“So, a man can’t hit a woman, but a woman can hit a man?” Naksh scoffed at Ivan’s recollection with a grimace. “Bullshit.”

“My wife, she would’ve smacked you for that.” Ivan exhaled a faint huff of a dry chuckle. His eyes were glued to the floor.

Seeing him like this made Naksh want to go on a tangent about her, but he bit back his tongue. They’ve been talking late into the night by now for what felt like hours, so he wanted to focus on what mattered most—where to go from here.

“Will you leave her then? I’ll treat you better,” Naksh boldly declared as he shot up from his chair with passion.

For Ivan, it felt unnatural to be treated right. He knew deep down that it shouldn’t be normal for his wife to do things, like touch his body even when he asked her not to. But no man on television ever complained about that before, so why should he? That’s what he told himself.

And yet, the promise of being treated better took Ivan’s breath away in all the right ways.

After a long hesitation, Ivan pried his gaze from the ground to the man before him. He entertained the idea. “And your fiancé?”

“I told you it was an arranged—“

“Not that,” Ivan interrupted Naksh softly. “Your fiancé. What am I supposed to do when my wife finds her, and tells her what you’re doing?”

“She knows. She approves.” Naksh shrugged nonchalantly, his tone and indicator for how lenient his fiancé was. It was normal to him.

“And if my wife finds your parents?” Ivan asked in a hushed voice. He sank into his seat a bit as he braced for an answer.

But, there wasn’t one. At least not immediately. Yet Naksh only found himself pausing for three noticeable seconds before waving his hands in a fervently dismissive manner. “It’s fine, it doesn’t matter,” He sputtered.

“But—“ Ivan began, and he continued speaking, but he couldn’t even hear his own quiet sentence as Naksh spoke firmly over him.

“We’re going to make it work. Trust me. You trust me, right?” Naksh grinned confidently.

“Of course,” Ivan said without reluctance.

Finally hearing certainty in Ivan’s voice, Naksh smiled. He let out a hearty laugh and yelled a boisterous “woo!” that would’ve made passersby assume he was celebrating another Lakers win. A holler so loud that a distant dog began barking.

Ivan only sank further into his seat as he flushed with sheepishness, but he couldn’t help but smile fondly at the pure joy in Naksh’s voice.

“Can I kiss you?” Naksh asked with a giddy grin, yet a gentle voice.

“I’d like that,” Ivan answered bashfully, yet eagerly rose from his seat so they could make out.

For some reason, a relationship so complicated still felt so simple for them. It was just so easy to love each other, and that’s all there was to it.