Tujhse Hain Raabta

The Meeting

PLEASE READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE END

11:20 a.m., the time on her smartwatch read. She was twenty minutes late in reaching the cafe. Overthinking got in the way and she spent way more time calming her mind than getting ready to meet her mother's selection.

Scanning the rooftop, her eyes landed on a man dressed in all black, he had his shades on and his hair was swept back, not a strand out of place. His left leg was stretched out and he glanced at his watch with his eyebrows furrowed. Straightening her kurti that her mother forced her to wear, she made her way to him.

"Hi! Arnav?" The man looked up from his watch and removed his shades. He got upand extended his hand towards her. He sure does look the same as his photo, Kritika thought.

"Hi." He greeted back, curtly.

"I'm Arnav Randhawa. Please sit."

"I'm extremely sorry about the wait. I was stuck in traffic." She apologised, feeling embarrassed. "I'm Kritika, by the way."

"No issues." There it was again, his words were too short and curt.

Kritika didn't know how to talk further, all her preparation flew into the sky the second his eyes landed on her. He was too intimidating for her.

"I thought I was being stood up." Arnav spoke up, breaking the silence. His voice now carried an undertone of ease.

"You're sitting, though." His change in expression gave away that her joke fell flat.

"I was joking," she clarified. Her voice got lower as she finished that sentence. They were definitely not vibing.

They haven't even properly introduced themselves yet and things have gotten too awkward. Running a finger on her temple, Kriti decided she needs to take charge of this meeting for it to reach an end.

"Tell me about yourself," she asked.

"My name is Arnav Randhawa. I'm 33 years old and I've recently retired from the army." He answered, like he was reading off a teleprompter.

"You're 33?"

Wrong question, Kritika! She chided herself upon seeing his questioning gaze.

"Yes. Tell me about yourself."

"I'm Kritika Singh. I'm 27 years old and I'm currently working as a Marketing Manager." She said, matching his no nonsense tone.

"Why did you retire?"

"I had an ACL injury. I had to undergo a surgery 2 weeks ago for my left knee. Currently, I've got physiotherapy going on."

Kriti absorbed his words, one by one. "How are you dealing with all this?". She internally winced as those words rolled out of her. She sounded like a therapist. It didn't help that Arnav seemed nonchalant about all this.

Shockingly, Arnav's face of calm and cool slipped away. Even though it was just for a second, she noticed. He didn't expect her to ask him this particular question.

Straightening himself, "it hasn't been easy but so far I feel like I've made okay progress". As expected his answers are always short and straight to the point. 

"Is this your first time meeting someone for marriage?", Kriti asked, sipping her latte.

"Yes."

"Figured. You haven't asked me much and all your answers aren't longer than two sentences." Arnav suddenly felt like he was the biggest jerk on the planet. He wanted this. No one forced him and it was time to act like it.