Chapter 3: chapter 3

SRUTHI“OH MY GOD! I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU,” gushes my best friend Gabriella throwing her hands around me in a tight hug. I am meeting her in the famous seven-star 'IYU' hotel.I smile in return. It is been a very long time since I saw her. She is a doctor who travels around the country to offer free and cheap services to anyone in need. It is been three years since I last saw her. “How are you?” I ask pulling out of the hug and assessing my friend. She has lost some weight. But looks healthy. Her skin is tanned suggesting she has been travelling in the sun a lot. “Oh, the same old, same old,” she says with a wave of her hand. “Don't you think you have got a lot of explaining to do?” her eyebrows raise in question.I bite my lip to keep myself from grinning. I do have to explain a lot of things to her. Because, the last time I saw her, I was a mopey single who complained about the lack of relationship and romance in her life but now I am getting married to the love of my life.I owe her an explanation.  It is not that I hid my relationship from her. With the travelling she does, she rarely gets any mobile signal and I am not able to frequently contact her. Also, I didn't expect that my relationship would escalate to marriage this quickly. It was only six months ago, that I first met Praveen at a family party. We had a fun conversation and the next thing I knew we were dating. Praveen is the son of the most distinguished businessman in our country. So, my brother wasn't against our relationship. Shoot! I am sure Vikram would have agreed to my marriage even if I brought home a poor jobless man. My brother may over overprotective of me but at the same time, he trusts me to make my life decisions.“Where do you want me to start?” I ask in glee. One of my favorite things in my life now is recounting my love story to whoever will listen. It is not the romance of the century story but it is my story and I always get excited to tell people about it.“Start from the day when you met him,” she replies.“I met him—” Before I could finish the sentence, a loud sound of glass breaking draws our attention to the other side of the hotel. My eyes latch on the source of noise and I can barely keep the disgust away from my face. My brother’s best friend Madhav is standing there with his hands on the collar of another man. Shattered pieces of glass lie at their feet. Madhav has a murderous glint in his eyes and a shudder runs down my body. I watch in horror as Madhav punches the poor man in his clutch. The man splits blood and bile rises in my throat. I quickly look away not wanting to witness the violence. “He hasn’t changed a bit, has he?” Gabriella asks eyeing Madhav with a smitten look. Oddly enough, my best friend always has a thing for the bad and violent guys out there in the world. The dangerous and irresponsible ones are her type. While the safe and responsible ones are my cup of tea. Just like my fiancee. She always had a crush on Madhav. From the way she is eyeing him now, I can say she is still crushing on him. Because he is the very definition of dangerous and violent. I still don’t understand what she can see in him.  I agree he has good looks but that is where the good ends in him.“Earth to Gabe,” I say waving my hand in front of her. She shakes her head and gives me a sheepish look, “Sorry, I can’t stop staring when that guy is hot as sin.”I gag and she swats my arm, “Come on, haven’t you found him hot and handsome even once?”I did find him hot and handsome when I first met him. It was seven years ago and I still remember that fateful meeting. I was a seventeen-year-old girl then and he was twenty years old. The same age as my brother.  Vikram was celebrating his birthday and had brought home Madhav with him. I couldn’t take my eyes off Madhav. I don’t have the people skills that my brother is gifted with.  I hate social situations and putting myself out on display for the crowd. I was awkward and everything that a teen would be when she has a crush on someone. At the end of that night, a fight broke out between someone who had come to the party and Madhav. I don’t know what the fight was all about but I still remember how easily Madhav beat the other man. If my brother hadn’t restrained him, then I am sure that man would have died on the spot. But any crush or admiration I had for Madhav died that day. Because I don't do violence or bloodshed. Those things remind me of the day my parents died. I have PTSD after my parents were murdered most horribly. I have the fear of blood from injuries. I still remember how I would faint just from the sight of a character bleeding on the movie screen. Though my fear is not intense as it was when I was in school, I still feel uncomfortable at the sight of bloodied injuries or violence. So, it is a hardcore no for me to men like Madhav.“It doesn’t matter how good he looks on the outside. All that matters to me is the inside and I know it is rotten in him,” I say in a firm tone laced with disgust and hate. “Woah! That is intense,” Gabriella says with a shake of her head.❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥