Chapter 59

 

Slowly, squinting anxiously, as if doing so would prevent any sound from emanating with the opening and closing of her bedroom door in the pre-dawn hour, Naomi stealthily left her room. Allowing the minimal amount of time for her eyes to adjust, she furtively headed to the nearby bedroom lest she be discovered in the hall. As silently as she hoped she had left her own chamber, she entered the room desperately needing to see its occupant.  Once inside, she closed the door behind her and leaned against it, exhaling quietly; grateful for her success.

"Naomi you shouldn't be here."

Her breath hitched; obviously she hadn't been quiet enough.

"I'm sorry I just needed to see you. Last night everything was just so chaotic, and then later, the fact that everyone arrived home at the same time, well I didn't have the time to say what I had to.  Everything is going change so quickly, and I knew that I had to take the chance before while I had it to..."

"Well if you want to talk, why don't you come here and at least be comfortable?"

"No, no really I shouldn't; I mean what I have to say won't take long, and I know..."

"Come Naomi."

The tone brooking no dissent, Naomi responded immediately walking to the bed and climbing in. She settled as quickly as possible, trying not to be more of a nuisance as she felt she was already being. The warm kiss to her forehead allayed her concerns of being unwelcome and brought tears to her eyes, and in response she rested her head on the waiting shoulder.

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Rachna stood up immediately from where she sat on Naomi's bed, when the bedroom door opened.

"Are you crazy..." she whispered, and then immediately shut her mouth when she realized it was Rajeev, not her friend returning to the room. She frowned and walked to him, pushing him aside from where he stood in the doorway and looked past him back into the hallway.

"Rachna, what are you doing?"

"Isn't it obvious?" she replied crossly, "I can't believe that despite everything the two of you have been through that you would encourage her sneaking to be with..."

"Stop right there Rachna; you seriously need to consider what you are inferring; nothing can be farther from the truth. Naomi is not and has not been with me since we came home last night."

"Are you sure?"

The look he gave her was answer enough to her inane query.

"Well where is she? I've just come from the kitchen, so I know for certain that she wasn't downstairs. The only logical explanation was that she had gone to you, but if she's not then where..." She stopped on realization that she knew exactly where her errant friend had gone and hurried off down the hall, mumbling an apology to a clearly annoyed Rajeev as she hurried down the hall. His only wish to locate his missing fiancee, Rajeev had no choice but to follow in her wake.

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"Even in your absence you were still a source of encouragement and support, but despite all of that I was still so nervous about going there. Then, when we arrived and found the priest present, I really thought it was a disaster in the making, Daadi. Rajeev thought..."

"Our Rajeev needs to stop believing that all of his parents' decisions for him are a bad thing." She patted the young woman's hand, remembering how just Naomi's presence had placated the young man who had believed his parents to be pushing their own agenda. "This is definitely something that you will help him to understand, beti."

 Although uncertain that she would be able to; it made all the difference that Daadi had such faith in her. "I will do my best Daadi." She then rested quietly on the older woman's shoulder for a moment before continuing. "Still, I was so relieved to find you there Daadi. I suppose, because I was so caught up in my own nervousness, I hadn't even considered what his parents had to be feeling about everything going on."

"Aacha, that's why we elders need to take the lead at times, beta.  It was my duty to act as an intermediary between Rajeev's parents and yours since they are still so far away. I could do no less when I love you like a daughter myself, beta. Rajeev's parents already understood that they wouldn't be able to dissuade their son from his choice of a life partner, but the unknown was still disconcerting to them. The chance to meet your parents in advance, even online, was a definite benefit.  That and your parents' conciliatory approach to everything left them feeling much more assured to the extent that everyone had agreed to have the priest visit and proceed with determining suitable  wedding dates by the time you arrived.  I'm sure neither of you expected that  and unless I was totally mistaken Rajeev seemed to appreciate that these steps had been taken once he understood what was happening. So as you've said beta, things are going to change very quickly; by the end of the day you could very well have a confirmed wedding date. " Naomi nodded happily. "You did an excellent job, Daadi, thank you so much."

"Aacha, perhaps I have a knack for this wedding fixing dear ," she laughingly responded. "But no, it wasn't just me beta; your parents were very accommodating, and of course how could The Agarwals' resist my Pari once they had the opportunity to meet her," the older woman teased.

"Now you're exaggerating Daadi, I'm not so special."

"Hmm, if you say so." Daadi replied. She leaned her head closer to the young woman's resting on her shoulder. "So tell me, beti, are you happy?"

"I'm so happy Daadi, and despite what you may believe, I know that I could never have reached this point without you.  That's why before it got totally crazy, I just wanted to make sure that I took the opportunity to thank you for always being here for me, and to let you know that I love you so much.  You have to know that I consider you my Daadi as much as you are KT's right?"

 The older woman smiled. "Well that will certainly make things a lot easier for everyone concerned, since I will be claiming all of the Agarwal babies as my own grandchildren...that is unless their father objects to the idea," she teased.

Naomi scoffed, "Well to be clear; all will probably be two children max Daadi, and secondly I'll like to see Rajeev try to deny you your place in their lives; he will have the biggest fight he's ever seen on his hands."

"Aacha beta? I would love to hear what he would have to say about that," Daadi goaded, her attention now on her bedroom door.

 

"I've seen her riled up Daadi and I don't expect I would stand much of a chance against her, so I'm guessing that your position in our future children's lives is pretty much secured."

Daadi winked at the handsome coach.

Naomi turned towards the door where Rajeev and Rachna stood. "Oh, it looks like a search party has arrived." She glanced from Rajeev to Rachna, speculating how they came to be there. "Daadi, which one of them do you suppose thought I was up to mischief so early this morning, I wonder?"

The older woman laughed. "I'll leave you to figure that out beta, but I would hazard a guess that at least one of them wasn't willing to let their treasure out of their sight for too long." She placed her hand on Naomi's head and smiled once more. "Thank you for visiting me this morning, beti. I will let you leave to start your day, and see you later."

Naomi kissed the older woman's cheek "I love you Daadi."

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At a more reasonable time of day, Naomi headed to Rachna's workshop. As she approached she saw Arpita leaving there, heading towards the entrance door. "Good," Naomi thought, glad that she wouldn't be deterred by the assistant's presence from saying what she had to, to her best friend. Her speech, now well practiced in the time since their earlier parting, was on the tip of her tongue when she took her first step into the room.

 

In her defense, Rachna did seem to be attempting to discourage her husband's attentions, but the accompanying smile and teasing tone of her responses, showed her efforts to be feeble at best. "Duplicity at its finest," Naomi muttered when Rachna gave in and wrapped her arms around Kabir's neck. In response she walked into the room proper, and slammed the door behind her.

 

"While I appreciate that this is home for you, this is also a place of business; really Rachna, I could have very well have been a client walking in on you just now." She purposively looked at her watch to confirm the time. "Oh look, it's 11:15, the time we scheduled to meet Rachna; so technically I am the client."

 

Dismissing Naomi's comment as teasing, Kabir tightened his hold on his wife, who was now vainly struggling to extract herself from his arms. Finally, with a chuckle, he allowed Rachna a way out of his embrace, but not far from him, as he held on to one hand. Resisting even this, Kabir mischievously raised his wife's wriggling hand to his lips; his wink, and the kiss he placed on the back of her hand, promised all sorts of naughty things when they could continue. His spouse rendered speechless by his actions, he then smiled and greeted Naomi in her stead. "Forgive me Naomi, I must confess to being totally distracted by my lovely wife just now. How are you this morning?"

 

"I'm well KT, thanks, but please no apologies. I doubt if any of this is your fault. My guess is that Rachna just needs to behave with a bit more decorum in these situations." She waved her hand as she continued, " Still despite me being  friend, family, client, or whatever it is you wish to classify me as, one would still expect that some standard of professionalism should be maintained in my presence considering this is a workspace don't you think? And since this is technically Ra's space, well I suppose the responsibility should fall on her.  As far as I can see this is totally not your fault, KT. So are you just visiting?"

 

Kabir laughed off her tirade and replied, "Actually no, I am not. You see Rachna and I have decided to take a two pronged approach to your wedding, hence it was best that I be present for the initial meeting, for cohesiveness' sake."

"I don't get it; you will both be designing my dress, not Rachna solely?"

KT smiled and turned to his wife, thinking it a good time for her to jump in and explain, but when she remained uncharacteristically quiet, he continued. "Nay, that's not what I'm saying at all Naomi.  You will definitely be a Banaras Beauty bride, your second go round, but first will be the registry ceremony.

Naomi shook her head, "No KT the civil ceremony is just a legal necessity in the UK; I won't consider myself married until after the pheras are completed."

"Be that as it may, it's no less important, and is another matter that has to be addressed."

"Actually, I hadn't given it much thought, I Just figured that I would find a simple dress..."

"I can design simple if that's what you really want, but like I said before, we believe cohesion will be the key, particularly if both ceremonies are to take place on the same day."

Naomi nodded her agreement, "You have a point KT.  Continuity between the two events would be excellent. I would prefer the feel of just one day of celebration than a jarring disconnect between the two ceremonies, now that I think about it."

"And we can achieve that through something like the use of a common or complimentary color scheme, as opposed to actual design continuity.  Obviously, the wedding dress that Rachna designs will be the showstopper of the day, worn at the more important event, but hopefully my offering will also capture the feel you want for your day."

"That actually makes a lot of sense, KT. Mind you I won't even know until later today if the scheduling will accommodate both ceremonies. I'm keeping my fingers crossed through."

"Thik hai, but for now let's work on the theory of everything coming together. So with all of that being said, hopefully Rachna is over her embarrassment now, and will like to show you what she's come up with and then we will work our way backwards to the simple dress."

 

Naomi nodded and turned her focus to her best friend as Rachna walked over to her, while KT went across the room to grab some fabric bolts for his wife. Clasping Naomi's hands, she whispered, "Please say you forgive me for earlier this morning; I just didn't know what to think when I couldn't find you..."

"So of course your first reaction was to accuse my fiancee ...the very suggestion was offensive, Rachna, especially in light of everything. I know I said he wasn't perfect, but how could you think..."

"I know, and I am very, very sorry."

"You should be." She looked at her contrite friend and sighed. "It's almost as if you're determined that I should go through everything you did aren't you Rachana, right down to insulting the man I love."

"Naomi I'm sorry, please..."

"No Rachna, I don't want hear another apology."

Across the room, Kabir came to a standstill, concerned at the tone the two women's conversation had taken.

Naomi continued, "Not one more apology, Ra...not unless you accept mine first. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, finally I understand how upset you had to have been with me when I made those horrible comments about KT that first time."

Rachna stared at her friend shocked; no matter how long she would know Naomi, she would never fully understand how her mind worked, "No," Rachna answered  with a small smile, "that wasn't anything in comparison to the accusation I made this morning.  Plus you were just proving a point that day."

"If I remember correctly, you were ready to kill me over it."

Rachna's smile grew as she recalled the day Naomi had insulted Kabir, basically accusing him of being characterless, just to prove to her that her father would support him. "Yes, Naomi, I was furious, and you thought it hilarious."

"Well I understand now how it felt and I'm really sorry, okay?"

Rachna nodded, and the two women hugged, having made up after their bizarre disagreement.  Relieved that they had, Kabir returned and placed the fabric down.

"Since I couldn't help but overhearing, can one of you explain..."

Naomi interrupted him, "It's nothing KT, just a little misunderstanding; we're good now."

The designer looked from Naomi to his smiling wife. "Actually what I was wondering is how is it that I was the one who suffered the insult when we first met Naomi, and yet Rachna is the one that receives the apology?"

"So you are saying that your sensitive feelings were more important than your goal of reuniting with Rachna, KT?"

Kabir opened his mouth to respond, and then realized that he had no cause for complaint.

"Hmm that's what thought, "Naomi retorted saucily.

"Rachna?"

Answering her husband's unspoken plea to save him, she directed Naomi to the table.

"I'm sure you remember this," Rachna said, indicating the exquisite fabric in front of them.

"I do, and it's even more beautiful than I remember, but didn't you purchase this for a client?"

"Yes I did, but I've just been waiting for the right time to book her consultation, which you so rightly noted, began at 11:15," Rachna replied. "This was always meant to be yours, Naomi. On the other hand, this second bolt here, I thought would be perfect for a reception dress."

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They had made real progress, and could have made more, if time hadn't gotten away from them and Naomi realized that Vihaan was coming to collect her shortly, to take her for lunch. After that she hoped to get in contact with her mother to see what progress had been made in scheduling the wedding. She left even keener for an update after their consultation, leaving behind in the workshop Rachna and Kabir who shared her contagious joy.

 

"Dare I suggest that Banaras Beauty has added yet another satisfied client to its ever growing list?"

"As has KT Creations, if her reaction to your rough sketch is any indication," Rachna responded, once again admiring the concept her husband had so quickly thought of to compliment the modern bridal lehenga, she had envisioned for their friend. "You will need to get started on Rajeev's outfit soon as well, assuming he accepts the offer, KT."

"Oh he will," her husband answered, "She has him wrapped around her finger."

"Well I would say the feeling is mutual. She's already deferring to his preferences without even realizing it. For instance I've never heard her complain about too much of her stomach showing. Personally I thought my blouse design was perfect.  He's rubbing off on her in the worst of ways," Rachna joked.

"Aacha, and here I was thinking it was our showstopper that scared her off."

"You may be right Kabir; from what we could see online; it was quite risque. Mind you she has gained quite the fan base because of it."

Kabir stopped packing up his sketches. "There hasn't been any footage released; at least there shouldn't be. In fact the launch was due to be a media controlled environment; we purposely banned individual filming so how..."

"Well obviously someone didn't adhere to your rules Mr. Tripathi, because we found it. And like I said it was obviously that someone  had Naomi in their sights since her walk is the only footage we can find on the entire event."

If Kabir found this odd, he didn't have time to respond when the infantile babble sounded over the baby monitor. "Since you have a bit more than I to pack away, I'll go and tend to our princess, and then we can meet at the dining table for lunch."

Rachna smiled in appreciation. "Thank you Kabir."

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Their timing was perfect, as when Rachna was bringing out the final serving bowls, Kabir appeared with Aryia. Quickly ushering them to their seats, she began dishing out the meal to her family. She hesitated on noticing their missing lodger.

"Has Sonal decided not to join us today?"

"Ji Beti, just before you came, Robin indicated that she complained of feeling slightly under the weather and asked to take her meal in her bedroom," Daadi answered as Rachna took her seat.

Kabir looked to his grandmother. "You sound skeptical Daadi, is something bothering you?"

"Ha Nanhe, that woman's presence in this house bothers me. If she isn't acting as if she's royalty and expecting to be waited on hand and foot, she making every attempt to disrupt the harmony of this family. Rachna, beta I understand that your intentions were noble, but I for one can no longer tolerate that woman being here."

"Daadi please; I'm sure it's only her injury and physical limitations that are making her a bit more disagreeable. I think we just need to have a bit more patience with her. Besides, how will she possibly be able to care for Sanjay at home?"

"No one has mentioned Sanjay's departure, beta; just Sonal's. I'm certain my grandson would be better off staying here with us while she returns home and fully recovers. Heavens knows that little one has been exposed to too many of her mood swings recently than any youngster should be. No, I definitely believe that it would be best for Sanjay to remain here. Don't you agree Nanhe?"

Rachna looked at her husband, in shock, as it appeared that he was considering his grandmother's words.

"Kabir, please do not tell me you are seriously contemplating this? You cannot think to separate a mother from her child; even Sonal!"

"Not only would I consider this, but I would do so, should the need arise." He reached across the table and held his anxious wife's hand, "however, I do not believe that we have reached that point yet. For now I will talk to Sonal to reiterate that her nonsense will not be tolerated, because before all else, I must consider what is best for you my love. I couldn't rightly place any more duties on your shoulders than you have presently. As perfectly capable as you are; you are not invincible."

"Kabir, please understand it has nothing to do with not wanting Sanjay here..."

Her husband nodded in understanding, and then turned to his grandmother. "Daadi..."

"Nay Nanhe, you needn't say anything. You are right, beta. Both of you must forgive me for bringing up the subject. You know she brings out the worst in me. " She sighed, and changed the topic to one more pleasing, "So tell me, how was Naomi's consultation today?"

Kabir smiled. "Daadi my wife is a genius and Naomi will be the second most beautiful bride I will have ever seen in my life." He looked back at Rachna, enchanted that after all this time that a simple compliment could cause her to blush so becomingly. Unable to withstand his admiration, when he had such a look he had in his eyes, Rachna shyly looked away, and then turned her attention to feeding their daughter.

"Kabir has also come up with a wonderful design as well, Daadi. Naomi was very happy."

"Very good Mr. and Mrs. Tripathi, I had no doubt that you would come up with something spectacular for her. I expect that the two of you will be very busy from now, but before you know it we will all be celebrating."

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crtkelly2016-05-26 20:00:45