The next morning.
Laura woke up to find Andre sleeping on the couch. She went to his side.
"Hey Avi? Why are you sleeping on the couch?"
Andre was woken up by Laura's voice. He gave her a smile as soon as he saw her "Good morning."
"You haven't answered my question. Why did you sleep on the couch."
"Forget it, it's nothing." The position they were in was that Andre was lying on the couch while Laura was kneeling beside the couch with her face hovering over his.
"You can't just tell me to forget it, how can you not....." Her words were cut short by Andre's lips that were kissing hers. They kissed for a while before Andre let her go. "You still wanna ask more questions?" he asked her with one of his eyebrows raised up. Laura left his side and she kept mumbling and grumbling as she grabbed her towel and entered the bathroom. Andre also entered the bathroom after she came out. Today was the engagement and it was not going to start until late in the afternoon so she only wore blue jeans and a long-sleeved blouse and she went down for breakfast. Andre also came out later and joined all of them for breakfast. After breakfast, Aarna , Ishani, Naina and Shreya monopolized Laura. They took her to Ishani's room.
"Laura can you sing well?" Ishani asked her.
"I guess so."
"You know what, sing ********* by ***** for us. That way we'll be able to judge"
"Okay." she then started to sing the song and much to the their surprise she sang it so well, you could even say that she sang it better than the artist of the song. Their jaws were literally dropping when she was done. "Was it that bad?" Laura asked dejectedly when she noticed that none of them didn't say anything.
Ishani was the first person to snap out of her daze "Bad?!..... You were amazing!"
"I have to say that you sang better than the artist." Aarna also complimented her.
"You sing beautifully." Naina said as well
"Since you can sing so we'll, you must sing at my Sangeet* okay?" Ishani told her
" O-okay... But which song?" Laura didn't want to annoy Ishani so she gave her consent immediately.
"You know the movie "***********", you're going to sing one of the songs from it." And then they spent the next few hours before the engagement teaching Laura the song.
********
"Big cuz, later at night you just tell me what you felt when Laura was around you okay?" Andre had accepted Prem as his love guru and now the guy wouldn't leave him alone.
"Okay."
"But don't lie to me right now, you do feel something around her don't you?"
"Yes."
"Please tell me what you feel around her." he asked with the puppy eyes. As Andre was about to answer, someone knocked on the door.
"Come in" Andre ordered. It was one of the maids. " Grandmother Lal said to inform you that the engagement will soon begin so everyone should get ready."
"Okay you can leave." The maid left at Andre's order. "You heard her, leave my room and go get ready." Andre told Prem in a tone that he couldn't disobey. Prem grumbled and left the room. Andre was starting to wonder why Laura hadn't come to their room yet. He was sure that she would also have been told to go get ready as well. He was about to call her when someone knocked on the door. "Come in." 'Is she supposed to knock?' he thought thinking it was Laura but it was his cousin's wife Aarna that came in.
"Where's Laura?" he asked.
Aarna chuckled "So impatient, she told me to bring her clothes, she wants to get ready with Ishani."
"Ooh okay." he was obviously displeased by his wife's decision. The last time he saw her was during breakfast... up to six hours now. He went to the wardrobe and gave Aarna the clothes that Laura had already hanged on the door. She had already told him that that was the cloth she was going to wear.
"Okay thanks, I'll leave now."
*****
Naina squealed when she saw Laura after she dressed up "Oh my God, you look so beautiful."
"Uhhhh it's my engagement but you're gonna steal the spotlight with your beauty 😩" Ishani wailed and they all laughed
at her childishness.
"I'm very sure that after seeing you today, Andre us going to realize his love for you." Laura blushed at Aarna's statement.
"Let's just put a little bit of makeup on to bring out everything 🤭." Shreya also commented. By the time they were done with dolling the bride up and getting ready themselves, the guests had already arrived and everyone was downstairs waiting for them.
***Meanwhile in the living room turned engagement hall.
Andre looked like a child whose favourite toy was taken away from him as he leaned his body against the wall in one corner of the big hall. He looked so unhappy yet so fierce that no one dared to approach him. Well, everyone except his love guru😏.
"My my, what's wrong with my client?... Are you missing your wife so badly?" Prem asked with his arms crossed on his chest and his eyes glinted with mischievousness.
"Call it whatever you want, it's just that she has always been around me for the past few weeks that I feel empty without her here..... even for a few hours." Andre sighed, he couldn't believe he was opening up to Prem, but it felt good to finally let out his feelings to someone he could trust.
"You see!..... you're in love with her but you won't admit it. So it's true that distance makes the heart grow fonder."
"I don't wanna talk to you anymore... Where's Sameer?"
Prem chuckled "He's busy taking care of the children, so you're technically stuck with me big cuz." Andre sighed as he continued to look at the floor dejectedly. He didn't realize that Laura and the other ladies were already coming down the stairs. All eyes were on them, Prem nudged Andre's shoulder and he gestured towards the stairs when Andre looked up to meet his gaze. As soon as he saw Laura descending the stairs with a smile on her face, he felt like his brain had completely shut down and he couldn't get his eyes off her. She was wearing an embroidered bright yellow lengha*, it had gemstones on it as well. It was one of the exclusive dresses Priya gave her and Priya made it matching clothes for the both of them so Andre was also wearing the same color (a bright yellow sherwani*). Laura let her hair down and she had light makeup on her face, she had bangles on her wrists as well, she looked divine.
Andre was standing at a place where no one would notice so Laura was searching for him with her eyes but she couldn't find him anywhere. She decided to finish escorting the bride first before proceeding to search for him. She was about to turn her back to go look for him when she hit her back against something hard and sturdy. Turned out it was Andre's broad chest.
"Avi?" she exclaimed with a big smile on her face as she saw him standing right behind her. Before she could say more he had already hugged her so tight.
"Are you okay?" She asked in a worried tone and she was feeling shy as a lot of people were looking at them.
"You look beautiful." He whispered in her ear.
She blushed once again "Thank you... you're also looking very handsome."
"Thank you" He said and he let her go.
"Uhhhh... your face looks fresher than mine." she said as she touched his cheeks. Andre smiled at her.
"Well this face is yours, you literally own me." Andre replied her with a matter of fact tone. "You left me alone for so many hours and you didn't even want to come dress up in our room, it's not fair you know" He placed his hands on both her shoulders and gave her a look that was akin to that of a puppy rejected by its owner. Laura couldn't help but chuckle.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and Andre smiled again at this gesture "I'm sorry my dear husband, I won't ditch you like that again. Can we go to greet the guests now?"
"Okay." the smile was still on his face as they went to greet the guests.
Prem the love guru didn't leave this moment uncaptured as he took a picture of the both of them, he knew about Andre not wanting any outsider to know who his wife was so he took a pictures of where only Laura's back was showing but Andre's face and body was in full view. He took one of them hugging and another of Laura touching Andre's right cheek with her left hand(her wedding ring was visible), another of Andre smiling genuinely with his hands behind his back, another where Laura wrapped her arms around Andre neck and Andre was smiling and looking at her lovingly, the last picture was the one where both of Andre's hands were on Laura's shoulder (his wedding ring was also visible there). He didn't dare show Laura's face so her back and her hands were her only shown features in all of the pictures.
*Sangeet: Dance and music. It's just for fun, the bride's family dance and listen to music and the unmarried young ladies dance to the latest bollywood hits.
Lengha: skirt version of a sari
sherwani: men's clothing, long tops and trousers.