The Perks Of Being An Indian Bride

19: When The World Stops Spinning

Dedicated to Avvishi, who is a life saver. <3

CHAPTER 19: When The World Stops Spinning

OCTOBER

October brought in major excitement at the Kashyap house. Bhavna was edging towards delivery and the entire house was put on alert.

Ajji and Ma literally went crazy and bought everything that was on sale for the twins.

“What was the need of so many clothes, Asha? They are just two babies,” Dad said shaking his head when Ma got back from shopping on Monday evening. Her expression was that of a kid who’s been caught for eating too much candy.

“They don’t have enough, Anand.” Ma defended.

“Keep going like this, and they’ll end up having a clothes for every day of the year! Oh Ma! Not you too!” Dad sighed when Ajji walked in with a lots of bags slung to her arms.

She waved dad off with no care whatsoever and trotted off to Bhavna’s room.

Today, Shruthi and I decided to go on some last minute shopping to get all the essentials for the babies. Bhavna wanted to come along, but was immediately shot down by the entire family on the grounds that she was too pregnant to be allowed to go on joyrides.

Throughout the drive, I couldn’t help but notice a black car slowly following us from our house all the way to the mall.

“Who would follow us, Avnu? That person must be going in the same direction as us. Relax, you are over thinking it.” She said when I told her my observation.

Shopping was fun on the whole. We bought heaps of diapers, bibs, napkins and whatever we felt would be important. We didn’t hold back on anything, since we were paying for all of it with Adithya’s card.

You have one new message.

Unknown: You look very beautiful today, Avni.

Who could this be? Since I don’t reply to unknown numbers, I quickly put my phone back inside.

Unknown: Please reply? I miss you so much!

Could it be Vihaan? It was almost a week since I saw him, so he had all reason to miss me. But why would he text from an unknown number when he has his own phone?

Unknown: We need to meet as soon as possible Avni. I can’t go one more day without seeing you.

We returned home about half an hour later, with a car packed with baby goods. The messages from that number were still pouting in. When I called the number, the person on the other end would immediately cut it. As strange as it was, I didn’t pay much attention to it.

As I walked through the front door with around ten bags clung to my arms-

“BOO!” someone screamed from the side.

I let out a hair raising scream and threw all my bags up in the air and hurled my body to the ground. By the time I could fall facedown, a strong arm held on to me. I had clamped my eyes shut, which I opened very slowly to see Vihaan looking at me like I was some cartoon character.

“You should have seen your face.” He said, continuing to laugh like a lunatic.

“You scared the crap out of me!” I cried out, punching his shoulder.

“Really, you should have warned me atleast no, Vihaan? I almost skidded in the garden listening to her scream!” Shruthi exclaimed.

After the entire family had a good laugh at my expense, Vihaan instructed everyone to leave whatever they were doing to join him and his family for his parents’ wedding anniversary. He gave us exactly five minutes to look presentable.