The haldi evening (Day before the wedding) had began as slightly off beat and boring, people walked around with undefined expressions. But when the bride made an appearance and the great tunes began to play in the background, people's faces filled with laughter and they danced.
Out in this huge crowd the only one truly not enjoying herself was Ria, she kept a relentless and cheerful chatter through the evening, but her mind was alwasy worring about him. Anaya and Sanvi seemed to notice and tried to convince her to let it go for one evening but Ria assured them she was fine and brushed them away.
Eventually the music quitened down until it was a soft hum in the background, and the mehndi ritual began, one by one people took their turn into applying the tumeric paste on Preeti's face and feeding her a small sweet. Relatives first and then friends.
Once the three friends had their turn, they all sat in corner table and watched on as little kids with pure joy on their face, prompted on by their parents, appliaed the paste on the bride, who looked slightly unwilling to eat any more sweets.
And then, a very handsome stranger with cat like eyes and an easy grin took a tissue out of his pocket and leaned near Preeti so he could wipe the paste of her face, wich didn't work as her face remained stained in yellow, then the man motioned the photographer to take some good shots of Preeti with her parents and began to walk away.
Sanvi, Ria and Anaya's jaws were slack and their mouths wide open. It was him. Their first reaction was pure joy, all the events of the past few months forgotten, but when their minds began to register the reality, utter hatred overcame them.
Based on the way he was carrying himself around, Ria and Sanvi knew he was the wedding planner, whilst Anaya just couldn't bear how painful it was to look at him. The girls had been blessed with the chance of getting their revenge, but to make use of that they needed more information, that meant one thing.
As the waiters began to serve food around the tables and Preeti, Mrs Khanna and a few of other cousins went upstairs to get Preeti changed, Ria, Sanvi and Anaya followed them. They kept their head down in order to avoid him seeing them.
Sanvi and Anaya kept in one corner while Ria tried to convince her mum to leave Preeti's responsability upon her. Preeti noticed something was fishy and reassured Mrs. Khanna she would be fine. When the room finally cleared Ria took a deep breath and sat in front of Preeti, her expression unreadable.
"I have something to say." she began looking at Preeti, who raised her eyebrows and signalled her to continue. And she told her, but before Preeti had time to register all this information inside her head Ria said something that even shocked Sanvi and Anaya.
"I need you to tell Mum and Dad you already booked your honeymoon."
"What?" said a uncomprehending.
"Look, we don't have time and I know this is a lot to take in but you have to understand." Ria paused for a second. "Mum and Dad were planning on giving you a secret honeymoon suprise through the wedding planner and now I understood that Kukkad is going to take the extra money and flee with it. Just like how he did it with Sanvi and Anaya."
Ria's word stuck in the air, silence descending over them.
Unusually long chapter but I want to finish this book before the holidays end. Sorry if the video isn't related, but I just really liked it.
InsideSnake XOXO