Then I remember.
Aditya.
The realization settles into my mind slowly, like a stone sinking to the bottom of still water.
We got married yesterday.
A quiet court marriage with a bored clerk, two witnesses, and a handful of signatures that somehow changed the entire directionof my life. There were no rituals, no celebration, no time to process what it meant. Just papers, responsibility, and a strange calm acceptance between two people who barely knew each other.
And sometime after that, he carried his bags into this house, climbed the narrow stairs behind me, and lay down on the other side of my bed like a stranger who somehow already belonged there.
Another sound drifts up from the kitchen.
A low voice.
Then a smaller one.
Neel.
I groan softly and rub both hands over my face before sitting up.
The blanket slips down my shoulder and the cool morning air brushes lightly against my skin. For a moment I just sit there, letting the quiet sounds of the house reach me—voices murmuring downstairs, the occasional clink of utensils, the faint sizzle of something cooking.
Neel’s voice rises suddenly.
“Careful! You’re cutting it too big!”
My eyebrows knit together.
What on earth are they doing?
I swing my legs off the bed and stand, tying my hair into a loose knot as I shuffle toward the door. The wooden floor creaks faintly under my feet as I step into the hallway.
The smell reaches me before I even reach the kitchen. Something warm.
Savory.
Comforting.
Food.
My stomach immediately wakes up.
I walk quietly down the hallway and stop just outside the kitchen doorway.
And then I see them.
Neel is standing on one of the stools near the counter, his small hands gripping the edge as he leans forward with intense concentration.
Beside him, Aditya stands at the counter, chopping vegetables with steady, practiced movements like he’s been doing it for years.
The morning light streams through the kitchen window, falling across the counter and painting both of them in soft gold.
Neel watches every movement like a tiny supervisor.
“You have to cut them smaller,” he says very seriously.
Aditya glances sideways at him without stopping his work. “Are you the chef now?”
