SS: Gopi's Ehsaas Last Part updated pg 56 - Page 33

Part 14

On the morning of teej Gopi woke up few minutes before the alarm could go off.

The male warmth that pressed against her back from her head to her heels and the arm that rested heavily around her waist, created sense of security and belonging that she'd rarely felt. She lay quietly to savor it.

Gopi shifted her arm and cautiously laid it on top of Ahem's. Though his arm was much longer than hers, she fitted her small hand over the hair-roughened back of his for a few moments.

Ahem's slow, steady breath assured her he was still sleeping, so she gently slid her fingers between his and curled her fingertips into his hard palm.

The time spent with Ahem in the past two days had been the happiest of Gopi's life. They had both started to be open with each other gradually. They both started to learn each other's likes and dislikes. Although Gopi had learned most everything about Ahem in the year they have been married, there were still new things to learn, that he never shared with anyone.

She had learned of his fear of height in Switzerland, but he told her he feared snakes even more. He apologized to her about the things he had said to her after the snake incident. He also told her even though he didn't show it he was actually more scared for her for putting the snake away like that. And that fear of being concern for her safety more than his had made him want to put more distance between them and that is the reason he behaved the way he had with her. Gopi had been too stunned to say anything to that.

They also talked about the laptop incident. Ahem asked her what had made her wash the laptop, even thought he had a good idea that Rashi must have put her up to it, he still wanted to know the whole story.  Gopi told him about how she was only going to clean it, but Rashi was the one who told her to wash it. Ahem had been very quiet and thoughtful after she finished telling him about it, and he hadn't continued the conversation after that.

Gopi reached up to turn the alarm off, before it could start ringing and wake Ahem.  She might have made it if Ahem's arm hadn't flexed to drag her solidly against him.

His voice was rusty from sleep. "You still have time before the milkman comes, where are you going?"

Her soft, "But I am awake now," made him chuckle.

"Hmmm….so am I". He rolled her to her back then rose up on an elbow to loom over her. His dark eyes met hers and she went breathless as his head descended.

His lips pressed gently against hers making her heart skip a beat, increasing her breathing. He deepened the kiss even more when she responded. He lifted up, stared at her, then kissed each corner of her mouth he then moved down to her neck and gave series of small kisses, his hand moved down to the exposed area of he waist and caressed her gently, Gopi closed her eyes getting lost in his touch. He came back up and took her lips again.

They both broke apart when the alarm went off. He reached over and switched the alarm off. "Good Morning dear wife."

Her shy, "Good Morning," made him smile and move away.

"Now you can go."

She rolled away from him to the edge of the bed and rushed out the door.

*~+~*

Rashi, meanwhile was cursing Koki for making her drink the kada two days before, she still felt weak from running to the bathroom every hour. She promised herself she would never make up a lie like that again.

On top of that her own mother had yelled at her, first for getting caught by Koki and making up a stupid lie for getting out of doing some work. Then she yelled at her again, when Rashi told her that she suspected Gopi and Ahem's relations had changed for better. When her mom asked her how she knew this, Rashi told her mom, about how they are constantly stealing looks at each other and spending lot of time alone together. Her mother had ranted and raved for full two minutes, then she got all quiet and said not to worry she would take care of Gopi in her own way.

*~+~*

Gopi was just coming out of the bathroom, towel drying her hair, when Ahem came back from his jog. When he saw her, he stopped in his tracks and just stood there starring at her.

He thought she looked beautiful with her wet hair sticking to her soft cheeks. When Gopi caught his reflection in the mirror she turned and flushed at the way he was looking at her.

"You are back! Um….I've laid your clothes out for you." When Ahem didn't say anything, she started twisting the edge of the towel in her hand and looked away.

Ahem walked towards her slowly, without taking his eyes off of her. He stopped in front of her, raised his hand, to move the wet hair off her face, still starring into her eyes, he leaned down and whispered into her ear. "Thanks" and moved away from her to see her flush even more, he gave her a slow smile and went into the bathroom to shower.

When he came out of the bathroom Gopi was gone, and he was not surprised. His wife was still shy of him. He smiled at the clothes she laid out for him. Black suit with powder blue striped shirt and a matching tie. Black socks, and his "I love Ahemji" handkerchief, but what surprised him was the fact she even had his shoes ready for him.

He would have to thank her later for taking care of his needs. He realized today was the day of Teej and he should gift her with something special, beside the sari, for the special day and also to make up for the previous year.

He was still thinking about it when he went to his closet to get his watch. He opened the drawer for his watch and his eyes landed on something gold and shiny hidden, under one of his watches.

He moved the watch and was amazed to see his wedding band. He took the band out and looked at it for a long time, he had forgotten all about the ring. He had remembered taking it off on the day off laptop washing incident and throwing it in the drawer never to think about it again. He tried fitting the ring on the ring finger of his right hand and was stunned to see it fit perfectly and how right it felt to be wearing it again.

Then he realized exactly what gift he wanted to give to Gopi that evening. He put the ring back in his drawer, this time very carefully and closed the drawer. He finished getting dressed and hurried down for aarti and breakfast.

When he went down, he was floored to see all the preparations for the day was already half way done. He saw that the mandir was also decorated beautifully, and knew it had to be Gopi who did it; he remembered Gopi decorating the mandir just like this on his birthday.

His mom noticed him standing there gaping at all the decorations and called him over. "Ahem, why are you standing there starring? Come on you have to do the aarti today with my Gopi vahu."

He smiled at his mom's constant "my Gopi vahu," she never gets tired of saying that and Gopi's face always blossoms like a flower when his mom praises her. He thanked Kanaji for the two amazing women in his life.

He took his place besides Gopi and smiled at her, and didn't care who saw it.

While rest of the family was pleasantly surprised, Rashi was thunderstruck. Her and her mom's worst nightmare was coming true, and if they didn't do something fast their dreams would be shattered. It is now confirmed that Ahemjiju was falling for Gopi.

 Koki smirked at Rashi and turned to listen to Gopi sing the aarti. She silently thanked Kanaji for listening to her prayers and prayed to keep her son and pyari Gopi vahu always happy.

After the aarti, they performed the sari giving rituals. Ahem ran to his room quickly to get the Gopi's sari, while the elders did their sari giving ritual. By the time he came back down, only Gopi was left without a gift box.

He rushed down and apologized, then presented the box to Gopi. She opened the box as everyone looked on. She was pleasantly surprised to see a beautiful green sari with gold trimmings, both their favorite color. He must have seen her admiring the sari in the shop when they went shopping couple of days back.

Rashi gasped at the beautiful sari and clenched her teeth. She couldn't believe Gopi got the most beautiful sari, she made a face at her own simple blue sari and glared at Jigar, who was grinning at her like an idiot.

Meanwhile, Ahem and Gopi were lost in each other. They both realized the whole family was watching them and stopped starring at each other. Gopi leaned closed to him and thanked him very softly so only he was able to hear her. He just smiled at her.

"Ahem are you ready to go?" Ahem turned towards his Kakaji.

"Kakaji you and Jigar go ahead in your car, I am going to drive my self. I have a stop to make on my way home tonight; so its better if we take two cars."

"Ok then Jigar and I will leave now, and we will meet at the office."

After Jigar leaves, Rashi makes her way to her room to call her mom. Hetal and Koki also go to their room, leaving Gopi and Ahem alone.

Gopi and Ahem walk to their room together. "Do you like the sari?" Ahem asked Gopi.

Gopi place the sari on the bed and turned towards Ahem, smiled and nodded her head shyly, unable meet his eyes.

Ahem sighed and walked to her. He took her face in his hand to make her look at him. Once she met his eyes he smiled at her, gave her a kiss on the forehead and took her leave. Gopi watched till he was out of sight, then smiled and turned towards the sari again, she took it in her trembling hands and thanked her Kanaji for finally fulfilling all her wishes.

*~+~*

Rashi had called her mom and informed her mom all the happening in the Modi Bhavan, on other side, Urmi listened with mean look on her face and promised her self, Gopi and Ahem would pay for making her daughter unhappy. After she hung up with Rashi, she dialed another number, when the other person on the phone answered she told them exactly what to do, then hung up quickly and smiled evilly.

At the Modi Bhavan, Gopi had just finished doing all the rangoli and was walking towards the kitchen when the phone rang.

She answered the phone, and waited for someone to speak, at first all she heard was static, then distorted voice spoke and all the color drained from her face, her eyes widened in shock, she quickly put the phone down. She couldn't believe what she heard.

"If you know what's good for you, you will leave Modi Bhavan forever, if not watch what happens to your husband."

Gopi looked around and made sure no one had noticed her odd behavior; she rushed to her room, closed and locked the door behind her.

She didn't know what to do, should she believe what the voice said? Was that someone just trying to scare her? Then she stopped and thought hard. She realized whatever it was it had to be related to her mami and Rashi; only they would be bold enough to make threats like this.

She started pacing the length of room, should she call Ahemji and inform him of the phone call? She didn't know what to do. Before she could decide, there was a knock on her door, she rushed to open the door, and was surprised to see Kinjle standing on the other side.

Kinjle came in to the room, she was bit nervous, but determined to apologize to her bhabhi.

Gopi smiled and greeted her. "Kinjleben, how are you?"

Kinjle was relieved to see Gopi smile at her and relaxed. "I am fine Gopi bhabhi, how are you."

"I am also fine, come in. Did Dhavabhai also come with you?"

"No, he will come later. Bhabhi I wanted to talk to you alone and apologize to you for treating you the way I did in the past and also for the necklace incident."

Gopi took Kinjle's hand in hers. "Kinjleben, you don't have to apologize to me, I understand why you did what you did, and I don't blame you for trying to make Ahemji happy."

"Bhabhi you are too nice, it would be ok if I was only trying to make bhai happy, but I also did it for my own selfish reasons, and that is not worth forgiving."

"Kinjleben don't say that, you were only trying to be with the one you loved, and he was just using you for his own selfish reasons, you are not to be blamed for that. Just be glad you found out about his true intentions. Forget the past and try to concentrate on your future."

"Forget all that, and tell me, are you happy with Dhavalbhai now?"

Kinjle was relieved to hear her bhabhi forgiving her so easily and thought her bhai was very lucky. "I am trying bhabhi, I want to try to my best to make my marriage work."

Gopi smiled at her. "That's the best anyone can ask you to do. But you will soon see that Dhavabhai will make you very happy, he is the nicest person I know." She smiled when Kinjle nodded her head thoughtfully.

"Now lets go downstairs before they come looking for us." By the time Gopi was free again to call Ahem, he had already left from the office and his mobile was turned off.

Later that evening all the ladies were ready and waiting for their husbands to arrive home.

They were sitting around talking about the purpose to the fast when the men started arriving. Everyone was there except for Ahem and Gopi got worried. She started having a bad feeling about the phone call and prayed to Kanaji to keep her Ahemji safe.

An hour later Ahem walked in they all gasped when they saw his disheveled look. His suit was torn, his lip was bleeding and his face had lacerations. His hand was also bleeding; it looked like he had been in a car accident. But when Gopi met Ahem's eyes across the room she knew this was no accident, but had something to do with the phone call earlier.

*~+~*

Sorry to ended it here, but this part is getting too long. Hope you guys liked it.