‘Because I didn’t want to come home. I didn’t want to get married. And I really, really wanted to become a fashion designer.’
‘Youliedto us to become atailorin Mumbai?’ she asked, her voice incredulous.
‘Designer,nota tailor. And if I had told you the truth, you’d have made me come back home. I wanted a chance to fulfil my dream,’ I said.
‘We sent you there, supported you because you wanted to have acareer. You can be a tailor from here if you want to.’
‘I can’t. Mumbai istheplace to—’
‘Is this about a boy? Are you staying in Mumbai for a boy?’ she asked, her voice sharpening.
‘What? No!’
‘Then who keeps texting you?’
‘What do you mean?’ My eyes flew to my phone.
The screen kept flashing every other second with an Instagram notification. I grabbed it. I paused, momentarily stunned: a1,000+ notifications?What the hell was going on?
I opened the app.
Oh my God.
Navya was a nano influencer with 7kfollowers, but that count now sat at 30.4k.
The posts and reels she uploaded while wearing my sari had gotten millions of views. I tapped on a get-ready-with-me video that had over 14 million views. It also had 892klikes and over 20kcomments.
Navya had gone viral.
I opened the comment section.
Oh my God, I love your outfit!
YOU LOOK GORG??
THAT SARI??????
This look is everything!!!
I tapped on my profile.
My jaw slackened. Yesterday, I had 248 followers. Today, I had 16.3k.
My DMs were flooded with strangers praising my work. Asking about prices. Some even begged me to design an outfit for them.
I stared at the screen, barely processing what I was seeing.
This was real.
This was happening.
A chat notification from StyleInTheCity lit up my phone. My stomach flipped. With over 7M followers, Naina Kashyap was a leading fashion influencer and had walked on numerous runways.
I rubbed my eyes, making sure I wasn’t hallucinating. The name didn’t disappear. With trembling hands, I opened her chat.
The phone almost slipped out of my hand. I clutched it tighter, my heart hammering so loudly that I could hear it in my ears.
‘Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.’ I leapt to my feet, pacing in frantic circles.
