The next morning, Raghav woke up, with a splitting headache. As he opened his eyes, he tried to remember what happened yesterday. He was at Pallavi's showroom, he had argued with Saanki Rambo, and then Pallavi pulled him away, and then, he was home. He remembered drinking, and then he was asleep. But Pallavi was there. As he go out of bed, everything came rushing back to him. Dear god, he was never going to live this down. Maybe Pallavi has also forgotten about it, or better yet, she's too nice to say anything to me or anyone else. As he showered and dressed, more of last night came to him. How Pallavi looked when he insisted that she was no longer a Deshmukh, when he put the bracelet on her, when he pulled her onto the bed on top of him. Raghav shook the thoughts out of his mind. She knows not to take me seriously when drunk, she's made that mistake before with the shop challenge. I hope, unless she gets scared away.
He dressed quickly and sprinted downstairs. In the dining room he first saw Farhad.
"Shona sir, aapka schedule aah ke liye."
"Farhad, what? What did you call me?"
"Baby Bhaiya, appli coffee," Keerthi interjected, grinning.
"Keerthi, whatever Pallavi said, she's lying."
"Jaanu, tum kyun sharma rahe ho?" Amma walked into the room, smiling wide.
Raghav calmly set down his schedule and his coffee, and went to find Pallavi. But before he even moved, Pallavi walked in from the kitchen.
"Aaj toh Baby Shona Jaanu thoda der se utgaye, kya hua?" Pallavi grinned.
The whole room, especially the workers were ready for Raghav to burst into rage. Farhad now worried that they had gone too far, he tried to signal Pallavi to get her to stop smiling.
"This is funny to you, Pallavi. Sad ke samne era bhurayi karegi?"
"When did I complain about you, everyone just wanted to know where I got such a beautiful bracelet," she smiled, shaking her wrist in front of his face, "so I thought it best to tell them the whole story."
"You will regret this," Raghav said.
"Ok, sure, ex don of Hyderabad," Pallavi tapped his cheek and went to the other room to grab her bag, "Ok I have to leave for the shop a little early today because then I need to go check the showroom to make sure everything is running okay under Krishna. And tonight, Aai has called us all for dinner."
Amma gulped. (She hated Sulochana, well she didn't really hate her, she just couldn't stand her). Keerthi looked up at the ceiling, avoiding Pallavi's gaze as she walked back in the room.
"What, what's wrong?"
"Pallavi, beta, my head is really hurting today, I think I should stay home."
"Yes, and I should stay home with Amma," Keerthi added.
They both looked at each other, Raghav was avoiding everyone's eyes, but mostly still thinking about why he did NOT want to kill Pallavi after she told everyone about last night.
"The deshmukhs aren't that bad, Amma."
"No no, beta, your family is excellent, it's just certain members of your family don't...get along with me. And I don't want to cause problems, you just fixed things with Baba, right..."
"Ok..." Pallavi hesitated, and then she decided it best if Raghav not say that he was or he wasn't coming. She didn't need him making a new scene tonight.
She started getting some of her other things from Raghav's back office that she basically seized when she was preparing designs for the showroom, and when she turned around there was Raghav.
"So your family didn't invite me to dinner, or you're uninviting me?"
"No, nothing like that, you can come," Pallavi added.
"Does that mean you forgive me for all my mistakes, last night included?" Raghav asked, taking a step closer to her.
"All your mistakes, hmmm, 10% ke gait main ne maaf car diya."
"Acchaa, kya tum much saree ke discount de rahi ho kya?"
She grinned and said, "yes, exactly."
Before she could leave, Raghav stopped in front of her again, "so do I get another deal for tonight, like if I don't make a galthi, two galthis free?"
Pallavi laughed and said, "sure sure!" And she left, with Raghav grinning after her.
"Anna, aap ne baataya nain, kya hum long aapko Shona, Baby, ya Jaanu bhulana padega."
Raghav stared at Farhad and gave him a sharp smack on the back of his head, "chal hat."
