𝐅𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐬

CHAPTER 32

Ram and Tarak above looking precious as besties.

in vino veritas

(prov.) in wine, there is truth

Sitting at coffee table in the living room, Chris conversed with Ram and Tarak as Kiara and their wives, Upasana and Lakshmi respectively, prepared the table for lunch. The initial shock of seeing Chris with his arms wrapped around Kiara had worn off as her friends finally started relaxing into casual conversation. The doorbell rang again and he rushed to answer it, trying to take the burden of stress of her shoulders. She strained her neck to greet Rajamouli from the kitchen and smiled upon hearing Chris' boisterous laughter.

Lakshmi watched her reaction and sighed, speaking in Telugu, "You really like him, huh?"

Gasping at her blush, Lakshmi exclaimed, "Oh my god! You don't even need to answer, your face says it all."

Kiara shook her head and turned to Upasana for support, "It's not a big deal!"

While Kiara and Lakshmi were relatively good friends, they were both slightly less fond of Upasana. This was alright in her case as she and Ram were only colleagues, it was more challenging for Lakshmi since Tarak and Ram had twenty years of friendship between them so their wives needed to find common ground. While she and Upasana had no particularly specific problems with each other, their personalities were drastically different and therefore made it hard for the two women to connect with one another.

Upasana, the traitorous bitch, simply shrugged her shoulders and went about rearranging the utensils at the table as Kiara gaped at her nonchalance, "Okay I guess I'm alone on this one."

Looking up, Upasana sighed and explained, "Interracial couples are not a very common phenomenon in India and more specifically, there are only a few instances in the Indian film industry. Now you'll say, 'at least there's still a few' but none other than Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra are both big names in the entertainment industry."

Pausing to gauge Kiara's reaction, she continued, "You and Chris? You're both world famous actors with millions of fans internationally so yes, it is a big deal. It's something you both would've had to step into after a lot of thinking."

Understanding where Upasana was coming from, she sighed, "I realise the stakes at risk so genuinely appreciate that it must be hard for most people to fathom why we chose this. We've overcome a great number of challenges to get this far so in all honesty, we'll be fine."

Lakshmi piped up, "Have you looked at the comments under that post of you two looking adorable?"

Kiara wavered, "No."

"The news articles online?"

"No, not really. Kabir hasn't said much either."

Shaking her head in resignation, Upasana interjected, "Truthfully, it's not other people you should be worried about but yourselves. Only one of you could ruin the good thing you've got going."

The group were slowly settling into their seats at the dining table, discussing lighter topics as everyone switched to English for Chris' benefit, when the doorbell rang and Kiara stood to answer. She was met with Leon's grinning face as he handed her a bottle of expensive wine in greeting before entering and swaggering into the living room as she hurriedly placed the bottle in the kitchen. She watched as Chris sobered and cautiously judged him while the room drifted into an uneasy silence.