Fate has brought them to the same city. Unsaid words, incomplete arguments, and a strange promise tie them together. A promise none of them is willing to break. They want to have nothing to do with each other. But life has other plans.
Ishvika Bhatt...
As we walked into the conference hall which we had decided was the meeting place, Anquit stood up. A moment later, everyone else in the room did the same. He must be the leader of the team.
"Good afternoon! My name's Ishvika and I'll be guiding you all for the next few months."
Even as I said it, I could see the realisation dawn on Anquit's face. I knew he knew that I'd failed to mention that I was the Managing Editor. I walked up to him, stretching my hand,
"Nice to meet you, I'm Ishvika," my heart was pounding out of nerves in my chest at our proximity and I willed it to calm down.
"Likewise, and my name's Anquit," He replied, shaking my hand. The irony of the entire situation was not lost to me. If there was anyone in the room who didn't need to introduce themselves, it was us. And yet, here we were.
***
The next half an hour found me rambling on about how things in our office worked, making sure I looked everywhere but at the cluster of newcomers. However, the short glance I spared in their direction had me making eye contact with Anquit. I knew the look he had on his face all too well. His mouth was pulled into a frown, as if I was some puzzle he couldn't quite solve while his eyes bore questions I could not answer, didn't want to answer.
When the tour got over, I led them to the conference room, calling for Mrs. Sabharwal as well as beckoning Shreya on the way there. She had other work to do and had, very unfortunately might I add, left me to deal with the "guests" alone. As we all took a seat in the room and the meeting commenced, I got lost in my thoughts, doodling random things in my notebook instead of making notes. Shreya would mail the minutes to me later anyways. It was then that I felt someone's eyes on me. I shifted in my seat, looking down at my watch, pretending to check the time. And from the corner of my eyes, noticed Anquit looking down at his own wristwatch. So he was staring at me. Suddenly, I was very conscious of myself. Knowing you were the subject of someone's stare was bad enough, knowing it was him just made it worse. Just then, Mrs. Sabharwal concluded the meeting, causing me to silently sigh in relief, as she assigned all of us tasks for the week before dismissing us for the day. Since it was just half an hour to 5, I and Shreya decided to wrap up early and go out for dinner.
Anquit too seems to have had the same idea. For as we walk out of the lobby discussing places we could go to, he stood there, with two people I recognised as part of his team.
"Hey! The name's Shreya. Glad to be working with you and your entire team."
"Hey, Shreya! Nice to meet you. I'm Anquit." He smiled back at her before shaking her outstretched hand.
"Planning to go out somewhere?"
"Yeah,"
"How about you join us?"
No no no. This was not happening. Please say no! Please say no! I kept chanting in my head as Anquit turned to the guys behind him.
"Sure, we don't mind."
Okay. Okay. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. You can do this. You can do this. No, you can't.
I tried telling myself that it wasn't a big deal. We were going out in a group. Nothing could go wrong. Unbeknownst to my inner ordeal, Shreya replied to them, "That's great!" before turning to me and asking me to call Pragya too and ask if she's free.
"Ye-Yeah sure," I replied, pulling my phone out of my purse. Now was not the time to freak out, I told myself. Strangers. Strangers. Strangers. I kept repeating that to myself even as I scrolled through my phone for her contact. From the corner of my eye, I could see Anquit's doubtful face, as if asking, to no one in particular, if this is the same Pragya he thinks it is. Good question, Anquit, good question. I thought to myself as I dialed the contact saved under the name "Mouse🐭😂💞". Funny story, how that came about. But that's for another day.
"Hi! you free? We were planning to go out today." I said as soon as she picked up. I was vaguely aware of everyone else being able to hear my side of our entire conversation, but I could not care less.
"Haa! Aaj kaam jaldi khatm ho gaya. Where do we meet? Our usual place?" (Yes! I got done with work early today.)
"Well, aaj we're more people than usual so let's go somewhere else? Currently, we're still at my office and since tera office is in Bandra let's all meet halfway kahi toh jahan there's a good place to eat also." (aaj- today, tera- your, kahi toh- somewhere, jahan- where) As I said that, I caught Shreya looking up something in her phone. Must be looking for good places to eat between Andheri and Bandra.
"Chalega. Ek second, more people than usual? How many more?" (Chalega- fine with me, ek- one)
"Total 6 of us."
"Oof okay! Kaun, lekin, yeh to bata." (But who? At least tell me that)
I sighed, "Long story. Baad mai batau?" (I'll tell you later?) I could see how Anquit's eyebrows shot up at that but I pretended not to notice it.
"Works! You guys decide a place and text me the address, cool?"
"Cool!"
An hour later, we were walking into a quaint restaurant cafe with a soothing ambience. Pragya had already arrived and was seated at the table for 6 Shreya had had the foresight to reserve online. The place was almost full and without a reservation, we might have had to wait to get a seat.
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Pragya waved us over and got up to hug me and Shreya before looking over to our company. If she recognised Anquit, she did a pretty good job of hiding her surprise. It wasn't hard to recognise him. Apart from the maturity of years added to his face, it still had that boyish charm I remembered from High School. She didn't know of our strange promise to pretend to be strangers and I wouldn't be surprised if she treated him as an old friend.
"Hey! Anquit right?" She asked him.
"Yep! The one and only!" He joked as his companions stood behind him awkwardly.
She laughed in response before greeting the other two of our newfound friends, Rohit and Vishal, whom we were introduced to on our way here. Vishal, a college friend and now co-worker of Anquit's and Rohit, a recently joined colleague.
As we sat down, Pragya turned to Anquit, who was sitting in the seat opposite to hers,
"So who's the lucky girl?" Even though I couldn't see Pragya's face, I could hear the smirk in her voice. And I knew her enough to know that she was waggling her eyebrows at him. That's when I understood the meaning of her sentence, I looked towards her, wondering what made her think that, only to realise she was gesturing to his right hand, which had a sleek platinum ring sitting on its ring finger.
***
*cackles* Okay okay, down with the pitchforks people, down with the pitchforks! All hope is not lost yet for our favourite couple! Hope you like the chapter. If you do, be sure to vote!!
