Misfit Cinderella

Untitled Part 36

How her day had changed from a regular one to an unexpected one? 

 She began to ascend the stairs to her apartment.

Abeer was like a whirlwind,she thought. She wasn't aware of his arrival in her life and now he was gone.

Sure they had Facebook but it wouldn't be the same. Sure,she reluctantly allowed herself to admit that she had begun to enjoy his company.

She prodded her heart to find out what kind of path had they both started to tread in terms of relationship.

But whatever her heart thought she could never find out.

As she opened her apartment,she found her mother with Abeer's mother talking with Kalpana as Sneha served the tea.

Stupefied Juhi stood in the doorway.

"Juhi,would like some tea?" asked Sneha  as if she had found it extremely normal and casual to find Juhi's mother on their couch.

Juhi smiled back at Abeer's mother and replied " No thanks. I just ate some snacks."

"That's good. Now perhaps you could get changed into something nice and we could move on." said her mother sipping her tea.

Juhi's shocked expressions did not bother her mother. When her mother saw that Juhi hadn't moved a bit she simply looked at he daughter as if to say,"Well?"

Juhi forced a nervous laughter from her throat and said," Mom, could I just talk to you for a second?"

Juhi took her mother's elbow and ushered her into her room.

"Mom, what's going "on"?"

Her mother furrowed her brow slightly and asked," Why are you making this difficult? Its just a party."

Now it was Juhi's turn to crease her brow,"What party? "

"Mr Gill is hosting a party- a cocktail party- in honour of your father and his partners.

So we have to be there. "

"So you were in Pune this whole time?"

"Yes,we had to delay our flight. And you weren't answering our calls so I left you an email.

Which of course you chose to delete without reading." said Mrs Desai,feeling resentful.

" What about..."

"Enough already. Get ready.Now."

Her mother shoved Juhi towards her cupboard .

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 A cocktail party. 

 Whenever these two words are thrown at people (women (especially)) following thoughts pop into their mind simultaneously

 "What am I going to wear?"

 "I don't have any clothes!" 

"Quick! Whose dress can I borrow?" 

"What if someone else is wearing this same dress too?" 

And many thousand more. So the same case was with Juhi when she rummaged her cupboard searching for something perfect.

Time was running as fast and with her mother's consistent 'sweet' remarks that they were going to be horribly late,Juhi tried to dress as fast as possible.

After loads of rejection and selection,Juhi had chosen to wear a knee length white skirt with lots of fluff and shimmer paired with short sleeved black blouse .

It was perfect for theme-less cocktail reception and it played the part of elegant and beautiful well.

She stumbled out of her room, one hand occupied with clutch and the other in her hair, finger combing it.

Juhi raised her eyebrows expectantly at Kalpana and Sneha as if to ask," How do I look?"

Kalpana winked and Sneha gave her a thumbs up.

Mrs Desai and Mrs Khare smiled at Juhi with varying degree of warmth. 

While her mother smiled tightly , Abeer 's mother smiled freely and nodded at her as if agreeing with her choice of attire.

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Juhi stepped out of the car as gracefully she could in her heels. 

Before she could give her mother a slip,her mother had put her hand on her elbow and dragged Juhi stylishly to the main arena.  While her mother introduced her to her yet new social circle, Juhi smiled,nodded and tried to give a perfect daughter impression. 

Finally when she was left alone, Juhi got herself a mock-tail. As she raised her glass to her lips, she caught sight of someone entirely too familiar. 

She was perhaps too stupid to be surprised at his presence .It was kinda obvious  since Abeer's mother,Mrs Khare was escorting them to the venue, Abeer would also be present.He was talking with a group at a far end of the reception hall,nodding and gesturing. 

You clean up nicely ,she thought.He was wearing a black tux, while his hair was perfectly manoeuvred into a classic taper . He was looking every bit like an young ,ruthless entrepreneur. 

Except his eyes which were twinkling affably in his sculpted face.He deep in conversation with his circle; people probably from his business; and her father? 

Juhi was baffled. She knew her father too well. He was shrewd, calculative and at times manipulative. He rarely went out of his way to welcome new business ides and young businessman.Mr Desai's ego didn't permit him to mingle with people with less experience,less fame and anyone who was not fit to hold a candle to him.T o watch him mingle with Abeer was peculiar. Perhaps her father was being socially polite to Abeer because he was now Devyani's relative?Juhi mentally discarded that possibility. To her father,relationships only had a life if they were fruitful to his career,fame or business.Juhi stared at the them trying to decipher her father's brain. 

As if he felt her eyes on him, Abeer locked his gaze with her.His eyes gave nothing away as he toasted her by simply raising his glass to her.

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