1.

Together with their parents

Ananya

And

Anshuman

Request your honorable presence

At their marriage

On Saturday, 21st January 2016.

I was so engrossed in reading my wedding draft in front of me that I didn t realize someone s presence behind me.

A light tap on my shoulder brought me back to the earth. I turned around. My boss, Aryan, was standing behind me with a frown and his arms folded. He took the draft paper and read it. Reading the draft paper seemed to boost his anger.

"I was expecting you to be in my office 15 minutes ago. Better you come with me now." He said. That s it.

He ordered me and left. I quickly took my notepad and my pen

which he gave me on my birthday

and followed him to his cabin. On the way there, one of my colleagues and friends, Nita, gave me the thumbs up, to which I replied with a sarcastic nod.

Once inside his cabin, he zoomed to his chair and took a seat, and gestured for me to take a seat. I nervously occupied one of the chairs in front of his desk. He held my wedding paper in front of him and started reading.

He threw that paper at me and leaned back into his chair and folded his arms. He was giving me one of his famous penetrating gazes, making me even more nervous.

"Why?" He asked with a heavy sigh.

"What why?" I dared to ask, confused.

"Why are you marrying him?" He asked, pressured more on marrying. This was the first time that he was entering my personal space.

"There are many reasons," I said, his questions angering me. Why does he care now? I knew he felt something for me, but he never expressed it. There was always something holding him back. I understand I am nothing in comparison to him. I was a tiny little thing in front of his overly built body and 6.2 ft. in height. He had a great complexion. He was fair, handsome, had a pointed nose, and a 5 o clock shadow style beard that was killing me to touch it.

"Tell me a few" I came out of my tiny little sphere of thoughts.

"Huh?" I asked.

"Tell me a few reasons for why you want to marry him, Miss Ananya." I could see hurt in his eyes.

"First, my mom chose him for me, she likes him. Second, he treats me well. Money doesn t matter to me much, but he has a well-cultured family, which all my relatives adore. Third, we were dating for a whole month and he proposed to me. Four, he is handsome. Five, I only have my mom who is very happy with my marriage with Anshuman and that s really important to me." I said. After such long reasoning with my boss, I needed a glass of water for my dry throat.

Silence filled the room. We were staring at each other. His eyes, his light brown orbs, they were trying to speak. They seemed more watery than usual. It felt as if the man with a stone heart was suddenly going to have an emotional breakdown.

"Finished?" He asked, with some unknown emotion.

"Yes, Finish," I answered, looking down. Something is not right. I was feeling like I was being interrogated like a criminal.

I felt the chair being pulled; the smell of his cologne was stronger suddenly. I looked up. He was leaning over my chair, caging me by placing both his hands on the armrests of the chair. I felt intimidated by him. He touched my right cheek with his left hand.

"You will not marry him, " He said.

"What? Why?" I asked. How can he even say such a thing?

"I will …" That was not what I wanted to say. I will do what I want, who are you to decide mister? That was what I wanted to say but only the first two words made it out as I got lost in his dreamy eyes?

"I won t let you," he said, with strong determination.

"What? But why?" I asked, staring into his eyes. I tried to remove his hand, but he didn t let me, instead he placed both his hands on my cheeks.

"There are many reasons." He said. Hey! That was my line.

"Tell me a few," I said, deciding to play along.

He sighed and removed his hands from my face only to grab my shoulders and pull me up so that I was now standing. He moved us away from the door. There is glass in the middle part of his door, so if we stand, we could be seen from outside.

That s what made me think about what he is planning on doing. A shiver ran down my spine as he pressed my back against the wall, bending down to my eye level.

"You are going to marry me"

He hissed, his breath blowing onto my face making me close my eyes. As if his words had some numb effect, my body felt paralyzed, his words echoing in my head.

####

"You are going to marry me."

Marry him? Really? Is this his way of proposing? How rude. I wanted to shout at him, but I couldn t speak. I didn t dare to open my eyes. I was afraid that if I opened my eyes, I would find myself on my bed and all this was just a dream. But would it be a good dream or a bad dream? I am confused.

"Open your eyes, Ananya," He said. I don t want to…

"Please open your eyes" he literally pleaded.

That made me open my eyes. What I saw in front of me was a man with soft lovely eyes staring at me waiting for a reply.

"Why would I marry you, Mr. Patel?" I asked.

"You know why." He answered.

"No, I don t know why. You should know that five months from now I will be getting married to Anshuman". I said to him.

He furrowed his eyebrows while looking into my eyes, then his eyes moved to my lips. I bit down on my bottom lip. He pressed my chin down with his index finger to remove my bottom lip from my teeth. He bent down and.... oh, he kissed me. I tried to push him away, but my efforts were weak. It was actually happening. He, Aryan Patel was kissing me!

I held onto his shirt as his hands went around my waist. His lips were pressed hard against mine, and then he started to suck on my lips. It was making my body vibrate. Butterflies were dancing in my stomach. I was clutching onto his shirt as if my life depended on it. He then bit my bottom lip which made me gasp. He took this chance and entered his tongue into my mouth.

OMG....... God help me! Now I could not control myself and started responding. I stood on my toes to push myself up to meet his height though I still couldn t match his height. I placed both my hands on his face, pressing hard as I deepened the kiss. He moaned against my lips as his hold tightened around my waist.

It was like we were glued to each other. Every part of my body was pressing against his. Then sudden knock on the door startled us.

*Knock knock*

"Excuse me, sir, may I come in" a voice came from outside the door. Josef was waiting for an answer. His presence outside brought me back to earth. The realization of what had just happened hit me with a blast. My eyes widened in fear as I moved away from the wall and away from Aryan. I tried to cover myself with my hands as if I was naked. I could not look up as I knew he was looking at me. I occupied my previous seat. I was shaking. Millions of thoughts were bombarding me. Why did I let it happen?

Joseph came in and started talking about the usual accounting-related talk, but I was not listening. I got up, grabbed my notebook and pen, and left without looking back. The moment I reached the desk, I collected my things and left the office in a rush. I heard Nita calling my name behind me, but I ignored her.

I took a taxi home. Once I was at home I quickly changed into a loose pink Kurtis and black pajamas then collapsed on the bed. I didn t want to think. I just wanted to sleep.

####

I couldn t sleep. Today s earlier events were flashing behind my eyelids as I tried to sleep. Aryan has been acting weird for 2 to 3 months, or you could say after getting the news of my marriage. Thanks to dear God I wouldn t have to go to the office tomorrow. It was the weekend. These two days off would help me decide on what I should do.

Seriously, what should I do?

These bloody butterflies started dancing again as soon as the earlier memories popped into my head. That damn kiss... Why does it all have to be so complicated? How would I face him now? The best way to overcome all this mess is to resign.

Yeah, I should resign.

Anshuman is the one whom I would be marrying. He is perfect. The type of person I wanted to marry. Caring, loving, charming, and all. But deep down I know that I don t love him.

For one whole year, I had been working for Aryan as an HR recruiter. There were so many times we encountered each other. I found him pulling himself away from me as if he was putting an extra guard on.

I knew him since my childhood. The first time we met was when his parents shifted to our area and organized Aryan s 12th birthday party. He was such a happy person, all the time smiling with his dimples. I still remember everything, though I was just 7-year-old. We instantly formed the invisible bond of friendship. I liked him so much. I used to follow him everywhere, calling him Ryan. That was a name I gave him,

'Ryan .

For almost four years I was pampered by him. He would do anything I said. He gave me his toys and we played video games. My mom was carefree whenever I was with him. She knew he wouldn't let anything happen to me.

He was in high school when they sold their place and left for Bangalore. His father opened their business head office there, so they had to shift back. I was so sad I had stopped studying, stopped playing, I even stopped laughing. It took me 6 months to accept the fact that he won t be coming back.

Since then I felt that some part of me was missing.

Years had passed. I graduated from high school with good grades. I applied for many colleges and got selected in Mumbai s best college. I was satisfied that at least I got the best college and my best friend, Natasha also got into the same college.