Hey, Waiter!

Antonio .1.

A good Italian restaurant. Was that too much to ask for?

I thought so. I'd been in India for the past ten years of my life and never had I ever found a restaurant which served Italian food.

Yeah, yeah I knew that there were Italian restaurants around but they served Indianised Italian to my utter annoyance. However much the food tasted delicious, it still had the Indian essence to it.

If you weren't an immigrant from Italy like me, you wouldn't understand my plight.

As I went on brooding over it, I got dragged into the new restaurant which had opened just last month.

"Pakhi," I started, looking at my girlfriend wearily.

"Let's just hope they have good Italian. I think they do!" She sounded rather excited. I had noticed the way she was unnaturally happy today, I might as well not break her happy bubble.

I wasn't going to anyway, she sure needed a break from her depressing situation and it's been a long time I'd seen her so happy. I wondered who or what was the matter behind this.

The doorman did an over exaggerated namaste before holding the door open for us to enter. For a newly opened restro, they seemed to have invested all the way out. The interior decorations caught my attention before the waiter came up.

"Table for a couple?"

"Yeah," Pakhi nodded happily.

"Follow me, please," the waiter said with an impossibly huge grin plastered on his face.

As soon as we got a table and took our seats, the devil of my phone started ringing loudly, attracting the other diners' attention.

I looked at Pakhi apologetically. "I have to take this."

"Ants, you are working overtime," she said, annoyance clearly etched on her face.

"Don't call me that in public," I hissed back at her.

"I doubt if anyone knows you here." She just waved it off.

"I'm sorry girl, but I need to take this. Excuse me." I rolled my eyes and went out of the diner in the corner of an alleyway to take my call.

"Yes K," I said once I pressed the call button.

"Hey," he sounded excited. "I got the designer!"

"You did?"

"Hell yeah, I did!"

I smiled at him even though he couldn't see me. "Did you see his works? Is he worth it?"

"You sure you want to doubt me, Ants?"

Kinjal Kumar is an unmatched professional in this field.

"Not at all," I laughed. "That's the reason I confide in you so much."

"You should see his recent work though, it is a masterpiece in all true sense."

"That's good. So when is he seeing us?"

"Within a week. Says he needs a month or two at least to sit down with us and make the plan and everything."

"Two months to just plan out a cover?" I frowned.

"Yeah, but if it is another beautiful piece like his last one, I'd rather wait for a year to help him plan it out."

"Hmm."

"What hmm? Are you in?"

"What do you say?"

"I say we take him. He has the potential."

"Okay then. See ya tomorrow. Goodnight, K."

"Yeah, goodnight Ants."

K or Kinjal was one of the two persons who were close enough to call me Ants, the other being Pakhi.

That alone reminded me of how pissed she would be if I spent some more time thinking about pointless things. That would definitely ruin the mood she was in and I'd have to take the blow.

.........

"Excuse me? You judge me by my appearance? How dare you!"

Something incoherent was said on the other end.

"Why will I not get a table for one? Is it a crime to be single?"

I heard the raised voice as I made way back to the eatery.

A guy, shorter than me, stood at the gate, arguing with the doorman who refused to let him in.

"Please sir, we have reservations for couples and families!"

Anyone could see through the lie. A month-old restaurant with reservations filled up to the brim? No way!

"This is such a pointless argument, let him get inside," I pushed the doorman aside and held the gate open for the younger man.

"Thank you," the guy grumbled as he made way to an empty table.

I headed to where the toilet stalls were and after I was done, made my way to a very pissed off girlfriend when I caught the eye of the guy from earlier.

He had an adorable look on his face. Well, that was until he motioned at me and called, "Hey, Waiter!"

How dare he!

So yeah, I'm Anushkaa and Antonio would be my character.

I'm a major procrastinator, so much so that Yagna had to be nagging me for a week to write this chapter.

Vote?

Comment?

Please?