ABCDs ; The Culture-Conflict. 86

                                           (Source : The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahir


             Gogol had proposed to her on her birthday, giving her a diamond solitaire in addition to the hat he had bought for her after their second date, by taking her to a country inn for the weekend. She had been overwhelmed that he remembered it all time. "I can't believe the store still had it," she said. From the very beginning it was safely assumed by their families, and soon enough by themselves, that as longs as they liked each other their courtship would not lag and they would surely wed.
           She emerged out of the bathroom in a snow-white terry-cloth hotel robe. She had taken off her make-up and her jewels, the vermilion which she had stained her part at the end of the ceremony had been rinsed from her hair. Her feet were free of three-inch heels she'd worn as soon as the religious part of the wedding was over. This was the way he found her most ravishing, unadorned, that she was willing to look for no one but him. She sat on the edge of the mattress, applied some blue cream from a tube to her calves and the bottom of her feet. She had massaged the cream onto his own feet once, the day they'd walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, causing them to tingle and go cold. And then she lied against the pillows, and looked at him, and put out a hand. Underneath the robe he expected to find some lingerie. But she was naked, her skin smelling, a little too intensely, of some sort of berry. He kissed the dark hair on her forearms, the prominent collarbone, which she'd once confessed to him was her favorite part of her body. They made love in spite of exhaustion, her damp hair limp and cool against his face, the rose petals sticking on to their elbows and shoulders and calves. He breathed in the scent of her skin, still unable to fathom that they were husband and wife. When would it sink in ? Even then he didn't feel fully alone with her, half waiting someone to knock on the door and tell them how to go about things. And though he desired her as much as ever, he was relieved when they were through, lying naked side by side, knowing that nothing else was expected of them, that finally they could relax.