The Great Indian Wedding Romance

30. Encounters

Chetna opened and closed the box of cigarettes in her hand to redirect her nervous energy somewhere. The flap had almost torn off the carton and the cigarettes had yellowed a little.

The past month had numbed her to what was happening around her. She felt like life had sort of gone on autopilot ever since the night she had parted ways from him. She didn't feel like an active participant in her life anymore, things had happened to her rather than her actively doing those things. 

All of those micro-decisions she had let life take for her had led her here. A month away from marrying a virtual stranger. 

She had known that it was a possibility all her life. That she would end up with someone her parents had found for her might be a very likely outcome. What she hadn't expected was that the time would come this soon. 

Bharat seemed like a nice man, she kept trying to convince herself. He seemed like a perfectly reasonable man once you got past his accent. 

They had met four times so far, two of which had been in the company of their family members. 

She thought back to the only meeting they had had that qualified as a date. They had met in the restaurant of the five-star hotel Bharat's family was staying at. 

 Chetna had dressed with extra care for the occasion. Her mother had even made her put on a full face of make-up. She had arrived a few minutes late and had found him pacing the lobby. When he saw her he smiled graciously but looked at his watch pointedly. 

They shook hands after a very formal greeting and proceeded toward the restaurant. Soon they were seated with menus in their hands. The server hovered about, pouring their water into fancy wine glasses. 

"Thank God they still had our table reserved," Bharat said with a polite smile. 

Chetna looked around at the fairly empty space with several empty tables and resisted the urge to point out that it wouldn't have been a problem. 

Instead, she smiled and said, 

"I'm sorry I was ten minutes late. Traffic caused unexpected delays." 

He nodded and seemed to have been pacified by her apology. 

"Would you like to order yourself or would you want me to pick something for you? I have excellent recommendations."

"Thank you, Mr Bharat but I think I will decide for myself." 

She scanned the menu and decided to play it safe with pasta. She didn't trust the seafood items on the menu and the other things did not seem too enticing. 

The server came back and inquired about their drinks. Before Chetna could ask for what wines they had in-house, Bharat chimed in with a shake of his head.

"Just sparkling water for me," he said and then turned to Chetna "I know you'd be surprised to know that despite studying abroad I am a teetotaler."

Chetna moulded her face into a poker expression. 

He had said it with such pride and smugness as if he believed it to be a virtue of the highest honour. She tried to appear pleased to know that bit of information about him and debated whether or not she should refrain from alcohol as well on a date with him. 

"Here is our non-alcoholic menu, ma'am," the server offered helpfully and flipped the page on the menu. 

She finally ended up ordering a mocktail and leaned back in her chair. 

"It is so nice to finally be able to talk without our parents around, right? There is so much to discuss if we intend to move forward with this wedding. I know Nitin uncle and dad would like nothing more than us getting married but of course, it is ultimately your choice."