On the day of a colleague's marriage (part-8)

We deliberated for Nayum bro and his family to join us. We made calls but nothing was answered. "He might be trapped in traffic!", told Raksha's mom. We stopped calling him and waited for a couple of minutes. To our relief, he came with his two daughters dressed in a pretty way alike. "Happy birthday Shyniii.....", Screamed Raksha seeing her friend. Everybody wished her as well; not so excitedly as Raksha though. She responded with her signature muted smile. It added beauty to her angelic aqua marine long frock. 

"Where is your mom?", we probed. Her dad went on before shyni would even open her lipstick tainted mouth, "She isn't keeping well and it was too late...."  

"So....?", I interrupted impatiently, thinking that the entire plan would come to a standstill. 

"So nothing. She will join us for Mukkombu", He completed tracing my suspicion. I grinned with apparent satisfaction. "Flake out!!!", people mocked at me. 

Christina ma'am was still missing. But we couldn't delay further. Finally, all lined up and approached the stage as it was crowded with relatives, but were redirected to the dining before meeting the bride and groom. 

Having no other go we went there and started having the food served. The place where we were seated was secluded and hence we could have wild fun without bothering about the ambiance. I sat between Raksha and her mom. As Raksha was busy with the birthday girl, her mom and I were busy chattering something (which I could hardly remember now). It was just quarter to one when we stood up to wash our hands. Only then we saw Christina mam entering with her teenage son, towering to her shoulders. We waved hands and asked why she was so late. She revealed that she had some other plan so she would eat somewhere outside. She urged us to go back to the stage to meet the bride else, the bride and groom would break for lunch.

(To be continued...)