It Happened In Florida

3.Tejasswi

"Everyone comes with baggage. Find someone who loves you enough to help you unpack"

Tejasswi came back to her room, took a shower, put on a hoodie and went to bed. She kept on tossing and turning but sleep eluded her. She dreaded seeing Kabir again. What if he brought a date? What if he's engaged? The hell with the way luck was against her right now, he may even turn up with a pregnant wife.

And here she was. Alone. Depressed. Still bitter. And the worst part, she believes that he has robbed her of the ability to fall in love again. She doesn't see herself trusting anybody ever.

She woke up every day hoping all that was just a nightmare. But then the reality hits. She wonders sometimes what would have gone differently if she had given him another chance. Forgiven him. Made a fresh start. Maybe they would have been still together. Maybe they would have been the ones getting married tomorrow.

Yet always arrived at the same conclusion - it was fated to be doomed.

But she still intends to fulfil the other half of her plan. No marriage at 28 doesn't stop her from having a kid. She's doing very well for herself financially. She has supportive parents. An amazing brother. She can still adopt a baby girl as she always wanted to.

She got up, dialled room service and ordered a bottle of wine and doughnuts. Five doughnuts. Her go-to combination these days.

The sugar and alcohol were so going directly to her cheeks. She was so going to regret looking at her face tomorrow which will surely blow up like a pufferfish.

She was on her third harry potter movie, drunk- the wine bottle almost empty. She reached for the last doughnut dropping it on herself. The sticky chocolate glaze ruining her clothes.

Somewhere during the fourth harry potter movie, she dozed off.

Tejasswi furrowed her eyebrows. Her head was pounding and spinning even though her eyes were closed. She felt lightheaded and sick. Someone was pounding at the door. She groaned. It wasn't helping that she was so cold. Why is it so cold in this room? Wasn't the heat on? It should be on.

The bell rang again.

"Coming" She grunted.

It was cold, her head was hurting and she was sticky.
Slowly, she opened her eyes to get blinded by the amount of light. She forgot to close the blinds last night.

She got up from the bed and opened the door, her eyes still half closed.

"Yes?" She croaked.

"I have a huge favour to ask. Please don't say no." She heard a loud squeaky voice. There stood Arshita in her hot pink robe, the word BRIDE splashed across the front in golden glittery bold letters.

Can bright colours trigger headaches? It certainly hurt to look at Arshita right now.

"Ok, ok calm down, who died? Also, can you speak a little less loudly, please? It's way too noisy for early in the morning "

"Remember I told you the Malhotras are coming to the wedding?"

"Yes."

"And a Karan is coming with them too?"

"Yes 'A' Karan is coming too. So what?"

"Well they kinda RSVPd about him very last minute, and I thought I have an extra room for him, but now Manish's grandparents have invited their neighbours to the wedding too, a family of five and I have to give the room to them and the hotel is booked fully because of the wedding and I have to arrange extra chairs, call the caterers about food and where will I find extra mithai last minute in the middle of Tampa? It's going to be a disaster"

"Arshu calm down. Breathe okay? Have some water. It's going to be alright. I am right here with you. How can I help?"

"Can you please share your room with Karan? Only for 48 hours. Please? Pretty please."

She's got to be joking.

"Well, I was kind of hoping for procuring the mithai. Can't he stay with his family?"

"Only two other rooms are assigned to his family, one for his parents and one for his sister and brother-in-law. I can not ask him to share with either, what will he think about me? And there is no other hotel within the 10-mile radius. He'll forever remember this wedding as the one where he had to stay with his parents in a hotel room."

"You haven't even met him before. Hell, you don't even know his last name."

"Please Teju, you are my maid of honour, you are supposed to save my wedding from it being a total screw up"

"A. It's a Hindu wedding, there IS no maid of honour and B when did you become such a Drama queen?"

"Call it wedding jitters. I promise I'll name my firstborn after you, please Teju, please. You'll save me from a lifetime of embarrassment. You anyway just need the room to sleep at night for a few hours"

Tejasswi rolled her eyes. "Ok. Only for you" she said begrudgingly.

"Thank you, thank you thank you so much. I owe you big time." And then Arshita finally looked at Tejasswi head to toe.

"Dude, what happened to you? You have chocolate stains all over your clothes, hair all out of place and no offence sweetie but I can see dried drool stains on your face. You are okay, right? You know you talk to me anytime."

"I am completely fine, I just went a little wild with the wine yesterday. You have bigger things to worry about. Now go do the necessary, and call me if you need any help."

"Yes, yes I am going. Call the reception and ask for someone to come and freshen up your room and maybe uh..you should take a shower too. The Malhotras could be arriving any moment now. And thank you so much again, you saved my life."

"Ok, Ok go now" Tejasswi said while practically pushing her out of the room.

"AND IT'S TEJASSWI WITH  DOUBLE S. REMEMBER. AND I EXPECT to be the GODMOTHER TOO" she yelled after her.

40 minutes later Tejasswi was dressed in fresh clothes after taking a good long soak. She took some Advil which helped with the headache a little. She was making her bed when she heard the bell ding. Oh, so he was finally here.

"Ganpati Bappa, I hope everything turns out to be fine. I hope he's not some pretentious jerk" Tejasswi said to herself before opening the door.

Here he was.

Karan Kundrra.

A/N: Hey sorry for the wait. I am truly thankful for all your comments and messages. This turned out to be better than I expected. It crossed 1k+ reads already. It was huge to me. Thank you for reading. Feedback is always welcomed.