Part Three
Vidhi's engagement was to be held in three weeks followed by the wedding in the next three months. There was very little time to do everything alas Aarti's help was much needed, she was spending most of her free time at their place.
On one occasion, Aarti was in the kitchen with Vidhi's mother when they heard the door bell ringing. Aarti was asked to open the door, much to her surprise it was Yash and well he was surprised too to see her there. Vidhi came running from upstairs all excited to greet him.
"Hmmm.. so madam knew he was coming and didn't say a word. Well I'll only speak when I'm spoken to and not speak a word more," she said to herself.
She did wonder what he was doing there then realised it must be something to do with the wedding planning of Vidhi and Pankaj. Vidhi and Yash sat down and started getting down with work while Aarti stood from a far watching them. She had a good look at Yash, he was always so immaculately dressed, not a hair out of place and then she look at herself. " Ewww...I must make a new resolution to have a makeover and then she had change her mind, too high maintenance then again she looked at him and felt bad. Why is this Yash Schindia getting to me making me feel low?" she was arguing with herself. She didn't realise Vidhi was calling out to her and when it got louder she was brought out of her reverie.
Aarti went closer to them, she was told to have a look at some of the pictures. Aarti was awestruck with the grandeur of the settings in the pictures, her eyes widened and her mouth opened after which realising that Yash might be watching her, she retained her composure.
"Pankaj wants my opinion on the wedding venue and decorations that is why Yashji is here," she told Aarti proudly.
Later Vidhi went to attend a phone call leaving Yash and Aarti alone. Each one waited for the other person to say something until the silence was unbearable.
"I'll get you a drink, what do want? Coffee or tea?" that was the best she could think of.
He declined her offer, again they were silent. Aarti then started asking him questions on the pictures, a subject Yash was very much interested in and on which they had a long discussion.
Vidhi was taking an awful long time and Aarti was running out of topics to talk about. Her stomach growled from time to time, she felt she was going to pass out. Lucky for her, Vidhi's mom brought out some snacks and tea. She was hoping Yash will leave some for her, sure enough he did. She just grabbed what she could with one hand and greedily swallowed the whole thing.
"Oh! This woman has the most unladylike manners," he thought to himself.
Vidhi reappeared and apologized but as Yash had other appointments, he told her he will meet up with her again the next day. Vidhi was in dilemma because she had plans to do other important things. She came up with a suggestion, "Aarti knows exactly what I like and since I'm going to busy these few weeks both of you can meet up and plan everything. Like Pankaj I trust Aarti and both of you will do great."
It took Aarti a while to come to her sense, "I meet up with this akdu, no way this is happening."
Aarti pulled Vidhi some distance away from Yash and said, "Why did you say that I will meet him?, I never agreed to it."
"I'm not asking you to go on a date, it is work related," Vidhi answered.
Well what Vidhi said made sense so she agreed.
After getting Aarti's mobile number, Yash said, "I will text you where and what time to meet. And please don't be late."
The next day Yash and Aarti met. He had a grumpy look on his face even though she was only five minutes late.
"Sorry, the weather didn't look good so I had to take auto, it took me some time to get one," she explained to him.
He calmed down a bit and got down to work. After hours sitting there and gulping down coffee after coffee they disagreed on almost everything from the colour to the deco to the minutes of detail.
"This is really frustrating, we haven't made any progress. Are you sure you are not doing this on purpose?" he asked and looked at her straight in the eye.
Aarti was rendered speechless by his act. Even though intimidated at first, she replied, "Am I not allowed to disagree here?"
He sighed and said to himself, "I hate to admit it but she is not wrong."
"Remember we have to incorporate things Vidhi like into the deco the type of flower she likes, colour and etc. But please don't be tacky," Yash said.
"Tacky," she exclaimed loudly.
"Yes, look at your salwar kameez green and pink. What a colour combination?" he said stating the obvious.
"I do not have poor taste, this is the trend," she said with her eyes squinted.
"Well, if this is the trend we have to avoid it at all cost," he said and after a pause he continued, " I have to finish this by this week, do you think you can make yourself free tomorrow and we can get this done."
Aarti nodded. They moved to go, it was already dark outside and the rain was pouring heavily.
Yash offered Aarti a ride home which she wanted to refuse initially but good sense prevailed. The ride was a silent one and granted if his choice of music was favourable the ride would have been bearable. He dropped her at her house and for unknown reason he watched her walking towards her house. She shrieked in excitement when the wind blew away her umbrella and he made a mental note to himself, "She has such an easy and playful attitude almost childlike."
Next day, they met again at the same place. This time she was half an hour late and to her surprise he didn't make a fuss of it. They went through the same details agreeing on some and disagreeing on the rest. By all accounts it was rather a fruitful day. Occupied with the task ahead, Aarti was unsuspecting that she was becoming an object of interest to Yash. He would steadfastly gazed at her and a few times she caught him but knew not what to make out of it, perhaps he is keeping track of the flaws he sees in me, she thought to herself.
He was taking keen interest in her, wanting to find more about her. He asked her about her family and some other personnel information to which she commented
"I thought Yash Schindia prefers his own company more, I find it amusing you are taking interest in my welfare."
"Aha! Yes, you can accuse me of not having the talent in making conversations with strangers," Yash replied her.
"You don't require any talent, all you need to do is take the trouble,"Aarti told him.
After a pause he said, "Ms Dubey.. I need to finalized everything. Can we meet up again tomorrow?
"Uhh... Really, I thought we have gone through everything but if you insist yeah sure," she said.
With that they said their goodbyes and promise to meet up another day.
"I'm doing all this for Vidhi, I have spent two of my evenings with the most disagreeable man," she said to herself.
"Why do I need to meet her again? I can't believe I'm attracted to her when everything she does repulses me," he admonished his own thoughts.
Edited by Sdaren - 12 years ago
Book Talk
Anupamaa
Vasudha
