The Journey from Ms. Sharma to Mrs. Who [✓]

Chapter 18-Edited

Megha's POV:

Charan slowly released me from the magical hug and made me sit on his bed. He kept checking the watch and staring at it for quite some time.
He smiled coyly and he went near the door.

Click.

He opened the doorknob. All the Sharma cousins rushed to fit into Charan's cute little room.

Bam.

They screamed,

"Haaaaaaaaaaapppppppyyyyy Biiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrttttthhhhdayyyy Meeeeegggghhhhaaaa"

It totally slipped out of my head and amidst all the drama that happened today, Charan still remembered and planned for it. All these people had stayed awake from such a busy and tiring day to wish me for my birthday?

OMG.

Their love was warm, amazing and beyond interpretation. I saw Chinnu and Akhila slowly walking with a big, fat, creamy and chocolatey cake with a sparkling magic candle glistening artistically over it. Anirudh was the videographer while Veera, the camerawoman.

Snap. Snap. Snap.

The room was filled with giggles and memes as soon as they read on what was written on the cake. Charan blushed, as he still stood holding the door knob. Bhai was teasing him like anything and I could figure that out.

Chinnu, even with those swollen red eyes smiled from her heart as she carefully brought the cake to me.
Charan switched off the light and the only source of illumination was the magic candle.

Bhabhi, Akhila and Chinnu sat next to me while the boys stood around forming a semi circle. As my eyes gazed to look at the love of my life, he still stood a bit away from the scene. Noticing my vision, Chinnu pulled Charan and made him stand next to me.

I felt my heart skip a beat as he nervously pointed towards the cake.
That's when I read what was written on it and understood why everyone's reaction was weird and crazy.

It said,

"Happiest 23rd to the Love of my Life and the Best Sister in Law my Cousins could ever get!"

Woooooaaahhhhh!

I blushed, felt a teeny bit of embarrassment and proud and love filled my heart.I turned to look around and smiled at everyone.

"Cut the cake Megha, we're all feeling hungry here!", said Bhabhi, with a wink.

She mocked hurt and turned at Charan and asked,"For you at least, I am the best sister in law know?"

Everyone laughed including Chinnu. In fact she was the loudest. A ray of sadness clobbered my heart of how genuinely she is here for me after all the crap she went through. As a tear slipped past my eye, I felt a nudge from Veera.

" For whom are you waiting Megha?"

"Arey, all of you have asked her to cut the cake, but the 'love of her life' hasn't na?", teased Bhai air-quoting, ah, well, you know what.

Bhai loves pulling Charan's leg and since his little champ is now in a relationship, I get pulled in too.

I blushed to a colour deeper than red and the yellowness beamed from the rays of the candle decorated the reflection to the fullest.

With the corner of my eyes, trying to move as slowly and negligently as possible, I turned towards my right to look at Charan.

He looked so handsome with the cue of blush and pride and happiness. He looked at me earnestly and from God knows where he got the guts to utter the following sentence in front of everyone,

"Happy Birthday Meghu. I love you. Please cut the cake-"

There was a low ooooooh followed by an aaaaaah and then ended with eeeyyyyyyy!

But you know what I did. I simple stood there and blushed. There was a silence which wrapped the room. I looked at him and mouthed thank you. Chinnu squeezed my left arm as I saw Veera and Anirudh capturing all these bloopers moments.

As they sung "Happy Birthday to You" in chorus, I cut the huge piece of cake, of course, I didn't blow the candle.

In our custom, we believe that light is a source of knowledge and goodness and blowing it away, simply symbolically says that we are inviting ignorance. I prayed to Agni Devata that may all beings be happy and peaceful, my parents, my inlaws, my family, this entire universe and of course Chinnu and my Charan.

With a second pause of prayer, I resumed to cake cutting and took  the huge piece that I cut before and turned towards my right to feed him. He just smiled and graciously took a bite.

A loud cheer followed as he took the cake from my hand and fed me and what happened next, I totally didn't anticipate.

He put the tastiest and most richest looking cake on my face.

"Charan"

Everybody started laughing. I took another piece and smashed it all over his face and beard.

Tadaaa!!

I smirked at him. He simply stood there smiling at me, showing his perfect teeth. Wow, no wonder I love him I said to myself in frustration.

And with that, I fed everyone else in the room and when they offered me back, I took a big bite because, hey, I love this cake, it's from my boyfriend and I love him!

I smiled at my stupid reasons to eat cake. At last it was Chinnu's turn. All the happiness died from my heart and eyes as I looked at her. Her soul was the purest I know. But why has God been doing this to her? Who is Deepak? We don't even know him. Doesn't she deserve love?

I think I had been holding the piece of cake for too long that a part of it almost fell.Chinnu grabbed it before the cake dared to touch the ground.
She slowly raised to take the cake and she fed it to me. I graciously ate it.

She said, "Megha, we've known each other for so long that even if a piece of cake falls without the knowledge of the other, the other one would just be there to take care of it. Happiest birthday bestie. I love you. And, Charan is a pain in the ass. I love you more for going to baby sit him for the rest of your life. "

Though the former part of the talk was formal, deep and sensitive, the latter part cracked me up and while I was lost in that, she took a chance and played holi with the cake. Everyone else joined too.

We laughed and laughed and smashed cream and cake pieces on one another. Chaos was beautiful, lovely and so much of fun. As Charan took a chance to pull me close and he was almost about to hug me...

"What on Earth is happening here?"

The lights were switched on. Our faces were brown and whitish. Charan was still holding me in his arms. All of us stood shocked and rooted to our spots.

Radha Aunty stood there with anger fuming. She saw Charan and me as I awkwardly slithered from his wobbly clutch.

"Charan, you still didn't answer me, what on earth is happening?"

***