Raghav and Pallavi walk into the house, not much has changed since the last time he was here. Especially because that dumb Bindi Waali Aunty is still here. Raghav looked surreptitiously around for the Chipku Ladki, but thank god he didn't see her.
"Come in, come in" Aai said, "We were just getting the party started. Pallavi we wanted to celebrate the showroom opening and your success for a little longer."
"Aai, iski koi zaroorat nahin tha."
"Of course it was necessary, Pallavi" Baba said, "You put in all this hard work, and more importantly, you've inspired me to start using my loom again."
"Baba, that's amazing."
Raghav fell back in the conversation, and just watched Pallavi smile and laugh and connect with her family again. It wasn't like she hadn't seen them for the past month, but it looked like it was the first time she had really smiled and laughed like this in a long time. Raghav took a seat next to Milind Kaka, who ignored him, probably because he broke up Mansi's wedding, or revealed to everyone about Amruta's abortion, or spent a lot of time insulting his wife. The last one probably wasn't that much of an issue for Kaka, Raghav thought, smiling.
"Pallavi, we have one other surprise...well two surprise guests."
From the other room, out walked two men. Pallavi's older brother and another younger looking man, maybe 25-26. Clean cut, tall, and as soon as he walked out he ran to Pallavi and gave her a giant hug, swinging her around in the air.
"PalluBaby, Kaisi hai tum!"
"Rahul, tum!?" Pallave laughed and when Rahul put her down she gave him another big hug, "how has it been 8 years since we've last seen each other?"
"I'm sorry, who is this" Raghav was taken aback by this strange man picking up Pallavi. Wait a minute, this strange man picking up his wife.
"Oh, sorry, Rahul, this is Raghav. Raghav, this is Rahul, my childhood friend, he and I were neighbors I think all through school until 10th when he decided to up and leave to Delhi."
"Nice to meet you," Rahul reached out his hand.
Trying to control himself, Raghav shook it, maybe a little too hard, and said, "I'm Raghav Rao, Pallavi ka pathi."
Baba glared at Raghav, as Raghav put his hand around Pallavi's waist and stood a little closer.
"Pallu, you have to tell me the story from the beginning, how did you get this showroom opened?"
Pallavi, excited again after Raghav's awkward interjection, started to tell the whole story, everyone jumped in with how they helped, with marketing, the photography, the designs, the decorations, the orders. Raghav again felt left out. Pallavi noticed him sulking back behind the table, and thought she better suggest everyone have dinner so she could get him out of there. She knew how rowdy Raghav could get anywhere he got bored.
"Ok, now that we've heard Pallavi's success story, it's time for some dancing," Nikhil as always blasted music, and the party time of the actual party started.
Raghav stayed seated, Pallavi was pulled into dances by Mansi, by Aai, Nikhil, and Kaka. But Raghav still sat down. He was enjoying watching her have so much fun, her smile seemed to light up the room. Her laugh made everything else sound muffled. Mansi put on a Telugu song, a little slower but still upbeat, perhaps to include him, so Raghav was just about to get up, when Rahul yelled to Pallavi, "you remember our dance number right?"
And then he took her hands and they started dancing. Raghav's blood began to boil, and without realizing it he was standing up. He started walking towards Pallavi, but then her laugh broke his trance.
He backed up, she was just dancing, nothing was wrong. He couldn't actually make a mistake today. Even if he gave Pallavi more bad memories of this house, that might not mean Pallavi would come back with him at the end of the night. It was safer to just play nice. As the song continued, Raghav began circling the family, sipping a glass of juice from a table, his eyes switching between tracking Pallavi's smile, and Rahul's hands.
