Page 206 of 12 Years
The audience’s eyes remained glued to Payal, wondering what she would do next.
She walked sideways, even as people in her row folded their legs in to enable her to come out to the aisle. She walked up to the stage.
We stood facing each other. The crowd made no sound.
Payal held the microphone in front of me and fumbled to find the switch. She turned it off. Only she and I could hear each other now. The audience could only see us.
She shook her head and smiled. We talked to each other in whispers.
‘What?’
‘Saket, if this is somehow a part of your act, and if all this ends in a prank or a joke, I’ll kill you,’ she said.
‘No, obviously not,’ I said and smiled, even as I teared up. ‘I did all this preparation for weeks.’
‘Okay, fine then,’ she said.
‘I’m sorry. I messed it up again.’
‘No, you didn’t mess it up,’ Payal said, her eyes filling with tears.
‘Be mine, forever? Will you?’
‘I always was,’ she said, not missing a beat.
We looked at the audience. They watched us in silence, with full concentration, as if watching a suspense movie, on mute.
‘What do we do next?’ she said.
‘I don’t know. Maybe we should kiss?’
‘In front of everyone? My parents are here. My colleagues are here.’
‘That’s true.’
‘I don’t really care though,’ Payal said.
‘Okay, then,’ I said, and took a step closer to her.
She stepped forward as well.
‘But wait, the media is also here,’ I said. ‘This will be in the papers tomorrow.’
‘That’s also true.’
‘You know what? I don’t really care either,’ I said.
‘The audience is waiting, Saket,’ Payal said. ‘Either we leave the stage or—’
Before she could finish, I bent forward and planted a big kiss on her.
Whistles. Hoots. Cheers. The crowd went into a frenzy as we continued to kiss. Everyone apart from two people, of course—Mr and Mrs Grumpy Jain. The two Jains were upset and wanted to leave. However, the crowd got to its feet and started to clap, making it difficult for them to exit.
I switched on the mic and spoke to the audience.
‘Sorry to have cut the sound, guys, but as you must’ve already figured, she said yes.’
Another round of laughter, applause, cheers and whistles followed.
