Chapter 25: twenty-three

˗ˏˋ eager eyes and last get-togethers 'ˎ˗

➷

When the day of the dinner with Naina actually arrives, Mahika feels an odd sense of calm surge through her veins.

Wondering how long it's going to last as she stands in front of the mirror, she tugs her sky blue shirt down her head and then pulls her hair out from where it's stuck around the hem. She slowly shakes the locks out behind her, feeling the soft material of the cloth set pleasantly against her post-shower skin.

She's tucking the end of her shirt inside her jeans when her phone rings.

Mahika reaches for her earpiece and shoves her phone in her pocket. "I'm almost done," she assures before Keerti can say anything on the other end. Her fingers quickly work on locking her dangly earrings in place. "Is the cab there?"

"Yeah, I just called to let you know that we'll be there in like, ten? Maybe fifteen minutes."

"Mhm." She swipes a clean stroke of liner on either of her eyelids. "I'll meet you outside."

Not bothering to remove her earpiece because she knows she's going to be bombarded with calls until Naina is standing beside her, she leans closer to the mirror and paints her lips a soft peach. When she's done, she leans back, and checks her freshly painted pink nails one last time to make sure she didn't ruin them like she always does a few hours before an outing.

When she makes her way over to the door to pull her heels out of the shelf, her phone rings again.

"There's still time for me to pack you into one of my suitcases, Mahi," Naina says as soon as Mahika picks up. "I can take out some of my stuff to make room for you. You have until tonight to decide."

"I think that very dramatic kiss that we're going to share at the airport before you leave is going to suffice, thank you very much."

There's laughter in the back from the other end and then the sound of someone grumbling a little, and Mahika immediately knows that Amoli and Akash are in the room with Naina. She bites back a smile and fastens the straps of her heels around her ankles before straightening back up

"Did you forget the point of why we're all meeting today?"

"I very conveniently tried to step past that piece of information without looking at it, actually." Naina lets out a noise that sounds somewhere between a laugh and a grunt. "And I don't think a kiss in the middle of the restaurant is going to be as dramatic."

"Are you also conveniently ignoring that I have a husband who's standing in front of me and making a face at everything you say right now?"

Mahika scoffs. "I could take Akash in a fight."

An offended "hey!" echoes somewhere behind Naina's chiming laughter, and the corners of Mahika's lips quirk up in amusement yet again. She's going to miss Naina with every fiber of her being, but maybe she's also going to miss being able to get on Akash's nerves so easily. Just a little.

As much as she loves starting a playful argument with him every chance she gets, Mahika couldn't be happier about Naina having someone like him in her life. She would obviously never admit this in front of him, but maybe she's way fonder of him than she lets on.

"It's really admirable how threatened you make him feel despite the fact that he's the one I'm married to."

"What can I say? It's one of my many talents." Mahika says breezily, grabbing her purse from the room and the pack of scented candles she had carefully wrapped the night before, taking a look around to make sure she isn't forgetting anything important. "I'm gonna step out now. See you in a bit."

"Can't wait." Then after a pause, in a lower voice, she adds, "I'm sure I'm not the only one."

And the next second, like the menace she is, Naina hangs up, leaving Mahika's mouth agape. With a blink, and then two, she closes her eyes and scrunches her face up, aggressively fighting off the blush rising up her cheeks. Or, well... tries to.

God, wasn't Akash right there? Though Mahika also knows that Naina is the last person she needs to worry about when it comes to... this. Whatever this situation is. There's no way Naina would put Mahika at risk. So he had probably already left.

Except that doesn't make what Naina said any less embarrassing.

Fanning her face as if that would cool her heated skin in the time between her locking the doors and stepping outside the house, Mahika allows herself a moment to gather her bearings. If she doesn't burst into tears at the mere sight of her best friend, it would be a miracle.

And there's no way she's going to let herself cry in front of Naina today. She knows it's going to be hard, despite the fact that she's already cried multiple times just thinking about not being able to call Naina and ask her to meet whenever her heart desires. It seems a little selfish inside Mahika's head too, making Naina feel bad about this entire situation when she's the one who would have to get used to a completely different life. Not Mahika.

She just has to stay behind and believe that no amount of distance is ever going to sever the bond the two of them have.

It's not long before the cab rolls in front of Mahika, making her thoughts go up in smoke like the dust it leaves behind the wheels, her two friends immediately poking their head out of the window with identical grins on their faces.

"You want a ride, pretty?"

Mahika rolls her eyes at Sakshi, shifting the gift bag to her other hand so she can put her entire palm on Sakshi's face and shove it back inside the car. The other girl muffles out a complaint, while Keerti just snorts.

They move quickly so Mahika doesn't have to make her way around the cab or sit in the passenger seat, and as soon as she shuts the door and the cab starts moving again, her phone rings again.

"Hello?"

"Are you guys in the cab yet?" Dhruv's soft, calm-as-ever voice greets her, and somewhere behind him, Samay lets out a war cry. Mahika doesn't ask.

"Yep."

"Alright, keep your location on."

"Yes, dad."

"Actually, just for that comment, we're now going to stay on the phone until—"

"Sorry!" Mahika squeaks out with a laugh, and both her friends look at her questioningly. She shakes her head and fishes out her phone, doing as Dhruv had asked. "There. On. You're such a worrywart."

"You know why."

"Well... yeah."

She sheepishly slumps in her seat. Of course, she knows that he has his reasons for worrying about them like this. And as much as she likes to make fun of him for his protective tendencies, she appreciates it too.

Because Naina had once been suspicious of a cab driver while traveling for work and when he had started to purposely drive through shady areas to reach the location, Naina had quickly called Mahika — who never, ever misses any of her calls if possible — and started to pretend that she was talking to her husband. Just because of the bad feeling in her gut, Naina had made an excuse in front of the driver, while still on the phone with Mahika, about having to get off way earlier than she was supposed to, and left the cab to get back home with a friend.

A mere week later, the face of the same man who was driving the cab was all over the local news for robbing two women before leaving them in the middle of nowhere.

The conversation somehow came up in front of Dhruv, and he has been paranoid since.

"I'm with Sak and Keerti, though."

"And I care about all three of you equally. What's your point?"

Mahika chuckles at his quick response. She knows he asks her to do it because the other two girls with her don't know about the details of what happened with Naina, and no one wants to bring any of that up in front of them and freak them out. And Keerti always teases him for acting all 'fatherly', anyway.

"Are we seriously staying on the phone until the three of us get there?"

"That is absolutely what I would prefer, actually, yes."

Mahika huffs out another laugh. "Shut up. We'll see you in a bit."

He sighs, and Mahika knows it's not just because she's being insufferable. If there's anyone on their way to Naina right now who probably has it even harder than Mahika does, it's Dhruv. Mahika is going to hug the life out of him when she gets there.

"See you."

A similar sigh makes its way past her lips when he hangs up, and Mahika slumps even further in her seat. "As horrible as it sounds, I'm starting to think that maybe it would help Dhruv if he wasn't around Naina all the time."

Sakshi presses her lips together and reaches out to sympathetically rub Mahika's on the knee. "I know what you mean."

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder," Keerti sings.

"Oh, God, shut up," Mahika says, the exact second Sakshi groans out, "Can you stop for like, three seconds?"

-

The restaurant staff leads the three of them to a private space away from the noise, and as soon as the door is pushed open, Naina stands from the couch she's sitting on, and walks in their direction with her arms open.

Mahika gets the first and the tightest hug, and she accepts it gladly. Smiling at Akash over Naina's shoulder in greeting, she squeezes back just as hard, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before pulling back to look at Naina's face.

Naina glows brighter than ever, and that's all it takes for Mahika to push the lump in her throat back down. She looks happy. Happier than ever. There's color in her cheeks, the corners of her lips are pulled back in a big smile, and there's a sparkle in her eye that seems to grow the more time that she spends with her husband.

Unable to help herself, Mahika reaches out to fondly brush a lock of hair away from her face and smiles warmly. "How is my favorite girl in the world doing?"

Naina's smile grows. The corners of her eyes scrunch. Mahika adores her more than anyone in the world. "Perfect."

Satisfied with the answer, Mahika lets go of her so she can suffocate Sakshi and Keerti as well. While they talk, Mahika makes her way over to Akash, who greets her with a half-hug and an easy smile. The lack of his two siblings doesn't go unnoticed.

"I didn't manage to steal her away from you, after all," she tells him, sighing in exaggeration, subtly trying not to look around and outside the door for Amoli.

"Giving up so easily?" he jokes in return, pulling back a chair out for Mahika to sit. "Did you forget that there's still a few hours to go?"

Naina comes over to take the seat beside hers, wrapping an arm around Mahika's shoulder. "Don't challenge her. All she has to do is say the word and you'd be wife-less."

Mahika just laughs, watching her friends sit across from them, expecting Akash to walk around the table and sit on Naina's other side. He doesn't.

Instead, he sits in front of Naina, beside Sakshi. It confuses Mahika a little, because he's always so quick to cling to Naina as closely as possible because of this running joke between him and Mahika, but she doesn't ask.

It makes sense only a little later, when Dhruv and Samay enter the room, and after the greetings are done, Akash pulls a chair out for Dhruv the same way he had done for Mahika, and gestures for him to sit on Naina's other side.

And... oh, Mahika thinks. She loves Dhruv to the moon and back, but right at this moment, she's sure that there's no one else in the world who could have been as perfect for Naina as Akash is.

That if soulmates exist, he is hers.

She watches the two men make easy talk, Akash laughing at something Dhruv says and then making the other laugh in return, and looks away with a smile.

"Amo got a call from a friend so she stepped outside for a bit," Naina says after a beat, and Mahika zooms back into the conversation at the mention of Amoli's name. "She should be here any second now."

Mahika clears her throat, refusing to acknowledge the pointed look that her best friend throws in her direction. She was not being obvious about the way she was looking for Amoli. Not at all. No way. "And Arnav?"

"He's coming later," Akash answers.

"Cool," Mahika says, her voice coming out higher than it was supposed to. Even Dhruv turns and shoots her an amused glance.

Mahika is beginning to wonder if it wasn't actually the best thing in the world for two of her closest friends to know about her romantic preferences. And, well... who the said preferences were directed at in specific.

It's not like there's anything she can do about it, though. So she accepts the subtle teasing with a pinch of salt and a roll of her eyes, and continues to pretend like she isn't shaking from the inside while waiting for a certain girl to get back from the balcony.

This was going to be a long day.

➷

a/n

it's been !!! such a long while !! hello :')

first of all, for those who don't know and hate me for disappearing for a while, i graduated from uni! and now i have two jobs! adult life is a scam! the world around me is on fire! capitalism sucks!

anyways, thank you so, so much for reading! i've had so many people ask me about this book while i was away, and frankly, i was a little stumped to find out just how many people were waiting for an update for this </3

i hope you have all been warm and healthy x