Chapter 9
Kashvi blinked at Swayam’s suggestion, and the sheer absurdity of it made her burst into laughter. ‘Oh, right. Why didn’t we realise bagal mein hai chora aur sheher mein dhindhora?’
Swayam did not smile. ‘I’m serious.’
The sincerity in his tone stopped her cold, and her witty reply died on her tongue.
Kashvi studied him closely, searching for some hint that he would break into a grin and undo the strange tension that had crept into the space between them.
She gently nudged his shoulder. ‘You know, if you’re going to commit to the joke, at least do it properly and get down on one knee or something.’
His voice carried no trace of playfulness. ‘As you wish, darling.’
Swayam stepped back just enough to give himself space before lowering himself to one knee. He reached for her hand as he looked up at her. ‘Kash, marry me.’
The last traces of her laughter dissolved, and everything else faded into the background as she stared down at him. ‘Swayam, get up. You’re taking this too far.’
‘I’m exactly where I need to be,’ he said, shaking his head.
‘Oh, so you’re going to magically fix everything by marrying me?’ Kashvi snapped.
Swayam shrugged. ‘It may not magically fix everything, but I’d get to be by your side while we try.’
Kashvi instinctively tried to pull her hand back, but he held on. She protested, her thoughts tripping over each other. ‘That doesn’t make any sense. You can’t just decide something like this on the spot. You can’t just…’
‘I’ve thought about it long enough to know it’s what I want. I wouldn’t be asking you otherwise,’ Swayam said calmly.
‘And that makes it a reasonable solution?’ Kashvi shot back, her frustration rising because he refused to meet her at the same level of chaos she was drowning in.
‘It is,’ he said simply.
‘Get up,’ she urged. ‘You can’t stay like this.’
‘I can, until you give me an answer,’ Swayam said, staying exactly where he was, grounded and patient in a way that only made the moment feel more real and harder to push away.
Abhay straightened, his brows drawing together. ‘Swayam, bhai, why are you doing this?’
Swayam held his gaze head-on. ‘You said it yourself. You wouldn’t have let something like this happen if it were Siya.’
Abhay narrowed his eyes, studying him closely. His gaze swung to Luv and he asked, ‘So, we were right?’
Luv smirked, giving a firm nod. ‘Oh, yeah.’
Swayam tugged at Kashvi’s hand, drawing her attention back to him. ‘So, what do you say? Should I go get a new sherwani?’
‘Have you lost it? We can’t get married!’
‘Why not?’
‘Uh…’ Kashvi stammered, speechless.
‘Give me one reason,’ he said calmly, already prepared to deny it.
It made her patience snap. ‘Just because we kissed once doesn’t mean we should get married!’
‘You did what?’ Siya choked out, her eyes widening as she looked between them.
Kashvi felt the weight of their attention slam into her all at once. With horror, she realised she had said that out loud.
‘Okay, can we just take a second to understand what’s actually happening here?’ Dhruv added, his gaze flicking between Kashvi and Swayam, trying to piece together what he had clearly missed.
Luv was the only one who did not speak. He leaned against the wall, his arms loosely crossed, a faint, knowing smile playing at the corners of his lips.
Before Kashvi could gather herself, Siya stepped forward, her gaze fixed on Swayam.
‘What the fuck is going on, Swayam?’ she demanded, pointing a finger at him. ‘Why would you kiss my sister?’
‘It’s not what you think it is,’ Swayam said, lifting a hand in an attempt to reassure her.
It only infuriated Siya further. ‘I trusted you to respect that boundary when you moved in with Kashu. I never thought you’d cross it like this.’
‘Di, would you back off, please?’ Kashvi tried to steer things away from dangerous waters, but her sister was having none of it.
‘Are you nuts? I’m not staying out of this. I want answers, Swayam! Why the hell would you think it’s okay to kiss her?’
The way Siya directed her anger entirely at him irked Kashvi. Before she could think better of it, she said, ‘Because I wanted him to kiss me!’
Anxiety shot through her as she realised there was no taking it back.
Siya looked genuinely taken aback, her anger faltering, ‘You wanted him to kiss you? Why? Since when?’
Kashvi swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry as she tried to gather her thoughts. ‘I mean, it’s not like he just… all I’m saying is, it wasn’t one-sided.’
When she noticed Swayam smiling up at her, she glared at him.
‘So is there something going on between the two of you?’ Siya asked, her irritation flaring as she shot Swayam a scathing look.
‘That’s not the point. This is just ridiculous,’ Kashvi muttered. She gave Swayam a pointed look. ‘I want to talk to you right now. Alone.’
Then she was moving down the hallway, desperate for the solitude of her room. Kashvi shoved the door closed behind her, and in the sudden silence, she could hear her breath coming in shallow pulls.
She paced the length of the room, running an agitated hand through her hair, driven by restless energy.
Swayam stepped inside and leaned back against the door after shutting it. His gaze stayed fixed on her as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his track pants. ‘Try to relax a little, Kash.’
Kashvi turned abruptly, her gaze finally landing on him. She walked straight up to him and nudged a finger against his chest. ‘No. You listen to me. Swayam, we can’t make a lifelong commitment just because we’re in a crisis and need a quick fix.’
He started, ‘I understand—’
She dug her finger deeper against his chest. ‘No, you don’t. If you did, you would know this is a terrible idea. So drop this.’
‘I can’t. I won’t,’ Swayam said, refusing to budge.
‘You don’t even…’ she faltered, searching for the right words. ‘We haven’t even talked about last… we don’t even know what this would mean.’
He replied, his tone measured, almost frustratingly so. ‘If you give us a chance, we can figure that out. Together.’
Kashvi exhaled sharply, dragging her hands down her face. ‘This is a bad idea.’
‘But why?’
Because you won’t let it stay meaningless.
Instead, she shot back, ‘You’ve gone completely and absolutely mad. You’re asking me to marry you like you’re asking me out for coffee.’
‘I can get you one of those too, if it sweetens the deal for me,’ he said, flashing her a grin.
‘If you think that smile is going to work on me, you’re even more delusional than I thought,’ Kashvi warned, swatting at his chest.
‘Then tell me what will convince you, and I’ll make it happen,’ he said, lifting a shoulder in an unbothered shrug.
‘I don’t understand you, Swayam. This could go wrong in so many ways. It could complicate everything. It could ruin what we already have, and you’re acting like none of that matters.’
‘That’s not true. It does matter,’ he said.
‘Then why are you willing to risk it?’ she pressed.
‘Because I know what I’m risking it for. I’m okay with the possibility of getting hurt because being with you makes the pain worth it.’
‘Nothing can be worth going through that,’ she murmured.
‘Want to bet?’ Swayam asked with a hesitant smile.
Kashvi immediately shook her head. ‘I’m never making bets with you again. You literally kissed me to distract me into losing.’
‘Oh, what a glorious distraction it was,’ Swayam said, tapping her lower lip once. ‘By the way, you kissed me back, baby.’
‘That was clearly a lapse in my judgement, but it was temporary. I know you only did it to steal the pendant,’ Kashvi said, waving it off. The less she focused on how she had pulled him closer and never wanted to let go, the better.
Suddenly, his hand closed around her wrist and he pulled her into his arms. Her breath caught as she collided softly against his hard chest, his other arm coming around her waist, anchoring her to him.
‘Do you really believe I’d do that to you?’
She repeated what she’d been telling herself through the long, restless night, hoping that if she said it enough, it would become true.
‘You’ve always liked winning, even the stupid bets or pranks we do, and that pendant was a part of it, so you just…
found a way to distract me. I know it was just a kiss. ’
‘For someone who is so perceptive, you can be so clueless sometimes,’ he said softly, a quiet trace of sadness in his voice. ‘It was not just a kiss for me.’
‘What do you mean?’
He cupped her jaw, his thumb brushing slowly along the line of it.
‘Kash, I kissed you because I think about you more than I have ever thought about anyone else in my life. I kissed you because if I spend another day pretending I’m not consumed by the thought of kissing you, I’ll probably lose what little sanity I have left. ’
The soft contact made her gasp. Her fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt, and the quiet certainty in his voice made her heart stumble.
‘And when you kissed me back, I stopped being able to lie to myself about it. I know I joke around, I know I don’t take a lot of things seriously when I probably should, but I’m not cruel enough to kiss you just to win something.’
The room seemed to shrink around them. She briefly closed her eyes as the heat of the memory flashed through her.
For years, she had perfected the art of laughing things off with Swayam, swatting away his teasing remarks with eye rolls and sarcastic comebacks. Humour had always been her safest shield with him. But the kiss last night had changed something, and she needed to patch it up quickly.
‘How about you make up for it by giving back my pendant?’ she asked, forcing a casual tone.
‘No. I won it fair and square. And you should know that’s not the last thing I plan to steal. Don’t say I didn’t warn you,’ he said with a cheeky smile.
Kashvi played with the collar of his T-shirt. ‘Swayam, we want different things in life. You already know that I never want to get married, and if you’re suggesting something like this… you should know it may not last.’
Swayam looked away, and she hoped that might be enough to make him step away.
But then he looked back at her and brushed the back of his fingers against her cheek. ‘I know, and I understand that. But I’m still choosing it because what I feel doesn’t disappear just because it might not last forever.’
‘Do you realise you’re saying dangerous things?’ she asked, trembling beneath his touch.
A small, almost imperceptible smile touched his lips. ‘I’ve been thinking dangerous things about you for a long time.’
No longer able to pretend the line between them was as clear as she had wanted it to be, Kashvi said, ‘My birthday is in two days, which means we’re talking about getting married tomorrow, Swayam. Tomorrow! Did you wake up this morning thinking you’d just decide to get married?’
She searched his face for any sign that he understood how absurd and impossible that sounded, but he held her gaze without flinching.
‘No, I didn’t wake up today knowing I’d get the chance to marry you, but I’ve known for a long time that I see you in my future.
The rest of it, the how, the when, and the way it happens…
that’s something you get to decide for us. ’
Before she could argue, Swayam went on. ‘I told myself that if I ever got the chance to kiss you, I’d probably ruin our friendship by refusing to stop. I’ve wanted you for years, Kash. I’m done hiding that you’re who I want to be with.’
Kashvi gasped. The blunt honesty of his confession made her stomach flip. ‘You never…’ she trailed off.
Swayam gave a faint, reluctant smile. ‘I would have done this differently if I’d had more time.
I would have asked you out, annoyed you into saying yes, built a happy life together, and if one day you decided you wanted more, then we would have figured that out too.
But that’s not the hand we were dealt, so this is the way it has to be. ’
‘And if I say no?’ she asked past the lump in her throat.
His jaw tightened. ‘Then I’ll respect that, but it won’t change the fact that just thinking about you standing next to someone else, sharing his name with yours, and letting him be the one who gets to hold you close like this breaks my heart.’
For the first time since she started arguing, she could not find a single word strong enough to push him away. The fight drained out of Kashvi, and she leaned forward, resting her forehead against his shoulder.
Swayam played with her hair as he said, ‘I know this is a mess you never thought you’d be in, but you’re not alone in this. I’m right here, willing to stand in the middle of this storm, holding your hand. You just have to say yes, baby.’
‘You deserve someone who knows what they want, someone who will choose a life with you without hesitation, and I’m not that person, Swayam.’
‘What I deserve or don’t deserve, I want it only from you.
I’m asking you to trust that what I feel for you is real.
You like me enough to want to kiss me, so I know it’s not one-sided.
All I can ask is that you choose me, and if I fail at making you happy, I won’t stop you from walking away. No questions, no guilt, I promise.’
‘Then why do this at all?’ she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Swayam wrapped his arms around her, lowering his forehead to rest against hers. ‘Because I want to be with you, and if this is the only way I get that chance, I’ll take it. I’m not asking you for forever, just a yes for now.’
Her heart pounded against her ribs, and the intimate way he held her overwhelmed her, blurring her thoughts. Her mind screamed at her to step back, to hold onto the solitary life she had planned, but it was fading fast.
All she could do was hold onto the fragile hope echoing in his words.
Kashvi pulled back, holding his gaze as she said, ‘Yes.’
Swayam went still for a moment. Disbelief shone in his eyes, then something akin to joy settled over his expression. He lifted his hand to tuck a strand of hair away from her face before leaning in to press a gentle kiss to her forehead.
Kashvi closed her eyes at the contact and held onto him for a moment longer before stepping back. She brushed her fingers through her hair as she tried to gather her thoughts. Swayam took her hand in his, and they walked out of the room.
When they stepped out, everyone turned towards them almost in unison. Siya’s gaze locked onto them, sharp and searching.
Kashvi took a deep breath, and with a racing heart, declared, ‘We’re getting married tomorrow.’