Opposites attract

Chapter 22(Neil)

Yakshi's wedding functions will start tomorrow. We are moving to the resort first thing in the morning. The resort is in the outskirts and at least 2 hrs drive away. We need to leave the house before 6 am to reach at time.

Sahika and Kali will join us at the resort directly but Ashu is staying the night with us. All three of them has taken 4 days off of work and I know this is killing Ashu which makes the whole process way more interesting for me.

The doorbell rings and I know its Ashu. I got to answer the door and fin her standing on the other side with her luggage. She is wearing jeans instead of her usual office clothes. A smile forms on her face when she sees me.

"hey", I greet him and take the luggage from her. 

"hi", she steps and gives a side hug to me after noticing that papa is sitting on the living room couch. I know the hug is just for show but I still get a million butterflies in my stomach.

"Namaste uncle", she greets my father.

"Namaste beta, have a seat. Rashmi and Yakshita are preparing the dinner." (Rashmi is my mother)I set her luggage by the couch where all of our stuff was kept and indicated her to follow me with my eyes. We went to my room and I shut the door behind the room.

"Are you ready?", I ask her. I know she is a bit nervous because her parents are arriving. She hates lying to them and for that reason I need to make sure that she is okay today.

"Yes I am. Everything is wrapped up at the office and I have cleared my schedule for the next 4 days."

 "Great. We will leave in your car tomorrow. Papa, Mummy and Yakshi will take Papa's car. I hope you are okay that I am coming with you."

"Yes, it's alright. After all you can't take your bike for a 2-hour drive."

"Exactly. I think we should go for dinner now."

"Ya sure."

We have dinner together and Ashu went to sleep with Yakshi. Yakshi told her sleep in my room as a joke and that make her blush.

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In the morning I woke up and found Mummy in the kitchen preparing tea while papa was counting the number of luggage, we were taking with us. I went towards Yakshi's room to wake the girls. I had just raised my hand to knock when Ashu opened the door and stepped out fixing her hair in the ponytail.

"Good morning, Neil."

Good morning popcorn

"Are you going to say something or are you just going to stare at me?"

Did I say that in my mind. She jerks my shoulder slowly. "Good morning popcorn.", I finally say.

"Are you okay? You look pale.", she says examining my face.

"I am as good as they come.", I say to her trying to keep my expression neutral.

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Papa and I loaded the luggage in our car trunks. The remaining stuff went into Ashu's car's backseat. We settled in our seats and started the journey. Ashu was driving the car while I sat on the passenger seat and told her the directions. After driving for about half an hour we reached a small road side restraint where we decided to take a halt for breakfast. Papa's car came shortly after. After the breakfast, I was the one driving because Ashu was a little sleepy and couldn't focus on the road because of tiredness from yesterday.

She constantly gave me directions. Once we reached the resort, we took key cards from the reception and went to our respective rooms. All the personal bags went to respective rooms while the bag that contained wedding and ritual stuff was supposed to go the store attached to bridal suite.

Sahika and Kali arrived by the time I and Ashu were done. Some of the short pre-wedding rituals and pujas were going to start in about an hour for which they had to get yakshi ready.

I went to one of the halls in the resort where the mehndi function was going to take place. I went there with the wedding planner to supervise the decorations.

Other guests kept arriving while I was with the planner and I had to go in and out of the hall to attend them. After two hours I received a call from mummy telling me that the mehndi function was about to start in half an hour and she had sent yakshi to get ready for it so I should also go and get ready. Rahul, one of our cousins started attending the guests from there on so that I could ready. It took me no more than 15 minutes to change and get my hair done.

I was just going downstairs when I heard a knock on the door and found Sahika on the other side. "Hi sahika. Do you need something?", I asked her while wearing my shoes.

"Not something Neil bhaiya. I need someone.", she replied with a mischievous smile.

"Who?"

"Ashu obviously. Its high time she stopped fooling around with you and actually attended the rituals."

"What do you mean fooling around with me? I haven't seen her since you and Kali arrived."

"Then where is she?"

"How would I know that? Isn't she your roommate? Wasn't she supposed to be with you to help Yakshi get ready?"

"Yes, she was with us before the puja. But when Yakshi went to puja we decided to get some rest. I didn't find her in the room when I woke up to get ready for mehndi ceremony. We thought she was with you and we should not disturb you guys. But now Yakshi is ready and we were going to go downstairs for the ritual but she still hadn't returned so I came to check but she isn't here as well.", I had heard only half of her speech. Where is Ashu? This resort is massive. Where will we find her? I hope she hasn't got lost.

I took my phone to call her but her phone was unreachable. This was quite expected after all this resort is in the outskirts.

"Go back to yakshi and take her downstairs. If she asks about me and Ashu, tell we are together supervising the preparations for the next functions.", I say to Sahika

"But where are you going? Is Ashu going to be okay?"

"I am going to find her. Don't worry about Ashu and make sure Yakshi doesn't find out the truth."

"Okay bhaiya."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hey, readers.

So where do you think Ashu is and how worried does Neil sound on a scale from 1 to 10.

Also, the story is coming to an end soon because I wanted to keep it a bit short and end it before you guys started getting bored.

So, keep voting and supporting