Avni agreed instantly. “Cool. We actually need four rooms,” she said briskly. “So you and I can double up in my room.”
Komal nodded without hesitation.
Rajat turned to Abhimanyu. “You can share my room.”
Abhimanyu nodded with a smile that appeared far too ready, as though he had been waiting for the offer.
VK spoke next. “One of my friends is single, so I can share my room with him. But we are still one room short.”
Mishti had been quietly counting along, observing everyone’s expression. She had her suspicions over this entire doubling-up scenario, but she was not ready to voice them yet.
“I can give my room too,” Mishti said gently. “I don’t mind sharing.”
Karan spoke at the same time. “Likewise,” he said simply.
Suddenly, Avni’s eyes lit up. “That just means,” she said, turning excitedly, “if you two share the same room, the problem is solved. Right, Papa?”
She looked straight at VK, who cleared his throat and nodded with almost excessive enthusiasm. “Yes, yes. That would solve the problem.”
Mishti looked at Karan at once. He was already staring at her, his expression saying everything words did not.Say Yes.
She swallowed hard, her mind flashing back to the past. To the same man who had never once allowed her into his bedroom at the Wadhwa mansion. And now, he seemed to want her to live in the same room with him.
Of course, she understood now. Why he had done it then. To maintain distance. To deliberately hurt her. To make her believe that he hated her, so she would stay away.
But now, things were different.
Avni spoke up again, suddenly shaking her head. “No, no. We don’t want to force Mishti,” she said quickly. “I think Karan bhai and Rajat can share a room, and Mishti can stay with me. Komal can share with Abhimanyu.”
VK rejected the idea instantly. “What are you saying, Avni?” he said firmly. “Komal and Abhi are not married yet. Even though none of us would personally have an issue with them sharing a room, I don’t want the guests’ attention drawn to these living arrangements. Absolutely not.”
Mishti saw that every gaze in the room was now fixed on her, waiting. Waiting for her answer. Even Karan’s eyes were on her,and from the look on his face, he already seemed to be floating somewhere far above the ground.
Finally, Mishti nodded. She smiled at VK and said softly, “Karan and I will share a room. Unless he has a problem with it.”
She stressed the last part deliberately.
Karan remained silent, but his eyes never left her face as Mishti turned toward him and continued. “Because he did have a problem in the past, sharing his room with me. I don’t want to force him or intrude on his privacy.”
Karan understood exactly what she was doing. She was pressing salt into an old wound, reminding him how deeply that decision of his had hurt her back then, mirroring the pain he had once caused.
He stepped closer to her, just one step, not enough to intrude, but enough to draw her unmistakably into his space.
“A lot has changed between then and now,” he replied. “Things you are yet to see. I guess if we share the same room now, you will know. And you will believe it too.”
Mishti swallowed hard; their eyes remained locked, neither of them ready to look away.
Avni noticed the charged silence and broke it loudly. “If eye locks could make babies, these two would already have dozens by now.”
Everyone laughed. Mishti immediately looked down, hiding her embarrassment, whereas Karan shot his sister a mocking glare.
But Avni only grinned. “I don’t fear that look of yours anymore,” she said, looping her arms around his. Then she turned to everyone else. “Okay then. Meeting dispersed. Tomorrow is my mehndi and sangeet. Bhai is dancing too.”
Karan immediately shrugged out of her hold. “Abhimanyu will dance,” he said flatly. “Not me. I’ll just watch.”
Avni frowned at him, calling him a bore, before moving over to Abhimanyu and hugging him instead.
The mood in the room shifted back to excitement as everyone began discussing plans for the mehndi and sangeet the next day.
