The Accidental Wedding

5. The Maybe-Date

Sitting in front of the mirror while your best friend and your gay brother try to do your make-up but end up pointing out all the flaws on your face. Just what you need.

"I guess we should contour her nose because that nose..." my brother said.

"Our noses are almost the same Vivan. Do you forget we are siblings?" I questioned him.

"Well, if you actually think about it, you have a great nose."

There we go. I rolled my eyes at him.

"I guess a bit more concealer will do." Sanjana said while eying my face with concentration.

After about half an hour and a billion make-up removal wipes later, they were done with my face and went on to bicker about what shoes and handbag would go with the dress they decided.

I examined my face in the mirror. My dusky complexion was not hidden away like the time my mother did my make up on the day I met Ashwin. I loved my skin as it was. Being fair skinned is not the only basis of being beautiful.

Dark to light brown gradient eyeshadow on my eyes with a sharp winged eyeliner. They also applied a very light shimmery shade to the inner corners of my eyes, it brought out the brown colour of them. My face glowed because of the highlighter they used, in excess may I add. It was a pretty good job they did, considering my face barely cooperates most of the time. It was not too much in your face in a fancy way, there was subtlety in the look.

"Naina will you stop staring at the mirror and just wear your dress so we can add lipstick to the masterpiece?" My brother whined. Having a brother itself was a pain in the ass. It was worse when he was trying to give me a makeover.

"Yeah stop staring at yourself. It's just the make-up that's making you look pretty for once." Sanjana added.

I can handle them individually but together, they were just way too annoying.

"Fine! I didn't even want to go in the first place. Be grateful I'm letting you both give me a makeover." I snatched the dress out of Sanjana's hand and made my way to the bathroom.

It was a black satin dress that ended right below my knees. The thin straps were an excuse for straps. It hugged my curves but not tightly. It was not too revealing which I liked a lot. I stepped out of the bathroom and my footwear which were plain black leather pumps, were handed to me.

The shoes added four inches to my 5'5 self. I wondered if I would look taller than my date tonight but it doesn't really matter to me if I looked taller because it would only make me feel empowered. I don't care if I'm going to make a man self-conscious as long as I don't feel bad about making myself feel incharge.

I went over to the mirror and added a layer of lipstick to my lips. It was a deep burgundy colour which brought the whole look together.

"You look really beautiful. He's definitely going to swoon over you and accept whatever you want, that is, as long as he isn't gay." My best friend said giving my brother a suggestive smirk.

My mother called me from downstairs. And I made sure to go to her as soon as possible or her nasally voice would've literally damage my ears.

"Naina! Look who's here to pick you up." She said, overly excited.

I gave her a fake smile and headed towards Ashwin who held out a hand for me. He was wearing a black suit with a white shirt under his coat, a navy blue striped tie to top it off. He bowed and kissed the back of my hand. A smile appeared on my face. Maybe he isn't as bad as I thought.

"You look beautiful." He said with a smile.

"Thank you. You clean up well too."

My brother made his way down the stairs with Sanjana trailing behind. My mother took it as her cue to leave.

"Have fun you two!" She said before leaving.

"I finally get to meet the famous Ashwin everyone is talking about." Vivan said as he approached us. He made a firm handshake with Ashwin.

"Its nice to meet you...?" He asked, not knowing who my brother was.

"This is my brother Vivan. He got back from New York this morning." I introduced him.

"New York gets cold during this time of the year. I've been there a lot of times for business." Ashwin stated.

"Yeah it does. It's actually not that bad once you get used to it."

"I think we should go." I interrupted before it got awkward.

"Yeah, we should." Ashwin replied and offered me his arm which I took without hesitation.

I turned around one last time and saw my brother checking Ashwin out. I gave him a look which said 'I am disgusted' and he replied with one that said 'what? he's hot, I can't help it.' I shook my head and looked ahead.

We sat in his car, a Honda Accord which was not better than my Range Rover but still pretty good.

"You aren't very close to your mother i notice." he said.

"Yeah she isn't exactly the mother anyone needs. She never had time for us since the beginning it was like she gave birth to us and left us to grow up on our own."

"I'm sure she loves you."

"I'm not very sure about that. She hates my brother even more now."

"Why?"

"He's gay and my parents are not accepting it." I said with a sigh. "Look I don't want to talk about that. I'm sorry but there's just so much going on right now."

"Yeah sure. We can talk about something else." He said with a smile."So, what do you like to do in your free time?"

"I don't really do much other than laying around on my bed with my books." I said honestly. "What about you?"

"I don't have much free time actually but I do like to play cricket when I'm free which is pretty rare." He said. When we first met, he was pretty rude when I asked about his passion. This was different.

"That's great." I said. "Look, I need to talk to you about something. Just hear me out." I continued.

"What's the matter?" He asked, his brows furrowed.

"I was going to wait till we reached but I guess the traffic isn't letting us move anytime soon. So I'll just say it." And with a deep breath, I said "I need at least a couple of years before I get married. I just got promoted to senior editor and I'm needed back in London in three days. I thought you would understand. You like to work too, right?"

"Um...I-I don't really know what to say. I mean that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I don't want this right now, I want to build my career. But there is a little problem." He said.

"What problem? If you say that you want to wait, they will listen to you. They won't ever listen to what I have to say." I cleared myself.

"I know. But they won't let it go. They will definitely have us engaged if we try to postpone the wedding. Do you really want to be engaged?"

"No I really don't want that. But I really need to get out of here. I need to go back." I said while thinking of a plan.

"We'll figure it out. Now let's have some dinner. Shall we?" He said. That would give us time to think of plans and discuss what can actually work.

I'm really glad he was on my side with this. I was stressed about what he would've said. I did find a way. There was hope and I latched on to it with all my heart.