Why did you agree to marry me?

It's been two weeks since Gautham and Sindhu went on the bike ride. Sindhu had been caught up with work after that so they hadn't met after that. They barely talked except for a few text messages here and there. It's been driving Gautham crazy. It didn't sit well with him the fact he can't see her. He missed her terribly even when the time they actually spend together was very meager and they had only been apart for two weeks.

Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. So he popped at her office on Saturday. Its past 8 pm and she was still busy with some papers. One of her staff let him in. Gautham was now sitting in her office watching her work. Her brows frowned in concentration. She kept flipping some pages in a file and crosschecked it on the laptop. She was so engrossed in her work that she didn't even realize him staring at her the whole time. But Gautham didn't mind. He liked to observe her work. There was a different kind of allure to her when she was working.

Whenever they went out, Sindhu always had a happy-go-lucky face that cannot be bothered about anything at all. But now, when she was working… He can see she was giving her 100% concentration to it. You can literally see her brain working a million miles an hour by just looking into her fluttering narrowed eyes.

Sindhu was finally done with her work at 9.30 pm. She quickly shut down her systems and arranged her files and looked up at Gautham only to find him nodding off on her office couch. His head kept swaying sideways every few minutes. Sindhu had a sudden urge. Her eyes turned mischievous. She quickly took out her kajal and went near Gautham. When she was just about to draw on his face, he caught her hands and glared at her. Sindhu pouted in disappointment. Gautham just pinched her cheeks and asked, "Are you done with your work??"

"Yes", Sindhu said rubbing her cheeks and glared at Gautham. She went back to her desk, put her kajal in her bag and collected her car keys, and turned to leave. Gautham followed suit.

Sindhu was still disappointed that Gautham woke up. Looking at her sulking face, Gautham let out a chuckle and went near her ears and said in a teasing voice," I am a very light sleeper, just so you know for future reference." And then ruffled her hair and took her hands in his and started dragging her towards the parking lot. Sindhu slightly froze when she felt his breath near her ears. She was surprised by the closeness and the flirtatiousness in his voice. But she didn't think much about it and followed him.

"I am hungry", Sindhu whined as soon as they were out of her office.

"Where do you want to eat??? My treat.", Gautham asked.

"I don't really care where. But can we have a takeaway? I am staying at my apartment today, so we can take it there and eat. I am really beat. I don't have the energy to put up with the crowd. Especially given today is Saturday. All the places will be packed.", Sindhu said.

Gautham simply agreed by saying, "Okay." and put his arms around Sindhu and let her lean on his shoulders. Sindhu simply stumbled around relying on Gautham looking tired and exhausted. She did not even care about where they were going. She simply followed his lead blindly.

After an hour, Sindhu and Gautham were now sitting on top of the water tank in her apartment. Chilling wind, Dead silence, and black sky surrounded them and the whole city was spread out in front of them like a carpet.

Sindhu sat there hugging her knees and stared blankly lost in her thoughts. And Gautham was starring at Sindhu. There were a couple of pizza boxes and Coke bottles littered around them.

Gautham finally broke the silence and asked, "What are you thinking??" running his hands through her hairs. He gently caressed her head smiling at her. He did not even realize how soft his expression was whenever he faced Sindhu. He did not realize that with each day passing, he was falling deeper for her.

Sindhu came out of her thoughts and shifted to face him. She did not reply straight away. She contemplated on how to answer his question before saying, "I don't know actually. I am just trying to make sense of things I guess." She looked a little lost when she said it. After a pause, she asked Gautham, "Why did you agree to marry me? I mean there are better choices out there. And before you think I am degrading myself, I am not. But then you can't deny the obvious disadvantages that come along with me. I mean, you might not have known about the disadvantages when you agreed but you are still here after knowing. Why?"

Gautham kept staring at Sindhu intently and then said after a while, "In all honesty, even I don't know why. I just know that if I had to share my life with someone and if it's you, it won't be so bad. I can't sit here and say 'I am head over heels in love with you’ or that 'you are perfect for me'. Maybe you are perfect for me, but I don't know that as of now. All I know as of now is I am drawn to you in a way I don't know how to reason or explain. It drives me crazy how attached I got to you in such a short span of time. And I am scared with just the thought of not being able to be with you. You have no idea how much I missed you these two weeks when we did not meet."

"I know it doesn't really answer your question nor does it make a hell of a lot of sense but then I got a headache trying to make sense of it. So I decided to take up on my mom's advice and take a leap of faith." Gautham finished with utmost sincerity on his face. He did not bother hiding anything from her. They were just starting their relationship and he wanted to build it further and the only way that was going to happen was by being honest.

Sindhu looked surprised when he confessed to missing her. It spread something warm inside her. But then, she thought of something that poured a bucket of cold water over her head.

"Did you not think about what would happen if I... I...", Sindhu couldn't finish her sentence but she did not have to. With just her hesitation and expression, Gautham could clearly guess what she getting at. Sindhu just hung her head down meekly and stayed quiet when she saw that he understood her question.

Gautham scooted beside her and put his arms around her and rubbed her arms gently and said, "Hey... I know you're scared. But that's exactly why I am not worried. Because you know the seriousness of your condition and you seem to have been able to keep it under control on your own for so long. I don't know what you've been through or what you did but you don't have to doubt your every feeling and decision because of it."