Chapter 24 The Eye Opener

Anika's PoV

"Come in, Anu. Nithya is in her room. Go in, I will bring tea for you." Nithya's mom opened the door for me.

"Thanks aunty." I ran to her room.

"Come, Anu." Nithya was sitting on the bed with her phone on hand and a little smile on her lips.

"What's up, new bride?" I asked her, jumping on the bed near her.

"Nothing is up. They are coming tomorrow in the evening. I have mehendi cones in the fridge, can you put mehendi on my hands?" she asked me.

"Ofcourse, Nithu. But we have to put it on at night. If you keep it on overnight, it will be beautifully reddened by tomorrow eve." I told her.

"Then ask your mom's permission to stay here tonight."

"Hmmm wait." I called my mom and let her know that I will be staying with Nithu for the night.

"So you are texting him?" I asked her when I caught her more than once smiling looking at her phone.

"um... yes! He's been texting since the afternoon." she said with a little blush.

"Adi pavi (sinner), does aunty and uncle know?"

"No. Don't shout." She covered my mouth.

"ok ok, let go. So what does he say?" I asked her, swatting her hand away from my mouth.

"Nothing important. We are just chatting in general."

"Hmmm, so how do you like him?"

"How many times are you going to ask me the same question? I like him so much!"

"I just want to look at you when you answer this question. But I wonder how you can like someone even before meeting him in person?"

"I told you, it is a magical feeling. You have to be smart enough to know that feeling when it happens to you. You will just know in your heart that he is the one." she said.

"Where do you get these cheesy dialogs? I agree that you didn't like anyone as your life partner before but don't tell me that you are in love with your fiancé already!" she can't be serious.

"I don't know how to explain this to you. But I strongly feel that I am going to spend my life with him even before mom and dad agreed for them to come home tomorrow. They still had another alliance at hand for me. I didn't feel anything when I saw the other man's picture. But I felt butterflies in my tummy when I saw him in the photo. It may sound very naïve, but I don't have an explanation. Pch, enough of my talks, now tell me about Arjun." she asked me.

"There is nothing to tell about him. We have just met three times now and I hate him completely."

"Oh really? I have never seen you hating someone with just three meets. So he has made you think about him in some way." She said, Talking about him gives me mixed emotions. Happy and Angry.

"Shut up, Nithu. He is an arrogant rich man. He loves to... um... show off his wealth to people like us." I told her.

"Really? From what aunty said to me that he had done, I think he has helped your family at the most needed time. He even extended his helping hand for after too. You know that too. You know that you are indebted to him and he is good. Yet you decide to degrade him of something which he is not, that is why you stumble upon the words when you said that. I think he is disturbing you."

"Argh Ok, I agree, yes, he is disturbing me. I kinda like him. I like his looks and his manliness. And I also feel disgusted with myself for my cheap thoughts." I blurted out to her.

"Shhh. Don't shout. Wait!" she made me quiet and just then aunty came with tea cups. Ufff just escaped.

"Why do you feel disgusted for having feelings on someone?" she asked me after aunty left.

"Are you kidding me? I am in love with Arun and I am having feelings over a man whom I don't know? It is immoral and ugly. I could not even say it out loud."

"Anu, relax. Why do you think it is so wrong to have feelings over a man whom you know is a good man from his heart?"

"Arun..." I was cut off by her.

"Excluding Arun!" she stopped me.

"He is an already married man. He married my cousin sister but they were divorced. He is rich unlike us. It is a sin to have sexual feelings on someone who doesn't belong with us."

"Good, so you think you have sexual feelings for him?? Have you ever had sexual feelings on someone else like you do now? As far as I know we have drooled over many guys but you never ponder upon them after that instance."

"You are right. I never carry them along. Sexual feelings, no way. I have not imagined anything even with Arun. But this man is making me go crazy. I don't even want to tell out loud what I feel about him."

"Do you think it is just lust that you feel for him?"

"What else do you think it is? He is so damn good looking. He never delayed a second when he knew I wanted help. He stayed back and tried to help us even though he could have just left. Of Course I felt bad for him when his wife fled away leaving him. He is such a good gentleman and she is not fortunate enough to take care of the treasure she's got. I felt like he is not exposing his true-self as he is afraid to get hurt. He is hot and good looking. I don't know what I really think!" I blabbered out things about him that are from my deep heart.

"Well, I think you felt a magical feeling and are refusing to agree to it. You are finding reasons to stay away from him. You are making up silly accusations to hate him. But the real you knows what you are feeling towards him. Listen to your heart. It will tell you the truth."

"Shut up, Nithu. I love Arun." I am angry at her. She is my best friend and she is not helping.

"You shut up. Arun is your friend. You yourself said that you have never felt sexual pull towards him. You feel good and happy with him and that is called FRIENDSHIP you dumb-head. I tried telling this to you but you never listened. I stopped when I saw you happy with him. But that is not love and I knew it all along. You can never feel ecstatic with him." She yelled at me.

"Nithu, Enough. Maybe you are right. But that talk is useless. He is somewhere high out of reach and there is no meaning for my stupid feelings. It will pass. My parents have agreed to meet Arun and we should be talking about that, not about someone who would be thinking of me as an arrogant girl." I said sulking.

"Why do you feel bad when you were the one that projected yourself as an arrogant girl in his eyes? Why did you hide your true-self? Don't do this, Anu."

"Nithu, please, don't confuse me. It is just a feeling a girl gets when she meets the most handsome man. We all adore heroes of the movies but not all want to marry them. This is just like that. I have another week before Arun comes to meet my parents. I am sure to banish Arjun out of my head before that." I told myself and to her.

"If you cannot?" She put up a challenging face.

"I can!" I said, challenging myself.

"If you say so. But why is Arun not coming tomorrow?" She asked.

"He said he has some work. He didn't confirm next week either."

"What? He can't be serious. You have been waiting for your parent's approval and now he is not going to come as soon as possible?"

"Come on, he has other commitments too. Now stop talking about me. Tell me more about your fiancé." I diverted her from talking about me.

We spoke for sometime before aunty called us for dinner. After dinner, I started putting mehendi on her hands while chatting. We slept after the mehendi dried up on her hands. Aunty asked me to take her to a parlour for threading and a facial tomorrow. She needs nothing, she is a naturally beautiful girl!

It is already evening, the house is very busy right now. Nithu wanted me to stay with her for the evening but I had to go to my home for dad's physiotherapy exercise. I took her to the parlor, just as aunty asked, in the morning. Her mehendi was nice and dark. I helped her drape her saree and put on some jewels. She is gorgeous. I managed to get out just when the car stopped in front of her house. I prayed to god that everything should go fine with this proposal.

On the way home, I was pondering over what Nithu told me. She calls it love. She tells me that I have fallen for a man whom I know barely about. I agree that I have weird feelings for him but that can't be love. Maybe that is some after effects of pity that I felt for him when I heard his story. He is not a new man, he is a relative alright. My mom and dad lauded his looks and status when they went to his marriage, they were even jealous that Anamika got such a good life. Even when Anamika fled, they said she must be a stupid to have left him. And surprisingly, I never thought bad about this man when she went missing. I thought that she ruined his life. Why? I don't know. But I didn't think anything bad of him and I never thought that he must be the reason for her disappearance. Many of our relatives did, but not me, not my parents. He has always had that good will on him even when we knew nothing about him. Why?