The Wedding Planner

Chapter 11

"Chup kyu hai Shehnaaz? Koi jawaab nahi hai na?"

His words broke her chain of thoughts. Being here with Sidharth had opened the floodgates of memories that she had suppressed somewhere deep inside her heart. She had tears in her eyes, reminiscing the bitter sweet memories of college. But she had no answer. She knew the answer that she could provide would never make sense. She came a little closer to him, cupped his face and said, "Sorry".

That's all she had to offer to him. Sidharth, although hurt, didn't want to let this moment go. In all their previous encounters, it had always been him who had shown signs of physical proximity. This was the first time in all these years that Shehnaaz, consciously came close to him, touched him.  He wanted to kiss her so bad. But he knew that would be wrong.

Shehnaaz too understood that her gesture could lead to something very wrong between them. And so, she got up and went into his room to change back into her clothes. She got dressed, and was about to leave the room when something caught her eyes this time. Beside the side table near his bed, there lay a small box. It seemed like Sidharth had tried to hide it there in a hurry.

She opened it and found a bunch of old photographs from college days, a few small gifts she had given him and a ring. The exact same ring she had seen Nityami wearing on their engagement day, the same ring Sidharth had used to propose to Shehnaaz. She was smart enough to join the dots and realised that the ring Nityami had was just a replica of it, and understood that Sidharth had done it to hurt her probably. She didn't know how to react, whether to be happy that Sidharth still has this ring or to be angry that he used a replica of it to hurt her.

Worried that Shehnaaz had yet not come out of the room, Sidharth decided to knock at the door once and check up on her.

"Shehnaaz..Shehnaaz..thik toh hai na tu? Itni der ho gayi, darwaza khol"

After well over a minute, a clearly pissed Shehnaaz opened the door. He was rather confused to see such a sudden shift in emotions. "Kya hua? Aise kyu dekh rahi hai mereko? Ab kya kar diya maine?", He asked.

She showed him the ring and her face said it all. He understood that she wanted an explanation. But he still played it cool.

"Kya? Iss baar tu propose kar rahi hai? But I'm already engaged baby", he said.

Rolling her eyes, she replied, "Sidharth zyada bann mat. Tune mujhe hurt karne ke liye same design wali ring Nitya ko pehnayi na?"

He was caught. He mumbled "haan khud hurt kare toh koi explanation nahi deti. Maine kiya toh madam ko explanation chahiye"

"You know na I can hear everything", Shehnaaz reminded him.

And so, he used the same technique on her. He said, "Sorry", as adorably as possible.

Shehnaaz couldn't help but giggle. She always wondered how easily they managed to turn the most intense moments into light ones. They just couldn't stay mad at each other.

But she couldn't hold back her emotions anymore. One moment she was the giggling, the next moment she broke into a sob. She broke down. It felt as if, all the emotions that she had held back all these years have finally escaped. She was now on the floor, hands covering her eyes, sobbing loudly.

If there was one thing that Sidharth couldn't ever tolerate, it was to see Shehnaaz cry. Seeing her like this, pained his heart but he also knew that there's a lot of pent up emotions that needed to come out of her system.

He bent down to reach her level and rubbed his hand over her shoulder. She hugged him tightly and cried. In between her sobs she managed to ask him, "kyu...samb..sambhal ke rakhi..ring?".

"How could I part with it? It had your memories. Buri hi sahi, memory toh thi na Shehnaaz. And memories were all I had of yours all these years", he said, his voice almost choking.

"Toh ek baar bhi contact kyu nahi kiya itne saalo mein?", She asked, still not letting go of the embrace.

"Shehnaaz. You broke things off in such a way that I thought you hate me or something. And sach kahu, ego bhi thi.  I mean how could I meet you when you broke my heart and left? I was supposed to hate you. But I couldn't. But contact karna was out of question.", He said. "But yes. I did keep tabs on you. I knew you were a successful wedding planner and I didn't want my presence to ruin things for you", he confessed. "Aur tu mujhe kya puch rahi hai. Tune kyu nahi koshish ki contact karne ki?"

"The first two years I was busy making a mark for myself. You know I had a lot at stake. Finally, when I was a little settled with my business, I saw your pictures with Nityami and read all the articles about you two. Aur sach kahu. Pehle do saal toh guilt mein hi nikal gaye aur phir jab himmat huyi toh tab tak der hu chuki thi", she explained as she finally broke the embrace.

"Sala timing hi off thi shayad", Sidharth complained. 

And that's when Sidharth's phone rang. The caller ID showed Nityami. Sidharth didn't receive the call. He let it ring. Shehnaaz saw the name on the screen.

"Thi nahi Sidharth, Off Hai. Aur humesha rahegi", Shehnaaz said mournfully and left. 

_______________________________________

Hi hoomans!!!

I legit opened this app today after 5 days and my Whattpad was flooded with notifications, some of which included comments about the next update.

First of all, SORRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. Just like Shehnaaz has no explanation for her actions, I too, have no justifications to give.

But yes, I was genuinely busy with admission stuff. If you guys are reading this part and kinda like my story, then can you like please pray for things to get sorted..like loans and stuff 🥺🥺 If the loan doesn't get sanctioned by 24th June, my admission will get cancelled and shit. So yeah. Please pray 🥺

Also, like all the other chapters, this wasn't pre-planned. I write random stuff which is why sometimes it's great and sometimes it sucks. But well......

Feel free to criticize.

Also, I would like to end it with a Thank You.  My work isn't that amazing. But still some of you read it, comment on it, vote for it. I've got more appreciation than I deserve. 22k+ reads and 2k+ votes. I'm genuinely grateful. I love each one of you readers, even if you don't vote or comment. The fact that you spend 5 mins of your time on my story means a lot.
Thank You :)