by P. G. Van
Anjali had more than one reason not to want a traditional ceremony.
“I’m okay with that. We can keep the wedding to family and close friends and have a reception that is for a larger group.”
“Okay. I will invite my close friends to the wedding and some friends from work to the reception.”
“Sounds like a plan. I’m excited about our wedding.” He smiled and turned to look at the waiter who approached their table to take their order.
Anjali shifted uncomfortably in her chair when the waiter asked if they would like to try their ‘Special Couples’ lunch. Dheeraj nodded, and the waiter beamed at him for approving the suggestion.
Dheeraj looked at her after the waiter left. “You just flunked your first pop quiz.”
“What?” She looked confused, her beautiful eyes widened.
“From this moment on until we get married, I am your fiancé…”
“I’ll try.”
“When do you want to get married?”
She shrugged. “I have no preference.”
“How about in two weeks?”
She nodded, her eyes locked with his. “That works for me.”
Dheeraj reached into his pocket and placed a credit card on the table. “This is the credit card you can use to buy what you need to prepare for the wedding and reception.”
“Okay.” She picked up the card with trembling fingers.
“I will book our honeymoon to be a week-long trip. Do you have a preference?”
“A honeymoon?”
“If I don’t take my new wife on a honeymoon, the rumors will start.”
“Can we just…” Her words trailed off, and Dheeraj looked at the expressions change on her face like an idea went off in her head.
He smiled at her. “Where would you like to go?”
“Bali… I want to go to Bali. I want to smell the flowers.”
“Done. I’ll plan it. Keep in mind we will need to make a few trips for my work and also for pleasure.”
“Oh… are you sure you couldn’t find someone else to take this offer? A credit card and vacations abroad?”
Dheeraj smiled at her. “You are the one I need… to be my better half.”
“Do I have to get used to listening to such cheesy dialogues?”
Dheeraj shook his head, glad she was easing into his plan. He just hoped she would still want to be in contract when he tells her why he really needed her and what made her the perfect candidate for the job as his wife—a total fake.
*****
“Hello, Surya,” Anjali’s voice wobbled, and she hoped Surya wouldn’t pick up on her nervousness over the phone.
“Anjali, my darling… what a pleasure to hear your voice,” the man said, cheerfully.
She cringed in response to the sleaziness in his voice. If there were one person who she came close to hating, it would be Surya. He was a man with no ethics who managed to control her life even from hundreds of miles away.
“I will have all the money ready in two years, and I have a buyer for the property here in the city. Is there a possibility to make half the payment now and you start selling?”
“That’s a negative, Anjali. I don’t want you to sell the property in the city. I need that to be part of the deal if you are going to make me wait for another two years for the money.”
“Surya, this is unfair. How can you do this to me? It’s not like I owe you the money.”
“Listen, Anjali. Don’t talk to me about fairness. If life were fair, you would be here in Devarakonda, and we would not be having this conversation.”
“No, that was not supposed to be the case, ever.”
He laughed making her want to claw his face out, but there was no value in losing her composure.
“Anjali, don’t waste my time. Call me when you have the amount you promised already, and if that is in two years, forget about the deal. I don’t want to hear from you.”
“Please, Surya… hold on. Please give me some time.” She fought back angry tears.
“You have one month to pay up the first half or else the deal is off.” Surya ended the call, and tears rolled down Anjali’s cheek. She let the phone drop out of her hands and hid her face in her hands as she sobbed. She could not believe she had to pay up to get back what was rightfully hers.
No matter what she did the past few years, every ray of light ended up being a mirage, every effort to get a step closer to her goal turned out to be futile.
“Geetanjali, are you okay?” A deep voice interrupted her sadness making her look up. Her vision was blurred with the tears, but there was no mistaking the tall figure who stood looking at her, concerned.
Anjali lowered her eyes wiping away the tears and shook her head. Dheeraj had told her he would come by her place that afternoon, but she didn’t expect him to arrive so early.
Dheeraj looked at the woman who always looked composed even when he dropped the bombshell of a deal on her. He sat next to her on the patio sofa that was set up on the balcony and waited for her to gather herself.
“You are early.” She kept her eyes lowered and wiped the moisture away from the edge of her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” He was insistent.
“It’s…”
He didn’t let her finish. “Whatever it is, it’s my problem. It’s critical for you to be happy in our contract. I cannot risk anyone seeing you like this… what is the problem?”
“Money… even with the contract, nothing changed for me.” Her voice was weak.
“Are you considering stepping away from the contract?”
She looked up at him, her eyes red and puffy from the tears and shook her head. “A promise is a promise.”
Something deep inside him twitched, and at that moment, all he wanted to do was to make her tears disappear. “How much money? Just give me the number.”
“Dheeraj, but…”
“I just need a number, Geetanjali.” Dheeraj’s tone was firm, and the look in his eyes told her there was no point arguing about the issue.
“Dheeraj, it is more than what we already agreed to in our contract.” She sniffled.
“The number, that’s all I am asking for.” His eyes bore into hers.
“But what if people find out about the payout?”
“I’ll figure it out… I will have it sent without either of our names on the transfer.”
“Thank you!” She reached out and took his hand in hers. “I have a piece of land in a prime location where I wanted to build… you can have that as collateral.”
“Geetanjali, you honoring the contract is my collateral.”
Tears of sadness were soon replaced by ones of happiness, and she smiled at the man who seemed to actually care about her, not just the contract.
Chapter 4
“Anjali, you look great!” her friend complimented as she hugged her at the bar. She was there to meet her friends, and she looked around the place smiling to herself. It was exactly a week ago that she met Dheeraj, and her life changed dramatically.
Apart from the fact that she lied to all her friends about falling in love with Dheeraj, she was happy and having fun. Over the past week, she had been to his house more than a few times, met his friends, and he met hers.
That night, Dheeraj had arranged for a special night out for her to spend with her friends. She had spent so much time with him that she was finding it odd that he wasn’t with her. He had taken her to places she had never been to in the historical city and tried activities like hunting that she thought she would never try. Overall, Dheeraj was a good person to hang out with, and she looked forward to the two-year contract.
“Anjali, step out of your la-la land and stop thinking about Dheeraj,” her friend teased, nudging her.
“Stop it, you guys.” Anjali blushed, and she couldn’t believe she was so involved in the role of a fake girlfriend and then eventually a fake wife. She was happy to play the role to help Dheeraj in every way possible, especially after what he did f
or her to secure the deal with Surya. She came close, so close to losing all hope of fulfilling her dream for a loved one.
Anjali would have killed to see the surprise in Surya’s eyes when all the money was transferred to him. She had to settle for the disbelief in his voice when he called her and smiled to herself. Surya agreed to take care of what she needed to start working on her project.
“She never told us her real name is Geetanjali,” one of her friends said almost in disbelief.
“And the way he says her name is so sweet, and Anjali actually glows around him. This is true love.” Sonia swooned.
Anjali shook her head and took a sip of her drink. Her heart remembered the warmth it felt when Dheeraj told her he would help her, and she smiled. It was a feeling she had not had in a long time—a carefree state of mind where she had no worries in life because someone was taking care of her. It was the most exciting time of her life.
“You are blushing right now, and I can see the pink in your cheeks even in this light.” Her friends laughed.
“Okay, girls… that’s enough. Let’s talk about something else.” Anjali glared at her best friends. Lekha, Riya, Sonia, and Neeta—the four women who were her pillars of strength—could not be part of her journey for the next two years, but she knew she could count on them for anything.
An hour later and with multiple glasses of wine, Anjali and her friends were huddled in a deep conversation about marriage and how it could change the dynamics of their relationship when a sudden hush fell over the noisy bar.
All the women looked up when they realized the entire area had gone pitch dark except for a spotlight over their booth. Anjali squinted and looked in the direction of the other spotlight, and her mouth went dry.
Dheeraj walked toward her purposefully, and she stood up to take a few steps in his direction, a smile playing on her lips. He had his standard smile, but he looked extra crisp that night.
“Dheeraj?” she muttered under her breath when he stopped a foot away from her and went down on his knee in front of her. He opened his palm to reveal a ring with a large diamond sparkling under the lights.
Anjali’s shock was lost in the loud gasp that was let out by everyone in the bar. Camera flashes went off in her peripheral vision, but she kept her eyes on him. The intensity in his eyes made the moment very real, and she had to remind herself it was part of the play.
“Geetanjali, I know we met less than a week ago, but when I am with you, I feel alive. I want to feel this way for the rest of my life. Will you marry me and be my happiness?” Dheeraj’s eyes sparkled under the spotlight making her stomach flutter.
Anjali was caught off guard with his grand gesture, and she knew it was part of the show they were putting on, but something about the moment touched her deep inside. Thoughts she never had surfaced, and her dreams as a young girl about how her prince charming would come sweep her off her feet played in front of her eyes.
“Geetanjali?” His voice caressed her out of her thoughts.
“Yes,” she hissed and heard her friends squeal in the background.
Dheeraj slipped the ring on her finger and stood up to wrap his arms around her waist. As if it was the most natural thing to do, she ran her hands up his chest to cup his cheeks with her palms. He looked down at her smiling, and she went on her tippy toes to brush her lips over his, and the people around them broke into a clamor.
Anjali was lost in the moment, and everyone around her was a blur. She felt his lips, firm with surprise initially, and then they softened against hers. He let out a deep groan that only she heard as he sucked the air out of her lungs.
“Thank you!” she whispered against his lips.
Anjali knew deep in her heart the proposal wasn’t real, but she was thankful for what he had done. At that moment, she experienced what a Disney princess felt when her prince charming showed up to rescue her from the tall, dark tower.
Was he her prince charming?
Dheeraj chuckled pulling back to look at her. “You have a beautiful smile.”
Anjali blushed and turned to look at her friends who looked at them, teary-eyed. She hugged her friends and waved a thank you to the patrons in the bar who cheered them even as Dheeraj whisked her away from there.
They looked at each other in silence as they rode in the elevator and did not talk until they were alone in the car.
“Dheeraj, what was that?” She laughed, gently slapping his arm as he pulled the SUV out of the parking lot.
“A marriage proposal.” He smirked.
“I was supposed to spend the night with my friends.”
“Not anymore. You will spend time with your fiancé,” he crooned.
“That was unnecessary but… I have to admit it was awesome!”
“Glad to hear that. Are you okay to go to my place?” Dheeraj kept his eyes on the road.
“Yes, isn’t that part of the script. Happy couple spends the night away from the world.” She laughed, but her body was high-strung from the intensity of the moment, a beautiful one.
“I asked Jimmy to make all your favorites for dinner.”
Jimmy is Dheeraj’s personal chef and Anjali’s newfound friend. “You are such an awesome fiancé.”
“You bet. Do you need anything from your apartment for the weekend?”
“Wait, am I staying the weekend at your place?”
“It’s easier. I’ll have someone start working on the wedding announcements.”
Anjali took a deep breath suddenly feeling overwhelmed.
“Geetanjali, are you okay?”
She blinked fighting back tears she couldn’t explain. Dheeraj noticed the shift in her breathing and pulled the car over to the side of the road.
“What’s wrong?”
Anjali hid her face in her palms shaking her head. She kept her eyes shut even when he peeled her hands off her face.
“Talk to me,” Dheeraj pleaded as she sniffled.
Anjali wiped the moisture off her cheeks with her hands and turned to look at him. “I’m fine. It’s just too much to handle. When you went down on your knee, I knew it wasn’t real but… it felt real, and that’s what is scary.”
He smiled and reached out to pat her on her shoulder. “Yeah, I’ve been told by more than one person I should try my luck in the movie industry.”
She laughed, wiping the edges of her eyes. “That was some Oscar-nomination-worthy performance.”
“I didn’t mean to ambush you with the proposal, but I felt it was required.”
“No. That was… that was so cool. I didn’t think I would ever experience something like that.” She smiled at him, and he started their drive back toward his house.
“Ready for our special dinner?”
“Yes, I’m starving.” She laughed, feeling a sense of calm envelop her.
An hour later, Anjali hugged her wine glass. “I’m so full, it’s not funny. Thank you, Jimmy.”
The chef smiled at her. “You are welcome, madam.”
“Why are you cooking for us? You should have your own restaurant.”
“I agree.” Dheeraj laughed taking a sip of his drink.
“More wine, madam?” Jimmy offered, and Anjali pushed her glass forward.
Dheeraj waved away the bottle. “Jimmy, your madam has had enough wine for tonight.”
“Dheeru, stop it. Jimmy, give me some more wine,” Anjali whined.
He laughed standing up to walk over to Anjali’s side to pull her into his arms. “Sweetheart, let’s take a walk.”
Anjali hadn’t realized the state she was in until she put her weight on her feet. Her legs wobbled, and she leaned into his rock-hard chest. Her body suddenly became aware of his proximity and the way he held her to him, protectively.
“Will you hold my hand when we walk?” she whispered into his neck and felt him shudder.
“Sure.” His voice was gravelly.
They walked in silence to the gardens in the back as Dheeraj held her to him, his arm circling
her waist. “You made me so happy, Dheeraj. I never thought a complete stranger would bring me so much joy.
“Geetanjali, how many drinks did you have before I proposed to you?” He smirked.
“Just one. I was completely sober when you proposed,” she slurred.
“Well, now you are not.”
“I am fine, just a little sleepy from all the food I ate… food coma.”
Dheeraj laughed. “Right, it has nothing to do with the dark liquid in your glass.”
“Whatever. You can’t stop me from being happy… never thought I would see this day. That bastard, Surya, got his money, and now I just need to get started…” Her voice was lost in a squeal when her foot tripped on a small river stone.
“Geetanjali, are you okay?” Dheeraj helped her to the nearby bench and flashed his light from the phone on her foot.
“Does it hurt?”
“I’m fine, Dheeru.”
Dheeraj looked up at her as he squatted next to the bench where she sat. “Dheeru? That’s like the second time you have called me that.”
“Dheeru, it’s a short and sweet name… don’t you think?”
Dheeraj chuckled at her silliness. “Can you walk back to the house?”
“Yeah, it’s not like you are going to carry me indoors if I can’t walk,” she snorted.
“That’s not a bad idea.” The moment the words rolled off his lips, Anjali heard him grunt and then swept her body from the bench and into his arms.
Anjali’s squeal turned into giggles as she wrapped her arms around his neck hoisting her upper body. “You are like every woman’s dream.”
“Wow, you really are drunk.”
“Can’t you take a compliment?” she snapped, making him smile.
“Yes, I will if they aren’t dripping in wine,” he retorted.
“Stop saying that. I just had a few glasses of wine,” she grumbled as he carried her indoors.
Dheeraj held her to him as he carried her up the stairs to the guest bedroom. He placed her on the bed and pulled back to raise her feet onto the bed and paused when Anjali tightened her hold on him.
“Stay with me,” she pleaded, her breath warm against his ears.
