The Wedding Planner

Chapter 5

Once Asim and Shehnaaz left the cafe, Sidharth decided to treat his angel before leaving for his meeting. He was too overwhelmed with the meet and the only way to calm his nerves was to spend some quality time with Niya. After Shehnaaz, it was only Niya who could affect Sidharth's mood. She was the second person he had ever allowed to get so close to him. He loved her too dearly to ever hurt her.

He ordered a chocolate milkshake for Niya, thus earning a glare from Nityami and a coffee for himself. Nityami and Sidharth were talking discussing something about the recent shares they had acquired, when Niya, bored of all these adult talks, said, "Shehnaaz di and Asim bhaiya are so cool naa? And Shehnaaz is so pretty! We are going to be best friends by the end of the wedding".

Sidharth almost choked on the coffee hearing Shehnaaz's name again. This time from Niya. He wasn't surprised to see Niya already praising Shehnaaz. That was just her charm. People always took an instant liking to Shehnaaz, he remembered. But as he drank his coffee and got a better sense of what had just happened, the reality of it all hit him.

'Fuck. No no no. This is too messed up to begin with. I can't let Shehnaaz plan my wedding. It would be too awkward man. She still manages to distract me. It will be a disaster if I don't stay away from her. And I can't let that happen. If things go out of control, Niya will be hurt beyond extend. And Nityami. I mean she has been there for me during difficult times. Shit man. I wish I had told her about my past. Had she known, I wouldn't be in this mess at all. What the hell was I thinking when we finalized the deal and talked about the contract. Shit. Nahi hona chahiye tha yaar. But what reason do I even give Nityami. I have to talk to Shehnaaz. Maybe if I can convince her to back out of it...'

Sidharth decided that he had to somehow get Shehnaaz to leave the assignment. All this while, Sidharth had not realized how messy things could get. Sure, everything was over between them long back and both of them, by the looks of it all, seemed to have moved on. But to have an ex plan your wedding? Isn't that a little too dramatic? And Sidharth hated unnecessary drama. He stayed away from it as much as possible. He had to meet Shehnaaz. And although a very rational person, he did the most irrational thing. He lied.

He told Nityami he is leaving for the meeting, and kissed Niya goodbye. As he stepped out of the cafe, he called his secretary and said, "Postpone the meeting with Mr Malhotra. I have very urgent work to finish. But make sure no one knows about this change of plans".

He drove straight to the office of Shubh Mangal Wedding, and barged into the room with the nameplate 'Shehnaaz Kaur Gill' on it. Sidharth must have been really lucky, as he found her alone in her cabin. For a high profile client to walk into her cabin without prior appointment certainly doesn't look nice. He hadn't even thought what would've happened had Asim been present at that point of time. But his mind of course wasn't working. The only thing he needed right now was to get rid of the mess he brought upon himself when he finalized everything just an hour back.

Shehnaaz was quite surprised, to say the least, upon seeing the man in front of him. Didn't she just meet him an hour back. With his Fiancée. But seeing Sidharth all panting, she knew it was sign for trouble. Still, putting up a brave front, she asked him , "Tum yaha kya kar rahe ho?".

"Arey waah Shehnaaz. Tu se seedha Tum. Itni izzat. Sahi hai.", he said sarcastically still standing near the door.

She calmly got up from her desk, walked up to the water filter, filled up a glass of water, went up to the door and gave it to Sidharth. As he drank the water and calmed down a little, she asked, "Tu yaha kya kar raha hai Sidharthh? Contract toh next week ready hone wala hai na. Koi theme ko leke discussion hai toh teri fiancée ka present hona zaroori hai. Bataya tha toh".