My suite has the perfect view of the Parisian street as a few bikers and walkers occupy the sidewalk probably getting to their destinations before the sun sets. This day seems to be taking forever to go by. This morning seemed like it happened days ago. I was glad for a hot shower and some great French food as I wait out the time until Shre arrived. Her flight would land at around eleven so I had several hours to kill before she got here.
Taking the seat by the window I gaze out the glass at the city before me. The city of love, romantics dream about Paris and here I am dreading being in such a wonderful place. Leaning into the plush armchair my gaze catches the riveting nightlife of the city below. Music can be heard playing from street artists as many people still walk the streets carrying shopping bags from the luxury brand boutiques just down the street on Avenue des Champs-Élysées. I recede into my thoughts once again as memories come flooding back to me.
Summer nights always bring the unexpected whether it's a shower of rain, meeting or love everything is high during the summer from the pollen count to hormones.
Three Months Ago
Yawning, I walk into the kitchen following the rich earthy scent billowing from the coffee maker. It's a typical Saturday morning in the Arora household, Nikhil sits by the island counter scrolling through his phone, my younger brother Aryan, home for the summer from classes at Yale, is babied by maa as he rests his head on her shoulder wrapping his arms around her. Dad is by the stove making omelets and pancakes with a small pot of steaming chai for maa and himself. Nima, my younger sister, still hasn't woken up yet.
At home we're your normal Indian-American family, teasing and getting on each other's nerves, dysfunctional and messed up in more ways than one. But to the outside world, we're the poster family. A CEO husband and father, doctor wife and mother, four children all either Ivy League graduates, attendee, or bound. We put on rather the show in front of the cameras. Smiling our perfectly fake smiles for group pictures, mingling with the right people and boosting our social status at every event we attended. It was all for business and we all played the part because we all benefitted.
The four of us were raised out of prestige and privilege to one day inherit my father and mother's legacy. It came with its sacrifices of battling through undercurrents of competition and backstabbing all while we wore the newest trending designers and rubbed elbows with people we call friends to their faces and behind their backs no less than a stranger.
If it weren't for Nikhil I might have gone insane by now. Like any older brother he was protective, irritating, annoying, and loving all at the same time. He's only a year older than I am but he thinks he has me by many years more. Intellectually he may be smarter, maybe, but tactically I win him by miles. I have outsmarted my older brother since I learned to talk and nothing has changed since.
Growing up Nik was my go-to person for everything if I had to share my happiness of distress he was always there to listen to me, taunt me about it and then offer his best advice. We fought like all siblings over petty things but we're grown up now and he's been my biggest support system, saving me from the dreadfully pretentious people we have to deal with and just being there to lean on.
"Those came for you this morning," maa smirks, peering at me over the rim of her coffee mug with her instigating dark green eyes. I hum pouring a cup of coffee, sliding into the stool beside Nik, admiring the two dozen green roses arranged in a black box, at the center of each a glimmering silver pearl.
I open the attached envelope, rubbing my thumb over the SR insignia printed in platinum on the flap. His bold, neat handwriting is the first thing I notice on the thick white card with a message to be his date at the annual white party in The Hamptons this weekend. Tapping the card against my lip, I decide to make him grovel a bit and wait to reply. If he's the Sidharth I once knew, that will for sure drive him crazy.
YOU ARE READING
Life's Second Chances
General Fiction"All that was, all that is, and all that will ever be" Will love be the strongest force that holds them together or be the ultimate tragedy that breaks them apart? With death looming like a sword over their heads, endless efforts of a lover to prot...
