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Jessie giggled as he pulled out slowly and picked up his jeans on the way to the bathroom. When he came out, she was dressed as well.
This time, she waved him goodbye from afar, and Aryan drove home with a besotted grin on his face. That grin seemed perma-fixed on his face for the rest of the day, even through a full OPD and the interminable wedding-related arguments between his mother and sister.
Aryan couldn’t meet Jessie that night because she was taking her mother for the late show of a movie. He struggled to fall asleep, wondering how he had ever slept without her in his arms. The next morning, he woke up early. The prospect of meeting her for lunch made the day seem brighter and shinier. That feeling only lasted until he opened the newspaper, though.
There, in full colour, was a picture of Jessie and Yash, coming out of a movie theatre, holding hands.
CHAPTER19
JESSIE
Ihad plans.
Aryan and I couldn’t meet publicly because of the reporters hanging around our town, now that Veer and Nivy’s wedding was almost on us. But I was going to invite him up to the Shikar Bari, our hunting lodge up in the hills, that was not on any reporter’s radar. I could safely skip the sangeet practice because of my sore ankle, and we could spend the night together without getting caught.
I tried not to look too pleased with myself as I joined my family for lunch, but Nivy shot me a knowing look anyway. While Ma and Veer were arguing about where to house the Pataudis and the Jaipurs - Veer wanted to book them into the Taj, while Ma insisted that it was our duty to host them at the palace, and I didn’t give a flying fuck about where they stayed, as long as it wasn’t at the Shikar Bari - Nivy turned to me with a wide grin.
“You looked all loved up,” she whispered.
“Shut up,” I hissed.
“Will not! And is that a hickey? Who’s a dirty girl now?” she asked, with a nod at my neck.
My hand shot up to cover my neck, and I stared at her in alarm.
“Really? How visible is it?”
“Very! Just hope your mother doesn’t see it.”
I pulled up the front camera on my phone and checked out my neck as discreetly as I could. There was nothing.
“You lying cow!”
“Ha! Made you check,” she crowed.
“What are you girls giggling about?” asked Veer, grumpily.
It was clear that our palace was going to be overrun by royals in the next few days, and that my brother would be forced to spend time talking to them instead of canoodling with his fake-turned-real fiancée.
He took one look at our sheepish faces and held up his hands.
“You know what? I don’t want to know.”
Nivy patted his hand.
“Good call,” she said sweetly.
My mother cleared her throat delicately, and we all turned to look at her.
“Jayshree, are you doing anything this evening?”
Damn it! I knew I should have skipped lunch and stayed out of Ma’s way for the whole day. Now she’d put me on wedding detail and I wouldn’t get to meet Aryan.
“Umm, actually…” I began.
My mother sighed. That was a very expressive sigh. It combined disappointment at having such a disobliging daughter with the pain of a lonely existence, AKA emotional blackmail at its best.
My shoulders drooped in defeat.
