UBC Day 19 - Dinner -17

Continued from Part 16 - Job Hunt

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Deepti had always measured her life in black and white. There wasn’t any space for greys. She had always known the difference between the right and the wrong.

She had thought her married life to be the same too. She tried to put things that were wrong and things that were right in two different parts of her mind. She made sure that there was a balance between both the sides.

But Harsh seemed to do everything that she couldn’t categorize. He pampered her to extreme ends. Showering with fancy gifts and dinners at the places she didn’t know existed. He was a hopeless romantic case who loved everything from flowers to candles. But at the same time he picked on smallest of things like mismatched cutlery or extra salt in gravy. He would fight with her if her dress was a bit loose or a bit tight, if she gained weight or lost a bit. His arguments weren’t wrong. He did it to correct her, to improve her, to make her more presentable than she was. But she couldn’t take it. When between friends, he would correct her with the right way of opening a wine bottle, she swallowed her tears. But the very next moment, when he would pull her closer and tell her that the wine was perfectly chilled, she forgave him once again.

Of late Harsh’s nick picks had been too much for her to handle. However, knowing his short temper, she kept quiet and took it all. Harsh was a perfect man. But one does not need a perfect man to make a perfect relationship. How she craved to find little imperfections in Harsh, so she could love him deeper.

Today Priya was supposed to come over after work. Deepti had taken extreme care to bring the food and the table to perfection. Knowing her best friend and her knack for perfection, she didn’t want to be cornered in front of two perfectionists.

Harsh and Priya had been colleagues for almost a month now. They were working on a project together and Deepti had called Harsh to ask Priya over for dinner. He kept her on hold while he asked her. She could hear a denial, but after a bit of persuasion she had agreed. On their way back from office, they would pick Navya from Priya’s home and bring her too.

In last one month, Harsh had couple of times mentioned about Priya and her intelligence. She was happy that Priya was finally doing good for herself. However, the judgemental part of Harsh could still not accept her child and her decisions to come back to India. Deepti had tried to reason it with him, but he was too strong on his arguments. She eventually had to let go.

She was in middle of her trail of thoughts and double-checking everything, when the doorbell rang.