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I smiled politely and picked up my phone.
Any idiot could have taken the hint, but Arshia was clearly on a mission to make me miserable.
“I don’t know why I torture myself with these horrible heels,” she whined, looking pointedly at my flat juttis.
I merely smiled and went back to reading my messages.
“Oh wait! I know why. It’s because Aryan loves how they make my legs look,” she giggled.
The smile froze on my face. Please God, no! I didn’t want to listen to this. But it looked as if I had no choice. Arshia was watching me like a hawk to see my reaction, and I refused to show her how much it hurt to hear these intimate details of their relationship.
“Great,” I said, with a polite smile.
“I guess I can tell you our secret because you’re close to his sister.”
She took a deep breath and made a show of looking around to see if anyone else was listening, and then leaned forward.
“We’re taking it to the next step,” she whispered.
My heart clenched, and I swallowed nervously. Surely she didn’t mean…
“His mother has invited my parents over for dinner this weekend. And they are planning to fix the date. For our wedding,” she said, faux-coyly.
A cold sweat broke out all over my body at the thought of Aryan marrying someone. Someone other than me, that is. But I had known that this day would arrive at some point. And there was no chance in hell of him ever marrying me. So I didn’t know why I was so miserable. I just was. Arshia stared at me calculatingly, and I tried to summon a polite smile.
Just then, Zombie moved away from me, and the table cloth in front of Arshia rose as he poked his head out from under the table to stare at her. She took one horrified look at his big teeth and yellow eyes and shrieked as if she had seen the devil. And then, she ran. Zombie gave chase and I ran after them to pull him back. And Aryan returned just in time to see his girlfriend go flying into the fountain.
The rest was history.
As I walked away from the maze, I wished Zombie had bitten a huge chunk out of her nasty ass. For that matter, I hoped he’d go back and bite Aryan too for asking me to apologise to Arshia. They could go off on honeymoon with matching bandages on their stupid backsides, I thought viciously.
I was so done with this shit. Aryan was on his way to finding his happy-ever-after, and even if I deplored his choice of bride, I had to accept it and move on. I was going to make my mother the happiest woman on earth, I decided. I was going to tell her to find me a husband.
I wiped away angry tears and headed towards the big staircase. Zombie had already slunk away in the direction of the kitchen. I knew I should go and check up on Arshia, but I couldn’t stand the sight of her smug face. Besides, I had to repair my face before anyone saw my red eyes and tear-stained cheeks.
I started running up the stairs when someone hailed me from below.
“Jessica Rabbit! Wait up!”
Ugh! There was only one stupid man who thought that comparing me to a cartoon sex symbol was a compliment.
I pasted a polite smile on my face and turned to greet His Highness Deependra Singh of Tejpur.
* * *
ARYAN
He shook his head to clear it, wondering if he had heard right.
No. Jessie must have been mistaken, he thought. Introducing the families was a huge step in a relationship, and Arshia would never arrange such a meeting without asking him. Besides they had only been dating casually for a couple of months. It was too early for such a step. They weren’t there yet.
Aryan’s brow furrowed as he wondered if they would ever get there. Arshia was a very nice person. Most of the time. At other times, he was aware of a side to her that wasn’t as nice. Especially when she was around Jessie. And that made him uncomfortable.
Besides, there was something very important lacking in their relationship. Arshia didn’t make his senses spin. She didn’t invade his dreams every night. Nor did she make his heart pound with just one naughty smile. There was only one woman who did that, and she had just walked out of the maze.
Maybe it was time to stop deluding himself and more importantly, Arshia. You couldn’t force life into a dead relationship. Especially, when you had spent most of your life trying to ignore your feelings for someone completely unreachable.
Aryan wondered if he was cursed somehow. Maybe his mother had conducted human sacrifices to aid her relentless social climbing. And the blood that she had shed now tainted his fate. He knew that sounded crazy, but there was no other explanation for why he couldn’t find happiness in life.
