Page 107 of Strictly Solo
And here it begins… she thought!!
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As soon as the elevator doors slid open at the ground floor, Naina hurried out, her panic mounting with every step she took. She abruptly stopped and turned to Ruhaan.
“I can’t leave Neil with your mother. Let’s go back and get him.” She burst out, reaching for the elevator again.
Ruhaan frowned, catching her wrist before she could bolt back into the elevator. “Naina, stop. You need to relax. He’s fine. He’s at his future home, and he’s perfectly safe.”
“With your mom?” Naina’s voice cracked with worry. “I don’t think so.”
Ruhaan frowned, his hands moving to her shoulders. “Come on, Naina. Do you really think my mother is going to harm him? She’s not a monster. She’s just tough on the outside, but she has a kind heart.” He cupped her face gently, his thumbs stroking her cheeks. “She raised the man you love, didn’t she? She can’t be all wrong. You need to trust me.”
Some of the panic eased from Naina’s eyes, but concern still lingered.
“But she doesn’t want me to be your wife. And that’s exactly why Neil being alone with her is bothering me. What if she says something to him? I can’t let Neil be hurt, Ruhaan. I won’t.”
“She’s not going to hurt him. She’s upset withme, not Neil. She’s struggling to accept my decisions, I know, but she’s not heartless. She worries about me, overthinks everything, but Neil…he’ll win her over. I know he will.” He paused, searching her eyes. “And listen, we can keep calling both of them whenever we need to, just to make sure everything is okay.”
Naina still looked unconvinced. “And what if it’s not?” she asked.
“Then I’ll be the first one to get home and fix it,” he replied firmly. “You have my word. I won’t let anything go wrong.”
Naina finally relaxed, her shoulders dropping. Ruhaan’s expression suddenly turned wistful.
“You know what hurts me the most in all this?”
She looked at him questioningly. He stepped closer, his hand slipping down to hers, holding it gently.
“This is the first time you’ve come to my home, stood at my door, and I couldn’t even invite you inside. Do you know how much that hurts?” His voice held a tinge of regret. “If we hadn’t rushed off to avoid Mom arguing some more, I would have welcomed you properly. But I couldn’t.”
She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. “It’s okay. If your plan works today, and I hope it does, then that day isn’t far when I’ll step into your home not as a guest, but as your family.Your wife.”
A slow, boyish grin spread across his face. “Wife,” he murmured, as if savoring the feel of the word on his lips.
He leaned in closer and just as his lips were about to brush hers, she pushed him away with a playful glare. “We’re getting late. Bakshi is waiting for us at the office.”
He groaned in mock frustration, running a hand through his hair. “Always work before romance,” he teased. “You’re going to be a very tough wife.”
“And you’ll be a very late businessman if we don’t leave now,” she shot back, grabbing his arm and tugging him toward the car.
Ruhaan sighed dramatically. As they settled in for their drive to work, he couldn’t help but smile, hoping that back in his apartment, his mother was already discovering what he knew -that it was impossible not to fall in love with Neil’s charm.
His heart felt full, and for the first time in weeks, he was sure his plan was going to work.
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Ruhaan’s Home
It had been two hours since Neil arrived, and the apartment was unusually quiet. Kaushalya stood in the kitchen, chopping vegetables. She couldn’t very well let the boy go hungry, couldshe? Though she’d barely spoken to him, she kept stealing glances of him every few minutes as he sat quietly doing his homework, his small brows furrowed as he carefully wrote in his notebook.
Her hands paused over the cutting board as she thought about the other kids she’d seen in the building…her friends’ grandchildren, running around, shouting, and creating havoc. They were notorious for leaving a trail of chaos wherever they went. But Neil… Neil was different. He sat quietly, scribbling away, not disturbing a thing. Was this his natural behavior, or was he just trying to make a good impression? She sighed, shaking her head and returning to her cooking. Perhaps, he saved his mischief for home.
Her phone rang the same moment, breaking the silence. She picked it up and frowned when she saw Ruhaan’s name on the screen.
“What now?” she muttered as soon as she answered the phone call.
“Hey, Mom. How’s everything going at home?” he asked.
