His Inconvenient Bride | ✔️

| ii: best buddies |

"He is a busy man. He is an IPS officer and hence has a transferable job. Therefore, we don't live together. But now I am shifting to Jaipur to my in-laws' place, so it's all set now." I was still a bit unsure of what I was saying. We hadn't seen each other for years, yet I was defending him.

"But I never saw you wearing your nuptials," said Rohit, which made me realise that he didn't believe any word.

I took out my mangalsutra, which was clasped around my neck and was hidden under my kurta. I pushed a small lock of my hair behind, showing him the red sindoor which was shining on my hairline.

I always covered the sindoor with my hair. When I was in college, I didn't want anyone to know about my marriage because I wasn't comfortable talking about it. Hiding nuptials had become a habit that stayed with me. My mangalsutra didn't exactly look like one; it seemed more like a locket. Hence, it was kind of deceptive to someone who looked at it for the first time.

"This is the reason why I rejected you all the times when you asked me out," I continued, "I am married and it wouldn't have been nice to lead you on."

"And here I thought she was trying to be difficult," I heard him mutter.

For me, marriage has always been a huge deal. It was a pious relationship where infidelity had no place. Even though I strongly disliked my husband, I could never imagine myself cheating on him.

"I am sorry; I didn't know that you were married. Why didn't you tell me that you are married?" he questioned.

"Ah, it never crossed my mind," I smiled sheepishly. But the truth was, I was never really comfortable in telling about my marriage to anyone. Now that I was leaving, I didn't mind telling him about it.

"Uhhh... you know, my entire chance of having a girlfriend got wasted," he groaned in frustration.

Desperate much?

"Well, to make you feel a little better, Dr Ishita likes you. Look how she is throwing daggers at me from there." I nudged him to look towards her, who was already looking at us, throwing daggers with her glare.

"Really?" he was surprised.

"Yup," I said. "Now, come on. Otherwise, you won't even get the cream of the cake!" I pulled him towards the crowd.

After a tiresome day, I returned home. Every single thing was packed and was taken to Jaipur. All that was left were my clothes, which I still had to pack because my flight was scheduled for ten in the morning.

After I finished packing my clothes, my eyes drifted to the photo lying on my bedside table. I took the photo frame and smiled, looking at the picture. The picture had my best friends and me smiling widely at the camera. It was taken during one of our school trips to Goa.

Good old memories.

Realising that I had to give a few instructions, I made a call to my hotel manager.

"Hello, Mr Singh. Akanksha here. I am coming back tomorrow to the palace in the afternoon. Please ask the housekeeping to keep my room ready. No, don't inform my friends. They still think that I am coming back next week. It's a surprise. I hope you are taking good care of both families. It's my best friend Chirag's wedding and I want everything to be perfect. Thank you," I told him.

It wasn't a surprise that I, being the daughter of a hotelier, would not handle the family business. Due to a challenging career path, I had decided to take a one-year business course online, and there was always my Anika Di to my rescue, who became my mentor and taught me the tips and tricks of business.