"Aah this is Aarti!" Shobha said proudly, holding out her arm.
Aarti pressed her hands together and bowed her head slightly, still shaken by the surprise in the form of Arjun being her marriage proposal. "Namaste."
There were three people in the room apart from her mother and father. One was Arjun, and the other two were probably his mother and father.
"Oh, she's so pretty!" Arjun's mother said.
Aarti smiled, feeling a blush creeping over her cheeks. "Thank you."
"Aarti, make everyone some tea," Shobha commanded, gesturing to the kitchen with her eyes. "Aarti makes very good tea!"
Aarti walked to the kitchen slowly, still trying to process what was happening. Her mom wanted to fix her and Arjun's relationship? Aarti didn't know why she felt a light feeling in her chest. It was almost like she was happy that this was happening. Before anything though, she wanted answers. She wanted to know whether Arjun really pretended that he didn't know her, or whether she had written down the wrong number.
As she was boiling the water, she felt a hand on her shoulder and nearly jumped. Turning around, she saw that it was Arjun.
"Oh," she said, pressing her hand on the top of her chest, relieved. Then she pouted her lips and frowned. "What's with you pretending to not know me?"
"Huh?" he asked, looking genuinely confused.
"You didn't reply to my text!" she said, upset.
"What text Aarti?"
"Is...is this your number?" she asked, pulling out her phone and showing him the number she had written down, getting more and more hopeful by the second.
"No Aarti. My number ends with 4, not 7."
Aarti felt very relieved. Arjun wasn't ignoring her after all. She wondered how she had written down the wrong number though, since she felt like she had heard him correctly that night.
"Anyways, did you know you were coming to see me?" she asked him, curiously.
She should have inquired about her prospective groom to her mother, but she really didn't care last night. It was only today that she started to wonder.
"I knew," he admitted.
Aarti blushed, not knowing why this made her feel better about herself. Perhaps it was because it meant that Arjun really wanted to marry her.
"Anyways Arjun, how did you manage to come to the kitchen?"
"Your mom sent me here right away, asking me to get to know you."
Aarti laughed. That was a typical Shobha move.
Arjun took her hand and held it in his gently. "Aarti, I really want to marry you. I'm financially secure. I'm working in my dad's business and he'll pass it down to me once I gather more experience. I promise you won't ever be pressed for money in my house."
Aarti looked into his eyes and could feel her knees wobble. She was speechless.
"Ideally, I'd propose to you in a more romantic way. But that will come too. For now, since we have to give our parent's answers much more quickly, this will unfortunately have to suffice," he pressed on.
Aarti smiled shyly, looking down.
"Tea's ready," she whispered, beginning to pour the tea into cups.
"Do you want to marry me too?" he asked her sincerely.
Looking down, Aarti nodded, and walked out of the kitchen with the tray, feeling like her heart was going to fall out of her chest.
"So Aarti, do you need more time? How do you like -" his mother started to say, but Arjun interrupted.
"She already said yes inside, didn't you Aarti?" Arjun said chuckling. "We actually know each other from beforehand."
Shobha's eyes widened.
"Oh wow! Really? Aarti do you want to marry -"
"This tea is really good!" Arjun said, interrupting once again.
A shy Aarti blushed.
"Thanks," she whispered. "Mom, my answer is yes."
Aarti's father, Satyendra stood up and smiled. "You'll be very happy with him Aarti. He's a really good guy. Your mom and I've known the Scindhia's for a few years, but you've always been busy at University, so we never got the chance to introduce you two."
Shobha coughed, noticing Aarti playing with her dupatta awkwardly. "You two go out and have fun. We'll discuss the formalities here."
Aarti smiled, feeling warmth fill her body. "Thanks mom."
Arjun gestured towards the front door. "Let's go for a walk."
Aarti nodded and followed him, feeling slightly dizzy with the day's events.
Once outside, Arjun held her hand immediately. "So Aarti, are you happy?" he asked.
Aarti nodded. "Honestly Arjun, ever since the day at the club, I've been very happy. It was just when I was under the impression that you were ignoring me that I got upset because I thought that I meant nothing to you. I thought I was like every other girl to you."
Arjun stopped and held onto her shoulders. "Listen Aarti. Don't say that again. You are not like every other girl. I have feelings for you. That day at the club was special, it really was."
Aarti didn't know why it was so easy to please her. A few sweet words were all that was required and she was able to give in to temptation so easily.
"But... Arjun, I don't know that much about you. I only know your name and how many siblings you have," she said, giggling as if she intended to pass it off as a joke. Really, she did want to know more about his life.
"Alright," he said, smiling. "I'm Arjun Scindhia. I have two brothers. My older one is married and my younger one is in a relationship. My older brother and sister in law have two kids. We live in a joint family, but we can move out. It isn't a big thing. We can decide on all of this later. I have a degree in business... I graduated from a top business university in Canada in the 99th percentile. But that doesn't matter because my future is already secure, but if anything does happen to the family business, I do have enough experience under my belt to get a well paying job."
Aarti felt like she knew him a lot better now.
"What's your favourite movie and your favourite colour?" she asked him.
"Well, my favourite colour is blue and my favourite movie is... I don't know. I like a lot of movies. What are yours?"
"My favourite colour is green and my favourite movie is The Butterfly Effect," Aarti replied immediately. "Thinking about it makes me cry though."
He smiled, placing his arm on her waist. "Then don't think about it," he said, lowering his voice to a whisper.
Aarti turned around to face him. "I missed you after that night, I really did Arjun."
He pulled her closer to him and kissed her on the cheek, his hands caressing the small of her back. "I missed you too Aarti. Believe me, I did. But we have each other now, and soon we'll be bound together for the rest of our lives."
Aarti giggled and tilted her head to the side, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"You know, this is so unlike me. We've only met once and I'm already ready to marry you. I can't believe that I'm doing this. I used to frown upon this stuff... you know, what if someone isn't who they seem?"
"You have no idea how crazy I am about you," he muttered under his breath.
"Just like I've lost track of what's right and what's wrong after I met you," she whispered.
She closed her eyes and felt her body tremble as he rubbed her back softly. He leaned forward and pecked her on the lips.
"I love kissing you," he said against her lips.
She smiled in response and kissed him harder. Then, remembering that they weren't far away from her house, she took a step back.
"We're in my neighborhood Arjun. Someone could see," she said hesitantly, longing for more.
"We can go to my car," he said, winking, pulling her closer once again.
Aarti giggled and pushed him back gently again. "Or we can go back inside. We shouldn't be out for too long. What will our parent's think of us?"
"They'll think that we enjoy each other's company a lot!"
Aarti grabbed his hand and pulled him towards her house. "Come on Arjunnn," she whined. "Let's go in!"
He laughed and followed her back inside the house.
"Oh look!" Shobha said as soon as they walked into the living room holding hands.
Looking down at their intertwined hands, Aarti pulled hers off his immediately. She had completely forgotten that they were even holding hands.
Satyendra and Arjun's parent's seemed uncomfortable but Shobha looked like she would burst into a fit of laughter at any moment.
"Well, I see that you guys are back!" Arjun's father exclaimed, trying to break the awkward tension. "Aarti, your mother spoke to us about your wish to work after marriage. Even though you won't need to, you are certainly welcome to. You could take up a job in our very own company and work with us if you want."
"Thank you," she replied gratefully, still feeling awkward. She was glad that working wouldn't be an issue.
"We've all also decided that your marriage date will be in four months. We want to give you guys a good wedding with all the festivities," Shobha added.
"The engagement will be this month itself," Satyendra stated. "Before your marriage, we expect you two to meet in a respectable manner."
Aarti felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment. She glanced at Arjun, who seemed to be equally embarrassed.
"We should get going now. Are you ready Yash beta?" Gayatri said.
Yash? Aarti turned around to look at the man she thought she knew.
"Yes ma, let's go."
"Namaste," his father said.
"We'll speak on the phone Gayatri ji," Shobha said, pressing her hands together.
Aarti took out her phone and texted the man beside her.
Why did she call you Yash?
She got a response right away.
That's my name.
Her eyes widened with shock.
He was Yash Scindhia.
As soon as the Scindhia's left, a stunned Aarti ran up to her bedroom and opened up her high school yearbook.
Yash Scindhia was the boy in her grade ten math class. Upon inspection, she noticed that the Yash she knew was the same Yash from grade ten. That was why he looked so familiar that night in the club. That was why she felt like she knew him. It was not a romantic story like the one she had concocted in her head where they were drawn towards each other because of a connection. She was only drawn to him because she already knew who he was.
She was feeling a mix of betrayal, pain, grief and guilt. Betrayal, pain and grief because he lied to her, and everything they shared seemed like it was fake now. She felt guilty because of what she did to him that one hazy night when he was at her University to meet his friend in her second year. That night had always been a blur, but she knew what she did, and she had subconsciously thrown it to the back of her mind, seemingly to have forgotten about it. Her heart started racing as the events of that night unfolded in her head.
Debate Mansion
Anupamaa
