Silver Lining | Grooms #3

XII. Silver Lining

Esha went with Sanam, Arjun, Parth, and Anaya for her last minute Christmas shopping since she had decided not to do it in Portland as she'd have to carry all those gifts with her to New York. Sanam and Arjun had gone off on their own, and after a while, Anaya had gotten tired of Esha's inability to pick gifts. In a way, Esha was fine when Anaya declared that she was leaving.

She hadn't wanted anyone to go with her. She was trying to buy gifts for them, after all. How could she buy them when they were tagging along?

But, now that it was just her and Parth, he had started to bother her about telling her what was wrong, and Esha knew it. In front of Parth, it was hard for her to no fess up. So, they found a spot to sit at in the food court of the mall, and she told him everything, with frequent outbursts from Parth.

"What's the matter with you?" he finally commented when she had finished telling him everything.

"Ugh, I know." She grumbled, hiding her face by putting it on her arm on the table. "It's so stupid. How can I have gotten so drunk and...?"

"No, not that." He waved it off as if it were no big deal. That part was believable for him. "How could you keep it all to yourself all this time and not tell anyone? You're stupid, you know that?"

"What?" She looked up hearing that. Surely, she had heard wrong. "That's what you're more upset about? You did hear the part where I drunkenly married a stranger?"

"Well, yeah." He said as a matter of fact. "I already knew you do reckless things all the time. I agree, it's a new one - even for you - but not shocked. And hey, atleast you picked an Indian guy, even if you were drunk off your ass."

She threw a French fry at him, that landed on his shirt and he carelessly plopped it in his mouth, "First off, I still don't get how I could be so drunk to not remember anything. You know me. I've had a few drinks and shots around you guys before. I've been buzzed, sure, but I've never let myself or anyone else talk me into getting drunk."

"It's Vegas, Esha. Someone probably spiked your drink for the fun of it." He explained a valid point.

She frowned, "Some fun it ended in." The after-math was not fun, at all.

"What's the second point?"

"Why is he so hell-bent on making it real?"

He pressed his lips tight, signaling to Esha that Parth had a theory, one she wasn't going to like.

She pressed after a sigh, "Just spill it."

He didn't waste a second afterwards, "Have you ever considered that he likes you?"

She laughed, "Yeah, I don't like that theory of yours."

Parth rolled his eyes and reached for her hands, to make her listen, "Esha, as much as you love to push people away from you, you are a hard person to not like, just like your sister. You and Sanam have that in common. You make people like you without even trying. And from what I understand, he remembers the night, meaning he could have been drunk, but not enough to not remember it. Thus, meaning, there was somewhere a logical part of his brain that still led to the two of you getting married, and everything else that might have followed that night."

"Oh, it def..."

He slapped her hand before leaning away in his seat, "Shut it, I don't need to hear that part of the story."

She laughed at his embarrassment, "Relax, it's not like I remember it to describe it to you in detail."

He cringed at the thought, "Seriously, love. I really don't need you to continue on this topic."