Strings Of Love

Chapter 41

Sidharth was shocked, it was half past 9 in the evening when he realized that he forgot about the dinner plans he had with Shehnaaz.

"Fuck man." He mumbled under his breath, watching her name on his phone screen. She had been calling him back to back while his phone was on silent mode and he was attending a meeting.

"Hi, meeting me tha yaar. Sorry, I didn't know it would take so long." He immediately answered.

"Mhm, just a week into it and you stood me up." She teased him.

"I didn't! I'm almost on my way. I'll pick you up and we'll make it to the restaurant. Okay!" He assured, hurriedly grabbing his office bag and leaving.

"Let it be now. We won't be able to make it." She sighed. God, she was upset, he made her upset. Not even a month into the relationship and he wasn't able to take her out for dinner.

"I-I am on my way, just be ready because we're going. Reservation wala chhod, kahi aur chalenge." He replied, hoping to make it up to her anyway.

"Sidharth, koi baat nahi. Ghar pe kha lenge, fir kabhi dinner pe chalenge." She assured him, wondering why he was so persistent about going out tonight. It all began with a simple teasing to see how he would react if she was upset but she didn't know he would become serious about the dinner.

"I'll cook jaldi aana. Okay!" She added to hear him hum and hung up to get started with the dinner preparations.

Sidharth on the other hand drove faster, upset with the lack of efforts from his side. He really didn't realize when the time flew away while he was in the meeting with the board members regarding the new product launch in the making. He made a mental note to make sure this doesn't happen again, until and unless there's an emergency, he'd try his best to take out time for her from his schedule. He had to. Because they weren't simply friends anymore, they were in a relationship now. A legit relationship that expected efforts, time and feelings from both sides to survive. Otherwise, this one would end up like his previous relationship as well.

Time. Time was the thing he couldn't manage between his work and his lovelife and Ishita's reaction to it was history. And as a consequence, he was left behind anxious, insecure and hurt. But a little later he realized that being dumped was the best that could have happened to him because now he got to heal, this breakup highlighted a problem in him and he was now willing to work on it to make things better. After all, every adverse event that came his way was a beckoning for growth. Now he knew what he wanted, from himself, from his former girlfriend, from life and so on. At least now there was nothing stopping him from figuring out what ailed him, what drove him and what inside of him was stopping him from fully being himself. This sort of self discovery took courage, but was entirely worth it after his break up and most importantly, after the closer he got.

But all of this would go in vain if he wouldn't spend enough time with Shehnaaz. Quality time spent together would make the difference and establish better grounds in their relationship. He better work on it, himself and his efforts to let her know that she mattered to him a lot. Words would be meaningless if he couldn't be there.

"Hey!" He entered her flat, greeting her with a hug.

"Jaldi hath muh dho ke aa, mai khana lagati hu." She replied, hugging him back.

"Khushboo aa rahi hai, chicken banaya tune?" He asked, wondering how she got the dinner ready in the minimum time period of half an hour.

"Hmm. Tere liye." She smiled, kissing his cheek and gesturing to him to freshen up and return real quick.

"Napkin?" He asked, while walking towards her bedroom.

"Rakha hai!" She replied while walking towards the kitchen and shook her head, the guy would want everything way too systematically.