Second Chances | Grooms #2 | Slow Updates #WattyLonglist

【 xi. weak spot 】

Maahi took a sip of red wine to take the nerves off. Even though Sonu was seated at the other end of the table, she could feel his glares and that was unnerving for her.

On one side of the table, it was Maahi, Nikita, Anaya, and Sanjana while Parth, Blake, Esha, and Sonu were on the other across from them.

Noticing she seemed to be on edge, Parth asked out of concern, "All okay?"

She placed the glass back on the table and nodded with a polite smile, "Yup."

He wasn't convinced, but he didn't pester her further either, least he make her more uncomfortable. He couldn't keep his eyes off of her though. He had seen her all dressed up in an Indian outfit at the wedding, but since having met her again, this was the first time she had dressed in a western outfit. He found her beautiful in general, but tonight felt different.

The red dress hugged her curves, and the color complimented her pale and creamy skin tone. It wasn't that he found her to be uncomfortable with what she was wearing. She was very much comfortable. She had been comfortable wearing that choli as well which he remembered to be dangerously backless. This dress definitely covered her a lot more decently than that blouse had. Still, there was something keeping her on edge. It was obvious the way she relied on alcohol to get her through the night.

He was starting to notice that she did that quite often. He didn't know whether it was normal for her to be socially drinking. But there had been times, like the night he went over her place with beer and ice-cream, he knew she had used beer as a coping mechanism for everything she had connected about her grandmother's scheme. The evening she drank coffee, she had made a comment about how she shouldn't pull out alcohol when she wanted something stronger than water. Tonight, he figured she was battling something as well and relying on alcohol for courage.

He wondered if it was healthy. Drinking socially simply because they were out on a celebration was one thing, but relying on it seemed different.

༺༻ ༺༻༺༻

At the end of the dinner, Esha hooked one arm with Parth and another with Maahi, pulling them back from the rest of them who were assembling outside the restaurant. Parth questioned, "What do you want now?"

Esha took offense, rolling her eyes, "I don't always bother you only when I need something, alright? In fact, you'll thank me for what I have to tell you. Both of you, actually."

"Okay, what is it?" Maahi urged her to continue and ignore Parth.

Esha spoke in a hushed tone, "They were playing footsies!"

"Who?" Parth asked.

Maahi questioned, "Is that some short form for football?"

Parth felt surprised as well as Esha that Maahi asked that, but he repeated, "Who was?"

"Sonu and Sanjana."

"Are you sure? It could be an accident."

Esha confirmed, "It wasn't an accident. I thought it could be at first too, but the third time I 'accidentally' got kicked, I used the camera on my phone to check."

Parth speculated, "Wait, so that means the person he's been having an affair with is Sanjana?"

Maahi had her doubts, "Sanjana? No, I don't think the name I read in his text messages was Sanjana. I mean we have been living under one roof for weeks now. We've never seen them nor did the cameras catch anything."

"He could have saved her name as something else." Esha offered an explanation. She was sure she had seen the two of them playing footsies.

"We can look into it." Parth said, not finding any harm in giving it a try. "Thanks, love."