Nandini sighed tiredly as she stepped out of the airport. The long journey and the bits and pieces of sleep she had managed to get during the flight had made her eyes groggy and dead on her feet, a complete contrast to when she had come to New York for the first time. She still remembered it vividly.
She had been nervous yet excited. Finally, she had moved out of the presence of Sakshi and Soha and it had felt strange yet gleefully liberating. The prospect of starting a new chapter in her life that too with Riddhima at her side had been the first best thing that had happened to her after the mentally harrowing death of her father, and though she had known that it would be difficult to study as well as manage her fees, somehow she had known she would make it.
Nandini got in the cab and gave the address to the driver. After half an hour, when she stepped out of the car, she had a little smile on her face, her first in the last twenty four hours.
The place hadn't changed much, just that now there was a security guard at the gate. It looked as if the business had certainly taken off. Excited, she stepped in the restaurant and at once was surrounded by the memories.
The place was packed with people- university students, band boys, couples, a group of old women sitting in a corner and another group of old men playing cards in the other corner. The hustle and bustle was making the place noisy yet there was a certain comfort and relaxation in the air. She had experienced it when she had joined here for a part time job and now, even after all these years, she still felt it.
Her eyes drifted over to a corner where she knew the cash counter would be and sure enough, it was there. She made her way to it with a smile on her face and watched her classic old man, looking exactly the same even after all these years with a brown hat, white shirt, worn out black coat, old jeans and Wellington boots and a cigar in one hand, deep in concentration on the register. She went and stood in front of the counter.
"About time you arrived here lass!" Mr. McGuire said lightly and took a puff from his cigar.
She couldn't help it, she laughed as at the same time her eyes couldn't stop her tears any more. "I missed you" she whispered.
"So you show your face after four years, three months and ten days because you finally remember your old man" Mr. McGuire still didn't look up from his register.
Nothing had changed! Nothing at all! It felt so good to see the same old Mr. McGuire, champion of numbers- with the same old style and the same old cigar!
"I love you" she said softly.
Mr. McGuire looked up and sighed. "I lost a fifty" he said in a highly suffered voice.
"What for this time?" she asked with a laugh.
"Wife has been nagging me since last week saying that you would come. I said it was bull. You still won't remember your old man... but you did. She took the money early though. The woman has no patience!"
Nandini laughed again. Mr. McGuire kept on betting with Mrs. McGuire and always lost. But then, he wouldn't have it any other way! If he came to know he was winning, he changed tactics in such a way that somehow it was Mrs. McGuire who always ended up as the winner. And dear old Mrs. McGuire, aware of her husband's ways, always used that money in getting presents for him. And Mr. McGuire, aware of this, treasured those possessions more than his life!
That was the kind of love she wanted, and she knew she couldn't and wouldn't have it any other way!
"Then there's something we can do" she whispered conspiratorially, enjoying the old game. "I can go back and come next month and none of us tells Mrs. McGuire that I know about the bet. What say?"
