PATHWAY TO LOVE (On Hold)

13. Hold my hand forever!?!

Parth and Vidushi were waiting for Randhir in the lobby for the past 15 minutes but there were no signs of him coming down. Vidushi was pacing to and forth impatiently looking at the clock.

"Randhir is such a lazy dog. We are already late Parth. You know, I have so much to buy. He's testing my patience now. Urgghh... aaahhh" Vidushi's frustrated voice turned into one depicting extreme amazement in a moment, as she saw Sanyukta descending the stairs along with Randhir.

"Sanyu... You are joining with us right?? I knew you would come" Vidushi hugged Sanyukta excitedly.
"You refused to come when I asked you, then how come you agreed now??"

"If you are done with your interview, shall we move mam??" sarcasm dripped in Randhir's voice.

"Yeah yeah!! Let's go" Vidushi pushed all of them out towards the car before locking the door and running behind them.

As usual, Sanyukta settled in the front beside Randhir while Vidushi and Parth took the backseat. They had to pick up Ishika on the way. Jiggy, Koustu, Sahil and Preeti had told that they would come directly to the shopping mall.

"So who's gonna tell me the plan for today??" Sanyukta spoke for the first time after the encounter with Randhir in her room.

"We will go for shopping, then lunch, followed by shopping again and finally movie! Night show" Vidushi answered.

"Which movie, by the way??" Parth asked to which Vidushi smiled widely

"That's a surprise. You'll come to know soon!" she laughed at her own joke.

The car halted near a lavish building. They had finally reached Ishika's residence. After making them wait for 10 long minutes, Ishika finally turned up. Ishika's smile vanished the moment she saw Sanyukta sitting beside Randhir. She wanted to sit in the front holding his hand. But no. This behenji has already occupied. She accompanied Vidushi and Parth in the backseat and the car galloped to the biggest arcade in the city.

The clan entered the mall. Randhir was shocked to see each of the pair in their group disappear into the crowd in different directions, just like Sanyukta mentioned earlier. He had never noticed this before.

Only Randhir, Sanyukta and Ishika were left now. Ishika was scanning the various showrooms in front, to see which would be the best shop to start with.

"Randhir... Let's go to that store first" she informed and moved ahead. Randhir looked at Sanyukta and she turned to look at him.

She had that I-told-you-this-would-happen expression. She didn't want to spoil their time and decided to leave them alone. Sanyukta started moving away from him when he held her wrist from behind.

"Where are you going??" he asked as his heart anguished to watch her go.

"Randhir...let me go. This is the reason why I refused to come. I'm destined to stay alone today. May be in the future too. I'm not at all surprised" she articulated without turning back to look at him. He pulled her by her wrist and she directly collided with his chest which sent an electric current down their spine.

Time momentarily stopped for both of them as their eyes met. Intertwining their fingers, he tucked a random strand behind her ear with his free hand.

"We are going to stay like this the whole day, no matter what. You understand??" he asked in his charming voice looking at their intertwined fist and she nodded in agreement, totally lost in the moment.