Mitali made her way to the awfully clumsy Adi and the girl trying to dance with him.

Adi: (still dancing) Hey Mitali! Come dance with me!

Mitali:(sarcastically) Yeah, I think I'll pass since you know you clearly are such a  pro at this.

Adi: Yeah I am such a good dancer!

Mitali:(sarcastically) You sure are.(Turning to the girl) So I don't think we've met. Hi, I'm Mitali. And you are?

Girl: I am Trisha. Trisha Khanna.

Mitali: Hi Trisha. So who's side are you from? Kavya or Jai?

Trisha: I'm Jai's cousin.
Mitali: Oh. And how did you meet champ(Pointing to Adi) ?

Adi: Oh yeah well, she was looking for Jai when she accidentally bumped into me. We introduced ourselves and then before we even knew, we were dancing.

Mitali:(sarcastically being jealous) Yeah you're quite the charmer, aren't you?

Adi grinned, still not getting the sarcasm.

Trisha:( keeping her hand on his shoulder) He actually is. He's really sweet.

Mitali didn't pay attention to whatever they said next. Her eyes were transfixed on her hand that was  on his shoulder.

Trisha: For a stranger who doesn't even know me , I think I can give Adi the credit for being a total sweetheart!

Mitali: (sarcastically) Yeah, yeah I know,right? You know what? Why don't I leave so you both can get back to dancing? And whatever else you were up to!

Adi: Mit-

Mitali: Toodles!

Saying that,she turned and walked away from the duo ,huffing.

          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The pool side was deserted as the clock inched towards 10:00pm. Mitali, sated with appetizers and desserts from the party, was half -heartedly lying on a chair. She let her hair down and let the breeze lift her hair off her forehead. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and gazed out across the pool. Above,the moon was a crescent with a low glow.

Sighing softly, she closed her eyes.

'Mitali?'

She opened her eyes to a frowning Adi, standing beside the chair with a plate in his hand. Mitali sat upright. As he sat down on the next chair, Mitali asked,

Mitali: What happened to your Lady Muck?

Adi: Who?

Mitali: That minx you were dancing with a little while ago. Did you dump her already?

Adi: Hey! Her name's Trisha. She just went to help Sahil's Mom and Jai to manage all the guest arrangements. And why would I dump her? She's just a friend.

Mitali: Yeah,so were the 28 people you ever dated and look where they are now.

Adi made a poker face. Mitali went back to gazing at the sky.

Adi: Hey I came here whether you were okay or not, and here you are, acting all cranky !

Mitali: Hey!

Adi: You just stormed off saying toodles! Why ?

Mitali: Well you know I thought gazing at the sky is more my thing than, you know, watching  girls being cheesy with you.

Adi chuckled softly as he knew that she was jealous. And honestly he loved it.

Mitali: Wow, you're laughing, great! You know what? You can stay here . I'll leave.

Saying that she got up to go ,when Adi held her hand tightly , not letting her go. She looked down at Adi. His face had a different glow in the dark.

Adi: Okay sorry sorry but can we just talk?

Mitali: Huh?

Adi: We never talk to each other about, you know, personal stuff. I think we should.

Mitali: Why?

Adi: Well, I want to know you better. I want to know you the best.

Mitali looked at Adi with a doubtful look on her face. She shrugged and sat down and said,

Mitali: Okay, what do you wanna know?

Adi put his other hand on top, cupping her hand and said,

'Everything'

Mitali took a deep breath and said,

Mitali: Well you have to be more specific.

Adi: Okay.... Uh......tell me about your first day at school.

Mitali:(chuckling softly) Why do you wanna know that?

Adi: As I said, I wanna know everything.

Mitali looked at him sheepishly and said,

Mitali: Okay, so......I was 6 years old at that time. My Mom and Dad drove me to the new school and when they left me , all I saw was crying babies everywhere.(chuckling) It annoyed me so much that I would have to sit with these kids for a whole day that I just stormed inside without even saying goodbye to my parents.

Adi: You're kidding me ,right? I mean you didn't even cry at your first day in school?

Mitali: Nope. Crying was never my thing. If I remember correctly, I have cried only once or twice when my.......(suddenly getting silent)

Adi: When your parents......

Mitali: (hardly audible) Yeah....

Adi: I'm sorry, Mitali. I shouldn't have brought it up.

Mitali: No it's okay, champ. I'm fine. Okay.....uh...... enough about me, why don't you tell me about your self ?

Adi: What do you wanna know?

Mitali: Uh..... okay, I got one, um......when was your first kiss?

Adi: Uh.....I think it was in 3rd grade.

Mitali: Weren't you like, 9?

Adi: Yeah, what's your point?

Mitali giggled slightly and said,

Mitali: You really are an enigma!

Adi: Well you know. Anyways, my turn, who was your childhood crush?

Mitali: I never had one.

Adi: What? Okay now you're definitely joking! You never had a crush on anybody? Are you sure you are a human being?

Mitali: Shut up, okay? The place where I come from is a small city where most of the people know each other and are somehow or the other related to each other. So there wasn't much option available for me!

Adi giggled.

Mitali: Although I did have a guy who had a crush on me. He was a family friend and one of my oldest boy friends. His name was Rishabh but everyone called him Rishi.  We were in 6th grade I suppose when he told me that he liked him and you know what I did in response to that?

Adi: What?

Mitali: I punched him in the face.

Adi: Really?

Mitali: Yeah,because I thought he was playing a prank or something. But then I got to know that he was going to move to Canada the next day with his Dad and wanted to tell me about his feelings before he left.

Adi: Aw poor guy.

Mitali: Yeah it killed me that I didn't get to apologise to him. But I guess I will be able to , since he is coming back to Dehradun for some legal work next week.

Adi: Wow, did he call you?

Mitali: No , Dadi called earlier. She asked me whether she could propose my alliance for Rishabh.

Adi spit out the juice he had just gulped. Mitali looked at him questioningly.

Adi: Wait- what? Your Dadi is already looking for grooms for you?!

Mitali: Well, she's is a bit old fashioned. She thinks that a girl should get married early because apparently when you grow old , no one would want to marry you.

Adi: And you told her no right? That you didn't want to get married just now?

Mitali looked at Adi with a smirk. She could clearly sense that he was sweating at the thought of her getting married with someone else. She decided to take things up a notch.

Mitali: Uh....no. Actually you know I always obey whatever my Dadi tells me to do. So who knows..... maybe I will get married to Rishabh.

Adi:(widening his eyes) You're kidding,right?

Mitali: Why would I be kidding? I mean, Rishabh is a real nice guy. He already handles his father's buisness at this age. And he is handsome too. I mean he was when I last saw him. I'm sure he grew up to be a really gorgeous guy.

Adi: (almost shouting) No no no!! You are NOT getting married to someone else!

Mitali: Why?

Adi: Uh...... because I'm telling you not to!

Mitali: That's not a great reason Adi. I will need to give my Dadi a good answer why I'm not getting married, right?

Adi: (speaking fast) Tell her that you are not ready, or too young to get married. Or that you want to study more. Just-just tell her something, okay?

Mitali:(laughing) Adi , you can calm down okay? It's not like I'm getting married tommorow! I was just kidding. There's no way I'm getting married so soon. But if I ever decide to, I'll let you know.

Adi: Yes please. Don't make any decision in hurry. Think it through. And if you ever need to talk to anyone, I'm always there ,okay?

Mitali tried hard to not smile and said,

Mitali: Yeah okay.

There was a pregnant pause after that. Both of them kept gazing at the pool , while thinking about each other. After about what felt like an eternity, Mitali broke the silence saying,

Mitali: Hey Adi.....

Adi: Yeah?

Mitali: Would you mind if I gave you something?

Adi: Why, (leaning towards her) are you going to finally give me your heart?

Mitali:(chuckling softly) No..... but something more valuable.

Saying that , she took out the ring on her ring finger. Adi looked at her questioningly.

Adi: Yeah, I'm not really a jewelry kind of a person.

Mitali: Will you shut up?

Adi mouthed a 'Okay sorry'. Mitali took a deep breath and said,

Mitali: This ring is very close to my heart. I have had this ring since I was 11. It's my mom's. She gave it to me as a gift for my 11th birthday. She gave it to Dad when they started dating as a keepsake to see how much he valued her and her things. She said that this was the reason why their relationship was so good. It's because they trusted each other.

Adi: So why did she give this to you?

Mitali: Well,.....she told me that there would come someday when I would meet someone......(looking down) special. Someone who would value me, cherish me and love me like no one else. Someone who would love me like Dad loved Mom.

Adi smiled slightly.

Mitali: But over these 8 years, I didn't quite think that I would ever find someone like that. You know, because, people tend not to like me much because of my sarcastic attitude.

Adi chuckled softly. Mitali smiled.

Mitali: But..... then I met you. And everything changed.

Adi: Really?

Mitali: Yeah, I mean not at first. At first, I just thought you were plain annoying.

Adi made a poker face.

Mitali: But then slowly and gradually, as the days went by , I realized that I was thinking about you and then I began wondering how long you've been on my mind. And that's when I understood that since I met you, you never left my mind.

Adi smiled with glistening eyes.
Mitali looked at him and said,

Mitali: Look I'm not going to tell you that I have butterflies when I see you or that it feels like I've known you forever or cheesy stuff like that....

Adi chuckled softly.

Mitali: But just know, that you are very special to me and I can't imagine my life without you in it.

Adi smiled and said,

Adi:  Same pinch.

Mitali smiled and said,

Mitali: That is why, I am giving you this.

Saying that, she placed the ring on his finger. Adi looked at it and said,

Adi: Wow, this definitely looks way better on me than you.

Mitali playfully smacked his arm.

Adi: I promise Mitali. I'll keep this safe. With me.

Mitali: You better.

Saying that, she smiled and rested her head on his shoulder and they both went back to staring the thousand splendid stars......

            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Phew! 1973 words! This was one hell of a long chapter !

Anyways guys here's an update. Please tell me what you think about this!

And do vote and comment your views.

Love you loads ❤️
Bosedisha