No Choice: You Were Always Mine

Samaiya looked into Ishaan's eyes, it was as though she was looking into an endless midnight sky, she was lost in his eyes which were expressing multiple feelings at once. There was a spark of d.e.s.i.r.e, with the softness of love.

He tucked Samaiya's dazed self to bed, giving a chaste kiss on her lips.

"Goodnight, don't forget to dream about me." With those words Ishaan left her room. There was a lightness in his steps as he went downstairs. Ishaan left with his father, bidding everyone a good night.

Hearing the door click, Samaiya snapped out of her daze. She looked at the ring on her finger. It was also a two band, the two bands ended with leaf shapes at the centre of the ring holding the blue diamond, the centre blue diamond had an oval cut, and the leaves that surrounded the centre diamond had smaller diamonds at the base.

Samaiya saw that the engraving in her ring read, 'You Were Always Mine'. She couldn't help but laugh at Ishaan's cheekiness, with that she drifted to sleep.

Samaiya returned to her regular routine, the days passed by peacefully and the weekend arrived.

There was a persistent ring coming, as Samaiya was in the shower. She ended her plans for a long bath and quickly grabbed a robe to open the door.

"Who is it? I'm coming.." Samaiya said in a loud voice, frustrated at the disrespectful person ringing her doorbell endlessly.

She opened the door and gasped in surprise. She looked around her corridor, her mother, sister, Kaira and.... Ishaan were all standing at her doorway. Immediately feeling much more conscious of the way she was dressed she shut the door on everyone's face and rushed to her room to change and wear actual clothes.

Mrs Agarwal was shocked by her daughter's behaviour, "What is wrong with her has she forgotten all her manners? Even if she isn't dressed properly she could still invite us to sit inside." She grumbled, Akshara nodded her head to show her agreement with her mother's words, putting Samaiya in more trouble.

"Mum you're absolutely correct. We came all the way to help with the preparations for the wedding and because she seems uninterested we haven't even gone shopping for her clothes." Akshara added fuel to the fire that had been brewing in the past week. Mrs Agarwal had often called her daughter to discuss about the wedding but always received a cold response.

Ishaan stood in the corner quietly, he thought of saving his wife from the wrath of his mother in-law. He decided against this idea as he knew that the outcome would not be that great.

The door opened after 10 minutes, Samaiya was wearing a casual baggy tshirt with denim shorts, she wasn't wearing any makeup as she came straight from the shower. Samaiya's house look made Ishaan's heart skip a beat, this did not go unnoticed by the people around.

"Bae you're giving Ishaan a heart attack even without trying, what will happen to him once you marry him." Kaira spoke in a loud voice, as she entered Samaiya's apartment as though it was her own house.

Samaiya ignored her best friend's unnecessary comments.

Ishaan remained silent as the ladies talked about the main reason they were here.

"We have to buy the clothes you will wear on your haldi, wedding and the reception. We won't hold a ring ceremony since you already did that in private and we don't have enough time to do all the small ceremonies that are there." Mrs Agarwal said, in a straight forward manner.

"Let's go shopping, Samaiya!" Akshara said, barely hiding her excitement of trying on the multiple extravagant lehangas.

Everyone left her apartment, they all were able to fit in the car. Samaiya sat at the passenger seat and Ishaan was the driver.

"Sorry about my mom, she must have dragged you with her only to drive us around and to carry the bags." Samaiya said in a hushed and embarrassed tone.

"Hah I don't mind as long as you're around." Ishaan replied, making his words sound cool. Even though they were about to get married he still needed to charm Samaiya, so that she would never find anyone who is better than him.

Samaiya blushed at his words.

The ride to the market was a noisy one, with the girls singing to their favorite songs. Once they arrived the women alighted from the car, and allowed Ishaan to find a parking spot.

They were in a marketplace which had many shops for Sarees and Lehangas.

The women went to multiple shops to try on different clothes. Even though they said the shopping was for Samaiya's wedding clothes, it seemed that the ladies were only interested in the clothes that they were going to wear for the wedding. They could never allow the guests to outshine the main stars of the show.

Every Saree that Samaiya seemed to try was just not good. Either her mother would have a problem or her sister and friend would have a problem. The traditional red saree that is to be worn for the marriage ceremony, may sound simple to buy, but there was an endless array of options. Some of the Sarees would be as heavy as Samaiya's weight, imagine wearing a 15 - 20 kilo Saree the whole day.

Samaiya continued her endless changes with her family's harsh comments. You couldn't exactly call it changing as the people in the shop would just wrap the saree around her to see how it looked.

"This saree is too gaudy with the overwhelming gold embroidery." Mrs Agarwal commented.

"This Saree is too plain." Kaira made a comment on another saree.

"This was makes you ugly." Akshara made her 'no mercy' comments.

In this way after 5 hours of bouncing from one shop to the next they were finally able to buy the different Sarees and Lehangas they needed for the wedding.

The couple decided to walk around on their own leaving the group to their extra shopping splurges.

Samaiya walked around, paying no heed to her surroundings. She had bumped into a man earlier, which made Ishaan throw a tantrum on her carelessness. The next person that Samaiya bumped into was not as harmless as the previous person.

"Samaiya, what are you doing here?" A high-pitched voice called out.

"Nothing," Samaiya gave a curt reply ending the conversation.

Anamika ignored the awkward atmosphere and continued.

"Ohhh buying clothes? What's the special occasion?"

"A marriage," Samaiya kept her words short as she didn't want to waste a second longer, her head was beginning to hurt.

"Oh, who's marriage anyone from our circle."

"Mine." Ishaan suddenly announced.

"Who's the lucky woman." Anamika asked, slyly looking at Samaiya.

Ishaan wrapped his arm around Samaiya, "Samaiya is, now if you don't mind, we were having an important discussion." Ishaan started to walk away from the annoying woman stealing his time with his wife.

"Have you sent out the invitations? Since we're close you won't forget your classmates from high school, right?"She looked at Samaiya expectedly for an apology.

"Oh we must have forgot, being a soon-to-be-bride is quite stressful and it was Ishaan who sent the invites so you can talk to him directly." Samaiya snapped, loosing all her patience. She decided to throw Ishaan under the bus. Ishaan happily accepted the extra trouble thrown his way.

"Why of course it must be stressful, I mean you have to become beautiful for the marriage and learn all sorts of stuff that wasn't required when you were living a 'normal' life" Anamika's voice seemed to increase an octave due to her annoyance towards Samaiya's behavior.

"I know, even though Ishaan calls me an angel everytime we wake up in the morning, and kisses my bare-face. I still need to look my best for myself. " Samaiya said with a straight face showing no hint of embarrassment on her face.

Anamika completely speechless at Samaiya's outspoken comments, could only ramble whatever came to her mind.

"You should be careful about the attention you attract and from whom?" Anamika walked away with her ominous words hiding a hidden intent.

Samaiya was slightly shocked but decided to take Anamika's words with a grain of salt.

Ishaan lowered his face to bring Samaiya's attention towards him.

"You're an Angel." Ishaan repeated Samaiya's words and gave her a peck on her lips.