The Great Indian Wedding Romance

15. Starry Night

"I knew I would find you here," Chetna's voice startled Siddharth as he stood on the same balcony, smoking.

"Yeah," he agreed weakly.

"Hey," Chetna said softly, "are you okay?" 

"Me? Yes. I'm perfect." 

He exhaled a plume of smoke and extinguished his cigarette in the dustbin nearby. 

"So if you want to talk about it, I am listening but companionable silence is on the table as well," she said. 

Siddharth smiled slightly. She was quoting his line back at him. 

"Or maybe you want something stronger? I could procure drinks as well," she said and leaned against the railing next to him. 

"And how would you go about doing that?" he asked, amused at her offer. 

"Hey do not underestimate me," she protested. 

"Alright," he smiled at her. 

"Alright?" she asked but then she sprang up and echoed another, more confident "Alright!" 

"Rooftop, 12. Don't be late," she said before taking off. 

***

Siddharth did not expect Chetna to get alcohol at this hour especially in a place that didn't serve. But he wasn't ready to face his mother and her company was the better alternative than driving to his friends' hotel. 

To his surprise. Chetna seemed to have succeeded in her little mission. She was setting up a table at the farthest end of the roof and there seemed to be a bottle of dark liquor in there. 

"Impressive," he said as he approached her. 

"Yeah, well, I told you, you underestimate me." 

She placed two glasses on the table and looked up at him with a triumphant smile. 

Siddharth settled down in the chair opposite her and sighed. It had been a very long day. When he had left his hotel room this morning he hadn't known what he was getting into. 

Chetna gave him a sympathetic look and asked,

"Long day, huh?" 

"You could say that," he answered and pulled up the glasses to pour out some whiskey. He added some coke and slid the glass to Chetna and then made himself the same drink. 

"It'll get better once you have some magic juice in your system," she laughed and then clinked her glass against his. 

"That's debatable, considering the same magic juice is responsible for half my problems."

"Really? You were drunk?" she asked.

"Well, not drunk. And it isn't like I said stuff I wasn't already thinking." Siddharth defended weakly. 

"It's okay. I don't think most people even noticed your... uh... speech."

Siddharth looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"Really? You think so?" he challenged. 

When she stayed quiet for a few seconds he sighed again. 

"I mean you didn't really even say anything too obvious. I mean I knew what you were talking about because you told me the whole story. The only other people who weren't confused by your whole speech were your relatives." Chetna offered helpfully. 

In a way she was right. Most people would have been confused but anyone with half a brain could have figured it out from context. 

"Let's talk about something else, anything else," he said.