Becoming Sweethearts [✓]

Part Eleven

Gauri had confidently dialed Omkara’s number but now that the phone had started ringing, she felt her heart double its pace with anxiety. She didn’t know how exactly she would start the conversation with him the moment he answered the call. She had said a lot of hurtful things to him, without giving him any chance to explain himself. Maybe, just maybe, she had over-analyzed the situation by looking at Omkara through Ajinkya’s lenses. After she had spoken to Omkara, she would make it a point to talk to Ajju as well. It was important for him to know that she still loved Oberoi as her best friend. When she would get married, she wanted him to be with her. She nervously tapped her fingers on the edge of the table, waiting for him to answer. When the call went unanswered, she frowned, but then called him up again.

“Aapka phone baj raha hai” Rudra informed Omkara by nudging his foot with his own when he had observed Omkara’s phone was on silent but was flashing some name. The three brothers were hanging out at Omkara’s apartment with a glass of hot chocolate each, just the way they used to chill by the poolside when Om was still staying at the Oberoi Mansion. Shivaay, who was seated next to Omkara, looked at his phone and saw the caller ID – Sharma calling. “Sharma ji is calling, Om!” Shivaay said with a teasing grin, making Rudra go ‘awww’ with an equally mischievous grin.

Much to their surprise as well as shock, Omkara looked at the phone and let it go unanswered. Shivaay and Rudra, both, looked at their brother with a confused frown. The man who used to forget the rest of the universe while talking to Gauri on the phone had ignored her call as if she was some wrong number. “Om,” Shivaay nudged him, and he turned to him with a disinterested look. Looking at Gauri calling on Omkara’s phone again, Shivaay pursed his lips in a thin line. Without a warning, Shivaay picked up Omkara’s phone, only to receive a threatening glare from Omkara. “Don’t, Shivaay! I’m warning you!” he said in a low tone. Shivaay simply smirked and answered the call.

“Oberoi, listen, I’m really, really sorry, yaar. I know I overreacted, and I -” “-Hold on, hold on, Gauri! Pehle theek se saans toh lo!” Shivaay said with a confused smile, glancing at Omkara as to why Gauri was apologizing. Gauri frowned for a second and then said in realization, “Bade bhaiyya!” She moved the phone away to look at her screen, just to make sure she had called the middle Oberoi and not the older one. “Haan, Bade Bhaiyya here!” Shivaay answered with a fond smile at her confusion.

“How are you, Bhaiyya?” she asked with a polite smile. She desperately wanted to talk to Omkara, but it would be rude on her part to simply ask him to hand over the phone to him. “I’m fine, Gauri. Tum batao. How’s everything going?” Shivaay asked, unaware of the tense situation between his brother and her, as well as the existence of a certain Ajinkya Agnihotri in her life now.

Rudra, who was scrolling through his Instagram profile, noticed that Gauri had updated her story. Clicking on it, he was quite shocked to see that she had shared a picture that she’d been tagged in by a certain user named ‘ajinkya.agnihotri’, where a pair of hands were intertwined and a ring was on her finger, with a caption, “She said yes!” followed by the emoticon of a ring and a heart emoji. Rudra looked up at Omkara, who was watching Shivaay with a frown. Holding his phone up, he showed the picture to both his brothers. While Omkara rolled his eyes and looked away, Shivaay was quite surprised as he squinted his eyes to look at the photograph and realize that it was Gauri’s.

“By the way,” Shivaay said with a smile while looking at Omkara who was still frowning, “congratulations on the engagement, Gauri! Bataya hi nahi! Ab kya tumhare Bade Bhaiyya ko social media se pata lagega ke tumhari engagement ho gayi?” Shivaay said as he narrowed his eyes, still looking at Om, still trying to process the information. Gauri smiled as she looked at the ring on her finger. “Not yet engaged, Bhaiyya. We haven’t decided on a date.” Pausing for a second, she said, “His name is Ajinkya Agnihotri, and he’s an amazing guy. Umm, Omkara too met him last week!”