The Marriage

6 - The Article

Ananya tossed and turned in her bed. She imagined the headlines of the news,  "Ananya Seth to marry Rehaan Mehta soon!" or may be Papa and Bhavna aunty will stoop lower and get it written as "The Seth and Mehta marriage!". Her brain started getting cloudy with "Ananya, Rehaan, MCG, SGI, Seths, Mehtas..." She sat up and dug her face in a pillow. She wanted to shout her heart out, she even tried, but she couldn't. 

It was seven in the morning, Ananya stood at her balcony, scrolling the news application, but she found nothing. She spotted the paper boy handover the newspaper to the security guard. 

"Birju Kaka (Kaka in Gujrati means Uncle)!" Ananya screamed, running down the stairs "Where's the newpaper?" she asked huffing. The old help looked surprised, "Anu Baby, did anything happen to your phone?" (In India, old house helps who have been a part of the family for years, often refer to the kids as 'Baby' for girls and 'Baba' for boys.) Ananya denied with a nod, catching a breath. "I gave it to Mahendra, to take it to your Papa. Shall I ask someone to get a new one for you?" Ananya smiled, "No Kaka, it's okay, I'll take it from Papa."

Ananya walked to one of the balconies to look for her parents. She spotted them having breakfast in the lawn. She scrolled the news app again and frowned, "What is he upto?"

"Are you okay?", Ayaan brought her out of her train of thoughts. 

"Bhai!, Yeah. I am fine."

"So how was the meeting yesterday. You slept early. Is everything alright?"

"Oh! the meeting. Rehaan said yes to the marriage."

"What!" Before Ayaan could recover, Ananya continued, "He asked me to keep an eye at the news today, can't figure out why." The siblings looked at  each other and turned to their father in union. 

"I am sure he has something to do with it!" Ayaan commented.

"Are you going to the studio today, Bhai? "

Ayaan nodded in agreement, "Why?"

"I need to take a look at some of your western collections. I will come with you."

The breakfast hadn't tasted good to the siblings ever since the marriage news had broken. Not that the chef wasn't preparing it well, they had lost appetite after encountering the extreme monstrosity of their father. "Wasting food is strictly prohibited in this house." Neelam declared. "Birju told me you both have been wasting food lately." Ananya and Ayaan looked at their full plates, that they had pushed away. Neelam sat down across them, "If not eating could help the two of you, I would have happily given away the food to someone else."

Ananya and Ayaan drove in silence. They were out for lunch. The ring of her phone broke the quietness. The phone announced 'Rehaan' calling. 

"You guys are at Bistro for lunch, right?" 

Ayaan who was driving into Bistro's parking, looked at Ananya. "How did he know?" he mouthed. 

"What do you want Rehaan?"

"I want you to check the news, Darling" With that he disconnected the call. 

Ananya manically opened the news app and scrolled, nothing. Ayaan checked the same. They were startled by a knock on Ananya's window. Rehaan waved at her with a devilish smile.  Rehaan opened the door for her and took her by her hand, planting a peck on it. Ayaan who was  witnessing this, froze when Rehaan rushed to him and embraced him in a tight hug, "I have missed you, Ayu".  He broke the hug and looked at Ananya, "Come let's have lunch." 

"We have to go, we have an important meeting. Some other time may be." Ananya opened the car door eying her brother, gesturing him to get in the car. Ayaan followed suit. 

"Bye guys, see you", Rehaan blew a flying kiss. 

Ayaan drove out of the parking lot with jet speed, "What was that?"

"Something is going on, Bhai. We need to figure it out, before it's too late." 

The entire afternoon went by, and the siblings got no work done. All they could think about, was Rehaan's sudden appearance and his abnormal behaviour. The man who was blaming the siblings for his addictions just yesterday, was hugging and kissing them. How did he know where they were? Bistro wasn't their common hangout. It was in fact a sudden lunch plan. Ananya and Ayaan were discussing the same when a message on popped up on her phone.

Dyuti Raman: Congratulations Anu, so happy for you.

Before she could open it, a series of messages started popping up on her friends group on the lines of, "Congratulations", "How long have you been hiding this from us?", "When's the marriage?", "Are you with child? *wink* *wink*."

"What the hell!" Ananya frowned and looked at Ayaan. He looked equally shocked staring at his phone. "News" he managed to utter.

REHAAN MEHTA'S MYSTERY WOMAN IS NONE OTHER THAN ANANYA SETH.

Mehta Group of Companies heir, Rehaan Mehta has always maintained his privacy until yesterday evening. He was spotted with a mystery woman in red at an uptown restaurant. It was in the afternoon today that they were spotted again. Seth Group of Industries stars Ananya who is the CEO of SeGe, the jewellery boutique and Ayaan Seth of Panache, the fashion chain were seen spending some quality time with Rehaan. What caught the eye was Rehaan kissing on Ananya's hand. The very hand that donned the same bracelet worn by Rehaan's mystery woman in red. Are they dating? Are they engaged? Are they collaborating? "Well what can I say? We grew up together and we are currently exploring a lot of things together." Although, it wasn't clear from Rehaan's statement, we surely can hope for some good news soon. 

"That little piece of shit!" Ananya grinded her teeth. 

"He literally lured the media behind us. They'll be everywhere now." Ayaan sighed.