“Parlez-Vous Anglais?” Siddharth asked someone on their way to Jungfrau in Switzerland and drove on after hearing ‘non’ from him.

“You speak French?” Karishma asked looking impressed.

“I just asked him in a very bad accent if he spoke English,” he replied making her grin. “That shopkeeper is definitely American. He should be able to help me. I am slightly confused about the route. Just wait here.”

He got the directions and marked the place on his GPS device and then they drove on.

“This is my favourite place in Europe,” he said when they reached at the intended place, “Probably in the whole world.”

“Why?”

“When you are here, you are literally on the top of Europe,” he smiled.

“Being on top, being a winner is important to you, isn’t it?”

“And it’s not so to you?”

“I don’t care much, I guess… Being happy is more important.”

“You think I should change?”

“No. Not at all. This is what makes you happy; so why should you change?” she said, then added jokingly, “But yes – this is just the top of Europe, not the top of the world.”

“Yeah. For that we have to go to Nepal. But somehow being on top of Nepal doesn’t sound particularly exciting. Europe is a different beast,” he grinned in reply.

“Can I ask you something?” she suddenly turned serious.

“Go on.”

“I never understood something about you… Why me? I mean you are someone who likes to win and win the best. How did I ever become important to you? Why did you want to crush me? Then win me over? Then want or…”

“Love you?” he completed her sentence.

She nodded in reply.

“So you want to know my story?”

“Yes.”

“Do you remember when we had met for the first time?”

“All too well!”

“It wasn’t an accident that I had asked to meet the writing team. I had wanted to meet you.”

“What? Why?” Karishma visibly jumped in surprise.

“I had been watching the episodes of the serial… I hated it. I am sorry, but I did. And yet, every third week there was something likable about it. After poking around a bit, I figured that it was always the week when you wrote the screenplay.”

“And so you came to meet me and give me an offer for acting? Makes no sense.”

“No. I just came to meet you. And…”

“And?”

“And fell for something. Probably your defiance.”

“I was irritated, all right. You had sent the entire office in frenzy by coming when Diksha Ma’am was not there and by insisting on meeting the writers when Ritesh Sir was not there.”

“Yeah. Most people I know would just have been nervous and scared. It was different with you. And if you have seen the movie, you would know why I wanted to cast you.”

“And you assumed that I would want to act.”

Siddharth laughed, “What can I say? Obviously it sounds stupid now. But almost everyone I know in the industry comes here with acting ambitions. I could never have imagined… Anyway. You were different again.”

“And you got angry with me?”

“That’s what I thought. That you were giving attitude to me and I had to show you your place.”

“What do you mean by ‘thats what you thought’? Isn’t that the truth?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because if that were the case, when I saw you breaking down and crying, on our…” he stopped and sighed before continuing, “wedding night, I should have felt victorious, elated. But I only felt miserable.”

Karishma looked at him curiously. He gave a faint smile and continued, “That’s when I realized that… I wasn’t angry with you. I had fallen for you. Fallen so hard that… I didn’t know how to handle it. Now you shouldn’t be surprised that I probably did awkward things after that.”

“Nothing in the world can every surprise me again. This is… just… beyond… imagination,” she seemed to be struggling to find the right words to describe how she felt about it.

“Is it?”

“This is such a filmy story. I can’t believe I am a character in it.”

Siddharth laughed out loud, “So, should we make a movie on it? We can act together.”

“No way. You will have to find another actress. I will burst out laughing doing those scenes.”

“You are finding it funny?”

“Not funny… But this doesn’t sound real either.”

“You have more power over me than you realize.”

“Is it?”

“Yes.”

“Can I try to use it then?”

“Don’t misuse it.”

“I am not insisting. Just an advice…”

“Yeah?”

“Get Diksha Ma’am back. Letting go of a bit of business won’t hurt you. Make it a separate company or whatever. But it would be worth regaining the relations.”

“Hmm…”

“Ideally relationships should not be affected by business. But we don’t live in an ideal world.”

“You are not insisting, right?”

“No way.”

He smiled, “Fine. I will think about it. But the truth is… That I don’t need anyone else now. I have you.”

“Let’s just say I am trying to reduce my work,” she said jokingly.

“Getting a sister back is not going to reduce your work unfortunately,” he replied naughtily and bent down to kiss her.

– The End –