THE WRONG PERSON

Kartik

Everything happens for a reason. And i found my reason. Kartik. Kartik Khatri. He was definitely written by a woman. I remember everything when i first met him. The date, the time, the clothes he was wearing, his perfume, the clothes I was wearing, my perfume. Everything.
The date was 1st September.
Vedika's birthday. Her last birthday with her parents because she was getting married in December. Yes. The same Vedika. She's 26 now, and I'm 25. She arranged a small party but as She's an introvert so she invited very few people which included me, her parents, her to-be- in laws, Krish- her fiance and Kartik, Krish's best friend. The reason why she invited Kartik was because she was grateful to Kartik for two reasons. The first was to encourage Krish to propose her and second was to be with me so that I don't feel left out and can meet new people. Kartik was wearing a black polo neck tshirt. He had thick hair which were probably washed that morning. The blue jeans made it look all better. He had wheatish skin tone, light but freshly trimmed beard, black framed glasses and a wonderful smile. His lips were very pink. Him not being a smoker was a green flag. He was a total gym freak so a fit and strong physic was obvious. He was tall. Approximately 6 feet. I, on the other hand, wore blue Kurti and light blue jeans with my hair open and had my black heels on to look taller even though I am completely fine being 5'4. I gifted Vedika a rose gold bracelet and earrings with a four page long letter and Krish surprised her with a red cocktail dress which was truly beautiful. She quickly went inside her room and changed. The dress and my bracelet made her look even prettier. When she came after probably 20 minutes, with no makeup on but her hair done. She just did a middle partition but looked absolutely gorgeous. Krish's jaw dropped and so did mine.
"OH MY GOD! MARRY ME PLEASE" Krish said. "Sure" she said and laughed. Her mom applied a kaala tika behind her ear. Her mom's eyes were filled with tears and so were her dad's. "My princess has grown up" her dad said. She hugged her dad and said "I'll always be your princess dad."
After she cut the cake, and we had it (except for Kartik who didn't eat it as his gym trainer denied him to eat more sugar)
Vedika's mom said  "you kids can go to the mall if you want to" i said "kids who? Your kid will have kids in a year or two" i could say this to her mom because I'm closer to Vedika's mom rather than Vedika herself. Everyone laughed. Including Kartik. His laugh was adorable.
Vedika blushed and looked at Krish with a shy smile. I saw that. I saw Krish's lips moved and whispered "I'm ready" as he blushed too. Karthik saw that. He also saw that I saw that. "Very funny. Now shall we leave?" She asked "yes ofcourse" her mom replied. Krish brought his car, so we hopped in. Krish drove while Vedika sang old hindi romantic songs for him. Kartik and I sat on the back seat. We both sat on each side of the window. His side of the window was open which made his hair a little messy but still look good. He had removed his glasses and put on his black square sun glasses. It was a little weird little trip as we didn't know each other so well but finally We reached the mall within 30 minutes. We didn't waste a minute and went straight to shop for her wedding. It took all four of us two and a half hour just to shop for Haldi and Sangeet. We didn't tell eachother what we bought. We wanted to keep it a secret. Krish actually wanted Vedika to buy her wedding dress as well but she said that she wanted to shop that with her parents. He agreed and we hopped in his car again. We were hungry, but the reason why we didn't choose the food court in mall is because I had a surprise planned for the couple at the restaurant where he proposed. I didn't really knew Kartik but I did tell him the plan, and he seemed happy with it, so he asked the couple to sit in the backseat, and I blindfolded them with a black cloth. "Is it a surprise?" Vedika asked. "Why else do you think, I blindfolded you? Dumbass. And, FYI you both can keep it. You might need it for your first night" I said. "Haha" Vedika said and Krish laughed. Kartik smirked. He connected the music through his phone. They were not old hindi romantic songs. They were gym songs. I gave him a "are you serious?" Look, which I thought he didn't see. He did. He saw it. He said, "Noor, can you change the song please?" I said "oh.. sure". I turned on Hindi songs.They were not old nor they were romantic. I played my party playlist.  Now HE gave me a "Are you serious?" Look.
We both compromised on English romantic songs. On the other hand, Vedika and Krish were giving "What the fuck is happening?" Look. They're eyes are blindfolded, but their lips are readable. We reached at the restaurant in 20 minutes. I took Vedika's hand and he took Krish's hand and guided them to the same seat where he proposed to her. The place was decorated with pink and blue candles which had a vanilla scent. There were roses on the table. We gave the couple some privacy and left the restaurant. I sighed and smiled as i was happy as the little surprise went well. "Are you hungry?" Kartik asked. "Yeah. I'm famished" i replied. "Let's go, I know a place." He didn't gave the keys to Krish. We drove to a restaurant in Krish's car. The restaurant looked expensive. Very expensive. I realised it due to the ambiance and the price of water on the menu care. "Mineral water : 80rs"  "Nope. I should leave." I thought. But wait.. the name of restaurant was "Khatri's" and the owner seemed to know Kartik. Oh! It was his brother's. Damn! He's rich. Actually both brothers seemed rich and Handsome. His brother's name was Mann. Mann looked at me and then looked at Kartik and smirked. Mann was taller than Kartik. Kartik whispered something in Mann's ears and he left smiling. We talked about Vedika and Krish for a few minutes then the food came. OH MY GOD was my exact reaction. The food looked good but smelled amazing! I'm not sure if my mouth watered or not because I literally had the extremely aromatic food accompanied with extremely good looking Kartik. I felt a little underdressed. We ate the food. The Pasta was just amazing! I've to be honest, the Manchurian was a little overcooked but pizza was good. After we finished Mann asked "how was the food sir" as he again smirked at Kartik. "It was good" he replied. "And what about you ma'am?" He asked me. "Noor, my name's Noor. And the food was amazing" i replied. "Wonderful! Let me get the owner real quick and see if they have a couple discount" Mann said and quickly ran to get the owner. "No! no! no! no!" Kartik whispered. "Shit!" He added. "What happened?" I asked? "the owner! He's my father!'' "oh oh.." I said. "Oh hello son!" His father shouted as he came with a wide grin on his face. His father was just as tall as him. Both brothers got the look from their dad. He had white beard and hair but perfectly trimmed. He was good looking. "Oh Hello beautiful! Looks like my son brought a date! Wonderful! Atleast he won't die single!" He said and laughed. I laughed too "no sir, I'm not his date, I'm just a friend." I said. "Oh common dear! Call me uncle. By the way my name is Vikram. And don't you worry about him! He's a very decent boy. And the dinner is on us! So enjoy!" He said and left before i could say anything. Kartik wanted to say something to his dad but he didn't. Looked like he enjoyed me being called his date. We both blushed. "You don't often come with girls here. Do you?" I asked. "I don't. Though I had a girlfriend a year ago, but she cheated." He said. "Oh shit! She must be blind! I mean, how can someone cheat on you?" I said. "Well yeah... Maybe. Thanks for the compliment though!'' he replied.
"Have you ever had a boyfriend?" He asked.
I wanted to tell him about Dhruv. The guy who went to Canada. The guy who ghosted me after a few months he went there. The guy who claimed to love me. The guy with whom I had my first kiss with. But i didn't tell him. "I kinda did. But now is not the time. I'll tell you some other day" i said. "Okay Miss" he said. We were walking to the car when suddenly a car from back came in full speed, almost hitting me, but fortunately Kartik pulled me inside the road, near him. We were very close. My hair got stuck in his button. I could smell him. He smelled amazing even after a long day. "Wait" he said as he untangled my hair from his button. "Ouch" i said. "I'm so sorry" he said as he kept his arm on the back of my head. "It's.. it's okay Kartik." I said and helped him to untangle my hair. Our hands touched each other. "Let me do it Noor." He softly said and held my hand with his other hand while his right hand was untangling my hair. He untangled my hair and put the strand of hair behind my ear. "you are beautiful" he whispered. I looked at him. A little surprised. "Uh.. uhm... Thanks." I said. "Oh. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Shouldn't have said that" he replied. "No, no, that's... That's okay, you look good too" i said. We were looking into eachother's eyes and were shook due to Kartik's ringtone. It was Krish. He went aside to talk, but all i heard was "Bastard! Was it important to call NOW!" He was whispering. He came back after a few seconds. "We have to go and pick them up." He said. "Right.. yeah. Let's go" i said. We sat in the car. The silence was getting awkward so he turned on the radio. It was playing Hindi romantic songs. Every single channel. It got even awkward so he turned it off. "Shall I drop you home?" He asked. "No no. Don't worry, I'll book a cab." I said. "At eleven at night? I don't think so. I'll drop you on my bike." He said. "You don't have to. I'll get home. Safe." I said. "Don't do this Noor. I said I'll drop you. I want you safe. I mean.. safely at home" he said. His voice had something. I don't know what but there was something. I can't explain if that was an order or concern. "Alright" I said. We picked up the couple, dropped Vedika at her place, Krish took the car and left and Kartik who had left his bike at Vedika's house dropped me home. When he dropped me home, he asked me what do I do for living. I said "I'm an author. You might not have read my books because they're romance." I said and laughed. He laughed and said, ''Noor Sharma. I read all your books. I genuinely love them. I meant, what do you do other than writing books?" He asked. "I have a part time job at Suhani's kitchen. I love to cook as well. But that place is shit. I mean, no hygiene. I was thinking to quit that job and find a job somewhere else." I said. "I'll do something." He whispered and drove away. I looked confused and went home. The next day when i went to work at Suhani's that place looked like heaven. Literally heaven. Everything was clean. The staff was new and so were their uniform. The place smelt like rose. Suhani's kitchen was sold. "OH MY GOD!" I exclaimed. "You like it?" Someone from behind asked. He was very close to my ear. I got goosebumps. That close. I looked at him. It was Kartik. "Like? I love this place! What did you do?" I asked. "Oh nothing.. just bought it." He said very casually. "Are you kidding me? Kartik please tell me it's a joke. You didn't have to do it. Are you crazy?" I spoke. "Hey hey hey... Chill." He said and kept his hands on my shoulders. "You like it? That's all it matters. You're my friend and I love my friends" he said and left. I couldn't believe Kartik bought that just because of that comment of mine.