Once Upon A Hullabaloo!

CHAPTER 22

A special shout-out to loveYJHD for coming up with a creative tag for this book- #omantij

Somehow makes my lead characters more real. Thanks girl :*

Omanah's pov:

The peach bandage around my sprained ankle was celebrating it's thirty-eighth hour with me and yet it all seemed to have happened in a distant past. This had started off by being a 90's sitcom but had turned into a suspense-drama series eventually. Kshitij had gone from being a random handsome stranger to a dark, irresistible protagonist of these surreal events. I was having a tough time wrapping my head around his history and 'complicated' could just be a beginning to a thesis paper on it.

"Welcome back miss Thakkar!" Julie greeted me with her sunshine smile but it vanished as soon as her eyes fell on my slightly limping leg, "Did you hurt yourself?"

"Kind of. I will be good to go in a couple of days." I gave her an assurance, "Thanks for looking after the cafe."

"That's my job!" She nodded with a grin.

Before she could ponder on the details of the accident, I walked away to the cashier counter. Magic Beans was full of the familiar faces who started their day with our special cup of coffee everyday. I exchanged smiles and acknowledging nods with a few nameless faces who were strangers, yet a regular part of my life.

"Good morning!" A sudden chorus made me jump on my seat.

"Wow!" I pressed a hand against my hammering chest, "Trying to kill me?"

My four friends gave a dismissive shrug.

Drishti gave a creepy grin, "We are here to talk."

I rolled my eyes, "Haven't we done enough of that yesterday night?"

Naina bit her lips, "Look, we might have over-reacted a little yesterday but--"

"They did." Kavya and Zalak pointed at the other two.

Drishti narrowed her eyes at them, "You two weren't any better! You tried giving Kshitij make-out advice. Congratulations! You two single-handedly creeped out a grown-up man!"

"--But," Naina's one look shut them up and she continued, "The more important thing to concentrate on is- What next?"

"What next?" I asked her.

"You tell us." Kavya said, "Where does this leave you and Kshitij?"

I opened my mouth but had no idea as to what to say. Where did it leave us? Kshitij had asked me the same question when we were travelling back home and I didn't have the answer then, when I didn't know a crucial part of his past and who he really was. Now, with this all new piece of information to digest, I was nothing but more clueless about 'us'- if there actually existed something like it.

"Omanah." A man's voice called out, a voice that was well engraved in my memory.

For a moment there, I almost forgot to breathe.

He strode to the cashier counter and stopped in front of me, "Can we talk in private?"

I let out the held breath in an audible sigh.

Naina eyed Kshitij and said, "We will be back in five minutes."

The four of them hurried away to the reading nook.

"Omi, I-- we--" He raked a hand through his hair, looking everywhere but at me, "You know, we should---"

"Kshitij--"