Chapter 15: Chapter 15
In the car, Andre just kept snuggling Laura.
"What do you want?" Laura whispered. She was very cautious as Prem was just in the driver's seat in front of them.
"I want to cuddle with you and kiss you so badly..." He uttered shamelessly. Laura blushed hard as she tried to wriggle out of his embrace. Andre was about to kiss her when Prem suddenly interrupted.
"The both of you can keep the remaining for later. We're home already." He said as they entered the Lal residence. Laura glared at Andre with a look clearly saying ' you see what you've caused eh?'
It turned out that the Lal family's family house was actually an estate. As they drove in the through the front gates she couldn't help but be amazed. The estate was beautiful, beautiful was actually an understatement, it was magnificent. They finally stopped in a little far distance away from a massive house. She vaguely saw some people standing in front of the house. Andre helped her out if the car and they walked towards the house. Each step Laura took made her heart beat faster. She was very nervous.
And finally she was standing in front of so many people. They were waiting at the entrance of the house. The atmosphere was awkward as everyone kept silent and only stared at her. This continued for about two minutes until the beautiful middle-aged woman that was standing right in front of her suddenly exclaimed in hindi " Our daughter-in-law is so beautiful!!!." She didn't fully understand hindi but she knew the meaning of daughter-in-law and beautiful. Some clapped, some squealed, some awwn awwned and some further complimented her. When the noise died down, Uma, the woman in front of her who was the eldest daughter-in-law asked her
"My dear, how are you?. Kindly introduce yourself to everybody." Everyone then looked at her with expectant expressions on their faces.
Laura was quiet for a moment before she folded her palms together and finally said in hindi "Greetings everyone, my name is Laura and I've been looking forward to meeting you all." After saying this, she bent down to touch the oldest daughters-in-law's feet. The heart of everyone who saw this warmed up as they appreciated Laura's effort to learn their traditions. Even though her hindi wasn't fluent, she tried her best. Not that they minded anyway, they were a modern family.
It was as if Priya and Andre were invisible as all attention was on Laura. Except for some of his cousins that welcomed him, others pretended like he wasn't even there. Yes Andre was the emotionless CEO but right now he was so jealous. He scoffed in his head ' Ugh... they're all gushing over the cute and adorable one, and they are ignoring her à?'. After Laura was taken inside to greet grandfather and grandmother Lal, Andre and Priya were finally noticed and ushered in as well.
" Where is Karan?" he asked after noticing that one of his cousins was nowhere to be seen.
"He went to the groom's family house. Today is the Tilak ceremony* remember?" Another cousin of his, Sameer replied him.
"Ohhh" he said in realization as he kept looking towards his wife's direction. She was sitting beside grandmother as she was showered with questions, compliments and praises. She was smiling broadly and she answered questions when asked. They were in the middle of this when she felt someone pull her the sleeve of her blouse. She turned her head to the side and she saw a cute little girl staring innocently at her and sitting beside her. The girl was about two years old and she was so adorable that Laura couldn't help but slightly part her lips. The little girl stretched her arms forward which was a sign for Laura to carry her. Laura understood this and carried the girl in her arms almost immediately, she loved children a lot si she didn't mind.
"Hi." Laura said as she smiled at the girl she was carrying on her laps. The little girl tilted her head and stared at Laura for a while before she also gave Laura a toothy smile while clapping her hands. "Pretty!!" the little girl exclaimed. From then on, Laura and the little girl became good friends.
" What is your name?"
"I'm Sana. What is your name?" the little girl asked out of curiosity.
"I'm Laura." The chat between the two continued for a while before grandmother Lal told Andre, Laura and Priya to go get some rest.
"I'll talk to you once I'm done okay?" Laura said to Sana and then she put the girl down and they(she and Andre) went to the room that has been prepared for them. The room was big and lavishly furnished with the decors a mixture of white and gold. While Laura was still admiring the room, Andre went to shower first. He came out a few minutes later wearing a red robe and his hair was still wet. Laura didn't think twice before hugging him.
"Hey are you alright?" Andre asked her in a concerned manner as he patted her back.
"Thank you." she whispered. "Thank you for all you've done for me and my dad. Thank you for allowing me to be part of this loving family. I don't know how to thank you enough." She was very emotional right now and she had to admit that she had feelings for this husband of hers but she didn't forget the last rule on their contract, "No love". She would rather keep her feelings to herself and express them through small gestured like this than confess her feelings and lose him.
" Ahhhh... what should I do to you?" He patted her back while smiling. He then hugged her back and pulled out her embrace after a while. He was about to say something but he was interrupted by a knock on the door. He scrunched his face in annoyance and Laura went to open the door. It was a young beautiful lady with shoulder length black hair, a wide smile on her lips and a tray of food in her hands. 'They are all beautiful species in this family.' Laura said in her mind.
"Hi, I was not there when you arrived. I'm Ishani." She said with the smile still on her lips.
Laura returned her smile and asked her "The bride?."
"Yes I'm the bride. Grandma wanted to send a maid to bring you food but I decided to bring it instead so I could meet you."
"Ohh thank you." She collected the tray from her and invited her in. She was about to accept the invitation but then she saw her cousin in a robe and staring at her with a look that clearly said ' you better leave and don't ruin the moment more than you already have.' Ishani smiled at her and replied " Some other time, I have a lot of things to do actually. We'll talk more after you rest. Grandma said you should come to meet everyone in three hours. I'll leave now." And then she left.
Laura closed the door and went to place the tray on the dressing table. Andre went and hugged her from behind.
"What are you doing Avi?" She asked him.
" Huh?, what did you just call me?"
Laura turned around to face him and she hooked her arms around his neck. She wasn't as talk as him si she had to look up to meet his gaze. "I called you Avi. Your indian name is Avinash right?, So I shortened it to Avi. That's my nickname for you and that's what I'll call you from now on. I don't want to call you what everyone calls you, I want to have a special name for my husband. Don't you like it?"
Andre smiled " I like it very much. Do whatever you want."
Laura looked at him for a while before she stood on her toes reluctantly to kiss him. It was a short kiss that only lasted three seconds.
"That was your reward for saying you like the name I gave you." She blushed as she talked.
Andre smirked mischievously " You do realize that I'm still wearing my robe and with all these you're doing. Don't blame me later."
Laura blushed harder before pushing him to sit so she could help him dry his hair. She also went to shower and they both ate and rested for a while.
*Tilak ceremony: An Indian pre-wedding ceremony. The bride's brother goes to the groom's house to put vermillion on the groom's forehead.
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