34
Rihaan
THE FLAGSHIP STORE IN the middle of Soho had a name that sounded less like a place where people bought clothes and more like an institution that had been quietly acquiring real estate for three generations.
Aurelia House of Couture was, all polished stone, brass detailing and enormous glass windows displaying enough embroidered silk to fund a small village.
Today, the entire place had been taken over for our fittings. Dev had called in a favour to make sure that no one but us would be in the store.
Vedant’s engagement party had somehow been transformed into a three-day production involving outfits, jewellery, family dinners, guest lists and approximately seventeen people in Leah’s family offering opinions nobody had asked for.
I was sitting on one of the velvet sofas while Dev scrolled through the pictures on my phone. “This is the place?”
“Yeah.”
He zoomed into the photograph. “You actually bought it?”
“I put an offer in.” I corrected him.
“When will you know?”
“I think the agent said, tomorrow?.”
Dev looked at me over the top of the phone. “You’ve been looking for somewhere for months?”
“Started around Jan, but I held back from an offer until I talked to Raina and Ollie about it.”
“Why didn’t you ask for my help?”
I took the phone back from him, and shrugged. “That’s because your house has no taste.”
He laughed. “It’s practical enough.”
“My point.” I swiped through the photographs again. The place had been sitting in my mind for weeks. Ever since I’d come back from my trip, I’d been more sure than ever that I wanted to my own place. Thankfully, Ollie and Raina had shared my sentiments.
It was just a few houses away from the townhouse I currently shared with them, which meant if any of us got a surprising case of separation anxiety after a few short weeks, we were close enough to help that. It wasn’t an exact replica, but it had all the things I wanted.
In the end, the selling point had been the theatre room.
I paused the photos, showing it to Dev. “The best part is this.”
Dev leaned over. “What?”
“The theatre room in this house is twice as big.”
He stared at me. “You bought a house because of the theatre room?”
“Not bought.”
“Right. The offer.”
“And it wasn’t the selling point. Just one of the best things about it.”
He shook his head. “You’re ridiculous.”
“You’re telling me, you aren’t ready to upgrade from the one in the King Townhouse?”
“For what?” Ishaan asked before Dev could reply, and I looked at him.
“Our horror days.”
His expression immediately changed. “What is a horror day?”
“It’s a tradition we’ve had since we were kids. As kids, one weekend before Halloween, we’d pick a ridiculous number of horror films. Mum would order enough food to feed a cricket team and the three of us would sit in front of the television until someone inevitably fell asleep.”
“All four of you?”
I shook my head. “Raina hated every second of it.”
“Still do!” Her voice filtered across from behind the curtain.
“And that’s what makes it more fun.”
“Sure it does,” She quipped. “You want to tell him about the time me and Ollie scared you three?”
“It was only Rihaan,” Dev replied, his eyes narrowing.
“Sure it was.”
“Anyway,” I finally said, “Now, because of our schedules, we pick a day in October where we binge around twelve hours of straight-up horror and thriller movies.”
“Twelve?” Ishaan echoed.
“Minimum.”
His eyebrows climbed.
“Movies that came out since the last re watch,” I added. “We don't repeat until we've exhausted the new ones.”
He considered that. “I can sit through horror.”
“But?”
“I don't think I'd enjoy twelve hours of it.”
Dev laughed.
“What do you prefer?”
“Documentaries.”
I looked at the curtain where Raina was. “Oh, you and Raina will get along fine, then.”
“Why am I being dragged into this, again?” She yelled from behind the curtains.
“Because you and Oliver are obsessed with documentaries.”
“We are not obsessed.”
“Last night, I found you two watching an entire documentary about travelling in Victorian times.”
“It was interesting.”
“It was about the means of transportation.”
“It had historical context.”
I shook my head, still I couldn't help smiling.
I looked back at Ishaan. “You'll survive.”
“I suppose I’ll have to learn how to.” He gave me a small smile.
I nodded, offering him a simple truth. “You’re a Patel. You won’t have to learn it. It’s in your blood.”
And I could it then. How much my words had meant to him.
The conversation drifted from there. Dev started arguing that the cinema needed a proper sound system. I told him the house wasn’t a multiplex.
Raina insisted that if we ever actually went to the cabin for a horror weekend, she was booking herself a hotel instead.
I told her that was cowardice.
She told me she’d happily live with that diagnosis.
Vedant told us to quit making his fitting a debate for horror movies. Dev promptly reminded him about the time he’d made his fitting for his society ball a sob fest. Ishaan was being asked question left to right, and for the first time in days, I felt something in my chest loosen.
I hadn’t realised how tightly I’d been holding myself together until I caught myself laughing.
Actually laughing.
The kind that made my shoulders drop.
The kind that didn’t need effort.
Even though Vedant had invited Oliver, he wasn’t here.
He’d gone home to check on his father, which meant Raina had been left to endure her brothers without her usual ally.
She usually tagged along with him, especially considering the big news they had to share, but Raina was quick to fill me in that they had already made a trip to the King household whilst I’d been away.
Which meant, the teasing had considerably worse.
We’d been waiting for her for nearly half an hour.
“Do you think she’s hiding?” Vedant finally asked, his eyes drifting from where he stood by seamster.
“I am not hiding.” She snapped. “The last time I came out—ten minutes ago, you guys mocked me enough to make me realise the next time I do this, I’ll do it with my girl friends.”
“Rain,” Dev sighed, picking up on the fact she was actually upset. “We’re sorry.”
“I’m actually your brother, but maybe Dev has changed his relationship—or maybe his name?”
Dev picked the cushion next to him before throwing it straight to my face.
Vedant laughed, loudly as I glared at him.
“Don’t pick on her after she tells you she’s upset.”
“In her words, that’s what siblings do.”
“She gets a pass,” He muttered. “She’s pregnant.”
“Fine.” I yelled out. “Come out, and I won’t joke about anything.”
Hearing the sincerity in my voice, Raina finally stepped out.
It was like a pin had dropped in the entire store, as all of us stilled.
She wore a cherry-red lehenga that seemed to absorb every light in the room before giving it back warmer.
The embroidery caught along the skirt in intricate gold patterns, climbing towards the fitted blouse and spilling into the dupatta draped over one shoulder. Another propped up over her head as a veil.
Her hair had been pulled back loosely, leaving a few strands around her face.
She looked…
I couldn’t finish the thought.
Neither could Dev.
For once, I had nothing smart to say.
I heard him breathe out beside me. “You look just like Ma.”
Raina’s expression changed immediately, her eyes teary up instantly. “Really?”
Dev nodded.
“You look beautiful, Rain.” Vedant walked up to her, his own eyes watering.
She looked at me, expectantly.
“Cherry is definitely your colour.”
She rolled her eyes. “That literally makes me want to buy anything but that.”
“Well, you wouldn’t be you if you didn’t.”
And just like that, the tension dropped as a soft laugh left the rest of them.
But something strange moved through me.
I looked around the room.
At Vedant.
At Raina.
At the outfits scattered around us.
At the ridiculous number of garment bags that held our items for Vedant’s coming nuptials.
At the seamster speaking quietly to one of the assistants.
My older brother was getting married to the love of his life.
My little sister was pregnant and getting married to my best friend, and the love of her life.
The same anger I had years ago for them, for taking Ma from me, wasn’t there.
But there they were.
My older brother who bought me my first gaming console from his karting money.
My little sister who used to steal my headphones and crawl into my bed during thunderstorms.
Both about to start new, big exciting chapters in their life, and all I felt was excited to be a part of it with them.
No longer feared of being left behind by my siblings, by my family.
And suddenly I could see the distance I’d travelled.
Not just in cricket.
In everything.
I’d survived things I once thought would break me.
I’d become someone outside my father’s shadow.
I’d built a life I was beginning to choose for myself.
Even the house I’d put an offer on had been my decision.
Not his.
Not anyone else’s.
Mine.
I looked back at Raina.
She was laughing because Dev had finally recovered enough to start making jokes about Vedant.
I smiled, my gaze turning to Ishaan who looked equally elated to finally being part of something together.
For once, the future didn’t feel like something waiting to happen to me.
It felt like something I might actually get to walk into.
And yet, beneath all of it, I still couldn’t stop myself from missing the blonde, blue-eyed girl I’d somehow fallen for.
I hated how naturally the thought came.
How easily my mind supplied the colour of her eyes, the sound of her laugh, the little crease that appeared between her brows when she was irritated with me.
The room was full of family, noise and plans for the future.
And somehow, I still found myself wondering what Maeve would have thought of the whole thing.