Chapter Nineteen
"Who is this bad man?"
⧠P R E E T â§
"You will get to experience how to raise a kid by this one day as well." Mrs Patel joked and I faked a laugh with her. I love you, Aunty, but not at this moment.
"Hahaha"
"I'll send him within half an hour. His father is packing his stuff." I nodded with a smile. "I hope he doesn't disturb you guys, and I'm sorry for troubling you so much. Tomorrow morning, his mom will come and pick him up."
"No, No, we don't mind at all. Rather it would be a fun day." She smiled at me and caressed my head lovingly.
"Also, do come to the wedding." I nodded once again, and later, after thanking me for the hundredth time, she went back to her house.
I rushed towards Deven who was engrossed in his phone with a toothbrush hung on his mouth. "Deven."
"Deven." I increased the volume of my voice which made him glance up and raise his eyebrows. He walked towards the wash basin and I followed him like a puppy.
"We have to babysit a kid today." His actions stopped mid-way, and he tilted his head to look at me. A question mark was plastered all over his face.
"Your favourite aunty, she just came to ask if we can take care of her grandson for a day. They have to go out of town for a funeral, and certainly, they can't take the kid with them. And his mom is flying back to Canada tomorrow morning; she went to Norway for some work purposes." I explained to him, and he nodded.
"Oh. How old is he?" He asked and I shrugged.
"I didn't ask." I added after a while, "Also, we have to go to her son's wedding which is next month."
I folded my hands below my chest, waiting for him to get done with his work and reply to me without taking an eternity.
"Her son had a baby without marriage?" This was the first thing this man blurted with that expression on his face. I raise my hand in the air in a questioning manner. "Didn't know their family was so modern."
"Her younger son," I added and he bit his tongue in regret.
"Oh. You should have been clearer then." My jaw hung as I glared at him.
"Esme bhi meri hi galti."Â He shook his head in affirmation like an obedient student. Rolling my eyes, I walked away from him only for him to hold my hand and pull me back. My heart just skipped a beat at this.
"Nahi, meri galti." I tried to stop myself from spreading a large grin on my face. At times like this, I find myself questioning if he's flirting or if I'm taking everything he says as flirting.
I'd say I'm just going crazy around him. Super crazy.
I wonder if he goes crazy too.
I don't know which string of my brain I hit, but a silly idea popped up in my mind. Stepping closer to him till he was surprised and had to move back, I stopped when his back hit the basin. I had a teeny tiny smirk on my face and the contrary, he looked confused.
Leaning closer, my hand made its way to the tap behind him.
"What's up, wifey?" I heard him say. I didn't reply but neither did I break the eye contact with him. I was stern on looking right into his eyes, to distract him. I could watch his eyes flickering below for a mere second before he licked his lower lip and gulped.
"Nothing much, "Opening the tap in a swift motion, I took some water in my palm and threw it on his face. After that, I ran for my life while giggling the whole way. Turning around at a decent distance, I found him shocked and wiping his face with his hand after shooting me a challenging glare.
As soon as he started walking, I ran again and ended up in the kitchen unknowingly. I was about to walk out to somewhere safe but rather bumped into him. Before my mind could register anything, he held my hand and walked in a firm grip.
We walked till my back hit the kitchen counter, and trust me, the whole way, I was just looking at him with pleading eyes.
"Deven, you're so good, such a nice gentleman. Your actions, your words, your flirts, everything about you is so awesome. I just can't; it's so amazing to be here with you-" I started my plan B as soon as I understood that plan A, which was pleading eyes, wasn't going to work.
"And?" He asked and I leaned back.
"And you will be a great real husband one day, maybe not my husband but your wife would be so lucky. I bet even she would be just like an angel-"
"She is. And?"
What else am I supposed to say?
"You know, you're just like a fragmented flower; you look pretty-no-handsome from the outside, but you're also um.." I snapped my fingers to get some creative speech. "Fragrance symbolises that you're beautiful from the inside and...At this point, I'm just talking shit. So yeah, please forgive me?"
I tried to make a cute face to melt him if I could.
"Um hm." He scanned my face as I passed him a sheepish smile scrunching my eyes.
He surprised me by popping up a random glass, probably filled with water from his other hand. I took a deep breath and prepared myself for another you're so awesome speech.
"I've taken a bath, Deven. I'm having a good hair day today, please, please." He brought the glass closer to me.
"Please, na." I shut my eyes when I saw him tilting the glass above my head. I expected to get wet within a moment but surprisingly, there was nothing.
I opened my eyes only to find him laughing at me. "You were so scared-" A soft yet stern voice cut him off.
"Hey uncle, what are you doing?" We both shifted our gaze towards the source of voice only to find a small cute kid standing there with a backpack hanging on his shoulders.
Mrs Patel's grandson!
He came near Deven and pulled his leg trying to separate him from me. "Why are you scaring her?"
We have a young gentleman right there.
Chuckling at both, his statement and the look plastered on Deven's face, I freed my hand from his grip and bent to the kid's level.
"He was not," I said but he wouldn't pay heed to it. His face showed satisfaction after Deven was standing far from me with this young dude in between like a shield.
Cute.
"I don't like you." He shot a glare and pointed his finger towards Deven, who just ran his fingers through his hair wondering what to reply.
"What's your name?" I asked him with a polite smile.
"Jiyan,"
"Oh, you got a nice name." He smiled at me. He had the kind of smile which made his eyes disappear. "What's yours?"
"Preet," I replied and ruffled his hair.
"Who is this bad man?" Jiyan turned towards Deven who stood there dumbfounded.
"I'm Deven, also kid, I'm not a bad man-" His sentence was interrupted within a second.
"You are. Who are you to her?" The situation was already so funny, and Jiyan's questions were making it funnier, especially because of the way he misunderstood the situation and the way Deven couldn't find a perfect answer to give him.
"I'm her husband." He replied proudly, which made Jiyan turn towards me, asking for approval. I nodded, and he made a face.
"Doesn't justify. You're still bad." He huffed in annoyance and folded his hands.
"He is not, Jiyan. He wasn't scaring me. We were just having some fun." Keeping my hands on his shoulders, I tried to tell him. If he understands them, it's well and good, but if he doesn't, then I guess Deven is going to have a hard time now.
"Even Mumma says the same. But I heard her screaming Dad's name when I woke up to drink water at night. They were fighting, he was troubling her." He confessed, and I pressed my lips together, assuming something I shouldn't be.
Glancing at Deven from the corner of my eye, I found him with the same expression.
"All I can say is, you can expect a younger sibling anytime soon," Deven muttered and Jiyan looked at him curiously.
"Younger sibling?" His face lit up at this. "Oh no, you're bad." He reminded himself before narrowing his eyes at Deven.
"By the way, how did you come inside?" I asked him, raising my eyebrows.
"The door was open. Dadi told me to wait for her, but I wanted to meet you, so I rushed inside." Oh. I left the door open.
"Where is your Dadi?" I asked.
"At the door." We walked towards the door and found Mrs Leela standing there. We bid her goodbyes, telling her to have a safe journey, and in return, she warned Jiyan not to trouble us.
I'm so sure he's intentionally going to trouble Deven.
"Let me know if you want something, Jiyan." He nodded.
"Can I call you P? Full names are old-fashioned."
"Sure, J." I was amused by this child would be an understatement right now.
"I'll go get a bath." Deven excused himself from us.
After a while, I was busy chatting with Jiyan about his favourite cars, bikes, and superheroes. He even showed me his collection of toy cars.
He was overall a very cute but a little naughty child. Though I very much appreciate the way they were raising him, he was not a brat or disrespectful, just a little chaotic.
And who doesn't like chaos?
If I ever have a baby then I wish to raise him or her in the same manner. I get irked by the brat kids, who are out of control; not even their parents can handle them, and therefore, they continue to become worse because of a lack of guidance.
Kids like him make me want to have a child.
"Do you have more of this colour?" He pointed towards my long nails and it's baby pink colour.
"Yes."
"But boys cannot apply this." I frowned.
"Why not?" He loosely shrugged.
"It's for the girls. Even the bad man didn't put anything like that." An idea clicked in my mind.
"If he applies then will you?" He nodded vigorously.
"What's up?" You chose the very right moment to enter, hubby.
"Deven, can you bring my nail paint? It's kept in the first drawer beside the bed." He followed my instructions, and within a minute, he was back with four different nail paints. "You didn't mention the colour."
"Okay, now will you apply it?" He nodded and sat beside me crossing his legs against each other.
"Which colour?" I wonder why he wasn't complaining about it. Does he roam around with nail paint on his hands all the time?
"Which colour, J?" I asked and he kept a finger on his chin, thinking.
"All." I shrugged.
"I will put it," Jiyan said and snatched the bottle from Deven's hand, who narrowed his eyes in return. He opened the small rectangular bottle of sky blue colour and went towards Deven.
Deven looked a little taken aback at this and kept his hands behind his back. "Not on me, apply it on her."
"Uhm. No, actually it's for you. I have my nails done already." I moved my fingers in the air cutely to show them my nails.
"They are cute but won't look that cute on me so no," Deven was about to stand up until I held his arm, making him sit back.
"Why so?" I questioned.
"I'm a man-" he replied but Jiyan cut him off.
"Bad man." Deven frowned on hearing this. "I'm not doing this."
"P?"
"P, Q, R jo bhi bolna hai bolo. I'm not doing that." Raising his hands in surrender, he shook his head.
"Deven, come on. You're proving me wrong. I just said that guys can apply these too-"
"I'm a man." He argued.
"You're just a guy." I sang that in the I'm just a girl tone.
"No, I'm not. I'm a man."
"I never said that you're not. I trust you." I joked, hoping that it would get my work done, but it didn't, unfortunately.
"P?" He dragged the only letter he was saying.
"D?" I turned towards Deven with the same enthusiasm as the kid on my team and dragged the D, too.
"On one condition," Deven said and looked at my teammate. "You will stop calling me a bad man."
My teammate already looked defeated and pouted. I don't think he's gonna agree to-- "Okay."
Nevermind.
"Okay, I'll paint your nails. I'm a nice painter, you know P, I won first prize in my drawing competition." I smiled.
"Woohoo. That is a nice achievement." I replied patting his cheeks.
He spared a mere look at Deven who was just helpless at the moment. I and the half-ticket with me were very much adamant about shimmering his nails colourful.
I unlocked my phone to capture the moment. As a filmmaker, it was my duty to record every precious moment, so we have something to reminisce on when it becomes memories.
I could say that it was Jiyan's first time doing this because of the way his hand was shaking while holding the brush. After a good five minutes, Jiyan made Deven show the nail paint proudly to the camera; although very messy and all over his skin, it looked cute.
It did not match Deven's physical vibe at all. Imagine a man with tattoos and a muscular body wearing pink, blue, white, black and then again pink colour in all his fingernails.
But I love the fact that he still let Jiyan do that after throwing some tantrums.
"Now, I'll do yours," I said to Jiyan. Turning towards me he placed his hand on my lap.
"I want only black." I showed him a thumbs-up.
"Cheating. I have a whole colour palette on my nails. You'll do the same." Deven interrupted seeming pissed at this stupid thing.
"No, don't listen to bad man." I gasped and broke into a chuckle after hearing him. He broke the condition after getting his work done. Smart kid.
"You said you won't call me that." Jiyan showed Deven his tongue in a teasing way.
"I don't remember."
Deven made a face, "Chaant."
[Cunning.]
I laughed at their antics while putting the black one at Jiyan's small nails. These moments were very joyful and bubbly, just like the ones with Deven but Jiyan had added a nice taste to it.
I felt I belonged here, in an actual way. It felt wholesome. Being with a cute kid like Jiyan, with Deven, it all felt almost perfect.
But it wasn't even right to feel that. This wasn't forever.
I've to go back eventually.
I wondered what would happen when Aniketh left this place. Deven and I are going to go back to our normal lives. What then?
I hate to say but I have an intuition that soon Aniketh is going to get some senses and leave. The way he hasn't troubled us for a duration of two weeks makes me think that even he is done now.
For better or for worse, I don't know.
â§