DISCLAIMER – This is a work of fiction. All the names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents in this book are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. The story is for entertainment purpose only.

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“Look at this guy, Aria,” Mrs. Evans nagged once again.

She had been persistently asking her daughter to select one of the sons of Mr. Evans’ friends without even considering the fact that her daughter, Aria, was pretty good on her own and did not need to get married to anyone in her life. Her mother was not at all understanding of her daughter’s opinion on getting married.

"Ma, give it up, please," Aria requested and got busy doing her thing on the laptop.

"Just look at him! What do you girls say?" Mrs. Evans raised a question and began thinking about the terminology the younger generation used to define men.

"Yes, hot. He is hot, Aria. Come on, look at him," Mrs. Evans mentioned.

"Ma, please," Aria responded but got up from the chair and walked to the couch that her mother was seated on to look at this "hot" guy because in no way on the planet was her mother going to shut up.

As she looked at the picture of a tall, young, fair and handsome guy, she made an expression which very clearly showed that she was not interested even though he looked good. She had come only to silent her mother and did not intend to choose a groom for her. Looking at her mother with an obvious ugly expression, she said, "I don't want to get married, ma."

When she started walking back to the chair of the dining table where she was sitting and going through her work-related e-mails after the long vacation that she took from office to attend her school friend's wedding, Mrs. Evans commented, "You have to get married at some point, Aria. You cannot continue to be here always. It is high time that you find a suitable mate for you."

Aria was an independent, self-sufficient, and well-managed woman who was just about to be thirty years of age in two years. She had always been busy in sorting out her things, and that is why she never really got involved in doing any of the things girls her age had been a part of in a bit too overexcited fashion especially after the first heartbreak of hers which took her a lot of time for her to accept.

However, she never even craved to live a life like them after the first bitter experience that she had in her high-school. She loved a guy very much back then. It was because that guy persuaded her for a relationship, she agreed to being his girlfriend. They maintained it the platonic kind for close to about one year.

But the guy, Oren, belonged to a different religion and his family moved to a country which supported that religion slightly more than the country they lived in at that point. The guy was as conservative as his family was, and right away he broke up very insensitively with Aria mentioning that he did not want to be with her and explained nothing about the reason. He had initiated the relationship and also the break-up, which did not bode well at all.

Aria found it very hard to move on. Whatever she did, would take her back in time, and she even cried a lot. It was not only for a few days, but it continued for months and a few years. But when she was done with it, she never bothered about falling for anyone again in life. Instead, she was quite happy with herself not having to go through patch-ups and break-ups every other day like the way her best friend, Abigail, used to be a part of constantly. Most times she would even mess up with the name of the guy she was dating with her ex-boyfriend’s name.

It had been a while that Aria’s mom and dad had been after her to get married to a guy who would be able to expand their business. Mr. Evans wanted to retire from work by handing over his business to his only daughter’s husband after getting her married. Aria stayed away from her dad’s business because she was least interested in managing the production of automotive parts. She was more of a creative person.

Her parents had been pushing her to get married to one of the many people Mr. Evans used to work with. Since he had a business that made expensive automotive parts, he was friends with a number of rich people who owned big car showrooms. He wanted Aria to become a car salesperson in her husband’s showroom while her husband could also handle Mr. Evans’ business.

They were equally worried about their daughter as well, but they were pushing her for marriage more because of their business. Aria had never shown any interest in cars and hence expecting her to handle his work did not seem appropriate because only a miracle could get her interested in it. So, Mr. and Mrs. Evans were being realistic in wanting her to marry someone whose family already had a car business in which the guy was also involved as that would be a win-win situation for both families.

After every day's drama of discussing the same matter, it started getting to her badly. She was not the kind of a girl who would want to see her parents upset over anything. She would have to put herself through a situation she was not willing to experience at all. But her mother was actually right; Aria did not have forever and she had to settle down now at least so that she could lead a normal life just like everybody else.

Aria started considering the fact that she actually needed to open her mind and heart to welcome a new phase in her life. In the time that she had such thoughts in her mind, the message tone of her phone rang which caught her attention. A smile automatically showed up on her face on seeing the name of the person who messaged her. She immediately picked up her phone to reply to his message.