Arranged marriage was an age-old story that Khushi, the youngest of the infamous Gupta family, who revolutionized and dominated the trading market for generations, knew well.
For it was the only thing she heard growing up.
But that neither prepared...
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For as long as Arnav could remember, his birthday had always been a blast.
Perhaps because being the youngest of the house mandated him to be endlessly pampered. His mother and two elder sisters lived up to that responsibility brilliantly, leaving no stone unturned in making the day special, sometimes even starting as early as a month before in preparations. The most memorable birthday Arnav had with them was his eighth, where Anjali and Lavanya organized a Batman themed party in sync with his 'superhero' phase. It had been an instant hit amongst his friends, so much so that Arnav had even kept his costume –identical to the original Batman's– safely in a box underneath his bed back home, which Satya to date has not discarded.
Eventually, of course, he outgrew the superhero parties. By the time Arnav was in his teens, the celebrations shifted from Shantivaan to weekend getaways with his cousins. They all insisted on surprising him each year, sometimes showing up at midnight with cake and balloons and other times making a ridiculous montage of his utmost embarrassing videos. The most over-the-top birthday had been his sixteenth, when they threw a barbeque party themed around... him. Starting from the t-shirts they all sported to the balloons, plastic cups, plates and even the cake in the end: all of them had a picture of Arnav's face stamped boldly across. It was hilarious!
These extravagant festivities, as expected, took a backseat when he started dating Myra, who insisted on spending the day together. Arnav enjoyed those too, often being surprised by her planning. His favorite, by far, had been his twenty-fifth, when she arranged a trail of twenty-five clues for him to solve and arrive at a then newly opened restaurant he wanted to try, but couldn't get a reservation, for dinner.
And so, over the years, it really wasn't surprising that Arnav had grown to expect copious amounts of attention on his birthday. Imagine his utter disappointment then, when this year, he received none.
In fact, his birthday was going on like any other ordinary day. He woke up to a clear, cloudless day, made breakfast –French toast today– as per routine and was now sitting out on the balcony, having it with a completely ignorant Khushi. The only small mercy was that her shift began at 12 p.m., so instead of scarfing down food as though she was going to miss a train, Khushi was actually sitting down with him, reading the day's newspaper, a cup of coffee in hand.
It was bizarre.
Arnav had stayed up until 1 a.m. expecting his ever-excited family to barge in at any moment with a surprise party. When that didn't happen, he woke up early expecting to find a very long apology from at least his sisters for not even calling him. That too, didn't happen. And as if to rub salt on his wounds, Khushi was acting utterly clueless, pretending as if it was just another Tuesday. But of course, with her, he couldn't get himself to be mad. As far as he could recollect, the two of then never sat down and discussed birthdays, so how on earth was she supposed to know?
She was excused; his family, most definitely, wasn't.
As the morning trickled by in silence, the only thing Arnav could do was console himself, thinking perhaps, it was all for the best. Hadn't he outgrown the crazy, blackout parties yet? Why did he need an elaborate surprise to know that he was loved and cherished? Vowing to not get bogged down over something so silly, he turned his attention to Khushi.
