Synthetic Love

Chapter 18

"You sure you're ready for this?"

Saanvi nods. She currently sat on Chris's bed. It was their last day in their apartments and they would be moving to their new house tomorrow morning. They had a lot of work to do, but Saanvi had some important business to take care of before they got to that.

"Yes, it's time," Saanvi says.

Saanvi grabs her phone, then calls her father. It was night time where he was, but he was likely still awake, and Saanvi had a lot to talk to him about before he was to fly out next week.

Saanvi greets him in Hindi, and the two of them talk for a couple of minutes, going back and forth between Hindi and English. After a couple minutes though, Saanvi's eyes wander over to Chris, who was quietly sorting through things to pack last minute. Saanvi takes a breath, then speaks into her phone in English so that Chris could understand her.

"Actually, there's something I want to talk to you about. Something I probably should have talked to you about a long time ago."

Saanvi pauses, then speaks again, "I'm getting married."

Chris looks to Saanvi, trying to gage what kind of reaction her father may have to this news by the look on Saanvi's face.

"No, no, I'm not back with Ravi," Saanvi says, "Actually, I...How much time to you have? It's sort of a long story...I fell in love with someone else while I was still with Ravi, and I know that that's wrong, but Ravi was horrible to me in ways that I kept from you and Mom for a long time."

Chris decides to leave Saanvi alone. He walks out and begins working on packing up the rest of the living room and kitchen, having a feeling that Saanvi would be on the phone for a while.

Last night, after the two of them had officially gotten engaged, they spent some more time together talking about the future and having a fun evening, but they did eventually take some time to sit down and talk about what the rest of their future would look like.

"Your fans have already sort of put it together that you're with someone - should we go public with the engagement? Or do you think that that would further push Ravi to potentially report me to immigration?"

"What if we got married kind of quickly?" Chris asked, "I mean, don't get me wrong, you deserve a wedding, and we will make it perfect, but shit, I know a ton of people that could help us throw together an amazing wedding in a short amount of time. I know photographers, decorators, a few friends of mine are ordained; then if down the road, an ICE agent ends up showing up at our door, we can show them all of our fabulous wedding pictures and explain to them that I'm sponsoring your green card because I love you."

"But we should probably be married before Ravi can even think of reporting us to immigration."

"Exactly."

Saanvi paused a moment, thinking about what was the best way to go about doing this.

"Can I suggest a crazy idea?" She asked.

"Crazier than what we're already doing?"

"What if we got married when my dad is here?" Saanvi suggested, "My mother wouldn't show up to this wedding in a million years, but my dad would - but who knows when he'll be able to make it out to the states again?"

Chris pauses a moment, thinking about this suggestion, then he smiles.

"What are you smiling at?" Saanvi asks.

"I think you'd better call Tara tomorrow and tell her you're going dress shopping this weekend."

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