Episode 28

t is finally the end of another year. Every year so far, we have had a family routine. We usually go out for dinner, go over to my cousin's place post that where all my dad's brothers and sisters convened because that particular uncle's house was situated in the middle and was a big house to accommodate enough people if not all. We played games, made a lot of noise, burst crackers and me and my cousins jumped into bikes and screamed our welcome to the streets while we rode all the way up to the beach to come back and collapse in any available space in the big house. We even sneaked out booze once the guys  started drinking and carried mouth fresheners and more often than not mixed both and drank to save time. Yes, times were good.

This year though Anitha is hosting a party at Naren's. Yes you heard me right. She is throwing a party but not at our place. It is going to be at Naren's. She has been calling it as their party that Naren and Anitha are throwing it, but everyone knows that is just to make him feel useful. But even better, we are throwing all her plans into the wind and are going to wing it because well, the woman wants to play card games a la casino. Well, it is New Year's Eve, all we want to do is have fun. If we are to play games it can only include charades especially drunk charades or any form of drinking game. Or at least this is what Naren and Aditya feel.  Neither of them have grown a full pair to tell her that so I got to tell her that her casino theme isn’t going to work and make it sound like my idea.

I am meeting Karthik in a few minutes to go to the super market to buy snacks and stuff because again Anitha wanted to cook snacks and Naren just about got her convinced not to. So I bunked half day from work on the last day of the year and hear I am waiting for Karthik. I throw on a pair of jeans, a yellow tank top and pull on a white cotton jacket which looks more like a cross between a shrug and a jacket than a full-time jacket. I search for a pair of white casual shoes and stuff my feet in them and I hear the bell on my door. Karthik, always-on-time Karthik.

He is in his usual affair of dark jeans and a casual shirt and looks damn good in them. I should be used to it by now, but no, he really is a handsome man and I take my time checking him out. He has started noticing the time I have been spending checking him out and he gives me this self-satisfied smile these days where only his eyes smile and they have this look of well, self-satisfaction. The man has a lot of smiles, I need to use a computer to keep an inventory.

'Hi', I call to him throwing a little wave for good measure. I stuff my wallet into the cheerful yellow sling bag which I borrowed from Anitha which matches my tank top. Karthik gives me a once over.

'It isn’t summer you know', he says.

I smirk. 'We are in Chennai. It is always summer', I tell him.

'You look all cheerful', he says stepping closer and tucking away a tendril of my never-in-control flyaway hair from a top knot I have twisted it in. 'I like it', he says. I, naturally beam, I mean, this is not even my New Year eve outfit. Karthik is always tucking away my hair, I should get a fringe just for this.

'Let's go, we have loads of stuff to buy'.

We go to his car and I see a couple of bottles and when I look at them suspiciously, 'That's a good Sauvignon Blanc. I remember Anitha telling me she liked White wine?', he says. He even pronounces the French words in a French way. I have no idea if it is right or not but it sure as hell sounds hot. My boyfriend is all highbrow.

'Show off', I mutter under my breath and he just laughs. 'There was also a great Pinot noir, but I thought she is more of a Sauvignon Blanc gal', he goes on to show off more.

'Yes, Ritu. I know you are a wine connoisseur', I say, pretty much pronouncing the French word in an Indian way. It is his turn to mutter. Ritu gets to him better than anything else.

We rush off and cart in different types of chips including all kinds of potatoes, nachos, some tapioca and even sweet potatoes. We buy dips, ketchups and all to go with it. We might be buying in excess, but I have no clue how much you buy for a party of seven people who probably wouldn’t have dinner and stay on this stuff until mid-night. We grab some cool drinks. After a lot of argument and a slick maneuver in which I try to carry one of the bags containing the cool drinks and accidentally drop it making Karthik move to help me and me slipping my card to the cashier while knocking of Karthik's out of the way, I pay for all of this. I don’t know, I feel like I should pay.

We next stop to get the cake I ordered. No one wanted a cake for New Year's but Anitha. Since we shot down all of her other ideas, I went ahead and ordered it even though the guys said they just wouldn’t eat it.

We stop on the way back home for some coffee. I order a choco frappe with a double shot of coffee, while Karthik orders a cappuccino as always. I look at the display and couldn’t resist the slices of chocolate raspberry cake. So I get a slice. It is New Year's Eve.

While I sit sipping my frappe and eating my cake which Karthik declares as 'Too chocolaty', he doesn’t utter a word. He just keeps looking at me. He doesn’t even touch his coffee.

'Okay. What is it? What did I do?', I ask him because I have been resisting this urge to squirm. He smiles, his Priya-is-cute smile. He takes a sip of his coffee. I stuff myself with another spoon of the cake. It is super yum. I look at him warily while he reaches in his pockets and pulls out a small box, wrapped in shiny crimson paper and a pearly white satin bow around it. I try to chew as fast as possible and hastily wipe my hands off on a tissue and reach for it.

'What is this?', I ask him.

'I realized, I hadn’t gotten you anything so far. So I thought this is a good time to change that. New Year and all'.

Huh. Do I give a return gift? I need to see the girlfriend-boyfriend manual. I will have to give some forethought and plan it at the right time. It cannot be a return gift. Return gifts are for strangers who attend your birthday party.

'The box is too small', I accuse. It had to be jewelry. I cannot handle jewelry.

'It isn’t a bomb', he says, giving me his Priya-is-cute smile again.

I reach for it and weigh it. It weighs like a small box and just a box. Let it not be a ring. It cannot be a ring. I go to untie the bow.

'Open it in the car?', he asks.

'Huh? You gave it to me now!', I will die, I will die of a stroke trying to control myself.

He smiles again. 'I don’t know. You seem to like that cake and you looked all.. Anyways, I thought it was a good time to give it to you.'

Yes. Perrrrrfect logic. Someone shoot me please.

'Let's go', I say getting up. I carry my cup of frappe and ask him to carry his too.

'Cake?', he asks, but who cares anymore. Nothing matters, nothing.

'Seriously?', I ask him and start race-walking.

We reach the car and he pulls out and once we are out on the road, I unwrap the gift.  Yup it is a jewelry box.

I open it and I look at a beautiful necklace. It has a very thin chain, probably silver and a single tear drop pearl on it about the size of a pea and a tiny shiny reddish looking stone probably ruby in the shape of a heart. It is one of the most beautiful pearls I have ever seen, it is solid, feels cool to the touch and has an elegant sheen to it. If it is ruby or garnet it is not a flaming red but has a rose undertone to it in some angles and is simply breathtaking. It is quite possibly the most beautiful necklace in its sheer simple and understated elegance.

I look up at him and I realize he has stopped the car and parked it off the road.

'You like it?', he asks, sounding nervous.

I don’t know what to tell him. The pearl and the heart. It speaks to me a lot giving me some sort of message.

'It is too simple isn’t it? You don’t like it. The guy at the store told me to add a couple more and choose bigger gems and……'

Wait.. 'You got it made for me?'

'I mean yeah. I choose a design and style and they would make it anyway I wanted. I liked the pearl… the pearl was just you. The heart, well, the heart is..'

'You'. Yes, I got the message. There is no way to describe how I feel. This is the most perfect first gift ever.

I always wear a gold chain and I am wearing it now too. I remove it and hand him his gift and turn away from him thinking good thing, my hair is in a knot. Karthik puts the beautiful necklace around my neck which is just long enough that the pearl and heart are just below the hollow of my throat. I turn to show him the necklace and Karthik has this amazing look in his eyes, the look which I can only classify as some kind of possessive thing. I lean forward and kiss him, trying to show him exactly what I feel. I hope he feels the perfection. Once I move back a bit he lifts his fingers and executes a roll and tug on the necklace around my neck. His fingers linger. My stomach reacts to his fingers. I don’t know how they are related or connected, but my stomach does react. We start again.

‘It looks good on you’, he says his eyes still holding The Look even though it is directed at the road now. I actually feel my stomach quiver.

‘You have set up the bar too high now. You have to give me gifts that beat this every single time’, oh yeah. He chuckles and shakes his head.

‘So I take it you like it?’, he apparently needs a verbal confirmation.

‘It is perfect. I love it. I will wear it on all occasions whether it matches or not. I will keep it and pass it on to…’, I stop myself. I was going to say pass it on to our daughter. The necklace has magical powers, I swear I have never thought about children even in passing. Shit. I look at him. Karthik is just looking ahead which The Look magnified multiple times. Okay, it is out there. I cannot take it back.

We reach Naren’s place, dump everything there, drink Vivek’s coffee and spend some time talking away. When it begins to get dark I leave them to go to my place to prepare for the New Year’s Eve. I feel bad about leaving Karthik there but Anitha would be at my place getting ready too and anyways he wouldn’t have anyone to talk to there. He cannot go back to his place and come back because that is just stupid and the traffic is crazy today.

I go to my place and find Anitha lounging on the sofa with her head back and her feet on the coffee table.

‘Hiii’, I call out go in and drop on the couch next to her. ‘You look tired. You alright?’

‘Yesss… We had a release today which was supposed to be done by morning but there was an issue in the last minute and I had to work on it. I am soooo tired. I didn’t even find time to have lunch’, she says.

‘Oh no. Poor girl’, I get up and go check our fridge. Luckily there are some oranges and a carton of guava juice. I pick a couple of oranges. I hand her the juice and start peeling the oranges. Anitha just gulps it down and almost finishes the carton.

‘Thanks Pri’, she says and falls back. I peel the oranges and hand them to her too. She separates a couple of slices, hands them to me and eats the rest.

‘Do you want anything else?’, I ask her.

‘No. I am just tired. I asked Naren to get some food.’, she says looking up at me.

‘Cute necklace. How come I never saw it before? It is soooo pretty’

‘It is Karthik’s gift for the New Year’s’, I say and I cannot keep the blush creeping up my face.

‘Man, he is the most romantic real guy that I really know. You are sooo lucky’, she says. I cannot disagree.

She goes off to take a shower while I go choose a dress. I had planned to wear a simple and casual black woven jumpsuit with a huge silver buckled belt and all silver accessories. I have to change the outfit. I look through my wardrobe trying to find something in a pearly white or a pinkish rubyish red. I find a red top in the same color family as that of the heart but a couple of shades deeper. It is sleeveless, has a deep scooped neck and is made of a satiny material that feels like water to the touch. I decide to pair it with my white jeans. I do not have any earrings that go with my necklace, so I decide to leave my hair down and go without any earrings. When Anitha rushes out of the shower half-dressed, I jump in.

We both get ready, Anitha wearing a flowy shiny skirt with vertical sections of alternate colors of taupe and a deep chocolate. She has paired it with a top of the deep chocolate color looking stunning, the color doing wonders for her fairer skin.

‘Wow. That is a great outfit. You should become an outfit assembler as a second job or something’, I tell her. She just laughs. We both carry some plates and bowls and such and head to Naren’s.

We reach there to find the guys all nursing a beer. There is Naren, Vivek, and Karthik. Aditya has apparently gone off to pick up his friend who would be joining us for the New Year’s.

‘Hiiiiiiiii’, Naren and Vivek call out in a chorus when we enter. Karthik says a Hi but refrains from joining the choir. The TV is on and they are watching some debate on the news channel and I do not know what to say to that.

‘Wow Ani. You look amazing’, I hear Naren say and he rises to go help her with the load she is carrying. I look at Karthik and observe him taking me in with his eyes, but he makes no move to help me, but while Anitha was carrying bowls and plates of the ceramic and the steel variety, I am just carrying paper cups and such, so he isn’t entirely required to help, but still. I see appreciation in his eyes and the sucker that I am, it seems to be enough for me. Okay, Karthik isn’t one for overt public displays of affection.

Vivek gets up to move laptops and such from the dining table to make room for other stuff. ‘Really? You guys could not even move this stuff and arrange something on the table?’, I ask him.

‘That is what I am doing now’, he says with a shrug. Okay. ‘Now the table is free.’. Yup, I can see.

Anitha pulls Naren into arranging and along with my help we have bowls filled with snacks and dips and such in more bowls and plates with more stuff, cups lined along with the drinks and tissues and paper plates set in a convenient place for anyone to grab anything at any time. All the while Karthik and Vivek engage in a very intelligent debate along with the one on the TV.

We all go settle around the seating area and Anitha boldly switches off the TV much to Vivek’s whining.

He turns to Karthik and declares, ‘I know I did not have an option, but how did you get pulled into this again?’, he asks with fake resentment.

Anitha slaps his hand lying next to her. ‘Really? You did not have an option? Do you know what you did last year? We went out for a party, Aditya went out with his friends and you sat and fixed some problem in your code.’

‘Ahh.. good times’, he says with a longing in his voice.

Karthik chuckles at their drama.

‘Really though, you should have done something else. I hope you aren’t bored’, Naren adds, pointing at Karthik and me.

‘Priya wanted to be with you guys’, he answers, once again causing a stomach quiver. I am seated next to Naren and I look at Karthik.

Naren chuckles now. ‘Priya is a dumbo. You shouldn’t let her decide anything’, he says and ruffles my hair for good measure. The hair that I had spent time to straighten and then curl slightly to get a wave here and there.

‘Oye’, I say. Karthik just chuckles some more.

‘Ya ya, you cannot agree with me but I know you do.’, Naren goes on talking to Karthik trying to exercise his witty nature a bit. I narrow my eyes at him and then at Karthik.

‘What? Did you call her a dumbo?’, Karthik says, fake-raising to my defense, in a tone which fake-encourages Naren to rethink his statement. Whatever. ‘Priya isn’t dumb. She just refuses to unnecessarily think’, Yup, my boyfriend, my hero.

Naren and Karthik laugh like they were impressed with their own comedic skills. I punch Naren putting in a lot of effort on his arm and he pretends to not feel a thing and then turns to me as if he just realizes I had touched him. Okay. No winning here.

Meanwhile Anitha and Vivek are still arguing and going on. New Year’s Eve it is.

‘Drinks anyone?’, Naren calls out, being a good little host and when I nod and Anitha does too, he goes off to bring us some.

Aditya arrives at that time and he has his friend with him. The friend is an unexpected surprise as first of all, the friend is a she. Also, the friend is a tall and a very smartly dressed she who isn’t exactly pretty or even good looking, but she just plain drew people to her. Talk about charisma and the girl has it in spades.

‘Guys, this is Ishwarya. My awesome friend since MBA days and recently a colleague. Ishu, this is Vivek, this is Anitha, Karthik, Naren and finally Priya. Vivek and Naren you know are my room mates. Anitha is Naren’s girlfriend and my very good friend. Priya is Naren’s class mate from college and Anitha is her roommate and Karthik is Priya’s boyfriend. This is the gang’, he goes on to introduce us too. She looks way too cool and smart to be an Ishu, but hey, we Indians aren’t known for our short-naming skills.

We all smile and wave and say Hi and Naren offers her a choice of drink and she goes straight for the wine. I like her. Aditya who doesn’t drink alcohol, fetches himself some soft drink and seats himself next to me.

Ishwarya looks at me and then looks at Aditya and finds that she has a place only next to Vivek and seats herself there. Vivek and Anitha engage her in conversation.

‘Oooo.’, Aditya says in an exaggerated voice. ‘Looking good Priya’, he says and gives me a jaunty wink. I laugh.

‘Dude, she is our friend. Don’t hit on her. Besides, Karthik is sitting right there’, Naren says laughing. I snort. Aditya doesn’t though. Karthik just smiles good-naturedly but the smile doesn’t reach his eyes.

‘I am just making a statement. She looks good. Anitha is smashing’.

‘Dude. Anitha is my girlfriend’, Naren reminds him again.

‘I know, always amazes me how that came to pass.’, he goes on and they bicker for some more time and have me laughing. I look at Karthik and realize that he must be getting bored. I walk over to him and I make others move and scooch so that I can sit next to him.

‘Sorry. You are bored aren’t you?’

‘Not really.’, he says.

‘Sorry about leaving you here and going too’

Karthik tilts his head towards me, ‘Vivek is cool. No worries.’ Well duh, wat was I thinking, Innovator meets Genius.

‘Let’s play a drinking game’, Aditya says exactly at that time.

This is followed with cheers. ‘You don’t drink’, Ishwarya reminds him and he just shrugs. ‘You guys would all be much more fun if you had some in you’.

‘I feel like an old guy among you all’, Karthik says, just for me to hear.

‘Naaa.. We lack maturity and refuse to act our age’, I say patting his hand. His hand curls around mine.

‘I switch on the TV and every time we hear the word New Year or New Year Eve we drink. Okay?’, Aditya carries on.

The TV goes on. We keep switching channels. Soon there is an ad with a New year message. We drink. We flip more channels. More ads.

There is an anchor using the word New Year so many times in a reality show where she asks people for New Year plans, New Year resolutions and a lot more New Year related questions and within ten minutes of listening to her, I am already drunk and running on a high. I look at Anitha and she is holding her own, she has moved too, sitting with Naren. Ishwarya is still sitting next to Vivek, but she has eyes only for Aditya who is having a hoot getting us drunk while he calmly sips on his soda. He calls out to slackers and gets everyone drinking. Apparently the man is an enabler and has an agenda. Hmmm. But Ishwarya seems to be into him. So, Ishwarya has a thing for Aditya.

I find myself leaning on Karthik.

‘I hope you don’t witness me puking my guts out’, I tell Karthik. He looks at me in concern. ‘Take smaller sips. You needn’t drink so much at a time’, he advices. I nod, lean into him more comfortably. ‘I trust you to remind me’, I inform him.

‘Puking your guts out isn’t fun Priya’, he says, again only to my ears but carrying the voice of loads of experience. I nod my agreement.

But the game goes on. Slowly people start telling hilarious drinking game stories. Karthik has his own. I am still leaning on him and I hear as well as feel his rumbling voice.

‘So we were in undergrad, in my hostel room. We were watching cricket and it was finals some sort of series with a cup to win and the game was to drink a shot of Vodka every time the commentator says cup. For some reason, the commentators kept talking about the cup a lot. We were all drunk within half an hour into the game and someone else got this brilliant idea to change over to another drink whenever there is a wicket and bam there is a wicket and we move on to absinthe. Unluckily there wasn’t a wicket for a very long time’, Karthik pauses.

‘Absinthe? Man that is sick’, Vivek says.

‘We marched on with the drinking game and by the time there was a next wicket we couldn’t even feel our tongues. Out of nowhere one of the guys started wailing about his ex and another guy started singing everything he was doing and another guy started talking to himself, one other emptying his stomach and I for some reason kept calling my mom. It was hilarious. The next day I had a hard time explaining my mom why I had called her up and repeatedly apologized for some reason. I didn’t tell her why even when I was drunk and I left it at that.’

‘Apologize? What had you done?’, Anitha asks.

 ‘Later I realized I was apologizing in my drunk state for getting a huge amount of money from her to tell her that I found a unique old time fountain pen for dad. My father is a pen collector. The pen wasn’t unique or old time, I just found it in a flea market. She gifted that to him on his birthday all excited and drawing out a surprise and he let her know gently that she has been cheated and that isn’t a valuable pen. My mom thought I had been cheated too and she felt very very bad.’

‘You are evil. You let her gift it?’, Anitha adds on a gasp.

‘Yeah. I had just had the hottest girl in class convinced that she should be my girlfriend. I needed all the money I could get’.

‘I so get you man’, Naren adds and even Vivek nods his agreement. While I look at him in shock, he says, ‘What? I have had a girlfriend or two.’

Really? Vivek? The nerd? The guy who lived in a different plane? 

Then Naren comes up with a brilliant idea. ‘Let’s play some music and dance’. The man looked normal, but apparently, he was high too.

However, I am the only one to protest, I was so comfortable leaning against Karthik. Everyone else finds this interesting.

The only sober guy Aditya agrees to be the DJ. He whips out his laptop and starts playing disco numbers to get us started. He then finds a mixed DJ’d set of songs on YouTube which had all the recent hip hop hits and joins us too.

We all started of awkwardly and aware of the others but we finally get into it. Unsurprisingly, Anitha is a good dancer. She seems to know all the moves and knows most of the songs and is giving us all a wonderful spectacle with lot of lip sync and a performance. I am not a good dancer but I like dancing. So I am fully into it and I couldn’t just prevent myself from putting on a show for Karthik who with Vivek does standard guy stuff just shuffling between his feet and sips his drink and occasionally performing some steps quite impressively. Anitha ropes him into dancing with her and he does dance with her. I try the same and I fail miserably, I would like to know why, but later.  Aditya sticks with me and Ishwarya. We start doing identical steps and start from normal ones and graduate to stupid ones to hilarious ones.

Around eleven thirty in the night the doorbell starts ringing and we take some time to understand what that is. We turn down the speakers and deem Aditya is the safest to answer the door and he goes to open it. We see an old Uncle standing there in his white dhothi and a white undershirt. He tells something to Aditya and Aditya just nods and shows him a thumbs up and comes back. While we all look at him expectantly, he just goes to the speakers and increases the volume back.

‘What was that?’, I still ask him. He shrugs. ‘He says we are too loud’.

‘Hey, we can reduce the volume’.

‘Naa.. We aren’t loud.’

I march to the speakers to reduce it a tiny much less. No one even notices. I reduce some more, no one still notices. Satisfied, I leave it at that.

‘Why would you do that?’, Aditya accused. ‘Hey no one even noticed.’

‘I did’

‘Well you are a tad too sober’.

Naren, who has been alternating between dancing with Anitha and joining the guys observing her, gets another brilliant idea, ‘You know what we should do? We should slow dance! Play some slow music’.

Okay, that isn’t bad altogether, I look at Karthik expectantly and he is looking at me too. He has the self-satisfied smile and I do a mental yayy.

Aditya goes to play music and Karthik moves to place his drink somewhere. He also goes in search of the rest room and I decide to wait. Naren obviously claims Anitha and they seem very adept at the whole couple dancing. They fit right and comfortably. Vivek has Ishwarya dancing with him, they decide to do single people’s couple dance where they face each other and execute dance moves that doesn’t require any body contact and involves only the limbs. Aditya looks at me just standing and comes to me and before I know it, he twirls me around and catches me, his hand on my waist.

I feel a whoosh in my brain and try to settle myself while he has me in his arms and Karthik is back and he stands next to Aditya, just giving him a look. Aditya moves away and I suddenly feel awkward. Either Aditya or Vivek is going to be left out and this probably wasn’t a great idea. I decide to include them after my time with Karthik.

I turn to Karthik and he holds out his hand wordlessly. Okay. I place my left hand on his right and I follow his lead as he sways to the music. I look up at him and feel his arms moving around me and I am lost in the fog. His eyes look down at me and straight into my eyes. He bends down his lips moving towards my right ear and he softly kisses it first and believe you me, I feel a zing.

‘I was wondering if I will get to do this’, he says. I rest my head against him and we end up swaying together not so much dancing, with me kind of wrapped around him. I feel like we are in a bubble. I don’t even hear the music anymore.

‘You kept the necklace’, he states against my ear again.

I tilt my head upwards so that he can hear me. ‘I am going to be wearing it a lot’.

‘You wore this shirt to match it?’

‘It is not a shirt. It is a top and yes, I wore it to match it’, I know he knows that, still I state the obvious.

Karthik makes a sound and I hear the thrum of it and feel it against me and his arms around me get tighter for a second before they loosen again.

‘I had planned to take you to some party outside. But then you asked to be with your friends. But this isn’t too bad’, he says.

I lift my head to look into his eyes, ‘You had made plans?’

‘Yeah’

I notice on my periphery that now Anitha is dancing with Vivek.

‘I didn’t think. I…’, I start to apologize but he stops me.

‘Shhh.. It’s okay. Parties outside are too noisy and crowded.’

I nod. ‘This is nice.’, I tell him, patting his chest in case he doesn’t get what is nice.

‘Yes.’, he agrees. Someone bumps into me and I turn to look at Aditya accidentally bumping into me trying to execute some salsa style steps with Ishwarya.

I throw him a smile and turn to see Karthik lose his self-satisfied look for a second.

‘You don’t like Aditya’

‘I like him. What I don’t like is that he is interested in you.’

Whoa what? Aditya? Interested in me? I laugh.

‘Karthik, you are paranoid.’ He just shakes his head to that and drops the topic altogether.

‘We are all unevenly paired’, I tell him, feeling guilty now that Naren is standing away.

‘You are paired with me’, he says decisively.

I look up at him and see The Look on him.

‘Are you being possessive?’, I ask, unable to believe it.

‘Well, I am not leaving you alone rest of the night’

‘You wouldn’t even dance with me before’, I complain.

‘That is because I wanted to dance this way not the way others were dancing with you’

Ohhhh.

‘I didn’t know you had this side. Why are you being all territorial and all that all of a sudden?’

Karthik sighs. ‘I am not being territorial’.

Right. I don’t say anything.

‘I put the necklace on you today, with my own hands, around your neck.’

‘Well Karthik, that is where necklaces go and you had to use hands’, I say with a smile.

Karthik’s eyes drop to my smile, The Look reaching a new level. ‘Think what it symbolizes Priya’.

I think, my addled brain not doing a god job, so I look at him and he still has The Look, which he has been wearing ever since the time I had on the necklace. Oh. Oh my God.

My eyes pop open at the realization and my stomach quivers, drops and then just disappears.

I bury my entire face into the crook of his neck and hold him tighter because I don’t want to fall down. His hold tightens too. He moves his head until once again his lips dip closer to my ears.

‘This will be our anniversary’, he says tracing my ear while he says so.

I nod, unable to articulate. ‘We should go and get you matching earrings. I did not think’

‘No, you thought. You thought a lot. It is perfect. I just love it.’, I remove one of my arms from around him and touch the pearl and the heart and move my arm back again.

‘We should get the earrings though. Hoops with tiny pearl and ruby or garnet, whatever this is. We should get something for you as well, are you willing to pierce an ear?’.

He chuckles. ‘Let’s leave my ear out of this’.

‘A ring then? If it is too girly for you, I can get you the ring and you can wear it on a chain around your neck and look all macho.’

‘I am sure there is no way to make ruby and pearl look macho.’

Okay, so it is ruby. Wow.

‘I will find a way’, I say determination in my voice.

Karthik then does the unexpected, he bends down while arching my back and dips real low and plants a kiss on the said pearl and ruby. I feel the zing go through my entire body and I just freeze in his arms for a fraction of a second and then look up at him. He is The Look personified.

I get myself as closer to him as possible not caring what a spectacle we make.

‘Karthik’, I breathe out his name, trying to convey everything in that word. He just looks into my eyes saying similar things. He drops his head once again, puts his forehead to mine and whispers, ‘I wish we were alone’.

Yeah. I realize I am a dumbo after all. I wish we were alone now.

We stay like that for few minutes and then we hear the music go off and Vivek doing the countdown from ten. I look upto see Naren and Anitha in a similar pose to ours, Aditya standing alongside Vivek, his eyes on me, his arms around Ishwarya’s shoulders. I turn back to look at Karthik, who hasn’t stopped looking at me.

Vivek yells, ‘Five, Four, Three, Two, One’ and Karthik’s lips find mine wishing me for the New Year. This is unlike any kiss we have had before. It is very urgent and understandably possessive and I get more than just a taste of him. I am lost to the world as I wish him back a happy New Year while enthusiastically showing him just how happy I am.

All around the others are screaming and yelling. Happy New Year it is.

By the time we settle Anitha resolutely gets the cake out. We all dive in and finish the whole cake. We were all hungry. Karthik decides to stay for around an hour and leave. Ishwarya plans to come home with us. The tall-trio said they don’t even need help cleaning the place! Yipee!