Disha-

"Hii!!! Long time no see!" I said to Mia with a hug.

"You are right, it's been a long time indeed!" she said with another hug.

"When was the last time we met?" I asked trying to recall.

"Matthew - Joe's wedding?" she said arching an eyebrow, with a question mark reflecting doubt.

"No, I wasn't there when you guys had arrived. I had gotten a call from my uni so I had to leave. We had met at the reception", I replied as I finally remembered.

"Oh!! Must be it!" she said with a laugh.

"By the way, you've gotten even prettier," she said with a spark in her eyes.

Honestly, it's not necessary for her statement to be true. Because it's just one of the things that girls say to each other . Completely meaningless things. So, I didn't pay any attention to that either.

"So, have you!! Your love life must be going too well... " I gave a soft laugh but then I remembered that, in our culture we can't say these things to someone who is older than us in age.

"I mean, don't they say that girls give out a special glow when their love life goes well?!" I tried to explain with an awkward smile.

"Disha, it's okay!! I understand. And thank you for the compliment. My husband is actually too good," she let out a soft proud smile.

"Glad to hear that", I said with a genuine smile.

As we were talking more, suddenly a flashed light flickerd. She pointed towards the car that had been playing with the front lights.

"Did you ordered uber? I mean did you come here in uber? Did you forget to pay?" she asked pointing towards the car.

"No, ah!! Look at me I completely forgot", I said embrassingly hiding my face.

And then I went to the car and asked him to come out because I wanted to introduce him with her. Even though distant, but still we are relative. And in my culture we value relations a lot.

"Sorry, I forgot. Let me formally introduced you with each other. Raidan, this is Mia, Matthew's elder sister, remember Matthew?" I asked with a smile that I would call showoff.

"Yeah, your cousin's husband", he said completely unbothered.

"My sister actually," I said under my breath.

"Anyways , Mia this is Raidan, my fiance".

She gave me look which I believe said 'where did you find a handsome man like him?'.

"Joe told me about it but I thought she was pranking me", she gave a snort and added, "nice to meet you. Treat her well".

"Sure, nice to meet you as well", Raidan replied, decently.

"I heard the wedding is in 100 days, don't you think that you are rushing...?" "Given the fact that you guys aren't in a relationship yet, don't you think that maybe falling in love at first would be better", she quickly added but in our mother language.

"It's 10 days actually... We are gonna get married on May 1st", I said with an embarrassing yet shy smile.

"And honestly Mia, love is like a fairy tale to me.... I've seen it, I've heard of it but never really got to experience it. And I'm not even sure if I want to.... So I'm leaving everything on fate", I replied in our mother language, also I added a sad smile at the end.

Well yeah I hid the fact that I was already in love with the man who is going to be my husband just in 10 days. Because I don't have the time to explain. And honestly I don't think I'm lucky enough to be loved by an amazing man like him.

"But still..." Mia tried to say something but I stopped her.

"If it's meant to be, it'll be. Also don't they say that after marriage, love somehow happens. So, I'm gonna give it a try. And anyways, I know I must have committed a lot of sins, so I don't want to add more to that, by establishing haram relationship", I finished with a grin.

This whole time Raidan has been looking in between us in an awe. Bet he's never seen me speaking in this language before.

Mia seemed to think deeply about what I said and when she finally realized the facts in what I said she nodded. It's really cold today, and I suddenly got chills, maybe because I've been standing on the street for quite sometimes.

"Look at me, I forget to ask you to come inside and have been talking here. Come on, let's go inside and then we can chat more", Mia said with a smile trying to hide the embrassment.

"Yeah, I also forgot to take out the gift. Actually Joe had asked me to choose some gift but I don't really know what kids of her age would like. So, I've got this chocolate box, hope she likes chocolate, also this red packct", I said as I took out the gifts.

"Oh it's so thoughtful of you", Mia said taking a few steps towards her apartment door. We followed her, I mean I followed her and Raidan followed me.

"Come on, come inside and take a seat. What would you like for drink? Coffee?? Cold drink?" she said as she opened the door and took a few steps in.

We didn't join her though. We stood infront of the threshold, waving a no, on her way.

"Sorry Mia. Some other time maybe. He's actually busy, he's got some work in New York City so we'll have to leave", I said pointing towards Raidan.

"Come on, a coffee maybe", she insisted.

"Nah, I've already took up too much of his time", I said with a polite smile.

"See you on our wedding. We haven't got the invitation cards done yet, so take our verbal invitation for now. I'll let you know the place and the invitation through email. See ya!!" I said to Mia as we started walking our way back towards the car.

It's been dark for a while now. And the city looks fascinating, full of lights, people, and crowd cheering from place to place. I looked out the window fascinatingly. Even though I didn't look at Raidan but I know that he chuckled looking at me from time to time.

"So.... That was... Something", Raidan initiated a conversation.

"You mean Mia?" I asked looking at him. He is looking straight, at the road.

"Yeah, but I had a question, what did you say to her in your secret language?" he asked, looking at me from the corner of his eyes.

"Nothing special, and for the record that's no secret language, that's my mother language, it's among the top ten in list of the most spoken languages of the world", I said proudly.

"Wow... impressive, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, and I feel proud of that. You know my homeland is a beautiful place with beautiful nature and beautiful seasons. Back home, I hated rain, cause there would be mud everytime it rains. But now I really miss it... And all other things that I used to hate about my surrounding", I suddenly felt homesick.

"Got it!!" he replied.

"What did you get??" I asked him , narrowing my eyes.

"That you are feeling homesick", he said looking at me, almost as if sympathizing with me.

"Do I?" my sort of little successful attempt to avoid the topic. Why little successful?? Because he didn't say a word after that.

"Where are we going now?" I asked, as I looked out to look at the giant buildings of New Year city.

"I've got to meet someone, you'll know once you get there", he said with a smirk.

"On second thought, do you want to take a tour around New York while I get done with my work? Just an option you know, you can choose whatever you want", he said taking a glance at me.

"Can I take time to think about it?" I asked being torn between the two options.

"Sure but you would better make up your mind within 5 minutes, cause we'll reach within that time".

Now my train of calculation is running in the full speed, trying to calculate which option will benefit me the most. As I was thinking I remembered something my best friend had once said.

She said, "Even the most beautiful places looks dull if you are seeing alone".

So, taking lesson from her statement, I decided to stick with the formal option.

"I'll go with you", I said, keeping my eyes on the road so that I can avoid looking into his eyes, if he looks at me.