Salt to Taste

When two pairs of eyes met.

Pallavi's POV

It's almost time when I will meet him.

Neil has decided we meet before deciding on marriage and I am thankful for his decision. I am sitting in my room with my car playing on my lap when the car wheels crushing the tiny pebbles of our front yard make my head spin towards the window, making my heart go thump even faster as I hear joyful tones of our family greeting each other.

Holding Vishwa ( my cat:)) to my chest, I peek through the netted curtains flowing over my window, and what I witness makes me blush in an instant. A tall neat figurine walks out from the driver's seat wearing a white t-shirt draped with a jet black blazer over it. His pencil pants fitting to their perfection would put a mannequin to shame. Suddenly his gaze shifts to my room and I move away from the window feeling panicked squeezing my cat in the process that makes him meow with irritation, finally jumping out of my grip Vishwa settles himself on my table liking himself.

I hope they have not heard his voice out there. Omg, I am feeling so distressed right now.

I move towards the full-length mirror checking myself again only to find my cheeks turned into a tomato. Calm down! They are here to talk to you. He wants to get to know you that's all. And isn't it that you want the same? They why am I feeling so shy?

I practised a million times as to how and what all questions I will ask the person I will be marrying. But now that the time has come I feel like running away from this situation. Augh! Why is it so frustratingly tingly in here? I press myself to the mirror matching my finger with that of my reflection and feel the cool glass touch my exposed skin peeping through my saree.

Ouch, that's too cool.

My sudden jolt makes the back hook of my blouse pop open the nth time irritating me to my limit.

I told my mom a hundred times that I have outgrown this blouse which would fit my boobs in the 10th grade but no, she wants me to wear this one as if it's a lucky charm! Augh! I try aiming for the hook on the back with my limbs trying their level best to reach the target, but guess what this piece of cloth is so rigid that it won't allow me to stretch unless I am intending to tear it off, which certainly is not my aim at the moment.

The door creeks open at the appropriate time and I turn myself facing the door swiftly hiding my wardrobe malfunctioning with the pallu of my saree.

Is that him?

"Are you ready? "

My mom asks me with her concerned tone and here I was standing blushed without a reason.

'What are you disappointed that it wasn't him?'

Oh shut up!

I tell my inner lust to shut her wild imaginations and point the current situation to mom. She walks towards me with hurried steps and puts the hook in its place.

"Breath ina but will you? Look how fat you have grown all this time? Try exercising once in a while."

"Amma why are we suddenly discussing me exercising at this point? People are sitting outside to meet me and no less but a giant guy who is already making me feel nervous. It is so important for you to make me feel less confident about myself by body-shaming me?"

"Okay, sorry I was not intending to do that. It's just that I am so nervous, what if they reject you? I just dont know why I am feeling as if it's my marriage time. You know the time when your appa had come to see me. Omg, I was all nervous and sweaty."

"Mom it's not helping."

"Omg yeah sorry. breathe okay? Just breathe, nothing is gonna happen, just talk to him like you used to talk with Alok?

You are accustomed to talking to boys, isn't it? This shouldn't make you nervous."

Mom starts arranging my saree plates while still telling me to calm down ad I know she is more nervous than me.

But the name of Alok fills me with a different emotion altogether. I look at myself in the mirror to see my reflection decorated in a silk saree ready to be somebody else's bride but my heart fills with a feeling of numbness just by hearing his name.

Alok, what did he even mean to me in my life? A friend? Or more than that? *chuckles*

After all these years of college and away from him I still have not put his name in a certain category that will help me have a clear feeling towards him.

I dont know when, but I am sitting on the bed feeling numb, alone in the room and mom has left me some time ago, I hate this feeling, I hate how his name puts me on the rack, i hare how i so deaf and blind to the outside world as soon as I hear his name.

Another knock on the door brings me on my feet making the hook on my back open again. For god's sake! I want to rip this hook off.

I hurriedly open the door and stand facing my back to the door pulling my hair at one side I tell my mom

"Amma the hook's come off again, please fix it for me"

Silence prevails in the room for some time and I hear a masculine voice clearing his throat, feel warm vibes coming from behind me, an aura that is overpowering my petite figure. Turning towards the new source of energy I find a blushing Neil standing at the threshold of my room with his palm fisted into a ball pressing it against this lips. And his gaze concentrated on my feet, he stands there all stiff not ready to move an inch.

Omg! Is today a disaster day or something.

Third persons POV

"Oh, I am sorry it was just, haha you know"

She tries playing it cool by babbling anything and everything that comes to her mind trying to make Neil comfortable in that situation pulling her pallu over her shoulder she adjust the situation and finally Neil shifts his gaze from the floor to her eyes holding her brown eyes captivated in his.

And that's how two pairs of brown eyes met for the first time.