Epilogue
“When I told you I like being blindfolded, this isn’t what I meant,” Naina grumbled.
Tejas laughed, the sound echoing in the wind as he drove through the cramped streets of Goa on their rental scooter. Naina’s arms wound around his back, and although he couldn’t see her face beneath the helmet she wore, he knew she was sporting her trademark scowl.
After all, he’d decided to take her out, blindfolded, on a surprise midnight drive on the one-year anniversary of making their relationship official. But hell, he’d just had the best year of his life with the woman he loved. She deserved a surprise like the one he’d planned.
He turned right, pulling onto a road by the seaside. The taste of saltwater hung in the air, and the waves roared louder than the scooter’s engine. Behind him, Naina stiffened. “Are we driving past the sea?” she exclaimed. “Come on, I want to see the view!”
“Patience,” he said. “I promise this will all make sense in a few minutes.”
Naina huffed. “Fiiiine. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.”
“Thank you.”
As he drove the scooter, Tejas went through the to-do list in his head for the remaining four days of their trip.
There was no formal list on this couples’ trip with Anil and Dhanush, except for the countless restaurants and experiences they’d bookmarked on Instagram, but considering how busy work kept them, it was a miracle all four of them had been able to make this trip happen outside of the group chat.
Winning the Acharya case had boosted Naina’s career trajectory so much that she’d fielded offers from four other law firms before deciding to stay put at AKC as senior associate, landing the partner track mentorship as well.
Jagannath had been sentenced to life in prison, while Preethi was slowly but surely regaining her footing in the film industry, with two of her projects set to release in early 2028.
One of those projects was to be Sandhya’s debut film, a Jane Austen adaptation in which she and Preethi would play sisters.
Speaking of sisters, Latika had finally met someone new; she and her boyfriend had double-dated with Tejas and Naina only a few months ago during their trip to Bangalore.
Tejas, meanwhile, was in the process of starting his own law firm with Dhanush, which meant future vacations would be hard to come by.
Anil was swamped with his catering business, which he was now expanding to weddings and not just small-scale events.
His grandmother was thrilled about all the love her recipes were receiving from customers.
And although Anil wasn’t out to his family yet, his relationship with Dhanush was thriving.
Along the way, to Tejas’s surprise, Naina and Dhanush had become friends, bonding over their chronic work anxiety and their distaste for legal dramas. Life was good, and it was about to get even better.
Smiling, Tejas drove the scooter uphill until they reached their destination. He slowed to a stop, then switched off the engine. “Okay,” he said, taking off his helmet as Naina removed hers, “sit tight. I’ll be right back.”
Naina’s eyes widened—or attempted to—beneath the blindfold as she straightened from the scooter. “Wait, you’re leaving me here? Alone?”
“I’m only, like, twenty feet away from you,” he called out as he jogged, backpack in hand, to the two trees on the left side of the cliff.
With a quick click, he turned on the battery-operated lights that Anil and Dhanush had wound around the low-hanging branches an hour ago.
He pulled out a Bluetooth speaker from his backpack and placed it under the trees.
“What are you up to?” Naina asked, a chuckle bubbling from her mouth, when the melodies of “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” filled the space. She slowly got up from the scooter, resting her arm on the seat for support. “Do I get to take off the blindfold now?”
“Hold on,” Tejas yelled. He readjusted the banner over the tree trunks to make sure it was straight, then returned to the scooter.
“There you are,” Naina said, sticking one hand out and placing it on his shoulder when he was close enough.
She brought her other hand up to her face, but Tejas got there first, hooking his index finger under the blindfold and tugging her closer until their lips met.
Naina let out a hum and kissed him back for a grand total of three seconds before her impatience seemed to win and she pulled away. “Can you remove the blindfold, please?” she asked, her hands clasped together.
“Yes,” Tejas said as he felt his pockets to confirm he still had the two things that would complete the surprise.
He undid the blindfold with a quick tug of his finger and stepped away.
Naina blinked, her eyes adjusting to the darkness lit only by the half-moon, and her mouth fell open when she took in the drop before them, the same sea below the same cliff they’d jumped off from two summers ago.
Her eyes, now shining with tears, went to the string of twinkling yellow fairy lights.
“Tejas…” she whispered. “This is beautiful.”
“Do you see what’s written on that banner there, below the fairy lights?” he asked, turning her around and pointing to it.
Naina frowned. She took a step forward, scrunching her eyes. “No, it’s too dark.”
“Maybe this will help.” Tejas pressed a button on the small remote in his pocket. The back of the banner lit up, with the words Be My Karaoke Partner for Life? glowing in bright purple.
A gasp left Naina’s mouth. As she turned to Tejas, pressing her hands to her cheeks, he got down on one knee, holding up the diamond ring that Mr. Shetty had helped him pick out.
“Naina,” Tejas said, his voice already breaking as he took her hand in his, “I knew you were my person when we jumped off this cliff together. After hitting the water, I realized that I was still falling. And I haven’t stopped falling for you since.
I love you so much”—he smiled when she mouthed those three words back—“and I find new reasons and ways to love you every single day. Whether it’s being in awe of you in court or seeing you take care of Astrid, whether it’s arguing over the best karaoke song of all time—you know my vote is still for ‘It’s My Life’—or spending hours in bed talking and kissing…
this past year has been nothing short of perfect. ”
“I love you so much.” Naina’s voice shook as she held out her left hand. “Just ask me already. Please.”
He grinned, blinking back the dampness in his own eyes. “Naina Shetty, will you marry me and allow me the honor of continuing to fall for you, more and more, for the rest of our lives?”
A tear rolled down her cheek. “Yes,” she breathed, yanking him up by the collar and kissing him.
Her lips tasted like salt and cherry-red lipstick; her hands, threading through his hair, felt like hope and happiness and home.
When they broke apart, Tejas put the ring on her finger and pressed her trembling hand to his mouth. “Forever,” he promised.
“Forever,” she agreed, her lip wobbling. “Oh my God, I have to text Anil.” She snapped a quick selfie, holding her hand up, but when she opened WhatsApp to send it to her best friend, she burst out laughing.
“What?” Tejas asked, biting the inside of his cheek. He already knew what to expect when she held up the screen for him to see.
Anil
Soooo
Are you engaged yet, or what?
She smacked Tejas on the arm, squealing. “You told him?”
He kissed her on the forehead. “Who do you think set up the decorations while we were driving up here?”
Naina craned her neck and looked around. “Are Anil and Dhanush both here, then?”
“They went back to the hotel. But,” he said, walking backward toward the edge of the cliff, “one last thing before we celebrate our engagement with our best friends.” He pulled off his shirt in one quick motion, then unbuttoned his cargo shorts. “Let’s re-create another memory.”
Naina didn’t bat an eyelid. She shimmied out of her floral dress so she was just in her bra and underwear, then took Tejas’s hand and pulled him forward with her. They plummeted down, screams echoing from both their mouths as they crashed into the sea.
“Fuck, it’s so much colder than I remember!” Naina exclaimed, dipping her head in and out of the water.
Tejas let out an exhale, his teeth chattering. November in Goa was still summer, all things considered, but cold water was cold water. “Guess we’ll have to keep each other warm,” he replied, tugging her closer.
Naina kissed him, threading her fingers through his curls as a moan escaped her lips.
Tejas’s arms wound tighter around the woman who was not just his favorite person and co-parent to Astrid, but also his fiancée.
Two and a half years ago, when his heart was still battered and bruised, the day he’d first met this unstoppable force of a woman, he’d known she was someone he would never want to shake off, their “wrong answers only” policy be damned.
Now he no longer needed to forget her. Instead, he had the privilege of making her his wife and loving her until their dying breaths.
Despite the long and convoluted journey they had to go through to get to this point in their love story, Tejas wouldn’t change a single thing.
He had to love her and lose her to know he wanted nobody else.
She had to learn to lay her heart bare and trust fate over fear to decide he was the one for her.
Naina was the woman destiny had brought to him not once, but twice. This, he knew, was a life worth fighting for. This was love against all odds; this was love beyond reasonable doubt.