Chapter 52: Adolescentish

“I have a habit of leaving people speechless. It’s okay, you may leave now.” Aanya tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear gazing at Aakash’s slack-jawed expression.

“Narcissist.” Aakash tsked dismissively. “But no matter, it’s a habit you have learnt from the best.” A sardonic smile graced Aakash’s face at the same moment as his wife rolled her eyes.

“Suuuuureeeee…” Her mocking smile was a match for his own.

“Want a recent example?” Aakash raised a brow.

“Pray, tell?” Aanya raised her body and used her elbow as a weight to rest her head sideways on her palm.

“Weren’t you stumped when I told Mihika about the performance and that you might perform a violin duet with her? Wasn’t that act enough to leave you slack-jawed, love?” The self-satisfied smile appearing on his lips was perfectly countered by the dark expression which settled over Aanya’s features.

“If you think endearments are going to help my mood, you are highly mistaken, love.” The stress on the last word left Aakash chuckling feebly.

“Guilty as charged, hehehe.” Aakash spread his hands, a mischievous glint in his eyes, “Well, I could have gone with a forceful tone ending with a powerful ‘huh, bitch?!’ Would that be cooler? I mean, it would but…nah, too adolescentish.”

“That’s not even a word. And you’re a literature teacher.”

“I make my own words.” After a slight pause, he added, “You got that, bitch?!”

“Not helping.” Aanya flopped back onto the bed, a dull expression on her face.

“Oh, c’mon. Cheer up, Aanya.” Aakash slid over to her and reached out to ruffle her hair.

“I told you not to do that!” His hand was slapped away.

Raising both arms in surrender, the man let out a sigh.

“Look, if you are going to take a break, doing something you used to love might cheer you up.”

“We’ve been over this. It’s not easy-”

“It’s not like Mr. Bala has agreed to stay for the function. Plus, you’ve not even asked yet. You could just not ask and make up some excuse to the other two later on.”

“Like what?”

“Uh…good question?” Aakash was lost for words.

Shaking her head, Aanya rolled to face the other side, “It would be incredibly rude to not even ask after the two of them requested me. And it’s a request I would have made anyway. We send formal notices to our closest collaborators every time.”

“Wait a second…does that mean every time we performed, we were performing in front of other CEOs etc?” Aakash latched onto what he considered the elephant in the room.

Making an exasperated sound, Aanya rolled back towards him, “You never listen when I point out people during the function to you, do you?! I can’t even ask if you’ve forgotten because it’s very clear you don’t pay any attention!”

“Ah…” Aakash’s eyes snapped all across the room, glancing at everything except meeting Aanya’s eyes. Suddenly hitting upon an idea, he turned his gaze, “Well, when at parties, what’s the main thing to do? Enjoy the programme and eat tasty food. Am I right or am I right?”

“Now isn’t what you just said also ‘adolescentish’?” Aanya couldn’t help but lose her fist at his stomach once, leaving the man winded. “I wasn’t introducing you all. I was telling you about them. At least listen to your wife when she’s speaking.”

“I-I d-do.” He stammered out, catching his breath. “But there are so many people there anyways who keep on coming to greet you that you lect- I mean, introductions, are kinda lost. I am also busy greeting those I know.”

Aakash was well aware that Aanya made up many excuses when too many people wanted to meet him during these functions since she was aware that he wasn’t too fond of socializing, especially with people he’d hardly see again. Thus, he never paid any attention even when Aanya was talking about them later on.

Blowing a raspberry at her, Aakash gave a lopsided grin, “What’s done is done. Just blow it off. Be casual, be badass, bitch!” He raised his amplitude at the end.

“You are really trying to fit into that adolescent spirit, aren’t you?”

“No, no. I’m being a cool g-”

As Aanya kept staring, he laughed. “Okay, yes. Using curse words randomly just brought back those memories when my every next word was a cuss.”

“We still cuss.” Aanya pointed out.

“I mean the frequency. It’s decreased.”

“That’s what we call maturity.”

“Fuck off.” Aakash added in an off-hand manner. And for good measure, he repeated, “Bitch!”

“It’s getting pretty boring now. Not that it was entertaining before.”

“I found it to be fun.”

“I didn’t. Pretty sure nobody else would either.”

As Aakash waved a hand, brushing off her comment, Aanya pandiculated and then winked at him, “But it did remind me to congratulate you.”

“What? Why?” He frowned in confusion.

“Well, having every next word being a cuss word is definitely a huge improvement from a person who didn’t even know what ‘Fuck off’ was until Class 9th, don’t think so?” The deceptively sweet smile on Aanya’s face was anything but sweet.

“Huhhhhhhh????????”