Promised Love

8. Sinner and a Saint

Abhimanyu's POV

"Thank you so much, gentlemen." I extend my hand towards Mr.Rai who is the vice president of Jalaj properties, the company we are going to be collaborating with on our next project.

"It was a pleasure, Mr.Malhotra." Jason D'Souza says, shaking my hand after Mr.Rai. I escort both men out of my office and then slouch into my chair.
A call from my assistant, Karan Thakur comes in and I answer.

"Sir, your 5 pm appointment is already here should I send them up early since you're done with Jalaj?" He asks. I check my watch and notice there are still ten minutes to five.

"No. I need a little break. Send them up sharp at five."
I hang up.

As I stare up at the ceiling my mind wanders to the events of the past month.

"I am married." I say, testing the word. I shake my head and chuckle. What a joke this is, I am married to the girl who hated me all through our childhood and teenage. I am married to the girl I loved once upon a time.

I still remember the first time I met Saanvi Rajput, we were both ten years old and had met during the visit we made to Udaipur during our summer vacations. Both our grandparents were settled in Udaipur and had been bestfriends for a long time.

Her family had come over to my grandfather's (or dadaji as I call him) house for lunch. She was a petite little thing, much shorter than me even back then. I remember the first time I saw her very vividly, she was wearing a long white sleeved t-shirt under her pink dungaree, and was wearing a neon pink hairband on her shoulder length hair. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I was more than excited to get to know her and even make friends, but things didn't go that way.

Anyhow it doesn't matter anymore. I fiddle with the paper weight on my desk as my mind fast forwards to the summer of tenth grade. Her grandfather had hosted his annual get together where all of their retired army friends gathered with their families to enjoy. By that time I had developed a silly crush on Saanvi. As I watched her chat up with the other kids of our age, smiling and laughing and looking like an absolute angel wearing a floral white dress that stopped just above her knee.

I had stupidly waved at her and half expected her to ignore me just like she usually did but to my surprise she had waved back and smiled. My stupid fifteen year old self thought that would be the start of a great indian love story and I managed to continue obsessing over her for the next two years. But my happy bubble burst in the first year graduation when....well, it feels weird to even think about it. The rejection had stung me way too much.

All she ever did was hate on me without any reason and trash talk me with her friends. She never tried to get to know me, while there I was stupidly crushing on her. I put a stop to my madness right then and never looked back. But, then dadaji passed away two years ago, and Mahendra Rajput, Saanvi's grandpa and my dadaji's bestfriend told us about the promise he and dadaji had made to each other and that he wanted to fulfill his last promise to his friend.

Everything I thought I had put behind myself came rushing back. I didn't want to get married to her, she was my first love, my first heartbreak. Who gets married to the girl who broke their heart?

Most importantly, I have a girlfriend for heaven sake, but yet I loved dadaji too much to not fulfill his promise. And now here I am married to the bane of my existence, Saanvi Rajput.

"Sir your five o'clock appointment is here " Karan peeks his head inside and gives me heads up.

The meeting is in the conference room and I take my laptop and my lucky charm pen before striding out of the cabin. You can judge for believing in a lucky charm all you want, but in my defense it actually works. Any time I don't carry the old vintage Parker pen into a meeting with me, I end up shitting all over it.