Chapter 3

Riya's POV

I twisted and turned in my bed, but I can’t sleep. Whenever I close my eyes, his deep ocean-blue eyes keep appearing, and it gives me chills throughout my body. It’s been a week since I met him at the coffee shop. I’ve had millions of crushes over the years, everywhere for just a minute, but he won’t leave my mind—sticking there 24/7, and it’s literally driving me crazy. I know I’m never going to meet him again. Even if we do, it’s not like he’s going to like me. But something is stinging me... I don’t know what it is. I need to get a good sleep; day after tomorrow, my colleague Bindu Singh is going to marry her two-year-long love, Antonio, and tomorrow we have the sangeet. We’ve been working together for over a year, and even though it's long-distance, we developed a good friendship. She is very sweet, and her love story is like something from a Wattpad book. He’s a big shot, and they fell in love during one of their project presentations. She doesn’t show any attitude, even though she’s about to marry a freaking CEO.

I don’t understand why she’s working here. I had the same doubt, but she said she wanted to be independent, recognized for her work, not her last name. Got goosebumps. If I were in her shoes, I’d quit my job happily—haha, but not everyone is the same bro, I guess.

She invited me to the wedding, but the thing is, I’m going to dance at the sangeet. I love to dance, but since I’m chubby, many people give me disguised looks. Mostly me friends, they all are girls. I told Bindu about it, and she said I’m so beautiful that it hurts their eyes, and it hits them where they can’t compete. She’s such a lovely person. Since her parents died when she was young, her uncle and aunt treated her like a servant. They said they don’t attend the wedding because it’s a love marriage, blah, blah. But the truth is, they’re just jealous of her. Her relatives are typical evil,.She loves big Indian weddings, but no one from her side is dancing at the sangeet, so I agreed—even though I’m scared. I’m really happy for her. By God’s grace, she came here and met her Prince Charming.

Oh no, I’m thinking about him again. Not a good sign.

I’m at the palace right now. Yes, it’s a freaking palace. It’s Groom family tradition to get married here, it seems. They have security and paparazzi waiting outside, and there’s a big lakeside view. We even saw a few celebs. Since I got here, I’ve had my own attendants to escort me around—I feel like royalty. How can Bindu be this humble? Seriously, this girl is not just a good person; she’s an angel.

I went to Bindu’s room, and it was chaos. She was upset because the makeup wasn’t done right, and there was no mehendi artist. The makeup artist didn’t know how to do Indian bridal makeup, and since everyone here is foreign, they didn’t understand. My dear workaholic friend thought she could easily get someone to do it like it’s India. Antonio was there, and I met him in person that day. I’d seen him in photos before, and he invited me through a video call, but I didn’t expect this busy guy to greet me in person. He looked very handsome—nothing much more than him... Ugh, I’m going crazy.

Before I lost my mind, I heard Antonio shout like he wanted to kill at least 10 people. Was it because of the makeup and mehendi? I jumped in and offered to help since I know how to do my own makeup and mehendi. Bindu smiled a little. I knew she wasn’t sure about me, but there was no other option.

Because it was my first time doing something like this, Antonio, sensing Bindu’s non-confident look, came up to me. He’s 6 feet tall, and I’m only 5 feet. He looked like my math teacher when I was 11—he gave me the most terrifying look, and he thought I was going to be scared, but sorry to say, I don’t give a shit to anyone. I’m bold like a middle-aged man going bald. Never cried in my whole life. If someone calls me stupid or naive, I don’t care.

Antonio said, “If something messes up, you won’t see another day.” What the heck? I’m offering help, and he’s threatening me?

With a roll of my eyes, I said, “I dare you. If it works, you won’t marry her tomorrow.” That’s it; I pulled his last string.

He looked like he was about to pull something out of his pocket, but Bindu panicked and ran over to us. Before he could pull anything, someone placed his hand on Antonio’s shoulder. Because of his height, I couldn’t see who it was. When I looked up, I saw the same ocean-blue eyes. Wooah. Nothing came out of my mouth. He looked down at me with a victory smile, and he was taller than Antonio. Hola. I told you, he’s better-looking than Antonio.

While I was mentally giving myself an award for figuring out who was more handsome, I heard Antonio say while looking at me, “She talks too much, Eolo, and I want to kill her.” I gave my famous smirk, like I didn’t care. This irritated Antonio even more. Wait—his name is Eolo? Before I could process, Eolo said, “She offered help, but you shouldn’t doubt her. We should thank her.” Wow, he knows manners, and his voice is HOT. All caps! Before Antonio could respond, Eolo held his hand up to stop him and signaled for him to move aside to give us space to work. Before he left, Eolo gave me that same victory look. What’s going on with him today?

Anyway, I asked Bindu to sit so I could do her makeup. She gave me an apologetic look, but I can’t hold a grudge. I just speak my mind. If others don’t believe me, I’ll help them when they’re in need. That’s what my parents were scared of the most about me. See? A few minutes ago, I might’ve been dead, but I didn’t care—that’s just me.

I started doing her makeup, and honestly, Bindu is so beautiful. Doing her makeup was easy, which is probably why Antonio fell for her—he’s that buffalo without horns. Once her makeup was done, I looked at her, and she looked divine. To avoid evil eyes, I put my kajal behind her ears.

“Wow, Bindu, you look gorgeous!” I said.

She held back tears and said, “Sorry, Riya. I know because of me, he behaved badly with you. I’m sorry. That’s why no relatives came here. I can’t help it when he’s angry. I’ve always been like this. That’s why my parents left me, and no one loves me.” She started to blabber with tears , but I quickly stopped her tears with a tissue and held her shoulders.

I said, “Bindu, it’s no one’s fault. You’re the bride—you can throw as much drama as you want. I promise I’ll stay with you like family and do whatever it takes, just like always.”

She hugged me. “Now, now, don’t shed a single tear. Else I’ll throw a bucket of water on your fiancé’s head if I have to, but I’m not ruining your makeup I just did.”

She laughed, but she looked strong on the outside. I know she’s scared and guilty about not giving enough importance to her wedding and arrangements.

It’s not her fault; she’s just scared. She’s been completing all her work, even though she hasn’t said it aloud. I understand her.

I brought her to the place where the mehendi ceremony was going to start. It was 10 a.m., and the sangeet was at 6 p.m. There were a lot of people there. Antonio had a lot of relatives, friends, and cousins. If I married into this family, I’d forget everyone’s name. But Bindu is really good at handling them.

Even though Antonio’s family is rich, they consider family everything. His cousins praised her, and their family treated her sweetly. The pandit started the rituals and asked us to apply mehendi. I asked Bindu about her mehendi design, and she told me she wanted a simple one. I started doing that for her. Once I applied the mehendi on her hands and legs, everyone praised her beauty and my work too. The girls , mostly his cousins were so sweet, so I couldn’t say no. I started doing mehendi for them, and when I was done, it was 2 p.m.

At that point, my friend Bruno, the photographer for the event, came over. He’s so sweet, and I’ve seen him on Instagram reels—he’s taken photos at the Oscars. He spoke nicely to me, such a down-to-earth person, though not as handsome as Eolo... Wait, what? What’s happening to me? I’m not even Bruno’s type! How can Eolo ?

I finished doing mehendi on my left hand, but I wanted to get it on my right hand too. When I turned around, everyone had disappeared since their jobs were done. With a sigh, I turned my mood around and started looking for food. Suddenly, I saw Antonio walking toward me, holding a plate full of food.

“Amore, let me feed you. Get up, let’s go to our room,” he said, his eyes full of love as he looked at her. I knew I’d done a good job by looking at his eyes.

He turned and looked at me. “You did a good job,” he said, but with a stern look.

I simply said, “I know,” with a roll of my eyes.

His eyes got angry again, and I loved it. Then my stomach growled loudly, and I asked, “By the way, where’s the food? I’m hungry, and my hands are killing me.”

Antonio gave me a sinister smile. “You know everything, right? Then go find it yourself.”

What? He’s a psycho. Bindu said, “Please, baby, don’t make her hungry. She’s my family.”

I stared at her in shock—not because she called me family, but because she called him "baby." Ugh, love makes everyone blind. Antonio’s eyes softened, and he said, “I’m just teasing her, babe.” But that wasn’t true. He was clearly not teasing me; he was just pretending for her sake.

Liar.

He said, “Someone will assist me,” but after 10 minutes, no one came. When I was about to shout, I felt someone behind me. It was him—Eolo. He bent down and whispered near my ear, “Are you lost, kido?”

What? Me? Kido? I don’t look like a kid!

I said, “I’m not a kido.”

He looked at me and chuckled. Wow, he’s handsome. He tried to say something before my stomach growled again. I wasn’t embarrassed. When I’m hungry, I lose all my sense.

“Guide me to the food area. I’m starving,” I said.

Eolo looked at me and then started walking. I followed him. After two escalators and one lift, we reached the dining area, and no one was there except the servants.

They gave me a shocked look. Okay, not at me, but at him. They bowed to him like he was a king. Maybe because it’s a freaking palace. Antonio only stopped from killing me because of him.

He snapped, and everything appeared on our table. I loudly said, “WOW!” and started digging in. I might have looked inhuman, but I was so hungry from all the work and arguing with that buffalo. As I told you, I don’t care... even though my crush is sitting next to me.

“I’m done,” I said after a lavish meal, looking at Eolo. Then I looked at the servants and said, “You guys did a great job.” They all looked astonished and bowed their heads.

Eolo looked at me like I had horns.

I said, “We should respect others and appreciate when they do a great job.”

“You’re impossible,” he said.

I smiled. While he was smiling, he looked even more beautiful.

Eolo looked at my hands and asked, “Why are you wearing that design on just one hand?”

I looked at my hand and said, “I’m right-handed, so I can only do it on one hand. If someone else were here, they would’ve done both.”

“Would you like to do the other hand?” Eolo asked.

I nodded. “Yes, but how? No one knows…”

He said, “Let me do it.”

I opened and closed my mouth like a fish. That’s when the wind blew on me... and I felt something inside me stir.

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