"Sasha, Sasha. I've got the dresses!"
Tasha came running into her friend's bedroom, juggling 5 different outfits at once. She put them down on the bed as Sasha sat at her dressing table, unable to decide between gold or silver earrings.
"I've got the dresses," Tasha repeated herself, panting for breath.
"I heard you the first time. Now step outside for a minute while I try the first dress on."
Tasha tottered out of the room, closing the door behind her. Minutes later, Sasha emerged in a black cocktail dress.
Before Tasha could give her opinion, Sasha shook her head. "It's too formal for a birthday party."
Sasha appeared and re-appeared throughout the course of 20 minutes, finally settling on a green one shoulder dress with small silver embellishments.
"Their breaths will be knocked out of them when they see you, Sasha!" Tasha exclaimed in awe.
"Them?" she asked, raising a perfectly groomed eyebrow.
"Maan and Dev."
Sasha grimaced slightly, turning away from her friend. "There's only one man in my life now," she said under her breath, & closed the door behind as her as she retreated back into her room - not realising Tasha had heard everything.
__________________________________________
The majority of the party preparations had been completed, which left Maan and Dev with time to sort out their own attire for the evening. Dev drove back home to change and escort Pammi to the outhouse, whilst Maan went back to the mansion & straight to his bedroom, where he threw open his closet & ran a hand through his hair.
"A suit feels too formal yet jeans and a black shirt are too casual..." His eyes fell upon a particular piece in his closet & he smiled. "Perfect."
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Manish walked into the outhouse half an hour before the party officially began, with the intention of fixing up anything that was going wrong.
However, he was pleasantly surprised when everything seemed perfectly in order.
"They work so well together when they need to," he said to himself. "If only this rift between them could be solved, the potential they both have within them to work alongside each other and take KC to great heights is astounding. But as long as that Pammi is around, it seems near nigh impossible..."
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Savitri Devi was certainly the centre of attention at her party.
The guests surrounded her as they made small talk, praising the elegant white theme that had been kept throughout the decorations, with a portrait of a beautiful younger Savitri in the center wall, serving as a showpiece for everyone to see.
"My grandsons have truly done me proud," she stated proudly as the tears welled in her eyes, threatening to spill over.
"Oh Mother, is it necessary to cry today?" Manish said as he handed her a handkerchief, and quickly walked away before he had to endure anymore of Savitri's tears.
Maan was stood in a corner; several businessmen of the country had come up to him, introducing themselves, with which he responded politely but still felt a little out of depth talking to executive officials. Whilst talking to a over enthusiastic Mr Sharma, he noticed Pammi - who was clad in a gold sari and surrounded by her socialities - and her cold glare which fixated on him as Mr Sharma continued with his necessant rambling.
Maan took the opportunity to smile a little wider and join in the conversation whole heartedly, giving a signal to his aunt that if she wanted to fight for the CEO position, he was more than willing and ready to do so.
In another corner of the room, Dev was directing one of the waiters to take champagne to Savitri's friends from Switzerland when a pair of hands covered his eyes, accompanied with a familiar faint giggle.
He frowned as he pulled the hands away and turned around to see Sasha in a green dress, with her chestnut hair sat neatly on her shoulders and a small pair of dainty earrings adorning her outfit.
"You look nice," he said genuinely, smiling, and she felt her heart elate with happiness.
"It's just something that was sat in the back of my wardrobe," she lied. "You don't look too bad yourself," she took in his white shirt with black jeans and a blazer.
"Thanks," he said. "Do you want a drink?"
"Sure, let's go. I wanted to..."
She trailed off as she saw something catch Dev's attention, something past her shoulder. She turned to meet his eye of vision and her clutch bag almost dropped out of her hand.
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"Yash, I feel like everyone's eyes are on me."
"Don't be so nervous, Pinky. Stay with me & you'll be fine."
"I'm at a Khurana party, how can I remain composed?! I can't look Maan in the eye, not after my drunken antics at the club."
"That was ages ago, I bet he's forgotten already."
The usual click of heels behind them was no longer heard, and Pinky frowned as she turned around, expecting Geet to be behind them but she was stuck rooted at the door.
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'Oh no, no, no no. My heel is stuck, what do I do, what do I do?!'
Geet began silently praying to Babaji in her head as she discreetly tried to remove her heel from the piece of gum that had unfortunately been awaiting her shoe's arrival.
'If I try to pull my foot forward, I'll fall, trip over my dress and die of mortification. If I don't move, everyone will think I'm having some sort of epileptic fit.'
Geet attempted to pull her right foot forward again, but it stubbornly wouldn't budge.
"You stupid pathetic excuse of a heel, this is why I prefer flats, they're so much more trust worthy than you," she whispered angrily.
Pinky reached her friend's side and grabbed her upper arm lightly. "Geet, what are you doing?" she said quietly.
"My heel is caught in a big wad of gum & I can't move."
__________________________________________
Nothing on this earth at the moment can look more beautiful than she does tonight,Maan thought, his eyes emanating with love as he looked upon the radiant Geet who looked mesmerising in her red dress, her curls in a loose bun as a few rebellious strands framed her face.
But then he noticed her uncomfortable expression and her constant glaring at her shoe, & realised something was up.
Geet was too busy cursing her shoe to notice Maan walking towards her, it was only when Pinky nudged her that she looked up and momentarily lost her voice.
His black shirt, a few buttons left open to reveal a perfectly sculpted chest and dark trousers only added to the depth of his brooding eyes and a slight smile that kicked up on the side of his mouth as he looked at her.
"Geet, is everything ok?" he asked.
"Huh?" she muttered, still lost in a trance.
"You're not moving."
She snapped out of it, blinking a few times to catch her voice, clearing her throat. "Um, I think my heel is stuck on gum."
"Gum?!" he exclaimed, like he'd never heard of it before.
"You know, the piece of minty slash fruity thing that you chew, for flavour/boredom purposes...?"
"I know what gum is. Why would anyone spit gum out at the entrance?"
"You can do your CIA style investigating later, but first, please help me remove my heel or else I'll have to go barefoot, and I have a phobia of being barefoot against wooden floors."
Sighing yet slightly amused at her antics, Maan examined her heel from the back as Geet avoided the now glaring stares that shot her way for disrupting her party.
With a swift kick of his shoes, he nudged her heel out of the pile of the gum, sending Geet almost flying, had she not grabbed onto Pinky for dear life.
"Thank you," she mumbled half heartedly to Maan, as Yash led them away. Geet half wished the party had been a masquerade party, for at least she wouldn't have to be identified as the 'gum girl.'
Savitri noticed Maan's appraising smile as he watched the beautiful Geet walk away and smiled to herself.
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"May I have this dance?"
Geet was sat at the bar, sipping her glass of champagne and making mindless patterns across the worktop when someone asked her yet again for a dance.
She rolled her eyes, turning her attention to the eager guest. "I've already said no to 4 guys already, and it's nothing personal - I simply can't dance."
He leaned in closer, running his eyes over her body as Geet narrowed her eyes at his intentions. "I can teach you."
She inched away. "I'd rather you didn't, thank you very much."
The dejected man huffed & walked away, leaving Geet in peace to mutter angrily to herself.
"Stupid men, they see a girl sat alone & they assume they can take advantage. I'd like to see them taking advantage when my 6 inch heel would knee them in the-"
A hand on her shoulder stopped her mid sentence and she slumped her shoulder, shifting in her seat as she turned slowly.
"Maan, before you say anything, I-"
"It's Dev."
"Oh!" she gasped, turning fully to face him, embarrassed at having assumed it was Maan.
Dev read her expressions carefully, the nervous shifting of her fingers, the jittering of her eyes. And it finally sank in.
But he gave nothing away as he sat beside her, re-adjusting his watch.
"How do you like the party?"
"It's great, the decorations are beautiful. You guys did a good job," she smiled. "See, you can work together if you're willing to make an effort."
Dev grinned. "It wasn't easy, I'll admit. But seeing the smile & happiness on my grandmother's face makes it worth it."
Her dejected and heartbroken expression caught Geet's eye, as she tuned out of Dev's speech and focused her eyes on Sasha, who looked down at the ground as she seemed to be in a deep, serious thought. For a minute, Geet thought she saw tears brim to her eyes, but she couldn't be certain as Sasha had abruptly turned on her heel & walked away.
"Dev," she said softly, turning back to him. "I think there's something you should know."
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Savitri spotted Yash & Pinky walk away from their conversation with Maan to make their presence on the dancefloor & took the opportunity to corner her grandson before someone else arrived to introduce themselves to him.
"Who's the woman in the red dress?" Savitri asked, placing her hand on Maan's shoulder.
"Geet," Maan replied immediately, turning to his Dadima, but he saw the sly grin on her face & looked away, realising too much had been revealed.
"I say the words red dress & the first person that comes to your mind is this Geet, despite the fact there are others wearing a red dress tonight."
"It's nothing like that," he lied, envisaging his Dadi arriving to office one day with a bridal suit in her hand, ready to get him married to Geet. She had already been vying for him to find a girl to settle down with.
Unfortunately, he thought, he was aware that Geet wanted to touch the sky & beyond... she didn't seem like she would ever want to settle down...
"Are you not going to introduce me to the future Khurana daughter in law? She is very beautiful, I must say."
"I told you Dadima," Maan bit out, making Savitri drop her hand off his shoulder at his sudden cold demeanour. "It's nothing like that."
Before she could get another word in edgeways, Maan had stalked off, out of the outhouse into the dark night.
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