I'll Love You Longer Than Forever

Chapter One Hundred & Fifteen

The next day, Armaan woke up early, a huge smile on his face. It was here. It was finally here. The first day of her wedding ceremonies! Armaan had insisted on going all out, and for once, Riddhima had agreed. He was so happy that she had. He wanted them to have the most beautiful wedding, a marker of the beautiful life they'd live together.

The wedding would take place over the course of three days. The first day would mostly be spent in greeting guests who had arrived either late last night or would do so early in the morning, followed by some fun activity that Rahul was being very tight-lipped about. The next morning, they would have the mehendi ceremony in the morning and sangeet in the evening. The haldi ceremony would be on the morning of the wedding, followed by the actual wedding happening in the evening.

It felt like a dream to him still, that they'd managed to come this far. They'd had the worst luck, and for a while, Riddhima had been afraid that they'd never be able to make it, just like Armaan had, but he'd always believed in them. Even when they were fighting or upset, unhappy in the moment, he knew that he would rather spend his entire life being unhappy with Riddhima than being happy without her. He knew that that wasn't entirely the right way to look at a relationship, that staying in an unhappy relationship wasn't the right thing to do, but it's how he felt... Maybe because he knew that his unhappiness would never last as long as Riddhima was around. It was something he could say in theory, that he'd spend his life unhappy if he had Riddhima, because he knew it wasn't something that would ever come to fruition. They would definitely have their ups and downs, highs and lows, and most importantly, they would have lots of fights, times when they would be angry at each other, or upset with their relationship... But he also knew that at the end of the day, they would always find each other again and find happiness with each other. That's just how their relationship had always been. And he couldn't wait for it to be their relationship for the rest of her life.

"Armaan? Are you ready?" Saumya called out, knocking on his door. "Late ho raha hai! Come out quickly."

"Do minute, Bhabhi!" He shouted, setting his hair just the way Riddhima liked it.

"Tere 2 minute na... aadhe ghante se chal rahe hain! Riddhima wahaan bas pohonchne wali hai but tu bas yahaan baithke sajta sawarta reh!" She scolded.

"Bhabhi, pakka wala 2 minute!" Armaan insisted. He hurriedly sprayed Riddhima's favourite perfume on his clothes and applied some moisturiser on his face. Fixing his collar, he gave himself a once over in the mirror and once he'd deemed that he was looking as good as he was physically capable of, joined the others. They all piled into the already waiting cars, all thanks to Rahul, and made their way to the hotel.

"Armaan," Vishal asked as they drove, "aaj sirf close family hi hai ya aur log bhi hain?"

"Bas sirf close friends and family, bhaiya. Baaki sabko main shaadi aur reception pe invite kiya hai, but yeh sab functions mein nahi. Lekin waise toh... yeh log bhi kam nahi hai," Armaan laughed.

"Itne kitne log hain?" Krish asked, curious.

"Let's see," Armaan replied, calculating in his head. "Hum sab aur Riddhima ke cousins. Humaare saare hospital ke dost... uss din sab party pe bhi the. Lekin, apart from them, there are a few other people from the hospital who are going to be there. Aur fir Riddhima ke thode friends aaye hain London se specially, just to attend the wedding, so they will be there. A few of my friends also. Aur haan... woh humaara Lonavala wala Sanjeevani ka orphanage haina? Wahaan ke sab bachchon ko humne invite kiya hai, and Riddhima ek retirement home kaafi jaati hai, toh wahaan ke sab dada dadi and bachchon ko bhi bulaya hai... toh sab mila ke actually... bohot saare log hain!"

"Agar itne saare log abhi aa rahe hain toh reception pe kaun aa raha hai?!" Meera asked, stupefied by the amount of guests already.

Armaan chuckled. "Well, Billy & Papa ke associates wagerah sab sirf tab aayenge. Nani ne bhi kuch logon ko invite kiya hai. And I think Mom and Mumma ne bhi kiya hai. Plus there are some of Anjali's friends who she has invited for the wedding too. And hospital ke staff mein thode log aur hain who are only invited then."