After an emotional good bye at work, I finally left the office and decided to get back into marriage mode. My mom had already called me about 8 times to ask where I was and when I was getting home as our relatives from around the world had started arriving. Getting into my car I was about to drive back home when I looked at the little red flashing at the top of my blackberry. Hmm I wont be getting that as much anymore since I wont have any work emails to deal with was my first thought. Ok I need to get out of work mode and get into marriage mode. Life was difficult for girls I realized. We had too much to deal with. No wonder our hormones always were out of whack. Guys didn't have to deal with this much. Karan only did as much I had told him. From finalizing decorations for our wedding to getting all the catering... I had supplied everything to him in an email. All he had to do was drop off printouts of my emails at different locations. He didn't even need to talk to anyone as I had detailed notes along with pictures of how we wanted things in my emails.

A part of me was happy that all this hard work was coming to an end and the results were about to show but another part of me knew that I would miss all this crazy run around. I loved planning weddings- I had done it for all my friends before and now it was the greatest feeling to be doing my own. Grabbing my phone, I looked at the text I received:

"Hey Khushi- let me know if you need anything done around here... am home today. Karan as usual isn't returning my calls so I am assuming he's sleeping lol- Arnav"

Unknowingly that message brought a smile to my face. Arnav Singh Raizada- Karan's best friend. Both were inseparable. If I couldn't get a hold of Karan, the next person to call would be Arnav since he always knew his whereabouts. It was crazy to see how both got along so well even though they were so different. Well so am I and Karan, a part of my brain reminded me. Arnav was the CEO of AR designs- his father had started off the company and today Arnav had taken it to a whole different level. He had made a place for himself in the fashion industry. When I had first found out that Arnav worked in the fashion industry, my first questions was- is he straight? I mean no offense to all the males that work in that industry, it was just that I hadn't known anyone first hand in that field.

But when I met him for the first time, straightness wasn't even something I should have doubted about this guy. Those features definitively couldn't have belonged to someone straighter. The guy was like a greek god. Dressed in an all black suit and perfectly gelled back hair the first words that I whispered to Karan were "how in hell is this guy still single!". Karan had laughed at my reaction as he was fully aware of the aura his friend had. Arnav definitely had the a****** look to him. As he walked over to our table, his lips in a thin line... typing something furiously on his blackberry, you could see girls flipping their heads all over the restaurant but what came next threw me off guard.

Tucking away his phone securely in his jacket, he looked up and gave me the most genuine and warmest smile ever.

"Khushi!" he walked over to me and gingerly gave me a one arm hug "Finally we meet"

"Yes finally. I have heard so much from Karan about you that I knew it was about time I put a face to this person he always talks about".

The rest of the evening we spent at the restaurant talking about things. One thing I realized at that point was that me and Arnav were quite alike. Professional driven, using our heads over our hearts any time of the day, talking as much as needed whereas Karan was the laidback one, talkative and could charm any girl. Being around him made you feel at peace. He could talk about anything and everything and I knew that's what I needed in life. Someone who could make me feel like a child again. Make me forget the small day to day worries. Maybe that's why people say opposites attract.

"Hey Arnav- I think we're ok for things. How come Mr. Workaholic decided to take a day off" I texted back and decided to get home before mom lost it on me.

As I opened the front door to get into the house.. I felt my phone vibrate.

"HAHA so funny Miss. Gupta (or can I just say Mrs. Mittal already) ;)"

Jerk. But that comment put a smile on my face. Even though Arnav wasn't a man with many words, I actually found his dry humor rather funny and ofcourse Karan thought that was weird. Hmm maybe I should hookup Arnav with Priya (who is my best friend). They would be cute together... why in hell did I never think about that before? Jeez Khushi you're slow. But before I could think any further, while standing on the front steps of my own house, I felt the door barge open and saw my little brother standing there.

"Khushi Di! Mom's in emergency mode! Help!" saying that Rohan ran back into the house.

My mom's emergency mode consisted of a few different options:

1. She was cleaning the house inside out and my dad didn't know how to stop her from scrubbing the walls and floor before the paint came off but that couldn't be possible as she already did that last week

2. She overdid everything. She absolutely sucked at estimating quantities. So if she somehow was helping the ladies in the backyard making the mithai... we definitely had a problem on our hands, because we could probably give the mithai to the whole city and still have leftovers.

3. She was crying. Ever since the year had started, she would cry almost over everything. If I refused to have supper, she would go all motherly on me telling me how I won't be eating with her regularly anymore so I had to eat. My only way out of that was by telling her that if she continued doing it, I wouldn't fit into my wedding lehnga which would definitely not be good.

Bracing myself I slowly walked into the house and saw option#3 being played. There was my mom, sitting on my bed, holding onto one of my favorite t-shirts crying her eyes out. My masi and nani were trying to console her but it was of no use. Taking a deep breath and fully knowing how to control the situation I walked towards her.

"Mom- am not even late today. It's like 1 pm and your crying like I went missing or something" saying that I pulled the old t-shirt out of her hands and gave her a large hug.

"Please stop crying. If you're going to continue doing this, then I will cry and if I cry, you know my eyes are going to be all swollen and then I will look like disaster on my wedding day". If there was anything that would stop my mom from crying was this excuse. Whenever I would cry, my eyes would go red underneath and then I would get dark circles the next morning and that is something she would definitely not like.

"chalo thik hai, lekin ab toh tuin kam par nahi jaayegi naa?"

"No mom, I am all done and all yours for the next 5 days so you can start with all the mehndi and yellow stuff" I laughed back at her knowing how much my mom enjoyed all these pre-wedding rituals whereas I didn't pay much attention to them. I mean c'mon, I was already so pale that I don't think I needed all that haldi stuff to make me any more fair but I knew for the next five days I would not be saying a single word and would just go with the flow.

And with that started all the wedding rituals....

Well that was part 2. Please let me know what you guys think and if I should continue or not.Pinki