Arnav and I walked around for a bit discussing trivial things before we found a bench in their quaint garden. We were silent for a while, but I doubt Arnav is capable of being quiet as he soon broke the silence.

"Was that your brother with you during the wedding reception?"

"Yes, Rohit, but I think he is adopted,” I replied.

Arnav chuckled and I fell in love with his dimples, all over again.

"Nah, I don't think so. He seems as nice as you."

I fake gagged.

He let out another chuckle.

Silence reigned between the two of us, once again but it was oddly comforting. The music inside the house had changed to 'Badtameez dil', my favourite Bollywood song, starring my beloved (and future husband), Ranbir Kapoor.

"Badtameez dil, badtameez dil...,"I started singing in tune to the song because it would be a sin not to.

Arnav looked at me amused with his signature smirk and that one-eyebrow-raise-thing, he is so good at doing.

"What?" I snapped at him.

"You are a horrible singer,” he commented.

I burst out laughing before punching him on his arm.

"I LOVE Ranbir Kapoor, okay? And I really don't mind singing for him!"

"I don't know why you girls are so crazy behind him. He is not that great!"

That earned him another punch on his arm.

"OUCH!" he yelped, rubbing his arm.

And mind you, it was not a playful one!

I hated it when anyone, just anyone, said anything, just anything bad about Ranbir Kapoor.

"He is my future husband, okay?" I retorted, glaring at him, challenging him to say anything further in that topic.

He grinned and said, "Yeah, sure."

I knew that was sarcasm overloaded but I decided to ignore it.

"So, how is it that you have been living so near and yesterday was the first time I saw you?" I asked trying to change the subject.

"Have you fallen in love with me already?"

I punched his arm, again.

"Ouch! I think I am going home with a fractured arm, tonight!" he wailed, rubbing his arm.

"That's really going to happen if you continue with your cocky remarks," I warned him.

He smirked and said, "Well, I am from Delhi. Dad got a transfer. Just came here a month ago."

"So how do you like Mumbai?"

"It's okay," he answered, unenthusiastically.

"What do you mean by 'it's okay'? It is the best city in the world!"

He opened his mouth to say something, but Aparna butted in, followed by many other kids.

"Didi, let's play hide and seek," she pleaded, pulling at my hand.

"Uhm...," thinking of the best excuse I could give not to play hide and seek.

But before I realized what was happening, Aparna screamed, "Seema maami!"

I face palmed myself. If you haven't guessed by now, Seema was my mom's name and now I would be officially screwed for not playing hide and seek with a four-year-old.

No sarcasm intended.

My mom looked out from the window of the first floor.

"What happened, Appu?" my mother called down.

"Maami, maami, Trisha didi is not playing hide and seek with us!" she said pointing accusingly at me.

"It's not that..." I tried to explain.

"Trisha," my mother scolded putting on her stern voice. "You are just a sixteen-year-old! Stop acting like you are an adult, already! What's the harm in playing hide and seek? Does it -"

"Okay, mom!" I exclaimed, interrupting her. I had enough of her embarrassing me in front of my relatives and Arnav.

"We will play with you!" I said to a smiling Aparna.

My mother went back in before Arnav nudged me and whispered, "What do you mean by 'us'?"

"That means you are playing too!" I replied giving him a toothy smile.

He scowled in frustration.

The kids did that song-thing in which they found out the unfortunate person who would be the denner.

"We had a different song during our age, didn't we?" Arnav asked me, grinning.

I nodded my head in agreement.

"Guess the songs change with generation!" I exclaimed.

Finally, it was decided that Sarah, one of my second cousins would become the denner.

She pouted, then went up to the nearest tree, turned her back to us and started counting.

We watched as the kids pushed around to get to a safe hiding place. Some of them ran inside the house, some of them ran under bushes and some ran behind the house. I hated hide and seek even when I was a kid. That was because I always hid in the most easily spotted place and I was always caught first.

My mind never works in finding a good hiding place.

"Don't we have to hide?" Arnav asked me.

I pulled him behind the nearest bush.

Remember when I told you that my mind never works in finding a good hiding place?

That came with evidence this time when I looked up to see that Sarah was just a foot away from us.

I crouched down and Arnav followed me.

"We will be caught easily and then, we will make an excuse not to play the next game, okay?" I said and looked up at him. He was looking at me with that same smirk and you know the obvious eyebrow.

"What?" I hissed at him.

"Well, you pulled me behind the bush," he replied with a sly tone.

I punched him in the arm, unable to control my smile and blush.

"Stop doing that," I whispered at him.

"Stop doing what?" he asked innocently.

The bush was pretty small, and we were up so close that his breath fanned my face.

"That irritating raise of the eyebrow," I whispered back, trying to put as much space between us without me being seen.

I wanted to be caught easily but obviously after someone else has been caught otherwise, the kids will literally kill us both if we avoided the denner role and made excuses.

"I don't know what you are talking about," he said, his voice deep. He raised his left eyebrow many times as if challenging me.

"Anyone can do that," I whispered.

"So, then you show me."

I tried stimulating whatever I could to raise one eyebrow. Arnav grinned.

Obviously, I was looking like a joke.

I punched his arm again.

He chuckled and rubbed his arm. I stuck out my tongue at him.

I knew that was not mature but seriously who cares. I had my point clear out and that's what really matters.

"So, you are sixteen too?" he asked.

Obviously, he had heard my mother scream from the window.

"Yes. Wait! You are sixteen too?" I asked, looking up at him.

"Yes! Which college?"

"I am continuing in my school which has a junior college too, S.A.P high school and junior college. You?"

"I don't remember the name..." he said trailing off.

There was a silence and we heard Sarah count. She was only a few numbers away from hundred now.

My legs were getting really dirty from kneeling down on the dry earth. I should have worn those stockings! I thought angrily to myself.

See, in the end, you always regret not taking your mother's advice.

"Hey Trisha, don't move, okay?"

"Why?" I asked looking up at him from the leaves of the bush.

He was looking at my arm.

I looked at my arm too and there was a spider on my arm.

A spider!

A GODDAMMIT spider!

It was black as evil and it was crawling up my arm. I opened my mouth to scream but Arnav scooted forward and covered my mouth with his hand.

"Shh!" he whispered. "We can't risk getting caught, can we?"

He placed his free hand on my upper arm, and we waited. We waited as the spider tickled me as it climbed further up. I was sure that I was turning purple. I hated insects and even more, when they were on my body. I was going to shake it away, but Arnav warned me to stay still.

The spider slowly crawled up Arnav's hand and he let it down on a leaf far away from us.

The spider swiftly crawled away. He looked at me and smiled. Something in my stomach churned when I saw his smile (and not his smirk) and I realized how close we were sitting. His hand was still against my mouth and I blushed softly when I remembered where his other hand was, a moment ago. I was gazing into his deep eyes and he was gazing into mine.

"Trisha didi, caught you!"

We both jumped up a meter or two in surprise. Arnav removed his hand away in a hurry and we scooted away. Sarah grinned at us and said, "You are the denner now!"

***

I walked into the lawn where the food was being served. There were rows of decorated tables and chairs and I saw my mother claim a chair of the last row of tables. I claimed a chair on that table too and noticed my brother walking up to me with Arnav. I looked down trying to avoid eye contact with him. I was more than a little embarrassed with our little show behind the bush.

I heard the chair next to me being pulled by someone and guessing that it was Rohit, I looked up. My eyes met with a pair of deep eyes and I had that feeling again when he smiled down at me. I blushed before noticing that Rohit had claimed the seat next to him. I looked down avoiding eye-contact and his arm brushed against mine as he pulled his chair nearer to the table. I concentrated on my empty plate and watched as the waiters went around serving food.

He was talking to Rohit about something and I don't know why I kind of felt neglected.

"Oh! Trisha loves him too!" I heard Rohit say and both of them looked at me.

"Who?" I asked trying to ignore the way Arnav was staring at me, intently.

"Kohli. We are talking about the big match between India and Pakistan," Rohit explained.

"Yes, I love him!" I proclaimed still looking at Rohit.

"I am not much of a fan of him," Rohit declared, looking at Arnav.

"I bet you anything that he will be leading us to victory tomorrow," Arnav stated.

"That's the same thing Trisha is saying for the past many days. You guys are more like siblings than Trisha and I will ever be," Rohit mumbled, moving his plate forward for the waiter to serve him.

"Thank god, we aren't," Arnav whispered, looking at me.

I glared at him and he winked.

After the waiter served me the starters, I realized that something was touching my leg. Wait! It was not something but someone's leg that was touching my leg. I looked at Arnav and he was busy eating his food. I looked down and yes, it was the devil's leg. I guessed that he must have thought that it was the leg of the table and I moved it away slowly, trying not to gain his attention, but again, he moved it to place it against mine. I didn't know why he did that, and it was really annoying. I couldn't concentrate at the food but only think about his leg pressed against mine. I moved it slowly away and he placed his leg again, next to mine, and this time he was tapping it slowly with his. Now I was sure that he knew that it was my leg.

I kicked him but he kept his leg pressed against mine and tapped it softly every now and then.

"Stop it!" I hissed at him, not wanting to gain any attention towards me.

"Stop what?" he asked, looking up from his plate, his signature smirk returning.

"This," I said, tapping him hardly on his leg with my leg.

"Are you flirting with me, Miss Trisha Shetty?"

I glared at him and continued eating my food, angrily as he continued with his little joke.

Okay, enough was enough, I thought.

I elbowed my fork and watched it fall off the table.

"Oops," I said before bending down to pick it up. I picked up my fork and found his foot a few centimetres away from my face.

I stabbed it.

With my fork.

You might call me aggressive, but I would like to call it 'self-defence'.

Arnav screamed, "ouch!" and people around our table and on our table looked at him. I stood up again and sat on my chair and slowly turned to him.

"Oh! I am extremely sorry. Did I hurt you?" I asked in a sickly-sweet tone.

"It fine," he mumbled through gritted teeth.

For the rest of the dinner, he kept his legs fairly away from mine and I kept smiling at him, triumphantly but now, he was the one who avoided any eye-contact as he kept his head down to the food.

***

We were about to leave when my parents said that they wanted to see the bride one last time and went up the stairs. After a short while of waiting, Rohit grumbled something about finding our parents and went up the stairs too. I spotted Arnav coming up to me.

"So, uhm, bye!" he said, with a swift wave of his hand.

"Guess we won't meet again," I replied, and I don't know why, I found that thought disappointing even though I had not forgiven him for that stunt of his.

"Guess someone owes me a 'thank you'."

"For what?"

"For saving you from the spider," he exclaimed, looking at his arm and mimicking me when I had panicked on seeing that spider.

"It could have bit me!" I argued, scowling.

"And then you would have been spider-woman," he said and laughed at his own joke.

"Very funny! Goodbye, Arnav Malhotra. If fate wants it, we will meet again," I said, watching Rohit and my parents coming down.

"I bet it does!" he replied, eyes twinkling and walking away.

Something in the way he said it, made me want to believe that too.