A Cup Free Of Guilt

Sakshi and Rajat picked up the lehenga and sherwani twinning set from the boutique and looked at the cafe nearby. "Coffee?", asked Rajat. Sakshi nodded and they occupied the table near the window. 

" A cappuccino and cold coffee.", he ordered. "I have stopped drinking coffee!", she said. "Ok then…", he was about to change the order when she said, "That's fine, I will have it". " And a dark chocolate pastry please", he completed the order.

Without speaking a word, they just stared outside the window. The order arrived and Sakshi at once, dug a spoon into the pastry, scraped the ganache on top, and licked it clean. She forgot that Rajat noticed her. Both looked at each other for a while and shared a hearty laugh. "Glad that some habits never change", he said. "Hmm. How excited are you about the wedding?", she asked. " Very much indeed. I can't believe that this is happening.", he said and continued talking about the arrangements and the various proceedings of the big event. Sipping on the coffee, she observed Rajat's body language, the dimple on his cheek, his wavy hair, and gave a deaf ear to his conversation. Both realized that they couldn't spend all their time in the cafe and quickly left the place. 

Rajat stopped by a beautiful marigold garden en route, by the side of a lonely highway. Both walked down the garden admiring the sun-kissed flowers and stood under a widely branched tree. It was quick. Probably a flash of a second was all needed for both of them to get sealed into a steaming liplock. The kiss was intense as tears trickled from both their eyes. They paused, exchanged quick glances, and kissed once again. 

Without speaking a word or even looking at each other, Rajat dropped Sakshi at her aunt's place and drove back. 

"Yamini, they have altered your lehenga, they way you wanted, give it a try", Sakshi told her cousin handing over the apparel to her. Pulling the drawstrings of the skirt, Yamini asked," Didi, how is Nikhil's Sherwani? ". " It's done beautifully dear. This is going to be the best twinning outfit ever for the wedding reception", Sakshi said. 

Meanwhile, Rajat reached home, placed the Sherwani on the sofa, and directly climbed to the terrace to grab a smoke. "Nikhil is looking dapper!", Rajat's sister tapped him from behind. "I am glad that our families are uniting again through this wedding. Sakshi is a nice girl, but she couldn't be a part of our family. But I am happy that Yamini is coming home.

Rajat couldn't go against the wishes of his ailing father ten years ago nor Sakshi couldn't break the traditional norms of the family. The horoscopes weighed heavier than love in their scales of destiny. Both moved ahead in life burying their emotions in the corner of their hearts.

Rajat sent out a Whatsapp message to Sakshi-" I know you had sensitivity in your teeth, but still you managed to gulp down the cold coffee."

The reply came from the other end- "No worries, after a long time I had a nice cup of coffee- Guilt-Free"