Only one more hour was left as Anya fumbled with the decor. Technically, Kaynath should have been looking over her side of the shop, but she had been done hours ago.

"This isn't supposed to go here, dummy," Kaynath wrenched the poster from her hand and scowled at her.

"Why are you even here, my dude?" Anya rolled her eyes as Kaynath set the poster up for her, right outside the store. "Shouldn't you be waiting like a proper princess and ordering people around over there?"

"Well, due to my exquisite planning, I finished hours ago," she huffed as she moved around and shifted the flowers from the left to the right.

The flowers not being in the right position annoyed her. What annoyed her even further was that Anya seemed to be slacking off. They could've done better things if it wasn't for her.

Anya waved her hand as the flowers were reset to their positions. "Floristry is an art, it's not about exact patterns or anything."

"According to nature, everything follows..."

"The golden ratio," Anya pursed her lips. "Do you seriously think I don't know my own stuff?"

Kaynath tensed slightly but regained her composure. "Nothing of the sort; it just seemed...a little wild."

"Oh, shut up."

Kaynath didn't say anything after that. Her heart was in a frenzy. The dress felt itchy and she didn't know why she wore the damn thing. Then again, there was no getting away from it either.

"Wear that one, Kaynath," her mom insisted, laying out a peach coloured churidhar set. It had long sleeves embellished with silver sequins that flowed out in patterns. The shawl was heavy; she could tell from one look. All that embellishments on the entire shawl was going to weigh her down. Plus,she had to wear an additional hijab.

She couldn't deny that it wasn't pretty; it was stunning. She ran her hands over it and shuddered. Wrong texture.

Well, that sucked.

"I hate this material; I told you that, ummi," she sighed. "Let me see if I have anything else to wear."

"God, for once, Kaynath, just listen to me," her mother snapped and she looked stunned. "We have a function and you don't want to look anything less than ideal."

What was the use of being a working individual and being over twenty-five, when one couldn't pick what to wear without someone else butting in?

She heard the sound of snapping fingers in front of her face as Anya looked at her inquisitively. "Off to dreamland on your big day?"

"It's your big day too."

Anya's hard expression cracked a little as she turned away. "I guess there's no point in overdoing stuff. Aren't we supposed to bring in someone to inaugurate this stuff?"

"Yeah, Kalyani is coming."

"Oh my gosh, you pulled enough strings to get Kalyani?"

Kalyani was a renowned TV anchor that came on the Flowers channel, hosting fun games.

"I didn't know you were a fan of her."

"Well, yeah, she is pretty pretty."

Kaynath looked at Anya for a moment.

"You don't think so?" Anya looked at her, with a challenging look in her eyes. It seemed she was asking something else

"I've seen better," Kaynath exhaled, keeping eye contact. She tilted her head, awaiting Anya's next move.

Was she implying what she thought Anya was implying? Was Anya like her? And Mirza? Well, it could be. Or not. Then again, why did it matter at all?

"Like who?"

"Like you," Kaynath booped her nose and laughed as Anya looked flustered.

"You play many games," she mumbled. "Where are your parents, anyways?"

"Oh, fussing a bit over Kulsum, my sister. She's just come so, yeah. She gets special treatment, I suppose."

"Isn't she older than you?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, so your confectionary is named after her? I thought it was just a random name," Anya looked curious and her eyes widened.

"Apparently not so random," Kaynath sighed.

"Do you not get along with your sibling?" Anya asked curiously as she leaned on the table.

"Careful with the table, there's some rogue flowers and thorns on it," Kaynath responded.

"Thorns?" Anya inspected the table and sure enough, several thorns stuck out from the lilies, which wasn't supposed to be possible. She waved her hand as they dissolved into dew drops.

"Your emotions control all these. If we can't keep them in check, we're going to have more than some screaming guests. Are you scared about something?"

"Don't go all therapist on me, Kaynath. You know I'm worried about Mirza. And this. Goddamn. I don't even know if my parents will attend. My brother isn't here, though I'm sure he will gloat more than support."

"I'm sure Mirza will be fine," Kaynath responded, lightly touching her arm. "She's strong. We can go see her after all this, alright?"

"I guess."

"And as for the fact about parents...I sort of get it. Nothing you do is good enough, I guess?"

Anya opened her mouth and then closed it like she was overthinking it. She nodded and moved a bit away as she sniffed and Kaynath didn't know what to do. Was she someone who liked to be left alone when she felt down?

She walked to the box where the sweet boxes were carefully wrapped in a cloth, held in a carton as she removed the cloth. It wasn't an exact number, but they did expect over a hundred people, at least.

She picked the jalebi box and opened it. She probably shouldn't have. She didn't know if her mom would pick a fight. But it was a box of five, and it would be okay. They would be serving them in paper plates anyways.

"Hey," Kaynath ventured over to her cautiously. "Want a jalebi?"

"So you can read my mind?"

"Well, no. These were made by Kulsum."

"Oh great, so now some stranger would know my thoughts."

"Kulsum doesn't have my gift. She likes making these, but they're...not her passion. Her gifts lie elsewhere."

"Really?"

"Yeah, just trust me, okay? Jeez."

"Can't blame me," Anya huffed as she took one from the box. "Aren't these...for the guests?"

Kaynath shrugged. "One or two won't matter. We are serving them on paper plates after all."

"Why, didn't have the capacity for giving full boxes to everyone?" Anya asked as she took a bite of the jalebi.

"Careful! You'll spill the sugar syrup all over the place!" Kaynath grabbed her wrists and held her hand, wiping the dripping syrup.

"Not my fault you didn't give me any tissues."

Kaynath snorted as she looked down at Anya, who was gazing up at her, the jalebi forgotten, her mouth slightly parted and syrup on the side of her lips.

She cleared her throat and quickly moved away, shoving the tissues into Anya's hand. "So. Ahem."

"Very eloquent when you're not flirting," Anya noted.

"Oh, shut up," Kaynath turned away and smiled to herself. Maybe, just maybe, they could work together after all?

***

A/N: Weeee, another chapter. Do you think they're getting closer? Why do you think Mirza isn't responding? The chapter is a bit short, I know, but I also don't wanna stretch it just to meet the word count so it may fluctuate. I'm a bit worried that my quality is going down, but I can't tell. I can only tell that my descriptions have shifted to more dialogue and dialogue is becoming slightly easier?

Vote and comment if you enjoyed this chapter!