[W E D D I N G   S H O P P I N G]

━━━

After the intro session with Akash, their new GM ended, Kavya went to his office to apologize. She knocked on the white wooden door. After a few seconds later, Akash responded with a 'come in.'. Hesitantly Kavya opened the door and greeted him; "Hello sir."

"Oh hello, Kavya," Akash replied looking up from his desk.

"Sir, I-I came here to apologize for uhh earlier." Kavya placed the lock of her hair behind her ear.

"For earlier as in for dropping the coffee in my shirt?" Akash raised his eyebrows at him.

"Aha- yes sir."

"Well, I will forgive you..." With the last look at Kavya, he started to write on his file as he spoke again "...buy me a cup of coffee."

"Huh?" Kavya asked, lips parted in O shape.

"Yeah, a cup coffee? Well, I'm new in the city and don't know any good places for Coffee. What do you say?" Akash grinned looking at her?

"Uhh sure" Kavya lips curved into a smile.

"Okay, then today after office ends?"

"Sure." Kavya gave a quick smile before leaving his cabin.

"Wow," Kavya whispered to herself right after she came out. But before she could even take another breath Sakshi rushed towards her. "What happened there?"

"Well, I'm buying him coffee." Kavya grinned biting her bottom lip.

"What!" Sakshi frowned. They started to walk towards their desk. "You are going on a date with him?"

"What no. I'm just buying him coffee."

"You can't. You are getting engaged this Sunday."

"Don't remind me of that Sakshi." Kavya shook her head and sat down.

"But-"

Kavya gave her side glance which made Sakshi sighed and instead of saying anything else Sakshi sat down and continued with her work too.

...

"So tell me about yourself Kavya." Akash gave a charming smile to Kavya as they sat opposite to each other in a cafe.

"Is it some kind of interview?" Kavya gave a small laugh, placing her hair behind her ear. She was doing that a lot today.

"Well-" Akash got interrupted by Kavya's phone ringing.

Kavya took a glance at her phone and the word "Hubby" flashing. It seemed like the words had a white shiny set of teeth and it was flashing its smile to her. Kavya grabbed her phone from the table before Akash could see the name. She knew who very well who changed the name and she was going to kill Sakshi.

"Sorry," She mumbled before picking up the call.

"Hello?"

"Where are you?" She heard Dhruv's voice.

"What?" She asked, taken by his sudden question.

"Where are you? We are supposed to go to a designer for our 'wedding dress'." Kavya could literally imagine Dhruv's sarcastic smile then it turning into an annoyed 'nose crinkle'.

"What? When was it even decided?" Kavya looked at Akash who for sure was indirectly looking at her.

"I don't know," Dhruv said in a careless tone. "Maa told me like two days ago. Didn't your mom tell you anything? Wait... maa asked me to inform you." Dhruv mumbled the last part but Kavya heard it.

"And you didn't tell me."

"Well, I'm telling you now."

"I can't come. I'm busy right now."

"Okay, no problem. Just tell your parents that we missed the meeting because you were busy."

"You fu- Okay where is the meeting?"

"I'm near your office so tell me where are you. I will pick you up."

"Ahaa- Well I will meet you near that flower shop on the corner?"

"Okay cool." With that Dhruv ended the call. Kavya gave a small smile to Akash. Akash raised bows as if he was waiting for her to say something.

"I kinda need to go." Kavya bit her bottom lips.

"Oh okay. But I do hope it's not one of the ways of girls getting out of those boring dates." Akash pressed his lips together, eyes narrow and brows frown as he looked at her. Kavya laughed at his expression and shook her head "No no obviously not."

"Pff." Akash gave a dramatic sigh of relief. After paying for their coffee, they bid goodbye. While Akash took a cab, Kavya walked towards the flower shop right beside her office.

When Kavya reached there she spotted Dhruv's car parked on the side of the road. She walked towards it, opened the door of the passenger's seat and sat down. Dhruv who was busy in his phone looked up with raised eyebrows and eyes wide as she entered. "Oh wow, hello there, trespasser." He smirked.

"Do not smirk at me." Kavya simply refused to look at him.

"Why are you always so salty?" Dhruv sneered.

Kavya turned her head towards him with a glare. "Why are you so annoying?" She looked back at the road again. "Just drive it." With a little scoff, Dhruv shook his head and started driving towards their destination.

After driving for around 20 minutes Dhruv stopped his car. Peeking from the window Kavya read the fancy words on the board which read 'Sabyasachi'. With opened mouth and widen eyes Kavya stared at the name, she didn't even realize when Dhruv got out of the car.

"Do you seriously expecting me to open the door for you?" Dhruv asked from near Kavya's side, Kavya who was still sitting inside.

"Please expecting things from you? I'm not that dumb." Kavya came out of the car, closing the door behind her, she huffed loudly. Dhruv gave her faked a cheesy smile and started to walk towards the door. Kavya followed him quietly.

Inside the front windows were some of the most beautiful traditional clothes Kavya had ever seen. She let out a small sigh as she gazed at silver lengha at the front. It was heavily embroiled. A classic 'Sabyasachi'. All around the dress hovered accessories that matched. The same was for every outfit in the window. The only thing missing was a price. Kavya thought maybe the people who came there, for them the price didn't matter.

But Kavya wondered who was gonna pay for these clothes. In all the hassle she never asked her parents about the money arrangement of the wedding. Being crazily rich and the wedding of their only son, the Malhotras would want to pay a million bucks in the preparation in one breath. Her parents couldn't afford it. And even they could afford it somehow, Kavya would never let them. They had a younger daughter to look. Her education, wedding everything was important too.

Inside, Kavya was even more amazed. She quietly gazed around at all the beautiful clothes and mesmerizing decoration. Before they even could take two-step inside, middle-aged women greeted them more like greeted Dhruv.

"Hello!" she greeted happily. "Welcome to Sabyasachi. It's good to see you again Mr. Malhotra." She smiled up at him, obviously happy to see probably one of their regular customers. "Mrs. Malhotra and Mrs. Sharma have selected a few of the designs, I think you both will like to have a look at them. " She looked over at Kavya with a kind smile.

Malhotra nodded his head "Yes, well I think that is the exact reason why we are here." he said, with a smile but sarcasm dripping from every corner of it. Kavya wondered about the fact her mother knew about this and didn't bother to tell her anything. Or maybe she did? Kavya thought considering that these days she hardly pays attention to what her mom was talking.

"Please follow me," The women politely said and led them to a desk. Kavya and Dhruv took a seat while the women showed them a file/catalog with different stretches of the outfit, and photos of the gorgeous model posing in them. There were pieces of the material which was supposed to be used in the dresses. Kavya hesitantly took the file and started to flip through the pages in awe as the women explain some details.

Leaning back in his chair, Dhruv casually looked at the photos until a pastel pink one caught his eyes. "Hey, do you want a traditional red lengha or any other color would work for the wedding?" Dhruv asked sitting straight, Kavya looked up.

"I don't know," She shrugged a bit confused with his sudden interest.

"If not then you should get this pink one for the wedding it would look good on you." He said examining the design, unaware of Kavya confused stare.

"So the pink one for the main ceremony?" The women asked. Dhruv looked at Kavya "Yeah?" He raised his eyebrows as if he was waiting for her to answer. She nodded in agreement. "Yeah finalize this one." Dhruv nodded at the women

"What about the other ceremonies? Do you like anything you see Ms. Sharma?"

Kavya pressed her lips together. The conversation was making her uncomfortable". She decided to flip the pages. "I think I would like to have the black Sherwani for the engagement. What about you? The green one or the yellow one?"

"Uhh umm, Yellow one." She whispered. After half an hour they had, more of Dhruv had finalized their dress which included the engagement, mehndi, reception and definitely the main wedding. Tho Dhruv kept asking Kvaya which one she liked more between the option. The women took their necessary measurement to fit the dress to their size after talking about some more details, Dhruv and Kaya finally left the boutique.

As Dhruv drove off Kavya wonder what made Dhruv act like that way in the boutique. Like he cared about the wedding, cared about them getting married and wanted it to be perfect, or maybe if he didn't behave properly the women there would tell these to his parents and he didn't want to but why? No matter what she did she could stop thinking about Dhruv's behavior or the way he smiled while talking about their wedding to the women. That behavior that smile was bothering her.

"Hey, I'm really hungry. Wanna grab some food?" Dhruv asked, hands placed on the steering wheel. She looked at him. He tuned his head to look at her. "Uhhh sure." She shrugged quickly moved her eyes from him to the road. Leaning back at the seat she sighed closing her eyes.

...

After a long timeeee. So what do you think? Do tell me in the comments.