Yami Gautam as Sanam Shah

~

Five Years after prologue...

Sanam ran behind her 17 year old younger sister, Esha, through the groom's procession who had decided to crash it for the fun of it. Esha wanted to break the rules, as per usual, and Sanam got dragged to follow. If for anything, then to keep an eye on her so she wouldn't run into any trouble.

Arjun's attention was diverted from dancing in this groom's procession to two girls who joined in. One look at them and he knew they weren't from the groom's side. Shaking his head, he ignored and went back to dancing with his friends. It was normal for weddings to be crashed, especially Indian weddings.

Esha girls spoke loudly in Sanam's ear so it could be heard over the loud beats of the live instruments. She nodded and the two of them once again began running towards the end of the procession. They only kept on going deeper into the crowd instead of attempting to get out. As she ran past him, her stole found its way to get stuck on his button of his sleeve. He didn't see it and as he went on to dance, he pulled at it. As a result, the back of her strings snapped loose and she froze in her spot, wide-eyed.

He too realized that he had pulled at someone. He turned to see her bare back while she had her hands holding her lehnga, given she was running. She scanned the crowd around her. There were obviously too many people and she could see her sister in the distance running away, probably thinking she was right behind her.

"Esha!" She yelled for her sister but she was too far away to hear it.

She was about to turn to yell at the guy when he put his hands on her shoulder and held her firmly in her spot. "You don't want to do that, sweetheart." He spoke in her ear. While being that close to any stranger made her a tad bit uncomfortable, her brain told her he was right.

She whisper-yelled at him. "Fix it!"

"What? Here?" He questioned. She fought the urge to roll her eyes. He looked around as he weighed his options. "Come with me."

"I'm not going anywhere with you." She exclaimed, but he turned a deaf ear to her. He took a step forward, nudging her to walk as well. She dropped her hands from holding up her lehnga and pulled them closer to her as she fought to walk through the crowd without getting hit by any of the flailing hands, who least cared about people around them. Not only that, it was impossible to walk at the same pace while being glued to him.

She looked sideways when suddenly, he brought his hands forward so as to form a barrier between her and the people to either sides of her. She saw a side profile of his eyes and it must be the fact that she suddenly stopped walking that made his eyes flicker to hers, to question why she stopped.

She felt short of breath as for a very slow second, she gazed into his hazel eyes. All she could do was stare into them. It was impossible to look at his face when his eyes spoke in volume and made her heart beat faster. It wasn't because she had been running and dancing just few minutes earlier. It was something about the way he looked back at her. It was him and some strange thing her heart kept on telling her...

He cleared his throat, breaking the spell. Right that moment, she wished she could read minds so she could tell what was going on inside of his. Her eyes blinked rapidly and she turned to face ahead, ignoring his looks.

She didn't fail to notice how almost everyone gave room for him to walk by when they saw him. She wondered who exactly he was that made people gave him such importance. They got to an isolated place of the venue and he dropped his hands.

He confirmed, breaking the silence. "You're sure you want me to fix it?"

"Do you see anyone else around? Because I don't." She replied.

Choosing to not reply, as he understood she was a bit agitated, he lifted his hands and took a step back from her. Holding the strings in both hands from the middle, he tied it. He was so focused on doing the task at hand and not let his eyes wander that he didn't realize when she gasped.

"Too tight!" She exhaled.

Her voice broke his focus. "Oh. Sorry." He murmured and loosened it just a bit. "There... done."

"Thank you." She said while turning around to face him. A complete profile of his was far more breathtaking. She didn't know what else to do or say. "So... um... yeah." She fumbled around and then started to walk around him to leave. She was surprised at her fumbles. Normally, she was quite a confident person. He did something to her.

He stopped her. "You're not from the groom's side, are you?"

She turned to him again and answered in a much calmer tone. "No, I am not."

He was surprised by her answer. "You're not going to even try deny it?" Most people, when asked, try to deny it and bring up a long-distance fake connection to the groom just so they can grab some free food. He did figure in the fact that it would be impossible to do that given the tight security and the strict instructions he had personally given to not let anyone inside the venue without proper invitations.

She narrowed, finding his amusement puzzling. "Uh, no? Why would I? It's true that I'm not. But how did you know?"

"Well, I'm not the groom, obviously, but I did invite everyone who is on the groom's side. And I think I would know..."

She nodded. "Okay, so who are you? You must be someone important if everyone made way for you and the groom personally allowed you to make the list of who is invited to the wedding."

"When did this interrogation end up being about me?" He asked, taking a step closer. She stiffened and she thought it wasn't visible, but to him it was.

She tried to keep her confidence. "Since I decided it was."

A smirk formed on his face as he put his hands in his front pocked of his tux pants. "In that case, I'm the groom's best man and younger brother. Now, who are you?"

"Your brother's to-be-wife's best friend." She answered.

"And does my brother's to-be-wife's best friend have a name?"

She put on an innocent smile, "Yup, but she doesn't give her name out to strangers."

She turned and started walking away from him. He cut her path and stood in front of her suddenly causing her to stumble back a bit. "Even though this so-called-stranger helped her out of a fix?"

She gave a firm nod. "Even then." She once again attempted to walk away from him despite the protests from her heart, but he snatched her phone out of her hands. "Hey!" She scolded and tried to reach for it, but given he was taller and he held it up over his head, just out of her reach. She frowned. "Give it back."

They heard the procession nearing where they were. He started walking backwards, a mischievous look on his face. "I'll hold on to this."

"I need my phone back!"

"Look sweetheart, I promise to not go through it or anything. And I'll only answer any phone call if the caller ID is from mom, dad, or the bride. Cool?"

"What?! Don't you dare do ..." She didn't get a chance to finish.

"I'll find you after the wedding!" He yelled over and disappeared into the procession. She was left standing there, fuming and confused.

"What just happened?" She asked herself, and then it came back to her. The charming jerk took her phone and she knew her parents would call. She pressed her lips together and hid her face in her palms, knowing she was doomed. If he answered their call, she would not live to see the next day; that much she was sure of. Like most other Indian parents, her parents were beyond strict and conservative.

"I knew I should have saved mom and dad's number with any other name but 'mom' and 'dad'." She talked to herself as she stomped off to find her sister and then return to the bride's room.

"Where were you?" Esha asked. "I thought you were right behind me and I get in here and you were not. And where's your phone? I called you like ten times!"

"I... lost it?" She answered, but it came out more as a question.

Esha gave her a pointed look, "Come on, sis. I think by now I can tell when you lie. Besides, that's not what he said."

"HE?!" She freaked out, her eyes going wide.

Esha laughed, "So it's true."

"What's true? No, nothing is true." She rambled on as if she was caught doing something she shouldn't have.

Neha slapped Esha's arm, "Stop teasing your sister, Esha."

Esha rolled her eyes, "That's my job. But whatever, I can take a hint when I am being kicked out. I'll leave you two girls to talk about girly things."

As she reached the door, Sanam advised, "Stay close by. Don't wander off seeing guys."

Esha teased one last time, for the time being. "That's your job, remember?" The pillow that Sanam threw hit the already closing door. They could hear Esha laughing outside the door, before it faded away.

"So what exactly did he say?" Sanam asked her friend, Neha, the bride.

Neha crossed her arms across her chest. "First of all, girl, this is my wedding."

"I know that." Sanam said. "Why are you reminding me that?"

"It also means that this is not the place you get to look for boys for yourself to get married to!"

Sanam blushed a bit but rolled her eyes to cover up for it. "Neha, shut up. You know it's nothing like that."

"Oh yea? Like what?"

Sanam sighed. "Gosh, like nothing! Can you just tell me what he said? I need to know what Esha knows. Speaking of which, I need to come up with some threat to stop her from telling mom and dad. Else they will get me married to him right away."

"Is that so bad?" Neha teased. Sanam turned to look with her with a dead glare on. Neha put her hands up in surrender. "Okay, alright. I'll stop teasing ya. But I'm right and you know it. Arjun is quite a catch."

"Neha!" Sanam exclaimed, pulling her focus back on topic before she started filling her head with things she is better off not thinking about. She made a side note of his name finally coming into the light.

"Fine, Ms. Party Pooper." Neha frowned. "All he said was you dropped it while you were running and accidentally ran into him."

It was Sanam's tum to roll her eyes. "Dropped it. Yea, right."

"So that's not what happened?" Neha's interest was piqued.

Sanam realized she shouldn't have said anything. She tried to distract her, "You know, I saw jeeju. He looked quite handsome in a tux. Might I dare add, hot too."

It did the trick. Neha blushed a deep shade of red. It only worked for a few seconds though. She slapped Sanam's arm, making her wince at the sting. "Nice try, missy. Now spill. What exactly happened?"

Sanam faked a gasp. "Haww! I'll have to tell your husband. Poor him. His wife is more interested in his brother than her own wedding."

Neha let out a scoff, "Good luck making him jealous. It's impossible to. Besides, we got all the time to talk about what happens tonight. But, I don't have time to get deets from you about you and Arjun. Now on with it. Come on. Before I go ask him yourself."

Sanam chuckled, "Yeah right. I'd like to see you try. Your mother will strangle you on your wedding if you dare step a foot out of this room until called."

Neha looked her dead in the eye. "Don't dare me, Sanam. I said nothing about going out to talk to him. I will call him, and trust me, he will come running to see me when I tell him it's an emergency. He might look like he doesn't give a damn about anyone, but that boy is a gem."

Sanam gulped as she realized Neha was quite right. She didn't have to necessarily step out of the room to be able to talk to him, and also because she knew Neha wasn't lying when she said he was a gem. His older brother, Rahul was. If Arjun was anything like him, she could imagine. Then she frowned and slumped on the bed, ready to give up all the details.

"Fine, what do you want to know?"

Neha squealed in delight and sat next to her. "Everything."

"Well... Esha and I were running away to come back here. My stole got stuck in his button and..." Sanam trailed off as she recalled the moment. She couldn't get it out of her head how close he stood to her. No guy ever dared to cross her personal space. Except for that guy she'd had a hot make-out session with years ago when she was a freshman at college. And the boy who was still a stranger to her in many ways dared to and she did nothing about it.

Neha squinted her brows and nudged Sanam at the shoulder. Sanam blinked and faced Neha. Neha looked at her questioningly, and she continued speaking. "Oh... um so yeah. He helped me and he figured out I wasn't from the groom's side."

"Knowing you, you must have not denied it." Neha interjected.

Sanam nodded, "Yeah, I didn't. He asked my name, but I didn't tell him. Then he snatched my phone and went away. He said he'll come find me. God, I hope he doesn't answer any more phone calls. Especially mom and dad."

Neha laughed and Sanam looked at her confused. Neha answered, "I pity you, honey. Knowing him, I can guarantee you that he will be the first to answer as soon as either your mom or dad calls. Good luck getting your phone back before that."

Sanam dropped her face in her palm. "Why would he do that?!" She mumbled. Another person wouldn't have been able to tell what she said with half the words coming out muffled, but since Neha knew her for years, she understood.

"Because that's just how Arjun is. He doesn't think before he acts, and he definitely does not stop to think before he says something. Everything he does and says is from his heart. Sometimes yes, it does land people or himself in trouble. But then he also knows that he should fix things. If I were you, I'd chill, but since I'm not, I'll tell you to try not to worry about it. He's not one of the bad guys. Just... carefree. Sometimes a little too carefree, albeit."

"Thanks... but that doesn't help." Sanam muttered.

Neha offered a sympathetic smile before standing up on the bed and jumping on the floor. "Alright, help me get ready now. If mom comes and sees how I look, I'm afraid she'll have a heart attack."

Sanam chuckled at the high probability of that occurring, and proceeded to help her with the remaining jewelry and make-up. There very well couldn't be a wedding when the bride wasn't ready.

~

Everyone bid the bride with a heavy heart. This was one part of the Indian weddings that Sanam didn't understand – the whole family crying as if they were never going to see each other again. They were still going to be living in the same town as their parents.

Rahul and Neha left straight for their honeymoon after, unlike normal Indian weddings where there are usually rituals that drag into the next day. Esha and Sanam took leave from Neha's parents and walked towards where their car was parked. Esha tapped Sanam's shoulder once outside.

"Yeah?" Sanam asked wiping a stray tear.

"I know you're upset and all and this is probably not the right time for it, but... your phone."

Sanam closed her eyes momentarily remembering about it. "Can you...?"

Esha nodded, understanding what she wanted. "I'll go get it. You get to the car." She left to find Arjun, but Sanam found Arjun by her car when she neared it.

The first thing Arjun did was return her phone. She still didn't understand why he had to take it in the first place and irritate her. "Sanam..." He spoke, but she cut her off.

"Not now, Arjun. I'm not in the mood." Even if she didn't understand all the crying, seeing the crying put her in a foul mood. And perhaps, even the fact that she wondered if her own parents would have cared enough to cry if it had been her who had just gotten married. They had always been emotionally unavailable to both her and her sister, too lost in simply keeping up with societal limitations and daily fights in their own miserable marriage.

She opened the driver's side door to sit in, but he blocked her from getting in by pushing it shut. She sighed and turned to face him, with her back against the car door. "Arjun..."

"Just hear me out, okay? I just want to apologize about..."

"Apology accepted. Now move." She asked, getting impatient. Talking to him, or otherwise, listening to his justification was the last thing she wanted right now. Luckily for her, her phone rang. It was Esha calling her. She figured it was to see where Arjun was, thinking the phone was still with him. Sanam answered, "Esha, yeah. I got it back."

Arjun looked past her to see Esha coming up to them. He took a step back. He smiled at Esha when she reached them and then opened the door for Sanam. "Drive safe." He said and Sanam sat in.

He closed the door for her and watched her pull out. He let out a sigh, figuring they would each return to their own worlds now. He wouldn't even know if he'd ever see her again.

~

authors note:

lengha = skirt of a type of Indian traditional outfit

jeeju = brother-in-law

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November is here!! I'm so excited to start this. 

Here's their first official meet! I mentioned how this is the first book the Groom's Procession series, so ofcourse, the starting had to start with a wedding ;) Lemme know your votes & thoughts in comments below! :D