how could she be cruel and selfish enough to burden him with her?

It wasn’t fair.

It was wrong, on so many levels. Being a burden on anyone was not a good thing to do and once married, she was sure that was what gonna happen. All married couples lose their spark after a couple of years, then how could she, knowing this, burden him in a life-long commitment to her? Her, who had nothing more than spark going on for her?

All the empathetic bones in her body were telling her to let him go, let him free.

But the selfish ones, the ones that didn’t care about anybody but her, wanted to marry. Wanted to be called Mrs Mehta. Wanted to end up in his arms every night. Wanted to be his, legally.

So she gathered some courage and finding his number, called him. She would give him a choice, she decided. If he didn’t want to marry, so be it – she would understand. But if he did, if he did choose to marry, he would have to live with his wrong choice forever. He was old enough to make choices and face their consequences.

If he married, then he married. There was no middle way. He had to choose.

Still, she couldn’t help the tremble in her body and her voice as she said, “Hello”

“Hey baby!”, he cooed and the voice spread a warm tingle in her body.

“Miss me already?”, he asked and she could feel the smirk in his voice. The devilishly sexy smirk on his handsome face.

“No, I mean yes, I mean no,… um”, she stumbled on her words and a chuckle greeted her ears.

“What is it, darling?”

She inhaled deeply and said, “My mom told my dad about us and now he wants to come to your house to talk to your dad about our marriage. I tried talking him out of this, but he says either we marry or we stop dating. And I just thought I would give you a heads up before you find him knocking at your door.

Also, I’m sorry for all this trouble. I don’t really know how to stop him from coming over to your house, but maybe you can just get out of the house or don’t open the door? Pretend there is no one there? I don’t know, I’m really so…” she was cut off by the sound of Vansh’s laughter.

“Why are you so stressed? This is good news. Your dad wants me to marry you, he approves of us, this is amazing news. I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear that”

“But… don’t you understand? He wants us to marry. Like, real marriage”, she said emphasizing her last word.

“If I get a ‘yes’ from you, I will marry you right this instant. I love you, Shreya and I’ll love you living in my house. Sorry, our house now”

“Are you serious?”

“As serious as my proposal more than a month ago”

Shreya stayed still, unable to find any words. A moment later, he said, “I love you, and the idea of you in your wedding dress on the night of our marriage when the whole world knows that I’m going to ravish you…”

“Oh my god!”, she interrupted, before her insides started acting up and she had to return to her older fixes of sexual pleasure.

“Okay, fine! All the best, I love you but now I need some sleep. Good night”, she hurried and before he could say anything hung upon him.

He wanted to marry her.

That fool really wanted to marry her.

No one understood her plights and yet, she couldn’t help the smile that formed on her lips.