WHO Arya WHEN Tuesday, 17th May WHAT Those big romantic gestures WARNINGS some weight talk
“Close your eyes.”
With an eager smile, Arya did as she was told and then listened carefully to try and work out what was about to happen to her. She expected, a little, to feel Ethan’s lips on her skin somewhere and was so ready for that. But instead something was placed on her lap and Ethan said, “can you guess?”
Arya tilted her head a little as though listening, as though listening would reveal that secret. She moved her hands gently to touch what was on her lap. “A box,” she said, because it was most definitely a box. “A… shoe box?” Hmm, maybe too big.
“Open your eyes.”
She did, opening her right one first as though to peek and then opening the other. Her smile widened in surprise at the white box on her lap that read RAHUL MISHA in classy black lettering. “Oh my god,” Arya said, pulling the lid off quickly and gasping at the colourful fabric within. “You didn’t!”
A month ago she’d seen this exact embroidered lehenga choli and dupatta in the window of the Rahul Mishra store while she’d been waiting for Ethan to arrive for their lunch date. He’d approached her from behind and said, “a lot going on there.”
Arya had grinned and said, “And I’d look so good in that blue one.”
He’d kissed her neck - a total win as Arya saw it, since he was always too wary to kiss her in public - and said, “no doubt you would.”
They’d gone to lunch and Arya hadn’t thought of it since. But evidently Ethan had.
“I can’t believe you bought it!”
Ethan was beaming and leaned down to kiss her. “How could I resist?”
Arya made a little squeal of excitement and jumped up, keeping hold of the box. “I gotta try it on!”
“Go go,” Ethan nodded, patting her on the bum as she laughed her way towards the bedroom.
The intricate patterns on the lehenga, as she drew it through her fingers, were so beautiful and surely all sewed in by hand. These things, even the basic ones, always cost so much because of all the work, and this one was by a famous designer.
Arya only owned one lehenga choli, the same one she’d had since it was gifted to her at fourteen, and Arya had worn it to every special occasion that her mother had deemed suitable for traditional dress. Arya didn’t much go on for all this traditional stuff, but she knew she looked good in it. Wearing clothes from India didn’t feel like Arya’s heritage though: it always felt more like Halloween, like dressing up. Her mother had tried so hard to make Arya feel Indian, but she had only ever felt American. She’d only ever wanted to be American. She spoke the language poorly, and the idea of ever traveling back to the ‘motherland’ held no interest. She’d seen the all the videos of shit-covered streets and animals everywhere and toothless old men trying to rob tourists. That was not Arya’s whole deal at all.
But the dresses? The dresses were pretty gorgeous and luxurious, and Arya slipped the lehenga up over her thighs and felt the swishy weight of it, turning a little as she took a breath in to get the buttons done up. It was cutting in a little, but maybe she could work on losing some weight. Less ice-cream at work for a start.
The choli was also a little tight, but a lot of that was her boobs and Arya wasn’t going to fault them. Her boobs were excellent, it was just ‘puppy fat’ (as her mother would say) on her ribs causing some problems.
But looking in the mirror, it was hard to see those problems. Arya swirled a little and felt like a princess. She picked up the dupatta and slid the cool fabric over her shoulders.
“Ta da!” Arya said, coming out of the bedroom. Ethan had been flicking through one of Arya’s magazines but when he looked at her the expression was pure awe, and Arya felt even more like a princess.
With a slightly lopsided smile as she tried to adjust the choli, Arya said, “I’m a bit too fat for it.”
“Incorrect,” Ethan said, kissing her and slipping a hand around her waist, his fingers on her exposed skin. “You’re perfect. The dress is just a little too small. We’ll get it fixed, because you look like a goddess in it.”
Ha, a goddess! If only.
“You like this look?” Arya asked teasingly, biting her lip and making the skirt sway against his legs.
“Very much so,” Ethan agreed, kissing her throat. “So much that I’m ready to get you out of it.”
Arya could work with that. Her mom was gonna flip out when she saw this gorgeous thing at their next event.
-
They were very careful of the outfit, hanging it up before falling into bed together, and after the two of them were content and a little sweaty, Arya lay being spooned by Ethan and looked at the way the fan made the dupatta sway a little.
Armaan was gonna flip as well, cause this thing was gorgeous and so out of the price range of anything their mom would have bought. Arya couldn’t wait to show it off, this amazing designer outfit that was also yet another show of how much Ethan loved and respected her. You didn’t go around buying things like that for someone who was just your side piece. This was something you bought for a woman you wanted to make your forever partner.
“I can’t wait until it’s just you and me,” Arya said, kissing his arm.
Ethan nuzzled against her neck and said, “me too, babygirl. You’ve been so patient with me. It’s just such a bad time, especially now with her dad being sick. I can’t exactly leave her at the moment.”
“I know,” Arya nodded because, yeah, even if his wife was a psycho, Ethan couldn’t just hand her divorce papers when her dad might be dying. Ethan was too good of a man for that. Arya just wanted it to be their time already, so she could show him off to everyone.
“Hey,” she said, thinking on it again, “we should do that dinner with Armaan. You were saying that we could talk about it after you’d finished that account at work.”
“Yeah,” Ethan said, another kiss on her bare shoulder. “Totally. I’ve just got a lot going on right now, and if I start disappearing more while Violet’s dad is sick she’ll be asking questions.”
“Just for an evening,” Arya argued. “Violet won’t even know and I really want you to meet my brother.”
“Arya…”
“One evening,” Arya repeated. “Just a few hours. You could be working late for all she knows.”
Ethan sighed loudly and then slipped away from her, getting up out of bed. Arya turned over to look at him and he shook his head, grabbing for his pants and not looking at her. “You’re stressing me out, Arya,” he said. “You know I hate this, and you know I hate when you try and push me into things.”
Arya frowned, getting up onto her knees on the bed so she could take his hands in hers. “I’m sorry,” she said quickly, kissing his knuckles and smiling up at him. “I’m really sorry, I don’t want to stress you out. I just love you and Armaan both so much, you know? And I want him to know the amazing man I know.”
Ethan sighed deeply and reached down to cup her chin. “You’re so beautiful, but I think you’ll be the death of me.”
He said it so seriously but Arya tried to cut through that instead. “I hope it’s a good death,” she teased and Ethan (like she’d hoped he would) began to smile.
“I hope so too.” Then he kissed her and Arya felt like she’d won.
Half an hour later and Ethan was showered and gone, leaving Arya to catch up on the latest escapades of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, occasionally looking over to admire her beautiful lehenga choli with a smile.