Page 33 of A King's Oath

“I am in,” Gopi declared. “Look, Kresh, now we can go to Valley of Flowers and not worry about leaving on time.”

“Hmm…” she chewed her lip, still debating. Harsh was busy writing down something on a tissue paper as Kirti didi peered in. Their flight plan, no doubt.

“What about you?” Samarth asked Ava. “Helicopter is fine? Not that we have an option. It is Rawal’s command.”

Ava frowned — “Why didn’t your father offer you a helicopter from the get-go?”

“He did. I fought my way through it. Harsh and I, both. We wanted to come here independently, by road, do this on our own.”

Her amused brows shot up — “And look what happened. You are still going back in a helicopter.”

“That’s my Papa,” he laughed. “He always makes us think we are in charge. And in the end he gets his way. He always plays the long game, loses the battles to win the war. I know it in theory. But every time I get caught up in it.”

“See, I told you, you are not as bright as they think you are…” she leaned in with an impish grin.

“Poha, poha, poha…” the waiter began setting their plates in front of them. Piping hot lemon-yellow-coloured poha for him, Ava and Kirti didi. Puri-aloo for Harsh and Gopi, and two sad toasts for Kresha.

“She will ask me now — How does your poha taste?” Ava whispered in his ear. And as if the sisters had timed it, Kresha looked at her younger sister with an eager smile — “How’s you poha, Ava?”

“Great!” His girlfriend fisted sev greedily from a bowl and sprinkled generously atop her poha, ignoring her. Had he just called her hisgirlfriendin his head? Samarth stilled.

“Try with this,” she began to throw in some sev on his plate too and he snapped out. He pulled it away — “No thank you.”

“Arey it’s really good, trust me!” She pushed over his lap, trying to reach his plate. When he didn’t relent, she just threw the fistful of sev into her mouth.

“Is it spicy, let me see…” Kresha didn’t relent and Ava smirked at him, passing her plate to her sister.

“Now it’s not coming back,” she whispered in his ear again. Samarth waited, eyeing her inconspicuously. And sure enough, Kresha dug into the poha with sev, or rather, a heap of sev over some poha. Ava raised her hand to repeat the order. He just pushed his plate towards her.

“What? For me?” She asked, her eyes going starry.

He chuckled — “Yes. Why are you so surprised?”

“I’m not surprised… but it’s what a boyfriend would do for his girlfriend, no?”

He swallowed. Then — “I’m practising.”

That wide grin, those dimples close to her lips.

“Then let’s practise together,” she fisted more sev and filled half the plate with it. Then grabbed two spoons, passed one to him, and dug in. He dug into his side, but soon her sev began to trickle into his bites, and frankly, he didn’t even mind at this point. Until he realised she was purposefully pushing it into his portion.

“Hey!” He shouldered her. “Stop feeding me sev on poha. Poha is supposed to be eaten as is, or with a kachumbar of tomatoes, chillies and onions!”

“You wait now I’ll covert you,” she popped a bite of sev topped with some poha into her mouth. Samarth tried to find poha without sev in his plate but she had mixed it all up. Created a mess. He had never been happier losing.

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The weather softened, the sun hid behind the clouds, and just as they entered the route to hike up the Valley of Flowers, it started raining. With Harsh’s intense research and prep, they had all carried windcheaters and were bundled up before long, laughing, huddling together, even hooting.

“There go your photos, Kresha!” Ava shot out over the noise of the drizzle.

“I know!” She shouted back, grinning. Then she twirled, dancing close to Gopi. “Let’s do rain photos!”

Samarth looked on in awe as Harsh pulled out his phone and did the honours. He couldn’t believe it. His Harsh, the anti-social guy, who wouldn’t look at other kids in Nawanagar, was now grunting and nodding and taking photos? Samarth made a mental note to interrogate his sudden love for this group. Was it Kirti didi?

“Let’s go! Guys, chalo, chalo, chalo!”

Yet again, Ava skipped in front of him, leading the group. This time he caught up with her and handed her the walking stick he had grabbed. They had all acted super cool and left theirs in the car.

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