“You work too much!” Navya complained.
“What will you drink?” Armaan asked, cheerfully changing the subject. “We’re all having white wine. It’s a nice vintage.”
“Sure.”
Armaan poured her a glass. She lifted it to her nose, and her stomach rebelled at the strong smell. Since everyone was watching her, she took a tiny sip.
“Have you finished working on Mihir’s interview?” Vedant asked.
“Yes.” She turned to Mihir. “I’ll have someone from the team send it to you for a review.”
He shrugged. “It’s fine. You don’t need to send it to me.”
“Don’t you want to read it once?” she queried. “To ensure I haven’t mentioned anything you don’t want me to.”
“I’m good with whatever you publish.”
She stared at him, unable to understand what he was up to now. He’d repeatedly shown that he didn’t trust her, and now he was okay with giving her a go-ahead to publish the interview without even looking at it?
Why was he suddenly so… so amenable and accommodating? Finding her gaze on him, he arched a brow, and a corner of his mouth kicked up. And now he was smiling. What was wrong with him? She rolled her eyes and turned to everyone else on the table instead.
“We’re quite excited about the interview,” Vedant said. “We hope we can find our sister through it.”
“I’m sure you will,” she replied gently. She looked at her sisters. “I thought it was a sisters’ lunch. But since they’re all here, are we expecting Rajiv and Sheena to join as well?”
“Um, no,” Navya pushed a plate of chicken skewers in Ananya’s direction. “Actually, we all have an announcement to make. We already told Mom, Dad, Rajiv, and Sheena last night.”
“Last night?” Ananya frowned. “Where was I?”
“Working late, as usual,” Reina reminded her.
“So, what’s the announcement?” And then she gasped. “Wait, let me guess. You’ve decided on a wedding date?!”
“Yes!” her sisters squealed in delight. Armaan and Vedant looked jubilant too.
“Oh my God, that is amazing,” Ananya said.
From her side, she heard Mihir say, “Congratulations. I’m happy for all of you.”
He raised his wine glass in a toast. “Za schastlivyye vremena. To happy times.”
His brothers repeated the toast in Russian as they all clinked their glasses together. Ananya took a sip of the wine. It made her stomach roil.
She put her glass down. “So, when’s the big day?”
She was so delighted for her sisters.
“Well,” Vedant began, “Reina and I want to get married at the house in London. We want a small wedding. Just family and a few close friends. We’re thinking after two months.”
“And Armaan and I want to get married here, on the yacht where we met for the first time,” Navya beamed. “We too want a quiet celebration. We’re thinking a month after them.”
“Yeah,” Armaan concurred. “Same set of people, all of us in the family, the girls’ parents’ closest friends, Sheena’s brother, Kabier Sehgal, and a few in their circle who we all know now closely, and also the Rajpoots and the Luthras. So about sixty of us. We still have to plan the guest list.”
“And here I was, thinking I’d get to plan two loud, fancy weddings,” Ananya said. “But it’s fine. Whatever makes you guys happy.”
Navya took her hand in hers. “Thank you. We know you’ve been wanting to start covering weddings inNoir,and we wanted to ask if you’ll cover both our weddings.”
“It will be my absolute pleasure,” Ananya said. “This will be so much fun. I’m so excited for you all.”