Gabriel and Gyan were college sweethearts, and they thought they had found the love of their lives. Then Gabriel got an opportunity in Australia, and he left behind a heartbroken Gyan.
It's been more than five years, and Gabriel finds hims...
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"You're fucking stupid, Gyan," Arya yelled as she paced in my living room while I sat on my couch with my limbs spread out. She stopped in front of me with a frown. "Why would you agree to an arranged marriage? Worst of all, to a woman."
I stood up, and we faced each other. "What's wrong with that?"
She narrowed her eyes. "I don't know. Maybe it's because you're gay?!" I turned for the kitchen, needing some water. Arya followed. "What Americanized Indian has arranged marriages, anyway?"
I grabbed the bottle and drank half of it. When I brought the bottle down from my lips, I turned to my fuming cousin. "You'll be surprised."
Arya's shoulders sagged as her expression crumbled. "Don't do this, Gyan."
"Why are you acting so shocked?" I returned to the living room, and Arya and I sat down. "I told you I was going to marry an Indian woman, have some kids, with a gay lover or two on the side."
"You were serious about that?"
"Did I look like I was joking?"
I was getting bored of this conversation.
"What if you fall in love with someone?" she asked. "And you can't be with them because you're married to a woman."
"That won't happen," I said.
The worst mistake I ever made was falling in love. I didn't plan on doing it again.
"You never know," Arya said. "The love of your life could walk in here right now."
"I doubt that," I said.
I stopped my thoughts from drifting to a certain Colombian man. He didn't deserve a place in my mind. He was gone, and he was never coming back.
I was marrying Anushka Kumar in a couple of months, and no one was going to get in the way of that.
"If I come out, my father will disown me," I reminded her.
She brushed me aside. "Don't be dramatic."
Arya was the only person in my family who knew I was gay, and I planned on keeping it that way.
"Not everyone has your dad."
Varun-ji was more open-minded, and he accepted Arya's sexuality.
My father, on the other hand, would never accept his only son being gay, especially since it was my responsibility to carry the Gupta name and with me being the heir to the family business. A lot was resting on my shoulders, and I couldn't fuck it up.
Waiting for some casual hookup to turn into something more wasn't worth it.
"It's best this way," I told her. "I'm never going to marry another man, so what's the point in waiting? If I wait too long, my family will get suspicious."
