Page 27 of Always? Forever.
So why exactly am I the one expected to keep
it clean, bite my tongue, play nice? And come on,
princess. Let’s not kid ourselves. You don’t really
want a guy whobehaves.You want the guy
who almost does—but doesn’t. Who knows
when to lose control, when to keep it. Admit it.
You want the fire—you just want to be the only
one who doesn’t get burned.
I guess now it’s my turn to be speechless. I am just glad I am currently home alone because I am pretty sure I look like a tomato. I was not expecting that, nor do I know how to respond to it.
I save the selfie to my photos, only replying to the image with thanks and go to sleep, because as famously said ‘nothing good happens after 2 am.’ but the person who said it didn’t know it was already 2:05 am. I was already in trouble.
The next morning came around as quickly as anticipated. I was still stuck at the office. We had an event coming in the next 3 months. It was an office event where the best employees were either promoted or given a trophy or a raise for their work. I was really hoping for a raise. It would help my savings a lot. I was also nervous about today becausenow even Kartik’s mom, who is also my boss, knew about the whole thing. Well, not the whole thing but the fact her only son was marrying me, probably. My phone started ringing. It was Mrs.Kapadia’s secretary. I answered.
Here we go. “Hey Lily”
“Samaira, Mrs.Kapadia wants to schedule a meeting with you.”
“Yes of course. Please tell Mrs.Adhira I’ll be right in her cabin.”
“Oh honey, not Mrs.Adhira, Mrs.Taani Kapadia.”
I almost dropped my phone. Taani Kapadia was Kartik’s Grandmother, who had kept the clause for his inheritance and she wanted to meet me! That had trouble spelled all over it. As Lily told me the details and all for the meeting, the place and the time. I quickly messaged Kartik about this asking for his help. One thing we had forgotten about was how to handle his grandmother. I racked my brain if any index cards had much information about his grandmother, but nothing came to mind.
“Shit” I mumbled. “Did you say something?” Lily asked
I chuckled awkwardly, “Oh no Lily, The Lotte Palace sounds great. What time did you say?”
Lily sighed, “It’s 6:30 pm, the table is reserved under Mrs.Kapadia. Since it’s last minute, she says she’ll understand if you wish to cancel?” Lily asked me. I could imagine Lily raising one of her eyebrows. I gulped. This was something I couldn’t screw up for Kartik. “No, it's no issue. It’s perfectly alright.”
“Don’t be late” she said sternly before she hung up. Well, guess that was it. I was about to fuck this up, badly. Kartik still hasn’t answered. Where was this guy?! Ugh. I needed to talk to him about exchanging schedules too.
I checked the time, it was already 5. If I was going to The Lotte Palace, I needed to dress up and my work clothes or my disheveled look wasn’t going to cut it or make any sort of impression on his grandmother. I needed to rush home, change, and go to the palace. Shit. I was screwed. And not in a good way I would really like. NOT THE TIME SAMAIRA.
I rushed home, and practically broke my closet down. I tried calling Aria. But even she didn’t answer and I almost pulled my hair out when my doorbell rang. I wore my night robe before I opened my door and there she was.
“Surprise bitch” I almost cried, she was here!
“Aria, oh my god I am so happy you are here. I am about to meet Kartik’s grandmother at Lotte and I have nothing to wear, I just have about 30 minutes to reach there, oh my god I am yet to tell you everything this isn’t going —“
She looked at me wide-eyed before she put her hands on my shoulder, and came really close to my face so that our noses were touching. I was already panicking. My eyes were wide as saucers too at this point.
“You are Samaira Bhatt, you have got whatever the shit this is. But calm the fuck down, I can’t understand a single word you said. I lost it after you said Lotte.”
I gulped and nodded. She leaned back and slapped my face slightly with both her hands dragging me back to reality. “Now what do you need? you can explain later”
I gave her a gist of it. She was going to kill me once I was back home. She finally found something in my closet that would be appropriate.
I took a cab even if it was way too expensive for a couple of blocks, but I couldn’t walk in heels and have myself be sweaty. Kartik still hadn’t replied. I was 10 minutes away and it was already 6:20 pm. Shit. That’s when my overthinking went haywire. What if…what if Kartik had a girlfriend? Why hadn’t I thought of that? It could be possible. Although he would have mentioned it right? Oh god. What have I gotten myself into?
I reached at 6:28 p.m. Bless my cab driver who received a hefty tip for rushing me through the NYC traffic. I didn’t want to be late and leave a bad impression, I was early everywhere. I hoped she liked me because this whole marriage was riding on the fact that Kartik gets his inheritance. I walked towards the restaurant, and I approached the hostess. She eyed me like I was some ominous black cat. I shifted from one foot to another uncomfortably. She had that fake smile that girls have when they don’t like you, okay bitch I didn’t like you either.
