He smirked. “Exactly. Also addictive. Once I had you, I couldn’t stop.”
I burst out laughing and crying at the same time.
He continued, now pulling out a tiny velvet box from his back pocket—but holding it like it was asupporting characterto the cheeseball.
“This is for the photos,” he said, opening it to reveal a breathtakingly simple gold band with tiny engraving inside.
I squinted. “What does it say?”
He leaned closer. “It says: ‘Cheeseball for Life.’”
My knees gave up. I had to clutch his arm to stay standing.
“Kiara Randhawa,” he said, slowly going down on one knee—yes,on the terrace gravellike the dramatic idiot he is—“Will you marry me?”
Tears. Again. This man had no respect for waterproofmascara.
I fell to my knees with him. Wrapped my arms around his neck and whispered, “Yes, Manav Oberoi. I’ll marry you.”
He kissed me like the stars were jealous. Like the world had paused. And I swear, the cheeseball fell from his hand, rolled off the terrace railing—and someone below yelled,
“WHO THREW FOOD FROM THE SKY?!”
We broke into laughter, kissing through tears and jokes and the kind of joy that felt infinite.
And as he slipped the ring onto my finger and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, he whispered,
“Happy birthday, Mrs. Oberoi.”
There should be a law against people being this happy.
I was still laughing into Manav’s hoodie when the door to the terraceslammed open like a hurricane with eyebrows.
“WHO THREW FOOD FROM THE SKY?” Kartik yelled, brandishing a flashlight, “A cheeseball just hit my head. Someone’s going to jail.”
Behind him, Meeta was waddling up the stairs, hand on her belly, clearly winded. “What… what happened?”
Then came Myra—eyes wide, mascara slightly smudged,cheesecake in one hand and a Nerf gun in the other.I don’t know why. I don’t ask anymore.
Roy was last. Suspicious. Dramatic. Sibling-y.
“Okay, what did I miss?” he asked. “Because I left for five minutes and suddenly the group chat is blowing up with emojis and Meeta’s voice notes saying‘SHE SAID YES’on repeat.”
Manav straightened, helped me up with all the tenderness in the world… and casually said: “I proposed.”
Dead silence.
Then chaos.
“PROPOSED WHAT?” Kartik panicked.
“Like marriage?” Myra blinked, pointing the Nerf gun at us like it might clarify the moment.
“YES,” I said, holding up my ring finger.
“They all screamed.
Literally. Screamed.
