PriRa OneShot ~ Towards Her

Towards Her

“Congratulations, Ram!”

“Here comes our man!”

“Mubarakan, bhai!”

Ram Kapoor's gang of friends, Adi, Vrinda, Kunal and Vicky, crowded around him with cheers and greetings the moment he entered the venue for the night's celebration. The party was in honour of Ram Kapoor who had managed to add another accolade to his repertoire of many achievements tonight. His company had won first place in the Stellar Innovation awards for consistently delivering innovative solutions to their customers.

“Ram, where’s Priya?” Vrinda asked scanning the entrance behind her friend for his wife.

“She said she won’t be able to make it as there’s some emergency with Sara,” Ram replied as he picked up a cheese croquet from the appetizer platter being offered by the server doing the rounds.

“Anything serious, bhai?” Kunal queried.

“Nope. I offered to go along but Priya said she’d manage,” Ram replied.

Adi didn’t miss the feeling of disappointment that washed over the group, and especially, his wife, Vrinda, at the news. While they understood Priya and Ram's priorities being their families over each other, they did hope that some day, these two amazing souls would find love in their lives, once again. Ram and Priya had literally married for their families – to make it smooth for their siblings, as absurd as it may sound, because both Ram and Priya had closed the doors to their hearts forever. Ram, because he hadn’t been able to forget his first and only love, even after she moved on and got married; and Priya, because she had her heart shattered to smithereens by the men in her life – her father and her ex-boyfriend. Vrinda had organized this party in the hope that they could get Ram and Priya to spend some private moments together but, with Priya missing, it had all come down to naught now.

“It’s okay, baby, we’ll try something again,” Adi whispered beside his wife in an effort to console her, while Kunal and Vicky chatted with Ram.

“Guess we will have to,” Vrinda replied dejectedly.

“Mr. Kapoor!” Ram turned to find Mr. Khurana heading their way. He excused himself to go talk to the man who’d stopped by to congratulate him on the win.

“Guys, cheer up! With these faces, we look like we’re here to attend a funeral,” Vicky joked seeing Vrinda's face.

“At least, Shashi and Vedika are not here, else we’d have to again endure the ordeal of Ram's wistful looks towards the couple,” muttered Vrinda.

Though Ram's ex-girlfriend, Vedika, was now married to Shashi, everyone knew that Ram still loved Vedika. Ram had never made a secret of it and, interestingly, Shashi didn’t have a problem with it – the scoundrel, in fact, made it a point to rub it in Ram's face every opportunity he got. Always praising Vedika and his luck for being blessed with a wife like her. Ram's friends had hoped he’d eventually move on, but with each passing day, Ram had only proved that he was loyal to a fault. What didn’t help matters was his marriage of convenience because Priya also had no problem with the status quo. Which meant that only a miracle worker could evacuate Vedika from her permanent abode in Ram’s heart.

Through the next hour, Ram was constantly busy with business associates and acquaintances, who lauded his successes and wished him many more achievements for the future. However, irrespective of who he was talking to, Ram's hopeful eyes continually scanned the hall, and occasionally strayed to the entrance, as if in search of someone, expecting someone's arrival. It didn’t take a genius to know that he was looking for Vedika.

“Speak of the devil...” muttered Vrinda, exasperated.

As if Ram's restlessness had conjured her out of thin air, his friends saw Vedika and Shashi enter the party venue. All four pairs of eyes zeroed in on Ram, sure of his next move. As if on cue, Ram excused himself from the people he was talking to and made his way towards Vedika. Shashi had been conveniently intercepted by a friend while Vedika continued to head in Ram's direction.