Strings Of Love

Chapter 22

Shehnaaz stared at her ceiling in the bedroom and then the floor, the leakage had only increased since a few days and all she could do was remind their landlords about the problem.

"Barsaat ka mausam hai. Seelan toh aam baat hai, itne me kaise repairing chahiye? Itne kam kiraye pe aapko ghar diya hai, thoda adjust kar lo beta." The lady had replied to all her requests at once.

She was worried that, if not for her, Amrit wouldn't like to come over to her place if the problem wouldn't be solved. She wished she could get the job done on her own if she wouldn't have taken Amrit for shopping who spent like half of Shehnaaz's savings on her sandals. Not that she minded, she was all set to spoil her little sister with everything she could because the two had reconciled after a really long time. Maybe she needed to save more, cut off her expenditures a little to manage the repairs on her own and take care of Amrit as well. She was wondering if she should move to a new place, the poor condition of the wall and her landlords were becoming a good reason lately, also she thought if she could move to a place closer to Amrit's, it would be better.

A notification on her phone caught her attention, she unlocked the screen to find a text from Sidharth. It was a movie he was recommending to her to watch. She smiled, these days he would send her movies on without asking for any and would leave behind a short and precise review on it.

Well, thinking about him, she really didn't have that crush on him anymore. She began to see him in a different light since he told her he hadn't moved on from his past and she respected his wishes enough to be friends with him. However, she simply couldn't ask herself to retrieve all those feelings she had developed for him but she surely was able to distance herself in a romantic way. He was an amazing friend she didn't want to lose and in fact, slowly things were getting back to normal. This reminded her of their last conversation at Sprinkles when he had stopped by to pick up his cupcakes.

"Hii, Good Evening!" He greeted her, leaning against the counter.

"Very Good Evening, aaj ache mood me hai?" She asked him.

"Ha, abhi tak toh." He shrugged, chuckling a little.

"Kaha hai mera order? La jaldi." He said, eagerly looking around for a packed box.

"Do minute ruk ja, it's almost ready." She replied and turned to look into the kitchen about the same.

"Ya toh ready hoga, ya nahi hoga. Almost ready kya hota hai?" He asked her.

"Mera matlab hai, ready honge cupcakes bas pack karna hai." She replied, wondering why he was in such a hurry. If he was leaving for his sister's place he must have wrapped up all his work in the office.

"Honge? Matlab tujhe pata nahi hai ke mera order ready hai bhi ya nahi?" He shot another question much to her annoyance.

"Ha! Nahi pata, baith jana do minute. Abhi la ke deti hu." She replied, running out of patience.

"Yaha ki service ab pehle jaise rahi nahi. Batao? Customer regular kya ho jata hai, value nahi rehti." He mumbled, tapping his fingers on the glass counter, rhythmically.

"Aaya bada regular! 2-3 baar ko regular nahi bolte! Regular customer hote hai unke jaise!" She pointed over to a guy, sitting at the corner most table of the cafeteria.

"Maine join kiya Sprinkles tab se dekh rahi hu, week me do baar aate hai, wahi baith te hai aur simple si light sugar wali coffee peete hai. Sirf Mary aunty ki hath ki aur kabhi kabhi croissant. That's it." She further told him, as both of them looked at the guy, a middle-aged man dressed in an off white shirt and black trousers wearing a pair of rimmed spectacles. It looked like he was somewhere around Mary's age but still young and maintained to be middle aged. At times she felt like the guy used to be there just for Mary but didn't dare share her thoughts with anybody, till she was sure about it.