25. Le Plus Mignon

"Will you marry me Naina?"

I gasped and my eyes widened.

"What the hell are you doing?" I whispered.

I felt all the eyes on us. I didn't want all the attention specially for what I was going to do.

"I am baking a cake." he said and rolled his eyes. "What do you think I am doing?"

"Why?"

"Because I love you and I want to marry you. This will solve all the problems, you will not have to marry him if you marry me first."

That was not right. Getting married to Shiv would have been the easier option but not the right one. I knew him for only half a year. There was no way I was getting married to him so soon. Also, everyone would think we got married only because I got pregnant. I wanted to show everyone that we got married because of love, not because of the babies.

"Listen, I don't want to create a scene. I am saying yes now but It is definitely not a yes. What the hell were you thinking?" I whispered.

"But-"

"No buts. We will talk about this later."

I said and started acting like I was surprised. I put both my hands on my mouth and acted as if I was crying. I nodded my head as a yes and he took the ring out of the box and placed it on my finger.

The restaurant bursted with claps and everyone looked at us with adoration. I smiled at them and looked over at Shiv. He looked hurt. I needed to explain everything to him, I could not bear the fact that I hurt him.

Everything went back to normal in a few minutes and we continued our conversation.

"Why did you do that?"

"Because I genuinely want to be married to you. The situation was just an excuse." he explained.

"I am really sorry but it is too soon. I don't want people to think that we got married only because I was pregnant. I know half the people here think that now." I moved my eyes around the restaurant.

"I am sorry. It just seemed the right thing to do."

"I will be. But not now, maybe in a few years. I don't care about my reputation. I do care about yours and my parents'. I don't think many people in India will be proud of us. It is the easiest thing to do right now, but you know, easy things are not always the right things to do."

"You are right. I was just thinking about the idea of us being a family. You, the kids and me."

"I want a family too, Shiv. But I want everyone to be in it. My parents, your mom, everyone. And that will not be possible if we choose the easy path and get married." I explained.

"I understand. We will get married whenever you are ready."

"I love you so much. I am so sorry." I said, holding his hand.

"I love you more. And please don't be sorry, I respect your decision." he said. "But we still have to go to my mom's house for dinner tonight."

"And you didn't tell me?"

"Yeah, I went there this morning to get the ring and she ordered me to bring you for dinner." he  said and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Is is hers?"

"No, my grandma's. She gave it to mom before she died."

"Oh. it is beautiful." I said, looking at the bright ruby stone cut in an oval shape in the middle with multiple rounds of diamonds around it. The base was white gold which went with the white diamonds.

"I will just give it back to her. It will be safe with her until I actually need it." he said.

"Okay."

.

For the rest of the day, we just lounged around and in the evening, got ready for dinner.

I didn't feel like wearing a dress so I put on a pair of olive green pants and a chrome yellow floral shirt with green details on it. Shiv helped me wear my shoes and I just retouched the make-up I had on from the afternoon. I was too lazy to take it off and would have had to put it back on in a few hours so I decided against taking it off.

Shiv wore a casual olive green shirt with his usual black skinny jeans and wore his black casual shoes.

We didn't even realise that we had accidentally matched outfits until his mother opened the door.

"Aw. Look at both of you, in matching clothes."

We looked at each other and shrugged. We didn't care about showing our love to the world by wearing matching outfits.

"Here, mom. Keep the ring for now." Shiv handed her the box.

"Oh. Why?" her face dropped.

"I said no. I didn't want a wedding just for the sake of preventing getting married to Ashwin. I am sorry."  I said in a low voice.

"Hey, don't be sorry. It is totally fine. I just know you both are meant to be so whenever you get married, I will be there." she said and hugged me.

"Thank you."

"Oh, It's nothing. But here, keep this." she handed me the box back.

"Why?" I was very confused.

"This ring is an heirloom. My mother in law gave it to me and told me to give it to my daughter in law. Whether or not you both get married, I still want you to have it."

"Oh." was all I could say.

"Keep it." she reassured me.

"Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I will keep it safe with me." I hugged her.

"Okay now, dinner time. I made French food as well as Indian food."

"Why did you go through the trouble? We could've eaten out." I said looking at the multiple bowls on the dining table.

"Do you not know moms love to feed their children? I was happy doing this for you. I have met my son after so many years, it is the least I could do."

"Thank you mom." Shiv said and we started eating.

.

"Everything was delicious." I complemented her.

I have never had any food that my mom made because she never did. We used to eat whatever food the cook used to make. The food that night was different, like it was made with love.

"Thanks for dinner, ma. We need to go now; our flight is early in the morning."

"But I am coming with you." she said.

"About that..." Shiv said.

"What about that?"

"We don't want you there."

"You, not we." I said and smacked his arm.

"I don't want you there." he corrected himself.

"Why? I can take care of her and the babies. You don't know anything." she rolled her eyes.

"It is just that dad is in London and I don't want you near him."

"Then I definitely want to come with you."

"Are you crazy, mom?"

"A little. But I have changed now, I am not that weak woman now. And I want to be there because I want him to see what he is missing out on. I want him to be a real father to you. And I think only I can make that happen." she was determined.

"You don't need to do this." I interfered.

"I know I don't need to. I want to."

"Okay, then we can't stop you." Shiv said.

.

We returned to the hotel and got to packing.

Mostly he did because I made him while I sat down, admiring the ring on my finger.

"Take care of it." Shiv said, breaking me out of my trance.

"I will. It is just so beautiful I don't want to take it off."

"Then don't. It will be better that way. Take it off once we reach home."

"But I am worried. What if I lose it?"

"You won't. Wear it for now, take it off if you don't feel comfortable."

"Okay." I said and kissed him as he sat down beside me.

"We should sleep. We have a flight back home tomorrow."

"I don't want to go. We will get so much closer to our problems. This feels nice." I said while snuggling up on his torso.

"Just think of the good parts, you are going to move in and we will get to redecorate the kids' room. We have time." he said and I felt my eyes droop.

"I love you." I said and fell into a deep sleep.

"I love you the most." was all I heard before I slipped.

.

The alarm rang at 5 a.m. in the morning. I woke up but Shiv was still in a deep sleep. I took a quick shower and woke him up.

"Go and get ready. I am sleeping, wake me up when we have to go."

I slept off again.

.

"Hey wake up! We are going to be late." he said as he lathered me with kisses to wake me up.

"I am not going to complain if I have to wake up like this everyday." I sat up and rubbed the sleep off of my eyes.

"Come on now, our taxi is downstairs."

He pulled me by my hand carefully and we went downstairs where I sat on the waiting chairs while he checked out. I was still too sleepy to even stand up straight.

"Are you done yet?" I whined.

"Just a minute babe. You can sleep on the flight, don't sleep now or I will have to carry you." he said and I pretended to fall asleep with my head resting on the headrest of the comfortable chair.

"No! I want to sleep." I said when he pulled me up from the chair and made me stand as the person on the counter handed him the bill.

"You just want me to carry you, mostly." he rolled his eyes.

"Tu es un couple si mignon. Merci et j'espère que vous avez passé un agréable séjour." the middle aged lady said. She probably didn't know any language other than french.

You are a cute couple. Thank you and I hope you had a pleasant stay.

"Merci beaucoup!" I said. Thank me for taking up French since grade 1.

"How did you know what she said?"

"I know French. I took it as an extra language since I was in 1st grade."

"Okay. What did she say?"

"You are a cute couple but this man is pretty dumb." I said to annoy him.

"Come on now, you know she didn't say that." he whined.

"But she did."

"No she didn't. Tell me what she said." he pressured.

"She thought we are cute and hoped we had a pleasant stay. Fine now? Happy?"

"Oh! But I am not cute."

"Oh, I know. Atleast I am." I teased him.

"That is true." he said and pecked my lips.

.

During the flight back, I slept half the time and chatted with his mom during the other half. She told me how she struggled after leaving India. She had little money and a bag of clothes, her husband took any of the jewellery she had other than the ring she hid in her bag with two gold sets of necklaces with matching earrings. She told her best friend about her situation and went to live with her in Paris. She sold the two sets of jewellery and started her company with the money she got. She had multiple offices and stores across all of France after everything that happened.

Her story gave me hope that everything works out in the end if you are strong enough.

"Wow! You are amazing. I would be lucky if I was half as strong as you are."

"Don't say that. You are stronger than you give yourself credit for. You came across the world to get away from your parents, you are going to have these babies and you know there are going to be things happening because of it, if people know. You said no to marrying him because you know that would be the easiest thing. You are really strong, you just have to feel the power." she encouraged me. "And I am so happy that a woman like you came in his life. I know that he never even had a girlfriend, he was always the person to play around with girls. You should realise how much he loves you if he even thought about starting a family with you."

"I do realise that. I am lucky to have him, he is definitely the best thing to ever happen to me." I said as I looked at his sleeping figure next to me. His lips slightly parted and his eyes showed not even a single sign of stress that was mostly present there when he was conscious.

His eyelashes fluttered slightly and he opened his eyes to see me watching him.

"Hey." I whispered.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he said while rubbing his eyes.

"Because you make me happy."

And then I kissed him as the plane landed in London.