"If you promise to stay, I promise to never leave"

***

PRERNA'S PERSPECTIVE

I sat there staring at the pasta trying to determine if I should add some water to it when he is not looking; just so you know, I could pull out my fork that's now jammed into it and refuses to come out. I looked up to see him looking at me with pride in his eyes.

"See, just like I told you, I can pretty much rock at anything I put my heart to" said Anurag enthusiastically; I smiled to encourage him and looked down at my plate full of sticky cemented pasta where my fork was now stuck. I was wondering how long will it take for him to notice I am not eating and thereafter how long to figure why I am not eating.

"So Anurag, when you were making that white sauce, how much flour did you put along with 2 cups of milk?" I asked casually, trying to mentally calculate the degree of adhesiveness of the said pasta sauce that was now holding my fork ransom.

"You're testing me eh?" he replied with a smirk, clearly very pleased with the outcome of his cooking skill, "one cup flour and two cups milk, that's the magical ratio you had said – see, I remember" he replied again, "why aren't you eating Prerna? Tell me I am a great chef or I am a great chef" he prattled on.

"One tablespoon flour to two cups milk" I whispered under my breath, that's what I had mentioned, but this man was generous as ever – only sometimes his generosity didn't work out in his favour. I couldn't help laughing to myself.

"Anurag, get me some red wine please, to go with this?" I requested and his eyes went wide in realisation; "Of course, I have it ready, but in excitement to serve this I forgot to pour you some. Hang on, let me get it" he replied quickly and scurried away to get the wine. This was my moment to save our date. I quickly jumped up to grab a bottle of water, well milk or heavy cream would have done a better job, but at the nick of time water was all the resource I had. I poured generous quantity of it into the pasta bowl and my plate too; and quickly beat it into mixing with the food; the water screwed up with the consistency of the sauce and made it runny, but well my fork was free now – at least I could act like I am eating it!

I know I could just tell him the truth and we'd probably laugh about it and he'd be a bit embarrassed admittedly, but then we could order in takeaway and have a good home date anyway – but I didn't; Anurag's mere existence had such a special place in my life that I could do anything, literally anything just to keep his smile intact, just to humour him; just to let him win. Agreed I would never suggest for him to cook for me in the future if I have some love left for my digestive organs, but this time around I would let him believe he owned the night; his 'know-it-all' smirk, his proud eyes, his jovial expression at cooking for me and impressing me – these were priceless for me – I am a very non expressive person, maybe I would never be able to tell him how these impacted me, how it warmed my heart, how it overwhelmed me, but I would always cherish them. That's how much this man meant to me, and it has been this way since our childhood – yes, Anurag and I were childhood lovers; our love story was the most harmonious one, one would hear of; we were family friends. My father and his father were best friends from school and then business partners; our mothers were friends from the time of their wedding to our respective fathers – his older sister Nivi di and my older brother Shekhar bhaiya were best friends forever and us, well we were soulmates, we were meant to be, we were fated; everyone in the family knew about us, approved of us – hell they were waiting for us to tie the knot – what could possibly go wrong in this perfection called 'Life'.

***

We were sitting in in the balcony of his apartment that was on the twenty-eighth floor, overlooking the lush green 'maidaan' in Calcutta to the right and 'Victoria Memorial' to the left. It was serene, and we were having a quiet moment, it had always been a comfortable silence between us, neither of us always felt the need to talk when we were together, but in being next to each other there was a peace that prevailed in our hearts.

"Prerna, I was thinking let's get married this year around November, what say?" he asked after a while, looking at me casually.

I stared at him for a few moments, I had some wine in my system but I wasn't really that buzzed to hear this wrong. "You just asked me to marry you?" I still clarified one more time. "Hmm" he replied now looking at the sky full of stars with a peaceful smile on his face.

"Excuse me Anurag. Did you just ask me to marry you?" I demanded this time, straightening up in my chair and turning towards him; he looked at me perturbed.

"Yeah, why are you getting all hysterical Prerna? We are in love for what fifteen years now, who'd you think we'd marry other than each other?" he asked puzzled. I gaped at him; honestly, I knew this man was unromantic but to this extent? I mean I get it when we don't celebrate Valentine's Day, like ever (he thinks it's a floosy marketing gimmick, and love should be celebrated everyday) or that he doesn't pamper me with roses and poetry like all other couple around us; I mean we are together for fifteen years – a decade and half; by now all this doesn't make a difference, we are so much together, so many memories, our lives are pretty much infused; but a wedding proposal? Well that happens once in a lifetime right, how can he be so damn casual to that?

"No, I won't marry you, Anurag" I replied promptly; he got up in his seat now looking confused.

"Why?" he asked appalled.

"Anu! How unromantic are you? I mean you just asked me for marriage; couldn't you be a least bit romantic at least? You know how every girl dreams of this moment, right? Do you remember how while watching YJHD the other day I kept emphasizing how romantic it was the way Ranbir Kapoor proposed to Deepika Padukone in that movie – couldn't you just take the hint?!" I tried explaining it to him; he raised his eyebrows as realisation finally dawned and I folded my hands in my chest, clearly expecting a more romantic version of his proposal now – but his face slowly turned from a look of realisation to a frown again.

"But Prerna, we are together for a decade and half, what is there that I haven't already told you? That you don't know but I feel about you? You know everything, right?" he asked scratching his head; I rolled my eyes.

"Seriously Anurag Basu, there is absolutely nothing left for you to say – nothing that you feel about me and I don't know?" I was annoyed at him by this point. He sighed looking at me seriously now, as he ran his hand in his hair; something I knew he did when he was flustered, or unable to process something. Then he took a deep breath, and got up from his chair and sat down on his one knee and held my hand – I smiled; much better. My Anurag needed a little scare, then he did things right, I laughed to myself.

"Prerna Sharma, in the fifteen years we have spent together as partners, as a couple, as friends and as each other's strongest support system, I have always been vocal about how I felt about you – there is absolutely nothing left for me to tell you in your praise that will sound new to your ears. Now technically speaking, that can mean one thing, that over the years you haven't developed any new lovely skills or features that I can now praise about, but let's not get technical here, let's talk romance, of course you want to hear something new, every girl wants to hear that - I agree, but what if the new things about you aren't exactly praises, would you still want me to call them out in my proposal? I mean ever since the last time you fractured your ankle and you stopped going to the gym, you have put on some weight – that's new and something I haven't told you, apart from that, well I know you hide it from me, but you have moved up in dress size from a UK 8 to a UK 10 that's there too, wait have I told you that off late you have a snoring problem too?---" but I didn't let him complete his romantic proposal from hell.

"Anurag Basu!! You insensitive monkey, you cow, you idiot!! This is how you want to make me agree to marry you? These are the new things you want to tell me? Seriously?!" I was on my feet now, and was hitting Anurag with whatever I had access to at that point, the couch pillow, plants, cloth pegs – whatever. Meanwhile this six footer human in question was doubling up in laughter seeing my state and was trying to pull off his ninja stunts to save him from my beating.

"Acha baba I was joking!!! Prerna, stop beating me, arre!!" he kept trying to stop me but I was mad at him; trust this jerk to ruin my most romantic moment in life just like that! Who asked him to propose to me if he wasn't prepared? but it didn't take him long to physically stop me from hitting him as he grabbed both my hand and placed it behind me, as he pulled me to his hard chest. I was so pissed that even though caught up between his arms, I refused to look at him. He looked at me with twinkling eyes for a few moments and finally placed a small kiss on my nose – it was our age old way of calling truce. I rolled my eyes and looked at him.

"AnuPre proposal Take 2" he muttered as I frowned at him.

"Ms. Prerna Sharma, I love the way how every life you touch feels alive, remember my childhood pet tortoise Mr. T, when he wasn't moving for a couple of hours and we thought he was dead and you came for his funeral and patted him and he turned his head? I also love how you snort if I say something funny, while you have coffee in your mouth and like an unruly lady spill it out of your mouth and nose and then crib like it is my fault; I truly love to see how you can go up till any extent to pursue happiness and just that, nothing materialistic – even if that meant giving up all your first salary to pay for the college fee of your neighbour's cooks' daughter. I adore the way you freak out seeing dogs and run to shelter yourself behind me – the point I am trying to make is, Prerna, I really don't care if you have put in a few kilos or you wear a size 10 dress now, I don't care even if you snore and I promise I won't care even if you became a real pain in the ass wife a couple of years into the future – because for me you'd always be that little girl who had accepted a rose from me on her ninth birthday and rolled her eyes and said, 'now that you have given me a red rose, I have to make you my boyfriend, what choice do I really have?' and I will always be that eleven year old boy with a blush considering myself to be the coolest boy alive to have a 'real' girl as a friend at the age of eleven" as Anurag said all those things, I just stared at him, I always envied his power of expression – how easily he recounted all of our lives in just those sentences, I would never have been able to do that; I looked at his eyes there was a daze in them, he was clearly lost in our long lovelorn history, remembering something special, maybe our first kiss? Or the first time we made love? Who knew..

"Anurag, one confession, I don't wear a UK size 10 anymore, I need a size 12, you think you can work with that?" I asked with a coy smile.

"I can run with that" he laughed touching his forehead with mine.

"Do you promise to bear with me, even if I become a pain in the ass wife in the future?" I asked with a small laugh

"I promise you that, Prerna" he whispered.

"Then yes, I will marry you; even though you forgot to finally ask me the real question at the end of your rather heartfelt speech" I giggled, he looked up with wide eyes as realisation dawned, and then we both broke into a peal of laughter hugging each other.

I guess we'd be happily married soon now.

***

WORD COUNT : 2279

A/N : Well it will be sometime before the story starts, but this Prologue doesn't have a cliff hanger, so you get a taste of their paradise but it doesn't keep you hanging; hope you read it as as OS for now, until the story begins! I will keep you posted on the dates!!

Meanwhile, do drop in your love, votes and comments and let me know how you feel about this new venture - always eager to catch up!

Much love,

A.