42. Mayukhi
FORTY-TWO
Mayukhi
One week later…
Mayukhi stood in front of the mirror, running her hands down the soft cotton of her black Anarkali kurta. The gauzy, net dupatta kept slipping off one shoulder as she tried to slip her silver jhumkas in.
“Allow me,” Ishaan murmured, his fingers taking the cool metal from her and slipping it in without a hitch.
Mayukhi smiled, leaning back against him, her back pressing into his hard chest. Ishaan wrapped his arms around her waist and drew her in. He nuzzled his face into her hair, a contented groan escaping him.
“I love you, Kraken, I do, but I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.”
She turned in his arms, her hands going to play with his hair, messing it up so it didn’t fall in its perfect style anymore.
“I can believe it. You let me talk you into shit all the time. Remember the time you turned up at the school pool in your swimming trunks after hours?”
“You told me there were swim team tryouts happening,” he smiled, giving her hair a gentle tug. He’d arrived there only to find the school faculty having an end of term pool party. They’d thought he was trying to sneak in an afterhours swim. He’d ended up running laps of the school grounds as punishment.
They were still laughing when the doorbell rang. Ishaan’s smile vanished, tension seeping through him.
“Come on,” Mayukhi said gently, tugging at his hand. “It’s going to be fine. We can do this.”
He allowed her to lead him to the front door, opening it before he could chicken out and run in the opposite direction. The things you did for love, he thought as he met his father’s gaze for the first time in decades.
He looked weak, frail, an old man. Nothing like the demon who haunted Ishaan’s nightmares most nights.
“Ishaan!” His mother’s tremulous call had him looking away from his father. “Thank you for inviting us.”
He stepped back, allowing his family to file into his home. “Please come in.”
Too little, too late.
That’s what he’d told his mother the last time she’d been here. But if Mayukhi could forgive him his sins and love him anyway, maybe he could try and do the same for his family too.
And so, he drew the love of his life closer to him and said, “I’d like you all to meet Mayukhi, my fiancée.”
He allowed his mother to coo over her, seated his father and then finally turned to take in his younger siblings. His brother looked sullen but his sister had a tentative smile on her face as she watched him.
“Hello Myra. I saw your twelfth grade results. It’s very impressive.”
Her smile widened. “Thank you. I start college in a week.”
He knew. He was the one who’d paid her fees and confirmed the admission. “Mass communication,” he said now. “What made you pick it?”
He listened as she prattled on about digital marketing and how she was a part time social media influencer already.
“I’m glad we’re finally doing this,” she whispered to him when she ran out of things to say. “I never thought you’d agree.”
Ishaan looked at Mayukhi and smiled “She’s very persuasive,” he said.
Myra laughed and continued to tell him every little detail about her life. He helped Mayukhi serve the drinks and snacks, allowing his still talking sister to carry a tray of glasses with water.
“And you?” he asked his brother, Karun, when his sister finally paused to draw breath. “How’s the football?”
“You know I play football?” Karun glowered at him, sitting beside their father, clearly aligning himself with the older man.
“Obviously he does,” Mayukhi said breezily. “Or he wouldn’t be asking you about it, would he?”
“So what? He just wakes up one day and wants to play big brother?”
Mayukhi reached over and smacked the back of his head lightly. “He’s been playing big brother all along doofus. You would have been playing gully cricket if not for him footing your football fees.”
“That doesn’t mean anything!” Karun’s offended voice rose but another one cut him off.
“Thank your brother.” Those were the first words his father had spoken since entering the room. “If not for him, you’d be working in the garage that was a part of our chawl.”
Karun glowered at their father but he mumbled a sorry in Ishaan’s general direction.
Ishaan raised his eyebrows, looking at their father. “Don’t make him feel small for having to live with the consequences of your choices.”
“Ishaan!” his mother protested.
But his father only dipped his head in acknowledgement. “You’re right. I have wronged you all and I don’t know how to make it right.”
“You can’t,” Ishaan said shortly. “But we’ve spent a lot of time flogging that dead horse. Maybe, we can try and move past it.”
Mayukhi’s hand slipped into his, fingers twining with his, a silent show of support.
“I would like that.”
His mother let out a tearful gasp, a punctuation added to years of animosity.
“And on that note,” Mayukhi smiled. “I think it’s time for dinner.”
He stood to help Mayukhi set the table and warm the dinner they’d cooked together earlier in the day. And then he joined her and his family as they sat down to the first of what he hoped would be many more family dinners.
She leaned towards him, her shoulder nudging his. “Hey loser! I love you.”
“I love you too, Kraken.” He stole a potato from her plate and popped it in his mouth, swatting her hand when she reached for his papad. “I will love you forever. Now, don’t touch my food.”
She laughed, a bright burst of sound and he leaned over to kiss her, wanting to draw that sound, that joy, that warmth into himself. He ignored the mortified groans of his siblings and the quiet contentment of his parents and focused on his sun, the woman his world was destined to orbit.
Now and forever.