Simply saying I spilled the tea.
Every single drop of it. Not just on the floor but on the groom too. And what caused me to spill the tea. Well that's why I took all this time to explain the past. Cause you'll now understand why that face was unique. That only one look at that face and I was standing shell shocked. Not even apologizing for spilling the tea. The face that I didn't even realize I remembered till that very second. The face which Neha's find your soulmate 1.0005 claimed to be my soulmate. Now that face was sitting in front of me not as a digital picture but as a whole human.
The human which was staring at me as if I was an alien or something. Which I must have been cause any normal human being would have apologized in such a situation and me. Well me, It took me almost 20 seconds to understand that I was supposed to say or do something and not stand and have a staring competition with Mr Edwin.
Yes, at last the mystery face has a name!! Edwin John.
So ya this is what I meant when I asked you what would you do if you met your soulmate or something.
"Hmmm...."
"Mmmm..." Are all the intros this awkward?
"So your name's Jia?"
"Yes" He knows my name?! Wait mom told me his name its natural that he knows mine too. Why the hell didn't I check his pic?! Oh god!!
"And you are a doctor?"
"Yes, a pediatric" Oh shit. What was he? A business man? I'm sure mom told something about coat. Is he a doctor?
"Oh children's...."
"Ya..." Should I ask him which department he's in. As he's elder would he know my seniors. Maybe we know someone common?
"Well I'm a lawyer"
"Oh good.. good....." God is great. I should stick to answering and not make this any more a messier than it already is
"Forget it. Look Jia I don't know what to talk to you or how to start a conversation with you. I didn't want us to stand in awkward silence that's why I tried talking but now its getting more awkward cause as you can see I'm out of questions and you don't talk anything more than a word. And I should probably stop talking before you realize I completely lost it." I stare at him wide eyed as he slaps his own forehead a little too hard and wince
Those were the words that made me laugh freely since Neha's call planning our sabotage. And those were also the words that made me warm up towards Mr. Right. That was the name Neha came up with for Edwin after our engagement. That's right, I got engaged to Edwin and Neha was the most happiest person on earth.
She resigned her job and came back home to built a new and improved version of find your soulmate 1.0005 and so again war was declared at Neha's home which resulted in total destruction of aunty's vegetable garden and reinstallation of the DEN. There were no casualties during the war but the boarders were clearly marked, the house was aunty's and DEN was Neha's. Both parties were not supposed to enter the opposite territory.
"Man don't you think it's a bit too extreme. Like, look at this! Look at you. Your using the bags of fertilizers as a bed, your laptop is in between of all the gardening tools. Maybe you should talk to your mom and come to an understanding." I say dropping her clothes to the floor so that I can use the one an only chair
"There is no way I'm surrendering to mom. She played a dirty trick by capturing DEN when it was not protected back then. Now I'm here and I won't let it happen again!!" She says piling up the clothes on top of the table
Neha had stopped goining outside and now makes me run errades for her as she's completely paranoid about aunty taking over DEN again when she not here.
"Now you really sound like a king they show on those old epic serials. You know what you should try auditioning for a role. I bet you're a natural."
"There's no need to make fun. I'm serious. This time she won't get the DEN. I'm fully prepared for anything." She says shoving all the tools to the far end of the table to make space for the new supplies I brought
"Ok so this is Kashmir and you guys are India Pakistan fighting for its rights? I mean what about food and when you want to use toilet and all. What will you do then?" I asked as she cross checked the list she gave me and what I brought
"Don't worry I'll just sneak into the house." She said even without lifting her head
"What? Ha ha ha... what if aunty catches you?"
"Then I'll run like yesterday. Hahaha....." She said winking at me
Both her mom and my parents were cross about her resigning the job but Neha was determined to show everyone how talented she was. And I was the only one who understood and supported her. After all it was she who showed me my Mr. Right.
~~~☆~~~
Edwin turned out to be the most sweetest person I have ever met. After our first meeting where he managed to make me laugh we talked a lot and I understood that even he was forced into this and that he wasn't at all interested in marriage. He was a person who loves his job and wanted to become something in that field just like me. So we together took a decision to reject the proposal and enjoy our lives for a little while more.
But as we went back to tell this decision to our parents what we heard were them discussing which proposals to go about next if this didn't go well. So we kind of went back to the room and looked at each other. Neither of us wanted to get married at the moment so to buy us both some time we hatched a plan.
I'm really getting good at this plan making. Maybe I should have gone for architecture?
"What do you think? Did you like him?" Dad asked sitting next to me on the sofa
"Hmmm...…." I scratched my chin focusing on the TV show and not looking at him
"Why..? You didn't like him?" Mom asked sitting on my other side trapping me in-between them
"Mmmm...…" I changed the channel still not making any eye contact with either of them
"Ok so you didn't like him? But sweetheart we really like his parents. We think you'll do well there. But if you are still not interested we'll look for another. It's not like he's last bachelor or anything. Right honey?" Dad said looking pointedly at my mother signaling her not to push me anymore
"Of course that's right. Like dad told we'll just look for another boy... But did you like him sweetie?" Mom asked ignoring all of dad's pointed looks