The Accidental Wedding

7. Picnic Baskets

I woke up to the voice of my brother the next morning. My alarm would've been a thousand times better.

"What is it? Just let me sleep." I groaned.

"Let you sleep?" he scoffed. "We have a plan to initiate. Did you forget about it already?" How does he have so much energy in the morning? Did he have a spoonful of coffee powder?

"No I haven't forgot about it. It was my idea. But torturing me with your voice and face in the morning is a bit too much." I said.

"Ha-ha. Very funny. You hate me, I hate you, what's new?"

"Why are you bothering me?" I sat up, finally waking up from my slumber.

"I have all the stuff required for tonight and Sanjana has prepared everything for the both of you." He informed me.

"That's great. I'd thank you but I really don't want to."

"I know you love me." I did.

"Fine. Now get your ass out of here I need to get ready."

He left my room. I stood up from the bed and walked towards the bathroom to take a shower. Just then my phone vibrated. It was a message from Dr. Vanessa, my gynaecologist that my shot was due the following week and I needed to be there as soon as possible.

If the plan works, I'll be in London before Monday. I will be back home. I thought.

After a quick shower, I changed into fresh clothes and made my way downstairs for breakfast. My father was sitting on one end of the dining table and my brother on the other, not even looking at each other. My mother was nowhere to be seen. She was probably getting ready for another get together with her friends. It was better that I didn't see her.

"Good morning, Naina. How are you?" My dad asked. I acted normal, as if I didn't know about his deal. If I acted upon it, our plan would've blown up and I wouldn't have been able to go back.

With the most fake of my smiles, I said "Good morning dad. I'm feeling great. How are you?"

"I'm good. It has just been hard at work these days."

"Oh, I hope whatever is bothering you soon goes away." I said, referring to myself but not letting him know. My brother knew, of course, and he scoffed slightly. Dad just eyed him without saying anything.

I turned my plate up and served myself.  But it was weird that I was not feeling like eating at all considering I ate a little at the dinner with Ashwin but threw up after coming back. So, I just had a toast with butter on it and a cup of coffee. I ate half of the toast and finished up my coffee.

As I got up to go back to my room, my dad called my name.

"Naina, what's wrong? You haven't eaten anything. Are you feeling fine?"

"Yes dad, I am okay. Don't worry. It's just that I ate outside yesterday and I've lived in London for so long, it's a big change being home so my body is just not accepting the change so soon."

And I hoped of it being the same way.

"Okay. But if you feel something is wrong, you will tell either me or your mother. We will call a doctor for you." I saw that this time his concern was real. It just didn't feel like my own father would use me in a business deal like that.

I smiled and turned to my brother.

"Vivan, I need to talk to you. Can you please come to my room once you have eaten?"

"Yeah sure. I'll be there in a minute." He replied and I could feel my father piercing a hole through my head with his stare. He was probably thinking how I could be okay with my brother being gay. He didn't want me to talk to my own brother. Our parents themselves hadn't talked to him for more than a year. They expected the same from me but I wanted my brother to be happy for who he is.