Unmatched

✨Sight-seeing✨

SHANAYA'S POV:

The days blurred into a rhythm of work and late-night walks, until the final day of the shoot. The ad came together beautifully. My team here clapped me on the back, and my boss sent a one-line email: "Good job, Shanaya."

But the celebration felt... incomplete.

As I packed my suitcase for the trip home, I realized something. Two weeks away was supposed to make everything clearer. Instead, it had made one thing messily obvious —
I had gotten used to Rishi's presence.

And I wasn't sure if that was part of the plan anymore.

And it was terrifying.

I zipped my suitcase shut, mentally running through the checklist for my last day here. Laptop, charger, camera... all in. My train back to Delhi was booked for tomorrow evening, but a small part of me wished I could just teleport and skip the exhausting journey.

A knock sounded on my hotel room door.

"Housekeeping," a voice called, but it didn't sound like housekeeping at all.

Suspicious, I opened the door — and froze.

Rishi, leaning against the doorframe, hands in his pockets, looking far too pleased with himself.

"What... are you doing here?" I demanded, though my voice came out more surprised than angry.

"Nice to see you too, Jaan," he said, breezing past me like he owned the place. He dropped a small duffel bag on my bed.

"Rishi." I crossed my arms. "Why are you here?"

He turned to me with that annoyingly smug grin. "Because you were about to leave without giving me a tour of Jaipur. Very rude, by the way. So I took matters into my own hands."

"I have work," I reminded him.

"Not anymore. You just finished packing. And guess what?" He leaned closer, lowering his voice like he was sharing a state secret. "We're staying here for the weekend."

I blinked at him. "We?"

"Yes, we. I booked us a weekend itinerary. Palaces, street food, maybe a camel ride if you behave."

"Are you insane?"

"Absolutely," he said without hesitation. "But you've been stressed. You need this. And, more importantly, I need to see if Jaipur can survive both of us at the same time."

I wanted to argue. I wanted to tell him this was a bad idea, that we were supposed to be pulling away, not... whatever this was.

But then he handed me a chai from the stall under the banyan tree I'd visited earlier this week — the one I hadn't told him about.

And I couldn't find the words.

"So I am assuming your mother pushed you to surprise me here? In the name of to get to know each other?" I asked side eyeing him a little.

"Well, you can say that." He replied, walking around the small hotel room like its a 1000 sqft bedroom.

"Ouch, I was hoping you were going to say that you missed me." I said trying to act like I was hurt.

Maybe I was a little but we ain't telling him that.

"I missed you, Jaan." He said as he stepped closer to me. "If that is what you want to hear." He add on.

I rolled my eyes, pretending his words didn't land somewhere they absolutely shouldn't.
"You're ridiculous," I muttered, stepping around him to grab my scarf from the bed.