"Roshni mili, ab raah mein hain ek dilkashi si barsi"

~ Meher ~

Jaipur, India

"Use whatever, I don't really care about whether it's white lilies or jasmine," the event coordinator awkwardly shifted her gaze from Kabir to me, I held similar expressions as his, the flowers didn't really bother us, anything would be fine. For real.

"In my entire career as an event planner, I had never seen a couple fussing about anything," I didn't have to turn as I rolled my eyes mentally at Pranav who jabbed at us for the nth time. "Shouldn't event planners be happy about non bothersome clients?"

Pranav scoffed at me. "We do enjoy non bothersome clients but we absolutely don't enjoy clients who have absolutely no say in anything," I winced as he almost shouted at us in the end, but composed myself as I saw Kabir stifling a laugh. "Shut up, Kabir. You and I are on the same boat."

"On a serious note, Meher, it's high time you tell me what arrangements you want for your Mehendi, Sangeet, Haldi and the most important— the wedding. I promise, whatever you would say will be sorted. Just a little something of you both to at least tell the world that it was your wedding." I pitied him when he pleaded us. I mean getting married was the priority, not how it is supposed to go.

We weren't interested in that. And maybe our disinterest started showing up.

"I want it lively," I turned to my left in surprise when I heard Kabir's voice. Pranav smiled at him. "I like the start. Elaborate more."

"I want this wedding to become a happy memory for everyone. Happy colours, songs playing at every event, people dancing to their best— the vibe should be bright, aesthetic and happy." For a moment, no one said a thing. Kabir's ears turned pink and he coughed, looking away. I felt dumbfounded by his words, that was the last thing I could expect from him. It was so unlikely of Kabir to talk about something like this so willingly, he wasn't like that.

Or maybe I just wasn't aware of this side of his.

"Wow," Pranav broke the silence, clapping lightly. "The idea just seems apt for the wedding. Trust me it will be a wedding to remember." His gaze switched from him to me, "You better learn something from him, emo."

"Get out of my face," I waved my hand at him, shooing him away.

That insolent bastard.

Now that we were alone, Kabir turned to me. That lopsided smirk said everything. "Are we on the same boat, now dear fiance?"

I flicked his nose. "You'll be the first one to drown."

Kabir chuckled. "Getting touchy, are we?

I scoffed at his blatant remark. "In your dreams, Raizada."

"And here I thought you were always sour when you saw me, soon to be Mrs Raizada." That buffoon laughed again. "Turns out, you always carry that face." His finger drew a circle around my face, before flicking my nose. I blinked before my hand went to touch my nose.

Kabir rose from his seat and gave me a two finger salute. "See you at our Mehendi, Mini." With that, his steps retreated to the opposite direction of mine.

Who the hell in the world was Mini?

I walked in the hallway to one of the indoor garden spaces where my mehendi was set in the next two hours. As I was about to enter the place, a rough hand stopped me, halting me in my steps.

It was Aryan. And beside her was Arya, Akanksha and Maan.

My brows pulled in confusion as I saw an unusual gang in front of me. My eyes darted over to Akanksha who was dressed in a business suit and judging by her appearance, it didn't look like she was here to attend the event, because it was too early.

"What is this about?" My eyes constantly went over to the four of them, I had no idea why Arya was being so panicky.

"The choreographer cancelled," I shut my eyes as I inhaled a sharp breath. The Sangeet was today, there was barely any time to practice. The Sangeet was the only event I was genuinely looking forward to, like Kabir had said, he wanted this wedding to be a happy event.

I wanted that too.

I saw my parents, his parents, our cousins and friends discussing their dances. It was supposed to start yesterday. I was very excited to watch them dance, delighted— it would have given me happiness that they were happy too.

Dance was the one thing I enjoyed. We had a strict rule (so that Kabir and I wouldn't end up dancing again) that we would just watch our close ones dance and enjoy the night because we needed rest as the wedding was tomorrow.

"What now?" My eyes were directed to Aryan, I wanted him to charge his brain to get the ideas out.

"I have a solution," it wasn't Aryan, it was Akanksha who had spoken.

"What is it?"

*   *   *

"What the hell are you doing, Maan? Keep your waist out. Like this," Aditya showed Maan the steps to some Bollywood number and I watched all of it unfold in disbelief.

I didn't know the sudden turn of events but this is what it looked like.

Aditya Dhyani was choreographing everyone at the last minute. There were still around nine to ten hours left for the function, so everyone just did whatever the best they could.

Especially our parents. They were a passionate lot, memorising each step.

"Don't watch," I turned to my side to see Akanksha who had stepped in beside me, looking at everything with a small smile. The smile stayed when her eyes shifted from the people to me. "They are preparing a surprise for you. You should start getting ready for the Mehendi."

"Aren't you coming?" I asked her as I noticed her dressed in her formal wear, her house was quite a distance from the hotel as well.

She squeezed my shoulder and shook her head. "There's another investor meeting. Up until now, it was my sister who handled it but this one specifically wanted to meet me. So I am a little bit on the edge," I took her hand which was on my shoulder and squeezed it gently. "You can do it."

"It is easier to say than it's done," she sighed. "I have a one year online MBA degree. Though it's from a good reputed college, it doesn't hold that much of a weightage. Not only that, my actual job is to deal with dead bodies, literally," she tried to lighten the mood which made me crack a smile. "I don't have that much of an experience to handle such big responsibilities."

I understood the dilemma she was in, I understood what made her feel like that. I could feel the pressure she was in, the anxiety, even though it wasn't mine to begin with.

"Anyways," she heaved a breath and then put on a bright smile. "Go and get ready. It's your Mehendi."

I checked at the time, the stylist and the makeup artist must be already waiting for me in the room.

But before I could turn and walk away, I stopped. "Akanksha," she smiled again. "You have done something, no one could have ever done. It takes a lot of courage to stand up and fight against your own. This is just a piece of cake. Go and grab it."

I envied her courage, but I was proud of her.

If only I had it.

*   *   *

I stared at the mehendi on my hands. It was dark, darker than a dark brown, almost black. The mehendi on my feet was slowly gaining the colour, slowly darkening as time passed.

There was a knock on my door.

I blinked.

"It's open," I said aloud, the trio of my stylist, makeup artist and hairstylist entered the room like three bees wanted to buzz around the flower.

I was already seated in front of the mirror, I was supposed to get the makeup and hair done first so after that I could wear that dress. Till then, my stylist would get all the jewellery ready and steam iron my lehenga.

"Meher!" Rekha, my hairstylist gasped as she took my hand in hers, looking in awe at my Mehendi. "This looks so pretty now that you have finally washed your hands, and it's so dark," she kept on gushing over my Mehendi. "Kabir is going to shower you with love," Babar, my makeup artist joined in too.

I passed a weak smile.

I had nothing to say.

I did not believe in superstitions, it was one of those things that would make your mind go frenzy. It was just unsettling and that feeling was not my cup of tea.

Multiple rollers were fit into my hair, I could feel the heat of the curling iron in my hair, while my face got busy being caked in makeup.

No sooner than in an hour, I was ready. I watched my face in the mirror, I barely could recognise myself— I looked like I was meant to be the centre of the stage, I was the talk of the evening.

And in that moment of awe and surprise, the door knocked.

"Can I come in?" the rough, throaty voice of Kabir made my head turn to the door. Obviously, he had to be here so that we could go down to the Sangeet venue together.

My styling team giggled as they made their way out of the door, letting him in. Kabir closed the door behind him and slowly walked towards me to stand behind me as I was seated in front of him. Our gazes locked through the mirror and my eyes travelled what he was wearing today for the event.

A black shimmering sherwani with a golden patiala for him, with his hair gelled, and no hair was out of place. He had cleaned up well.

"You look pretty," there was no twinge of emotion on his face. I nodded, pushing the chair to get up. He moved to the side as I adjusted my dress. As I was getting the dupatta in its proper place, my hair got stuck.

"Ow," I winced, my head had turned in an awkward direction. Leaving my hair open was a bad idea. I tried to pull my hair, but it was stuck over some mirror in my dupatta. Minutes passed and I was beyond exhausted and even in that room, where AC was at its prime, I could feel the heat.

This was not good.

"Can I help?" with very much difficulty I looked at Kabir, who looked at me in amusement. Obviously, he had to get fun out of my problems. "No thanks," I mumbled, focusing on how to free my hair from the dupatta.

But the damn hair wasn't coming out.

I tried harder to the point of ripping my hair away but the tug was too hard to make me wince aloud. "Get your hands off it," he swatted my hands away and took the charge, making me dumbfounded. And then for the next few minutes or a minute, Kabir was focused on removing my hair which was stuck on the dupatta.

For a moment, I looked away feeling him stand up too close to me. But then my eyes travelled over to him, and for the rarest moment and probably for the second time in all these nine years, my heart had fluttered again.

Crushing over Kabir Raizada was not something that I had imagined. Trust me, I regret it too, considering he was an asshole. Or maybe, he was just an asshole to me.

It was a fleeting crush, like when you suddenly get charmed by someone who helps you and takes care of you— I had that. It fizzled away as it started when he was back to his original mood.

That crush happened when some guy tried to bully me in school and I had no backup. I had gotten hurt and Kabir had helped me, even bandaged my wounds. The next day, that guy was nowhere to be seen. It was the first time I had thought that he had a heart, he cared for me despite his coldness. I was wrong though. The moment we got back we were back being strangers.

But that's the thing about him. Always so pretentious around people when he was in public with me and always so real when he was with me.

I watched how he was so focused on removing my hair gently from the tangledness, his presence here, like he is helping me from distress is unnerving.

"Here, done," his soft whisper brought my attention back to him. Our gazes met, it lasted only for a brief while as his hand went over to hold mine, turning it over to check the Mehendi. "It's beautiful," he said, gazing at the patterns with what looked like scrutiny and not appreciation. "My name is on here," his thumb gently grazed over my pinky, where my focus shifted to his name tattooed on my little finger in Hindi. I wondered how he noticed in such a short time.

"It's time," he left my hand and glanced at his watch. "Let's go," he gave me his arm and I took hold of it and went to the event.

The next few hours were moments of pure joy, laughter and shebang. I couldn't help but finally feel emotional— I think the wedding jitters were finally hitting me. Mom and Dad gave such an emotional performance which made me bawl my eyes out, the ugly crying was so out of character.

I laughed so hard when William tried so hard to match up with Maan and Aryan in doing Bhangra, by the end of it, we were rolling on the floor.

And in those moments, my eyes kept going back to Kabir, who looked so happy, whistling, clapping and laughing, I felt a little something like relief, seeing him happy and not secluded.

The event was a success and finally, everything wrapped over by almost midnight.

I couldn't sleep.

I walked over to the terrace and started walking around exploring the vast property. I hadn't realised that I had accidentally trespassed the family side and I walked into Akanksha and her friends, sprawled on the mat, with their heads over each other's laps. I smiled, adoring their friendship, and I started walking back to where I had started, not wanting to interrupt their conversation.

And just as I had taken a few steps, my head bumped against something hard, like a brick. I looked up and it was Kabir with two bottles of breezer in his hand. "Are you going to drink all of that?" I point at the bottles. I am no one to judge but considering tomorrow was D-day, I thought we were supposed to prevent ourselves from getting drunk so that we wouldn't get hungover the next day.

"Care for one?" he had one towards me, and I contemplated whether I should take the offer or not.

Fuck it.

I need a drink.

"Sure," and with that, we got seated at some good seating corner on the terrace and Kabir fished out a bottle opener from his pocket and opened it. I took one and as the cold bitter liquid hit my throat, I sighed.

We sat there in silence, enjoying our drink, drinking away the last moments of our life as a single. Tomorrow would be different.

"Tomorrow is the big day," he said, making me sigh again. "Tomorrow is the day," I repeat in affirmation. "It feels unreal. Things are going to change from tomorrow," my nails drummed over the glass, gazing at the empty night sky.

"This marriage is keeping our families' happiness at stake," I couldn't miss the hint of worry in his tone. "Are we doing the right thing?" he had clawed the question out from my mouth.

I warily smiled at him, taking a long sip of the alcohol. "I ask myself this question every day. I don't know how to feel now because if I start thinking about it, I would be panicking."

"Our family was really happy today. They were the happiest in a while." listening to him, I recalled the moments when our families were together, where I remembered the core values of Akash Raizada and Vikas Mathur— Nothing is above the happiness that we give to each other as family, families are always not tied by blood, the heart always has its ways to make a family of its own.

"When the time will come to separate, do you think they can take the blow?" I ask him.

He nodded. "I think they will not be affected by it all. We might be having a relationship now but what our parents share, it's very different and something very solid. It's not like we are going to make it dirty and go for each other's heads."

I listened while his words seep into my system, I realised that I was never really around to understand the depth of the relationship our parents shared. Sure, they must have their disagreements from time to time, but it never affected their friendship nor did it affect our families.

I felt Kabir's hand over mine, as he gently squeezed to reassure me I was desperately wanting at that moment.

"We are in this together, Meher," his eyes held an unfound determination, "we are doing what we deem is right. We are doing it for ourselves, for justice. I am going to help you out in every way that I can, to help Sahil. Trust me, this is going to work."

I wanted to believe in his beliefs. So I trusted him. At that moment, I slipped my hand into his, holding it tighter than ever.

One is always better than two, isn't it?

Sorry, a little late but the World Cup fever hasn't gone yet. I am still sad at our loss, but let's bleed blue and support them in every way because they did all they could. Sometimes, all we need is a little luck as well.

Sangeet and Mehendi are over and Kabir and Meher are growing close, they don't know yet. Slow burn is burning. The wedding is coming guys, I am so excited. Meher had a crush on Kabir for a brief while, I thought it was pretty obvious. What do you think of this chapter, let me know in the comments below.

College has begun after long Diwali vacations so I will try to stick to one update per week. Hopefully, I can do this.

How are you guys feeling today?

Do VOTE, SHARE and COMMENT. Comment a heart if you enjoyed reading the chapter.

With Love,

Akii.