Gehraiyaan.

Chapter 18

At 9 in the morning, I had to literally rush to Winks Hall for the Success Bash arrangements. When I say 'rush', I mean - crushed clothes, my hair tossed up into one of the ugliest buns ever, and no breakfast at all.

Apparently, the arrangements hadn't begun, even though the party was happening tonight! Who does that?

Darshan stood right at the entrance, in a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie, and sipped on a cup of coffee.

He hurries towards me and without even taking a moment to greet me, he utters - "Here's a list of caterers. Call every single one of them up and ask them if they could do their catering service for tonight. I'm ready to pay them double the usual amount". He shoves the paper in my hand and runs away to meet a woman. I guess, the event manager.

I stand to my ground and simply look at how he argues with that woman, looking utterly frustrated and stressed. The entire space is empty; how are they going to decorate and arrange everything within hours? The idea of it makes me paranoid and sick in the stomach.

"Navya!", he calls out from a distance, and points at the paper he handed me over. "Make the calls", he throws his hand in the air and I respond with a vigorous nod, before staggering my way towards an empty table. I've never seen Darshan this stressed. Ever.

I started with the first number - The Desi Flavourings - and midway through the phone call with them, I struck their number off the list. They said - and I quote - Ma'am, it's impossible to cook food in six hours for hundreds of people.

With time, I ended up striking almost ninety-percent of the numbers on the list. The caterers probably thought that I was a madwoman, who planned an entire event and forgot about the food, until the last moment. Some scolded me because of how insane my order was, and some... simply cut the call on my phone. I'd never been more humiliated in my life. Thank you, Darshan Raval.

An hour later, he calls my phone and I answer it within seconds. "Did you find a caterer?", he questions, right away. Slow down!

"No. I----", I start and he cuts me off with a loud and heavy huff. "It's been an hour, Navya! What the fuck?", he snaps in anger, and I'm honestly taken aback by shock that I just don't reply to him. "You had one job!", he stresses, in annoyance.

"You know what? Handover that list to Sanya. Let her do the talking", I cannot believe that he actually said that. "I don't have time to waste", he mutters under his breath, before hanging up on me.

My heart doesn't want to believe that it was him. I sit down on the table, with my hands over the paper, without moving an inch. Tears are literally clinging onto the edge of my waterline and I feel my throat tighten, as an irresistible urge to cry crawls up.

"Is this the paper?", moments later, Sanya walks over to the table, out of nowhere, and I answer her with a nod, without looking at her. My eyes are wet with tears.

"Okay, let's see what we can do", she takes a seat beside me. Why can't she just go away with the paper? God. "Are you crying?" she narrows her eyes and inches closer to me, literally looking into my eyes. "Something went inside my eyes", I lie...and it's an extremely believable lie, because it's such a windy day.

As she runs through the list, I wipe away the tears with my sleeves, secretly, and bury the urge to cry. We work together, but it barely makes a difference - caterers are still saying the same, old thing!

Thirty minutes later, Sanya gives up, too. She buries her face on her palms and sighs out aloud.

"What's happening with the food?", Darshan shows up. My snaps up right away, we look at each other and I look away, within moments. Wait until he hears what his darling Sanya has in store for him. Sure, her talking worked!