A Loveless Arranged Marriage

Chapter 16. Time to forget the past

Previously, we saw that Arvind and Shahina were blessed with a baby girl, and they named her "Isha."

Two weeks later, we find Rishi at his house, waiting for Deepa in the living room. Rishi was wearing a black blazer, a white shirt, and blue jeans. After some time, Deepa emerged from her room and asked, "Shall we go now?" Rishi was about to respond, but when he saw her, he was mesmerized by her beauty. Deepa was dressed in a black saree, her hair styled in side-swept curls, and she wore small earrings. After a few seconds, Rishi replied, "Yes, we can go now." They both left the house and headed to the parking lot. Once in the car, they started driving to Rishi's office. During the ride, Rishi complimented Deepa, saying, "Hey, Deepa, you look beautiful in that saree." Deepa replied, "Thanks for the compliment, but you could have chosen something other than formal attire." Rishi smiled and responded, "Yes, I thought about that, but it's our dress code." He continued driving after that.

After 18 minutes, they arrived at Rishi's office. As they entered, the office was filled with Christmas decorations. Christmas garlands adorned the walls, there was a large Christmas tree, and a directional board in the waiting hall indicated directions to the office park. When they reached the office park, they saw that the entrance was lit up with fairy lights. Inside, more than 150 large dining tables were set up, and a large crowd was gathered for the party. Rishi asked Deepa to follow him, and they made their way to table number 57, where his colleagues Arvind, Akshaya and her family, Ibrahim, Sunny, and some of his other team members and their families were seated.

Ten minutes later, the party officially began. The general manager stepped forward and addressed the crowd. "Welcome, my fellow employees and their families, to this Christmas party. It's great to see all of you here. Most of you already know me, but I'll introduce myself anyway. I'm Paul Lucas, the general manager of this Mumbai division. I won't take much of your time with a long speech. Let's start the party with a musical performance from the HR team. Please welcome them." After Paul's brief speech, the crowd applauded, and at the same time, Sunny whispered to Ibrahim, "Ibrahim, I'm surprised the GM ended his speech so quickly." Ibrahim chuckled and replied, "Yeah, even I was surprised, but let's not overthink it. Let's enjoy the show." Sunny didn't respond and continued watching the HR team's performance.

After the musical performance, there was a dance by the company's new hires and a game show. Once these events were over, Paul returned to the stage and announced, "I hope you've all enjoyed the party so far. Now, for our next event, a couple's dance. But here's the twist: I'll randomly select five couples from the audience, and they'll perform a two-minute dance. I'll be controlling the spotlight to choose the couples, so get ready!" Hearing this, Rishi turned to Arvind and said, "Looks like Paul has something planned for us today." Arvind laughed and replied, "Yeah, let's see who the lucky couples are."

The spotlight began scanning the crowd, and whenever it passed over someone, most people silently wished it wouldn't land on them. But soon, four out of five couples had been selected. One more couple was left to be chosen. The spotlight traced the room again, slowly approaching Rishi. In his mind, Rishi wished it wouldn't stop on him. But fate, along with Paul, seemed to have other plans, and Rishi and Deepa were chosen as the fifth couple for the dance.

When the spotlight stopped on them, the crowd around Rishi cheered. He forced a smile, but inside, he wondered why Paul had chosen him. On the other hand, Deepa was enjoying the moment. The manager asked each couple to introduce themselves. After the introductions, it was time for the dancing to begin. As Rishi and Deepa started, Rishi asked her, "Deepa, are you enjoying this moment?" Deepa replied, "Yes." Rishi then said, "Oh, but I'm not feeling great." Concerned, Deepa asked, "Why? What's wrong?" Rishi explained, "I know how to dance, but I'm feeling nervous because this is my first time doing a couple's dance." Deepa reassured him, "Rishi, we're just dancing—nothing more. If you get nervous, just look into my eyes." Rishi nodded, "Alright, let's try to ignore the audience as much as possible." Deepa smiled, "I'm fine with that." Rishi agreed, "Okay, let's do it."