When The Stars Align

Ch-6. "Thank God it's you"

Aradhana's POV~

"Dad we came here just two days ago, the things are not even how they're supposed to be aur aap bol raahe ho ki guests are coming over today!" (And you're saying that guests are coming over today)

I freaked out after my dad told me that his friend's family is coming over for lunch in the afternoon.

"Dad sacchi batao, sirf ek casual friend ki family ke saath lunch hee hai naa? Kyunki agar nehi hai toh mei seriously bol rahi hu mai bhaag jaaungi" (Dad tell me honestly, it's just a casual lunch with your friend's family, right? Otherwise I'm saying seriously I'll run away) I said as I sensed something was fishy with him telling me this right before the guests arrived.

"Bas usse mil le, pasand nehi aayaa toh naa bol dena" (just meet him, if you don't like him just say no) my mom said placing her hand on my shoulders from behind.

"Maa, Dad we've talked about this before, I don't wanna get married right now!" I said getting up from my place.

"Just meet him once baccha, if you don't like him I'll reject him myself, just meet him and talk to him once." my dad said trying to console me.

"Bas ek baar, I know you'll like him" (Just once) my mother added with an expression I couldn't say no to even if I tried.

"Fine" I said, shifting my gaze away from them and was about to go to my room when my mom said "I've put your outfit on you bed along with the accessories, were them ok?"
I gave her a tight lipped smile and went to my room.

I saw the outfit my mom had put out for me, it was a dusty pink saree and although that saree was gorgeous and normally I'd get really excited about it, but right now I just wanted the land to open up and swallow me.

I just laid on my bed staring at the ceiling, clueless about what to do, all I could think about was Rajveer, I wanted him so bad right now, I felt like an idiot for not telling him anything about this before, the moment I was in right now made me realise I don't just like him, I LOVE HIM.

Suddenly I thought of Megha, picked up my phone and dialled her number and she picked up in an instant.

I explained the whole situation to her and told her to wait for me at the backdoor of the house at around 2:30 pm as mom had told me that the guests would arrive at 2, I was planning on explaining everything to the guy my parents wanted me to meet and then leave with Megha to meet Rajveer.

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Soon the guests arrived, my mom called me downstairs, I greeted the "guy's" parents but he was nowhere to be seen, then my mom told me that he was on the balcony.

My heart beats went faster than a high speed metro as I walked towards the balcony with a billion thoughts running through my head.

I reached the balcony and noticed a tall male figure standing there facing the opposite direction.

As I moved towards him, he seemed to have realised my presence due to the subtle sound of my anklets.

Rajveer's POV~

I anxiously stood on the balcony with a thousand thoughts running in my head, I wasn't planning on whatever was happening right now, my heart beats getting faster with each passing minute.

I took out my phone and texted Dhruv my location asking him to come and pick me up.
I wanted to go to Aradhana and tell her everything I had been holding inside of me for the past 14 years, she was all I could think of.

Suddenly I came out of my thoughts as I heard the sound of anklets which seemed like they were coming towards me.

I turned around to see who it was and felt blood rushing to my cheeks and gaze fixed on her.
She seemed as shocked to see me as I was or maybe even a little more.

Slowly she moved towards me, our eyes locked the whole time.

"Rajvi!?" she said in a confused low voice.
"Aradhana..." my voice stammered.

We both just stood there frozen in our spots thinking about what was actually going on, just looking into each other's eyes.

"Did they tell you it was just lunch with friends too" we both said simultaneously., and giggled a bit as we realised that our parents had planned this well.

As she giggled, I couldn't stop myself from admiring how graceful yet cute she looked with a smile on her face, and just seeing her happy made a smile appear on my face and said I unintentionally uttered out, "Thank God it's you, warna toh..." (otherwise...)
She stopped giggling and with an innocent smile on her face, said, "warna...?" (otherwise...?)

I took out my phone and showed her my texts with Dhruv.

With an ear-to-ear smile on her face, she said, "Tu bhagne wala tha?" (You were about to run away?)
and continued "ab nehi bhagna?" (Don't wanna run away now?)

Flustered by her words, I asked her in a low voice "What do you want? Bhaag jau?" (Should I run away?)
She didn't say anything and just looked down.

I gently lifted her chin up to meet her eyes and said "Pasand karti hai mujhe?" (Do you like me?) she turned around hearing those words but I had seen the tiniest smile appear on her face and read her eyes, they had the same answer I had seen in her eyes the day I went to her house.

I went in front of her and finally gathering up some courage, I knelt down in front of her, took her hands in mine and continued speaking,
"Aradhana Singhania, would you like to give me the honour of being called as Rajveer Aradhana Arora? Would you let me be yours for the rest of my life? Will you marry me?"

She stood there, in silence without speaking a single word, and those few seconds felt like an eternity to me, it felt like time had stopped at that moment.

"Haan" (yes) she murmured under her mouth, for a moment everything around me froze and I couldn't believe what I heard, I thought I was hallucinating and standing up, asked her "huh?did you say what I heard or am I imagining things?"

Aradhana's POV~

After hearing whatever Rajveer said, the only thing that felt right was saying "yes" and subconsciously that was what I said, and it didn't feel wrong at all.

When he asked me to repeat myself, I was out of words but I knew that whatever I said was what I wanted, what my heart wanted.

I wanted the final decision to be our parents', I knew they wanted us to marry but I wanted the rest of what was supposed to happen, to be in front of them.

Without saying a word, I met Rajveer's eyes, took his hand and walked towards the living room where our parents were.
I could feel Rajvi gaze at me as we walked down the stairs, I left his hand before we reached our parents, who were sitting anxiously in silence.

I broke the silence saying "Maa, dad"

The four of them came out of their thoughts and after greeting and having a chat with them I looked at Rajveer and said, "Mai iss shadi ke liye tayyar huun" (I'm ready for this marriage)
And right after saying that, the expression I saw on Rajveer's face was all worth the patience.

His mother looked at him and said, "Mujhe nehi lagta ki hume isse puchne ki koi jarurat paregi, chehra toh dekho iska, tamatar ki tarah lal ho raha hai" (I don't think we need to ask him, look at his face, it's turning red like a tomato.)

While our parents were busy celebrating with sweets, we stood aside, both of our phones buzzed with a notification, it seemed like Dhruv and Megha had met outside and already got a conclusion on what was going on inside, so they had left.

After reading the messages Raj and I looked at each other and shared a smile, although I had seen him smile before and shared many amazing and memorable moments together but this moment felt different, a good different.

I went a little closer to him and whispered, "and just so you know, this isn't your imagination.", and after hearing that, he had the biggest grin on his face.

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Hello lovely people 🌹

Toh kaisa laga chapter?

Hope y'all enjoyed reading it as much as I did while writing it

And do let me know if there are any spelling or grammatical errors in the story as English isn't my first language.

Signing off~
Aster