“It’s like the sun shines out of his arsenal.”
1:45 a.m Pandey Nivas
August 21st 2018″
Ok. The beginning. Uh- well…. it’s sort of complicated.” She explains. Bihaan laughs. “Trust me. I’m sure it’s not that bad.” Thapki continues, hesitant. “Ok. W-W-We met at his brother’s office. I-I-I was supposed to get married to his brother, Dhruv Pandey.” Bihaan gasps. “Dhruv Pandey?? The Dhruv Pandey?!” Thapki nods. “Yeah. Then this marriage switch thing happened. My saas blackmailed Bi- I mean Raja into marrying me and he got married to me instead of Dhruv.” Bihaan coughs awkwardly. “Is your life a soap opera or what?” Thapki giggles at that. “Who knows? Anyway, we h-h-hated each other to the core. We got of to a rocky start, s-s-so this whole groom switch made it worse. Then, Dhruv was supposed to marry Shraddha, a girl who just wanted him for his riches. So, me and R-R-Raja teamed up to stop this marriage. That’s where our friendship began.” The name Raja faltered in her lips, and not because of her stammering problem.
Meanwhile, Bihaan stares at her adoringly, and listens carefully. Her smile when she talks about him! Why does it bother me so much? This guy sounds like a jerk so far, but a nice jerk. Argh! Why am I acting so weird?He thinks, confused with his abnormal behaviour.”We failed anyway, but that was a point in our relationship where we got closer. He saved me countless times. As he used to say, trouble always f-f-followed me wherever I went. Then, when the blame went on me for something, R-R-Raja was the only one who believed me. I was thrown out of the house, but he went with me. We stayed in the tabela in front of the house for about a solid t-t-two or three months. He was determined to bring me back inside.
Bring US back inside. And when he succeeded, I guess our friendship turned into a sort of crush.””Things happened. R-R-Raja fell in love with me. He got shot. I had to give him a divorce if his mother, Vasu, was going to give him blood. I agreed, and on Holi, I was forced to give him the divorce papers. He was shattered. I teared up the papers, though, to find out the truth behind my marriage.””But he found out, misunderstood me, and then s-s-started to hate me. I realized my love for him at that moment; the worst possible moment. Bauji got stabbed and people blamed R-R-Raja.
I proved him innocent; Bauji got out of his coma, and everything came back to normal. Then, Sheena, his b-b-best friend, arrived to make me jealous so that I would confess my underlying love for him. It worked, I guess, and me and R-R-Raja were deep in love.”Bihaan scoffs. “It’s like the sun shines out of his arsenal.” Thapki narrows her eyes at him.”Believe me. It does.” They laugh, and then Thapki continues. “Then crazy Dhruv came after us when we confessed our love. We were to have a remarriage, but it was Dhruv who shot him and pushed him on that rock. It’s because of him that I didn’t have you for two years!” She shouts, immediately regretting what she said. “I meant, without h-h-him.” Bihaan is confused, but he shrugs it away. He gets up and walks to the door. “Well, it was nice talking to you. See you tomorrow?” Thapki wants to object, but she restrains herself before she could do something stupid. Instead, she nods. The last thing she remembers is his warm smile and the soft pillows caressing her face before she falls asleep.