My Life is a Soap Opera

5. Bride switcheroo

As soon as those rituals were over, we were guided to another room that had a large well decorated sofa that could seat two people.

"We can't be here, yet. We have to finish the signing first." Ritwik told his brother.

"We have to take pictures. The signing is about 15 minutes later. Molly is in there along with Sayan dealing with the reporters for now." I replied. It was after all my responsibility to ensure the wedding was perfect and everything was on schedule. Being the groom's assistant and the bride's cousin put that weird pressure on me.

"What do we have after the signing?" Ritwik asked.

"Yeah. You have the schedule, right? Give it to me. The bride shouldn't have to do these." Surya said with an awkward smile.

I ignored his manipulative shitty ass and focused on my boss. "The Bashor Raat event. That's supposed to be mostly young family members from both sides."

"What about the photographers? Would they stay?"

I shook my head. "No, they'll leave after having dinner." I reached for my phone then realised I didn't have my purse containing it. "I can't give you the exact time. But from what I remember, they're supposed to have dinner during the signing and then leave. They were supposed to have already taken majority of the photos with the bride and the groom by now. This was like the last finishing touch."

I bit the inside of my mouth and looked down. Everything went off schedule because ...

"Where's your phone? Get it and get Molly to contact the photographers. Tell them we had an emergency and need them to stay an hour longer."

"Uh.. It's.. It's with my mom and I don't think I can get it."  I was slightly worried. No scratch that, I was extremely worried. I didn't like how calm he was being about the whole situation.

"I can get it for you." Surya offered.

"Do that. Tell them I want it." Ritwik instructed.

His brother nodded and quickly ran off.

We were surrounded by a lot of people who witnessed the exchange. Almost everyone was gossiping but Ritwik ignored it and walked straight towards the sofa. I had to, of course, follow him as we joined by our clothing.

We sat down for a few minutes until Surya walked up to us with my phone held up. He handed it to me and I quickly texted Molly and then called her.

"Hey, can you see the text I sent you?"

"Uh yeah. Where the hell are you? I am hearing some very strange things."

"Chances are you're hearing the correct things. Just see the text and do those."

"Bigg Boss' orders?"

"Yup."

"On it."

"Thank you so much."

"Eh, it's my job. Just get here ASAP."

"Will do."

I turned to face my hu-boss. He was just my boss. The whole thing was a fucked up accident.

He suddenly stood up and I raised my eyebrow. Ignoring me he began to walk forward and I felt a tug at my saree. Sighing I stood up and began following him. My hand itched to undo the knot but I was not trying to get slapped by my mother or worse my bitchy aunt.

It wasn't their action that I was worried about, rather my own reaction. Unlike most Indian kids, I didn't take being hit as a normal right of an older person. If anything, that was a trigger for me. I knew I would react with the exact same physical behaviour that I was given by them. Especially with how on edge I was in that moment.