Destiny

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Once Gauri said yes, Siddarth moved quickly to make arrangements for the wedding. Gauri already had the wedding dress that her aunt made for her. He still remembered the beautiful dress. It was maroon and hunter green in color with gold zari work and tiny stones throughout the outfit. It had been made for her.

His aunt and mom insisted he wear a sherwani for the wedding instead of a suit. He agreed to their demands and bought a sherwani in gold with maroon embroidery design on the top. The scarf for his neck was maroon and gold bandhni work in satin fabric.

Once he had the wedding clothes sorted to his aunt and mom’s taste he took Gauri shopping for the engagement ring. He did not want anyone’s help in this. He only wants Gauri’s input for the ring. He took her to his friend’s shop in Edison who dealt in the most perfect diamonds. He didn’t give Gauri a chance to look it the smaller rings and guided her to the ring he wanted to get for her.

Siddarth signaled his friend to take them to the private room and bring the ring he had requested and various other rings also. Gauri’s eyes widened when the tray of rings were put in front of her. She looked at Siddarth helplessly.  “These look very expensive, ask them for simple solitaire rings.”

“Would you let me present the ring that I like? If you don’t like it then you can pick another one.” Gauri looked at his expression of excitement and hope and gave in. Siddarth signaled his friend to bring out the ring.

Five minutes later the sales girl came back with the ring. “Here you are sir,” She said placing the ring box in front of them and opening it. Gauri gasped when she saw the ring. It had one big diamond in the middle and smaller size diamonds on each side of the big diamond. There were smaller paved diamonds on each side of the ring. The ring was set in platinum setting.

“This creation is composed entirely of gleaming princess cut diamonds, channel-set along the shoulders and surrounding the center stone for the ultimate expression of love.” The sales girl read from the card that accompanied the ring box.

Siddarth took the ring out of the box and placed it on her ring finger. When Gauri opened her mouth to say something he squeezed her hand to stop her. He looked up at the sales girl and smile. “Can you give us few moments please?”

Siddarth turned back to Gauri. He looked down at the ring and ran his hand over the diamonds gently. “Do you know why I picked this ring Gauri?” Gauri shook her head no.

Siddarth touched the biggest diamond in the middle. “This big diamond in the middle represents my love for you.” He pointed to the smaller diamond on the right. “This one is my apology to you for hurting you the way I did.” He pointed to the other small diamond on the left. “This one is my promise to always be with you.” He then ran his thumb over the smaller paved diamonds on both sides. “These are for building new memories.” The last sentence was full of hope and promises.

The day she met Siddarth must have been the luckiest day of her life Gauri thought. She still could not understand why he loved her to this extent. She never thought she would have life partner who would love her more than his own life. “It is the most beautiful ring in the world Siddarth. Thank you for choosing it for me.”