"Please please please!!!!????? It's just a small commercial, Oli!" Aiden pleaded with his knees on the floor and his hands clasped together.
"Dude! I am not cut out for the silver screen! Can't you go and your wife?" Olivia countered with her mouth stuffed with lettuce and Caesar sauce mixed together.
"She has a meeting! Pauline is too shy! I don't know where Mavis is and you're a diva! Do I need to say more?!" Aiden squealed as he stood back again on his feet.
Olivia flipped her hair in a manner of haughty derision and posed, "Okay fine. I am a diva. But the only acting experience I've had is as a baby modeling in diaper commercials."
Aiden merely gave a smile and a thumbs-up. Wow! He was that desperate to ask for her for help, huh? Seriously, when that AD came out, I must say, Olivia did a great job. Allow me to give you a small hint that relates to the commercial, as well as what is going to happen next:
Ms. Madhavan Anand was filled with tears upon a sudden discovery on the set. And to add onto the mood, the advertisement was about selling Indian bridalwear, aka, emotional wedding scene.
I know this is confusing, but I will tell you what this means in a minute. You don't have to wait for very long, my dear.
"Skip to the important stuff Mavis. What does this commercial have to do with anything?" Arthur implored me as he finished his first drink.
I took a deep breath and answered, "Keep quiet. Don't question the process of my storytelling. Every rose petal, every puzzle piece, every trail, and every little detail contributes more than you think, honey. Olivia and Vincent learned that the hard way. I don't want that to happen to us. So it's better that we take this as an example and learn to read into hints a little more. Because if you look at it, as things went along, the truth was merely glaring at them. They just did not bother to give importance to it. Which is precisely why, life unfolded the way it did."
"I sometimes forget that you're an author too. It's only natural that you will tend to get all poetic." Arthur grinned.
"Well, you fell you fell for this author. What happened to the Arthur who said that he loved how I emphasized on the 'power of words?' Besides, it was just that one time with Olivia in high school." I said.
"Whatever it was, you both earned a hit load of money by publishing that book! May I ask what did you use that money for?" Arthur responded after pondering for a while and ordering his second drink.
"Who says I spent that money?" I asked with a smile on my face. Yep. That money is safe and sound for all these years. I do not wish to spend it. I mean, that was basically my first salary. Unlike other high school students, I did not receive a paycheck by working in Tim Hortons, Wendy's or even MacDonald's. My first salary came from a published book which was co-owned by high school students. How rare is that?
"Wait seriously? You didn't spend it?"
"Hey! I am not like Aiden, that I have like a tsunami of money annihilating me." I laughed.
Which reminds me. Back to the story, my dear. That was a good sidebar that led me back to the main point.
"You... look... beautiful." Aiden gasped as Olivia stepped out of the dressing room. Long description short, she was adorned with a unique blend of red, green, and gold. She looked like a walking Christmas tree with red leaves and gold-green ornaments.
"Huh..."
"What?"
"Well, this design strongly resembles the bridalwear I wore back in India on my wedding." Olivia said as she sized herself up and down.
"Wow! Talk about Nostalgia. How do you feel?" Aiden asked as he rubbed his hands together.
"Nothing." She responded with a straight face. No signs of emotions whatsoever. Quite atypical. Yep. For someone who wears their heart as their daily outfit, this is certainly unexpected.
"Nothing?!" His eyes widened.
"Nothing"
"Seriously? One fight, and you lost all that love for Samar?" Aiden questioned with his arms folded and his eyebrows raised.
"You have no idea, Aiden. You have no idea. You were supposed to be my brother and you weren't even there to know anything that happened. Yeah, we were living in the same household but it was almost as if we were not even living in the same universe. You know? For the first time, I actually realized how gullible I was back in high school." She started to pour her feelings out. What did you expect? She could keep herself stone-faced in front of Aiden? Nope. It lasted for a while. But it never stood a chance for lasting for more than five minutes. I believe that Aiden is the only person in the world who could penetrate beneath Olivia's armor. He doesn't even have to do anything. All he requires is his face. That's it. Sometimes, that's all she needed for trust because the rest of the framework was already done.
"I am sorry. You're right. I haven't been able to talk to you at all. It's just that... I have been struggling to switch fields that I almost forgot about everyone around me. I barely even talk to Sarah these days. We both have different lives that steer is in divergent paths. But at the end of the day, we do love each other enough to merge into one as we go through the journey of life." He responded.
"You know? A woman in my position would hear that and go 'Wow, I wish Samar and I have that,' but as a matter of fact, I don't. Because if I want that, it would include me stopping Samar to pursue his feelings of anger. I do not want that. I want him to explore that feeling and find the root cause. Whatever happens, I want him to make his own decisions and don't want pose an an influencing factor. Because in the long run, that would make him truly happy." Olivia added.
"Okay, but what about your happiness?" He inquired with a gleam of concern in his eye for his long lost friend.
"Whenever I see you and Sarah, not once have I felt that my happiness has faded away. All I ever felt was that, I have yet to reach it. I haven't found it yet in terms of companionship. I did find it in my job. That's why I spend day and night toiling to perfect it, as that is what happiness means to me." Olivia answered as she adjusted her golden nose ring.
"Who do you go out of your way and grab all the night shifts? Don't you feel that you are pushing yourself too hard?" He questioned.
Olivia responded with a genuine smile, "No. Not even once. All the fun stuff; the surgeries, all take place at night when people get drunk and make stupid decisions. Their bleeding heads, their broken bones which is exposed by the ruptured skin. Call me weird, but I do find my joy in that. It gives me immense pleasure knowing that I can fix them, unlike my marriage."
"Madhavan????" A voice called out from behind. A deep definite resonance. A sound that always penetrated through her ears and whirled around her eardrums. A sound that made her alive and made her thank god for not making her deaf. A strong set of words that always made it past his brain, teeth, and hands, to illustrate them in a form that he deemed impeccable. A voice that was afraid she may never hear again. And she didn't for several years, believing that it was lost in the shadows of cancer.
Yes. That's right. Yash Mehta. The main lead of the wedding commercial.