Twinj: Meant to be: Episode 27

Greetings all you lovely people! I can’t control my excitement anymore, we are so close to that point of the story that we had been waiting so desperately for! Let’s go!! Happy reading!

Twinj: Meant to be: Episode 27

A quick recap: Kunj manages to convince Twinkle of his belief in her headstrong independence, or so he thinks. After Yuvi and he get Usha to agree to the wedding after a lot of effort, they let Twinkle know of a possible date in the coming week itself. Twinkle ends up in a spiral of confused thoughts.

Twinkle had been surprised, to say the least, when Yuvi walked into the cafe with his mother-in-law the next morning. “Surprise!” He exclaimed cheerfully, earning a questioning glance from Twinkle. She knew that Aditi’s mother lived far away, and had no plans of returning to Amritsar for another month at least. “We’re going to be your family at the wedding.” Yuvi explained, and yet another problem that she hadn’t even considered so far popped up in front of her. She wasn’t going to have her family at the wedding, although they lived in the same city. So near, yet so far. She thanked Yuvi with teary eyes for being so thoughtful about her, and he just returned his usual convincing nod.

“So, when are we going shopping?” Yuvi asked excitedly when Twinkle and Maya brought him and Aditi’s mother their breakfast. “Shopping? There’s an upcoming occasion, Sir?” Maya ventured, and Twinkle realised how awkward the entire ordeal was yet to become. “Twinkle hasn’t told you yet? She’s getting married next week!” Yuvi said casually, and Twinkle kept her eyes carefully off of Maya, not wanting to answer any of the several questions that were bound to be fired at her. Twinkle had lost the argument on going the same day, leaving right away even. Yuvi had said, “The cafe can wait, Twinkle! Its soon-to-be owner is getting married, and it is a big deal!”

Twinkle had managed to choose a lovely red Saree that Aditi’s mother had mostly chosen, and she had only got a final say in, despite her protests of “Mrs. Singh, does it have to be red? I have never worn an all-red dress before! I’m not so sure about any of these!” Twinkle had, in the privacy of the changing room, however, spent a whole minute just watching herself in the mirrors and ended up secretly happy with the choice of clothing. Mrs. Singh had carefully considered the fact that this was going to be a simple court wedding, and had gone for an equally simple, comfortable, yet elegant Saree that Twinkle had made it a point to thank her profusely for later.

They had not even let Twinkle pay for her own dress, bent upon the altercation that the bride never buys her own wedding outfit, her family does it for her. Mrs. Singh hadn’t pestered Twinkle too much when she had stubbornly refused to buy any jewellery. The former had then assured Yuvi that she knew exactly how she had to make up for it. With all the preparations happening at such a high speed, the bride and groom began to feel the actual anxiety begin to set in. They both liked the other, but had no idea what it would be like, having to live in the same house, the same room even.

Kunj had, in the meanwhile, sneaked a couple of times just to catch glimpses of Twinkle. He had now come to know her well enough to recognise her nervousness. He had seen how, although she appeared excited and cheerful in front of the rest of the world, left alone, she fidgeted with whatever was in her hand, desperately wanting a vent for her jitters. Usha, on the other hand, had to be counselled by Bebe over and over again before the former would even put on a small smile and make the first call citing her son’s wedding. Manohar seemed boggled at the turn of events, but like his mother, he too believed that his son’s happiness was more important than any other whim.

Leela Taneja hadn’t been sleeping well recently. Her concern for her older daughter was eating away her peace of mind. She hadn’t told Mahi or RT yet, but they were bound to find out sooner or later. And that, for one, would definitely not end well. She had tried going to Twinkle’s cafe to talk her out of this, but Twinkle always seemed busy these days. And even Usha Sarna dropped by the cafe more frequently than ever. She was, despite it all, convinced in some corner of her heart, for she had never seen Twinkle at as much peace in the last two years as she found her recently, and she had thought, that if it meant Twinkle would be happy, she was prepared to forgo all of her own issues.

Meanwhile, Kunj and Leela’s conversation from the evening that she had introduced the two kept coming back to Twinkle’s mind. She didn’t know what exactly had got them so bitter against each other but did remember that the Sarnas too, like the Luthras, were considered to be unfit by the Tanejas for their section of the society. She knew what had happened with Yuvi’s family — Mahi’s behaviour when she had met Yuvi was only an outcome of all that she had been taught at home over the years — but could hardly recall why the Sarnas were ignored like that. She didn’t remember her family even knowing the Sarnas, and these thoughts had only added to her troubles.

Yuvi and Aditi had been the most excited about the wedding and came to see Twinkle at the cafe about something or the other at least ten times a day. She knew that getting everything in place for a wedding that was right around the corner wasn’t the easiest, but those two were managing so well, all the while keeping some time of each day to themselves. Twinkle definitely admired their marriage before, but now that she got to see them up close, it made her heart flutter with a desperate hope that her marriage might turn out that way too. Kunj’s Bebe had dropped by once too, seeming happy with Kunj’s decision and had assured Twinkle of her relentless support for her in the Sarna mansion — something that Twinkle hadn’t even realised she had needed up until then.

Usha was trying to be nice to her, Twinkle could tell from her efforts, but it wasn’t really doing much for her anxiety. Usha had also made it evident that she wanted to know something or the other about Twinkle’s family, but Yuvi had strictly warned Twinkle against revealing anything right away. “We’ll tell everybody everything when the time is right. Kunj knows this better than you and I, so let us leave it to him, yeah?” He had said, and she hardly had much of a choice there. She too didn’t want to speak about the Tanejas and how it had all fallen apart for her. She wished there was some way for her to just erase it all, but it wasn’t to be. She knew it would keep coming back to her. She would have to stay strong.

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The wedding day had arrived even before any of them realised. Twinkle had been finding a lot of time to herself as the day neared, and there was so much she thought about. Mostly Kunj. Her mind seemed to have an entire repository of memories of him and had been playing them back to back in her head. There were oh so many small and big moments from Yuvi’s wedding itself that her heart adored, for it throbbed whenever she thought of them. The most recent memory was from two nights ago when she had just been about to go to bed when she had heard knocking on her front door — which had never happened before. “Kunj?” She had definitely not been expecting him, so she couldn’t really be sure if that was just her mind playing tricks on her from all the thinking she had been doing about him.

“What are you doing here?” She had whispered after letting him in. He glanced around the house quickly before asking in a confused tone, “Why are you whispering?” The question caught her off-guard. She was living alone, who was she hiding this from? She shook her head quickly, muttering something about her stupidity under her breath. She heard Kunj laughing softly at that, making her turn around. He shrugged his shoulders in response to her scrutinising glance. “Coffee?” She asked, and he agreed immediately, just glad that she hadn’t thrown him out. Yet, at least. “How’s your packing going?” He asked curiously as she handed him his cup, and heard her sigh before she abruptly turned around, leading him back into the hall. Not having too many furniture pieces, she was forced to sit beside him on her makeshift bed. And this meant they were sat right next to each other. Not that he seemed to mind though.

Kunj held his silence, waiting for her to say something, anything. That was why he had come anyway. To hear her speak her heart out. “This house means a lot to me. It has seen me grow through it all, right from the desperate job hunt, to learning to live happily with whatever I had, to finding an annoying customer who gradually became my best friend, to today when everything’s about to change…” She drifted off, blinking her eyes rapidly to fight back the tears. “This house was my only family initially, it stood by me through thick and thin. I can’t let go of it so easily.” She finished off a minute later, turning to find Kunj watching her, his own eyes welling up. He nodded understandingly, placing a hand over hers on the makeshift bed, only considering the possibility of her flinching or withdrawing when it was too late. Surprisingly to them both, she didn’t. Instead, she appreciated the silence he had offered her in return, for she had needed someone to hear her out on this for quite some time now.

“I figured you would be getting bored here, just like I was back home. Everyone else is so busy that I’ve begun doubting my own productivity!” He commented just like that, making her realise that she could totally relate to that. She spent her day in the cafe, and still felt the emptiness creeping back in the night, and given that Usha had instructed Kunj to work from home at least until the wedding, she could only imagine how much harder it must have been for him. “I think we need to make sure that the others aren’t secretly ganging up on us!” Kunj said animatedly, breaking the companionable silence, earning an ‘Are you serious?’ look from her before she laughed. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt so uncertain, yet certain about her life before. He grinned sheepishly, offering to help her out with anything that she needed him to do, but almost anticipating that she would turn that down and then he would have to go away, but instead, she said, “You could help me pack?” How else could she tell him that she was enjoying his company and didn’t want him to go away? He snapped his head at her so quickly that she regretted asking him that, and quipped in, “If you have nothing else to do, and want to help.”

Kunj had laughed at that, calling her silly for being so scared to just order him around before he had rolled his sleeves up his arms, taken his phone out of his pocket and dropped it on the makeshift bed before bowing informally in front of her, earning another giggle. She had to admit to herself though, that her heart had been leaping. Kunj had always been a fun person to spend time with and like always, he went out of his way to get the work done. She had found herself admiring him as he wrapped her very few glass containers in old newspapers and placed them in the carton that would go to the cafe. And then he had gone ahead and clumsily placed the bigger ones on top. Although she had laughed, she had rushed to his side to help him out, only to discover that he had ended up with dust all over his clothes, making her laugh some more.

Twinkle’s trip down the memory lane was interrupted when she heard her alarm go off. This was it! The day of her wedding had arrived. She turned it off and spotted another series of messages from Kunj. He was probably just keeping her updated about the preparations at the Sarna mansion, or passing on something funny that Yuvi had done, she mused. However, they read, “I know today is a big day. We’re supposed to be getting the chills and all that, but suddenly, I’m not worried at all. It feels like something I knew I wanted all along but didn’t know. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be anxious. What I mean, is that I’m right here if you wish to speak about something.” She inhaled sharply, not feeling the calmness at all. Right when she was about to put her phone away, yet another message from him popped up, “And Yuvi says he’ll not spare me if I ever hurt his best friend. That he’ll forget he’s supposed to be my brother. Never getting on his wrong side, whew.” She smiled, so grateful for everyone who was looking out for her. “Thank Yuvi for me, will you?” She typed back.

Kunj whined on receiving that message. “This she replies to? God, Yuvi! So unfair!” He whined, earning a cheerful chortle from Aditi who had come to see Yuvi and him right before she left to get Twinkle. “Aww. Don’t you worry, Kunj! She’ll come around. And then you can demand a reply for each of your lovey-dovey texts.” Kunj whimpered dramatically some more, but before any further words were uttered, Usha and Bebe walked in. Usha looked cheerful despite her reservations and hugged her son; both older women then started off some of the rituals that they had deemed absolutely necessary even though no elaborate Haldi, Mehendi or Sangeet was happening. Yuvi thought he had never seen Kunj look that happy, and hoped Twinkle would be at least half as happy.

That’s it for now, guys! Yayyy, so this episode was important because we saw Twinkle and Kunj ease past the awkwardness that had set in since the proposal, and go back to being the friends they had been. It has been one hell of a battle so far, let’s see how things unravel after the wedding. Stay tuned!