Everybody wants to grow big and succeed. Rajesh is no different from anybody. He also aspires to be a success. He has the necessary impulsiveness. But life is not that fair. If you have a slice of cake, life takes away two. Same with Rajesh too. He...
'Why this father daughter duo are taking so much time for a small shower?' Pallavi thinks as she makes her way to their room.As she nears the room, she hears singing and loud laughters from the washroom. As she opens the door, she finds Rajesh singing nursery rhymes in loud baseless voice and Nidhi rolling on the foor with laughter, unable to digest her father's worst singing skills
"Rajesh and Nidhi" a loud command comes from Pallavi and that's all it takes for the father-daughter duo to stop their antics and stand in ramrod attention, as if their drill sargent has caught them misbehaving. Not the one to waste a moment to make a memory, Pallavi clicks a pic on her phone immediately and the trio break into a chuckle.
"But make it fast guys. Tarun and Jenny will make it in 20 minutes. They just texted me." Pallavi commands and makes it back to kitchen. Rajesh leans a bit to see whether she has left the room. Once sure about that he closes the door and turns towards Nidhi with a devilish grin, enough tothtigate his plan. The next fifteen minutes passes in a blur as Pallavi as she takes the cake out of the oven and proceeds for the icing. Just then Rajesh makes his way into the kitchen, dressed in casual white tee and a jeans. Leaning against the wall, he watches his wife put the icing on the cake. Savouring her efforts, the events right after Nidhi's birth flashes along his eyes. 'The Matrix' started it climb into becoming a well established firm. They opened up seperate departments and branched out into couple more fields. They opened up summer coding classes for college students, spearheaded by Tarun. Jenny took over marketing department. They still faced some downs and capital crunch, but with Neeraj's new friend Jacob, who was a forensic account enthusiast, made them plans to emerge succesful from the capital crunch, which they did everytime. Rajesh's steely resolve to be a brand in the market, caused them to field some really appreciative offers from other tycoons in the market.
"So is Mrs. Khuranna just going to get ogled the whole day or is she going get a helping hand too in the preparations?" comes her voice, as she finishes the icing.
"How did you know that I am standing here?" booms Rajesh's voice as he makes his way to her, hugging her from behind, encircling her in his warm hug.
"Because true love is connected by souls" Pallavi replies , as she turns around in his embrace and returns the hug.
"I love you Pallavi"
"I love you too Rajesh" she reciprocates, tightening her hug. Rajesh proceeds to kiss her, only to be interrupted by the bell.
"I am not going to leave you. Whoever it is can stand outside for a couple minutes" Rajesh replies, lifting up Pallavi's face from her chin and giving a peck on her nose tip.
"They are your friends. Don't make them wait too much Mr. Khuranna" Pallavi says, pulling herself away from the embrace. Groaning at the seperation, Rajesh gets the cream and starts writing on the cake, while Pallavi gets the door, letting in Tarun and his family in. Tarun settled down with Jenny and married her. Legally adopting Jenny's son from her previous marraige, they had their own kid on the way. Jenny gives Pallavi a warm hug, as Tarun stands with Ajay in piggy back.
"Hi Pallavi aunty" comes his loud gretting as he wiggles down from his fathers shoulder and heads towards Pallavi's out stretched hands, as she lifts him and plops him on her waist and starts playing with his hair. She escorts Jenny to the couch and gestures her to sit, to rest her legs. Six months along, Jenny had started experiencing back and leg pains and couldn't exert too much.
"Where is Rajesh and Nidhi?" Tarun asks, as he keeps their bag down and takes Ajay from Pallavi's hands.
"Rajesh is inside, playing with the cake and Nidhi is inside in her bedroom. I am pretty sure she is singing or dancing and not getting ready for her third birthday" Pallavi lets out with a chuckle. The moment Tarun gets to know that Rajesh is playing with the cake, he facepalms himself and mutters 'there goes the cake ' loud enough for Pallvi to hear.
"That's why I am still maitaining my physique" she responds, gesturing to herself, while Jenny playfull hits Tarun on his arm.
"But nowadays Rajesh has improved a lot in cooking. He ventured a lot while Nidhi was young and gained a lot of skills." Pallavi assures Tarun,, who heaves a sigh of relief.
"Doesn't matter honey. I can have my cooking certified by the best chefs in the world, but Tarun and Neeraj will never belive my cooking is good" Rajesh's voice chirps in, as he makes his appearance into the living room.
"True that buddy" Tarun adds, as heads towards Rajesh and they share the bro hug.
"Anyway where is my niece? I will dress her up" Jenny speaks up, getting up from her couch and instructs Ajay to sit in the couch, which he listens to obediently.
"She is inside, probably practicing on her singing skills. I will need your help. I might not be able to deck her up for the party" Pallavi responds, guiding Jenny to her room. Meanwhile Rajesh and Tarun discuss on thier future expansion plans. Neeraj pops in couple minutes later with his friend Jacob and all of them get into the preparations for the party. Rajesh's and Pallavi's parents make it for thier grandchild's birthday party.
"Where is the birthday girl? I am dying to meet her" Jacob jumps around impatiently.
"She will be here in a minute" Rajesh calms him down. Jacob was always a smooth talker and quickly wove into the trio as a good and trustworthy friend. He would babysit Nidhi at times when Rajesh and Pallvi went to visit thier parents or on datenights. Nidhi also got along very well with him.
Just then the door opens and there comes the princess. Clad in sea blue frock, with a bow on her head, she makes her way to her Daddy and goes into his arms and plants a kiss on his cheeks.
"I love you baby." Rajesh kisses on her forehead. Nidhi then heads to her grandparents and takes thier blessings. Last but not least, Jacob uncle. Deciding to prank with her, Jacob just kneels down and pulls her cheeks and plants a kiss on her nose. Getting such a reaction from Jacob uncle was unusual for Nidhi, who puts her hands on her hips and waits for his move, tapping her legs on the floor. Her actions melts Jacob's resolve to prank, who suddenly lifts and twirls her around, with Nidhi squealing in joy.
"Time to cut the cake babydoll" Pallavi calls her up, as Jenny aunty makes her way into the living room with the cake. Ajay being the perfect friend, plants the candles into the cake surrounding her name and flashes his grin to Nidhi.
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As Nidhi cuts her cake, Jacob and Neeraj burst the confetti guns, Ajay blasts the snow sparay into the air and the rest clap and sing their hearts out. Nidhi balances the first cake piece and looks around who to feed first. Being the cocky guy as always, Rajesh kneels down and opens his mouth. But Nidhi, being trained by Jacob decides to prank him. She turns towards Ajay and feeds him the first bite, astonishing everybody but Rajesh, who is left dumbstruck. Truning towards her father, Nidhi breaks into a giggle, and wipes her cream filled hands on his cheeks and skittles away to her mother. With a good start to the party, everybody settles down for the present giving and savouring the cake. Ajay and Nidhi run around the house, playing their hearts out. Being her birthday, Rajesh decides to go easy on her.
Soon Rajesh and Pallavi's parents leave their household. Tarun and Neeraj decide to stay and clean up a little. Jacob decides to help the ladies in the kitchen, while the trio decide and plan the expansion plans. With all the playing, Nidhi and Ajay have already dozed off in the children's room. With all the work over, all of them sit in the living room, just chatting over small issues. All of them decided to crash at the Khuranna's for the day. Even through the laughs, Pallavi manages to find some disturbance in Jenny's face and she makes a mental note to ask her.
"Guys." Pallavi decides to intervene the issue and once and for all solve the issue. With her speaking up, everybody silence up and look up. Having got the control of the room, Pallavi turns towards Jenny and gives her a knowing nod, which Jenny replies with a smile.
"I guess, you all wonder as to why I left Tarun and went in a differenet direction, which wrecked my life for a short duration, but eventually lead to the most beautiful phase of my life" Jenny starts up.
"We do want to know. But I can read in your expressions that you are not fully comfortable yet to openly share that. We respect that and would like you to open up at your own pace Jenny. Because the bottom line is you are with Tarun now and happy." Rajesh assures her, with the entire group nodding in support. Listening to this she breaks down, being supported by Pallavi who soothes her.
"In time you will know." Jenny replies wiping her tears.
"Yes. And you have our utmost support till and after that day." Pallavi replies.
"Anyhoo, lets crash guys." Tarun chirps in, getting up.
"Guys I have something to tell" Neeraj adds on, as he gets up.
"Yeah man." Rajesh and Tarun reply in tandem.
"I am gay and in a relationship with Jacob for the past two years" he finishes in one sentence. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guys, this concludes my first book I hearby thank all my readers for all their support they graciously showered me with, for without which I would have never ever been able to reach this point and further.
A huge thanks to my sisters siyasarasaga and sinha_m for their constant support. I urge all my readers to check out their awesome works
As for the surprise which i mentioned in my previous chapter, its 2 seperate spin offs. They will be based on Jenny's and Neeraj's life before and in between the events of this story.
