The Summer Of Love

THE UNION

"I see how he looks at you, you know?" Sonali speaks finally, as we walk through the gardens.

"What are you talking about?" I ask when I'm fully aware of who she's talking about. I don't want her to think there's anything happening.

"You should stop trying to lie, when you know how bad you are at it, and I'm not dumb to not notice you," she says looking at me. When I still have a dumb expression, she clicks her tongue and says one word. "Akshat." I suck in air sharply at the mention of his name.

I dreaded this moment. "You've got it all wrong. It's nothing, we just -" I stop having nothing to say. "You just.." she encourages me to continue. I look at him, a little further into the gardens, laughing at something Arjun said. Ahaan looks at us and raises his eyebrows. I shake my head telling him 'we're good' with a thumbs up. When I turn back to look at her, something catches her eyes. I follow her gaze to look at Arjun.

"So, what's going on between you two?" I ask her and she looks at me again.

"You're changing the topic, Mishti," she says, annoyed.

"Its the same topic, as far as I know," I say, with my eyes narrowed at her. A light red colour covers her cheeks as she looks around.

"Let's do this, you tell me something and I tell you something in return," I say, all sure she won't speak up.

But to my surprise, she actually starts speaking. I stop her and say, "I think we've come to a mutual understanding, then. I don't ask you anything and you don't ask me anything," I conclude.

"That's not a mutual understanding, but fine. But know this, I'm always there if you wanna talk, yes?" I nod at her. She usually pesters me enough to spill the beans all the time, but today, either she felt generous enough, or something was wrong with her. And I think the latter is more believable, so I ask her, "Are you thinking about the rest of the family? They'll be here in no time now."

She nods. "I know I've been rude, and I know that this isn't like me but I really want to go back to how it was."

So this is it. Why don't we actually do it if we are all thinking the same thing? "You won't believe but I've been having the same thoughts."

We nod at each other and go find Sakshi who's with Muskaan. "Sakshi, we've been thinking- uh, actually, I-" Sonali stammers. Ofcourse she couldn't say it. I take a deep breath. "We've been thinking about going back to how we were before the cousin problem started," I say in a breath. She just smiles at us and hugs us.

"What are we talking about guys?" asks Muskaan, all confused. We laugh and Sakshi tells her all about it.

"No offence guys, but you all still act like 5 year olds," Muskaan says pressing her lips. There's no denying it, it's true.

Sakshi is about to say something when Ahaan shouts from the other side, "Guys, they're all here."

We all turn our heads at the entrance gate of the Palace and see my bhua's family and her son, Kanishk, entering with Rajesh dadu's family. We try to walk but we are almost running towards them. I could see the media people outside as the gaurds close the gates. The three of us hug the brides to be- Tanya and Ananya. You could see the glow on their faces.

"Now that's what I'd call the wedding glow," Sonali says, stealing my thought.

"Thanks, sweetie," they both chirp.

Akshat and Rajesh dadu shake hands. "Welcome, sir," he says, respectfully. How do they know each other, I wonder.

All of us are lead inside by a man who called himself Kabir. He's probably Amar Sigh's one of the trusted. The Shekhawats welcome them and Muskaan, my sisters and I show the brides-to-be to their rooms. Ananya shows us their pre-wedding pictures when Sonali asks Tanya, "Why didn't you get a photoshoot?"