CH: 19

In the morning, Chandra came around with a pounding in his head. Running his fingers through his messy hair, he sat up in the bed. He was alone in the room as his eyes scanned the grand room and the clock on the wall was tickling 10 a.m. Previous night events rolled through his pounding brain, causing his eyes to moisten, but he quickly blinked those tears aways.

When he was about to get out of bed, he heard Aryan, "Good morning, Chandra." Aryan came through the door with a glass in his hand.

Chandra said nothing. He stared at his husband.

"You must be hungover, right?" Aryan asked, sitting on the edge of the bed, close to him.

Chandra didn't say anything but his eyes fixed at the man and the drink in his hand.

"Drink this. You will feel better." The man handed him the amber liquid.

With a hesitation, Chandra took the glass from him and drank at once with a grimace. It was warm and disgusting.

When he emptied the glass, Aryan took it from him. Upon seeing Aryan's hand approach his face, Chandra backed a little, saying, "I'm going to take a bath otherwise I would be late for Amolaka's Haldi and Mehndi."

Aryna looked at him. "Okay."

After the bath, Chandra had put on his yellow outfits, salwar and kurta, but he had a tiny problem with his kurta that it had a zip at the back where his hands couldn't reach. He had even tried while looking in the mirror of his walk-in-closet that he shared with his husband.

After letting out a frustrating heavy breath, Chandra knuckled under.

He walked over toward the door and opened it, and found that his husband was still in the room, busy with his phone. The man's gaze lifted, sensing his presence and looking at Chandra from head to toe, making his inside warm.

"Something wrong?"Aryan asked.

Chandra gave a nod.

Aryan stood and his strides came toward him. "What is it?"

His inside flaring with only thinking about it, yet Chandra said flatly, "My hand cannot reach the zip of my kurta."

"Do you want me to do it for you?" Aryan asked softly with a smile.

Chandra's heart raced at his question. Why was he acting like it's a big deal? The man had already seen him naked completely.

Chandra gave him another nod.

Aryan followed him inside of the walk-in-closet and stood behind Chandra. Standing in front of the mirror, Chandra looked at their reflection. He could feel the hot breaths of the man on the back of his neck when Aryan lowered his head and his hand reached at him to pull the zip. Every fiber in his body tingled at this closeness. He couldn't breathe. His heart was skyrocketing that he was sure that Aryan could also hear in the silence.

Aryan looked at Chandra's reflection, locking his gaze with his own. "You are beautiful."

The man smiled at him in the reflection.

The cheeks of Chandra turned rosy, but his voice remained flat. "Thank you for the help."

There was a trace of sadness shimmering in Aryan's eyes at his behaviour that hurt Chandra as well.

Before Aryan would have said anything, Chandra left him.

The morning sun was casting its glow on the garden that burned with the marigolds. The place was vibrant, with everyone having fun with food and drinks in the Haldi and sangeet ceremony. After the Haldi ceremony, where everyone one by one, and had blessed Amolaka while putting Haldi on her face and some mischievously put on each other for fun later on, Chandra couldn't escape the mischievousness when some cousins rubbed the Haldi paste on his face.

Chandra had subtly avoided Aryan all this morning, but now, Aryan was nowhere to be seen after the Haldi ceremony. He didn't know where he had gone after blessing his sister with haldi (turmeric paste) on her face.

As the singing and dancing continued, later in the day, the henna ceremony began, and everyone was getting their hands adorned with henna. When the henna expert put henna on Chandra's hands, she had asked him his husband's name before Chandra could have said anything, his mother answered her with a smile. Then there was Aryan's name on his hand.

"You okay?" Yuven said, perching his ass next to Chandra on the couch with a blue drink in his hand while Chandra was drying his henna on his hands in the warmth of the sunlight. But the sun had begun its descent below the horizon, so there wasn't much warmth in the garden and that's why only Chandra was in the garden until Yuven came.

"None of your business," Chandra said quietly as he stared at the name of Aryan in his palm. That would wipe off his hand after a few days, just like it was going to be for real.

"Right. Not my business. But you know Aryan Bhahiya was asking me yesterday . ." Yuven trailed off, looking at Chandra with a mysterious smile as he sipped his drink.

Anxiety gripped Chandra as Yuven had seen him talking to Ishan.

"What did you tell him?" Chandra said, nearly hissing.

"Say please, if you want to know." Yuven grinned at him.

Letting his frustration out in a heavy ragged breath, Chandra forced the words out through his grinding teeth to say nicely, "Please."

Yuven gave him a look. "Are you constipated?"

Chandra glowered at him. "What did you tell him?"

"I didn't tell him anything," Yuven said.

"You are lying." His eyes narrowed at Yuven suspiciously.

"Whether you believe it or not, it's up to you, but I told him nothing." Yuven shrugged, "You should tell him whatever it is you are so bothered by," Yuven said quietly.

"This is not something I can tell him," Chandra mumbled to himself, pressing his lips together.

Yuven snorted derisively and looked at him. "How in the world would you know whether it's something you can tell him or not until you tell him?"

How can he tell Aryan what he had known?

"Chandra," he heard Aryan.

Upon hearing his husband, Chandra's heart rhythm increased.

Chandra raised his head and found Aryam standin tall and big near him. Unlike others who were in haldi outfits, he was wearing his casual pants and a white shirt that had turned yellow as some printed their hands with Haldi paste on his shirt.

He saw that Aryan's eyes looked at the henna in his hands before they met Chandra' eyes.

Yuven left them alone, saying he needed another drink.

There was a serious expression on Aryan's face. "Come with me."

"I have something to do," Chandra stood to avoid his husband again.

"Why are you avoiding me again and again?" Aryan said, stopping him right on the spot.

Chandra looked at his husband. "Does it matter to you?" Heat flickered in his voice.

The question surprised Aryan, and so did Chandra. But there was no stopping, therefore, Chandra went on. "I'm just doing you a favor by avoiding you. So what does it matter to you?"

If there had been someone in the garden, Chandra wouldn't have talked to Aryan like this, as he didn't want to give a sign that there was something wrong between them. But sitting here for hours, his mind filled with those thoughts of what Ishan said and the thoughts of Aryan being kind to him all this time. There was a whirlwind of emotion inside him; he was sad, frustrated, hurt, and in so much in love with Aryan. . . .nothing in him wanted to leave the man.

And it hurts if he matters to Aryan nothing.

"It matters to me-You matter to me, Chandra." The man looked him in the eyes.

That statement of his husband left Chandra startled as he stared at the man.

Stepping closer, Aryan gently reached out and cradled Chandra's face in his hands as he lowered his head. Chandra was surprised. His rapid heartbeat betrayed his feelings at this closeness again. A wave of flutter surged through the stomach of Chandra. But he didn't want to push the man away after hearing those words. He clung to those words.

Aryan said softly, "And you have been avoiding me. That just felt like . . . I'm being punished. Then how can you say that it's a favor to me?" Those eyes fixed on his face with a gentle gaze. "You are important to me. I don't think I was able to make you feel this way, otherwise, you wouldn't have believed what that bastard Ishan told you."

Chandra froze.

---

An- Sorry for this super late update, really. I was going to update on Sunday but I got the girls problem, so I'm not doing well. But I have given my words, so I had to write this chapter.

Also, I have tried to write this chapter so many times, but I was not able to update it, as I had no idea how to move this story forward. I was facing writer block while I was also busy editing my other book. All this nearly made me put this book on hold until I finished editing the book.

Anyway, the next update could be late as well. Please, please, just bear with me.

Thank you.

Love Misty.