Love, Death and Vodka | A FEATURED STORY

Chapter 38

It was a long day and Tanvi was more than tired by the time they reached her place. She had no regrets. It was a very fulfilling day.

After their charity home visit, Abhi took her to dinner. It was a brand new experience to dine at the heart of a restaurant, literally at the kitchen. Abhi's friend was the head chef there and as a favour set up the whole thing by the time they had arrived. She enjoyed every minute of her time there.

She was captivated by the frenzy of activity. It looked completely disorganized yet, somehow made sense at the end. It looked more like an Ab Initio graph with so many components and so many workflows. Joins, reformat, rollups, sort components but everything ended up in meaningful data transformation at the end. Here it was food transformation. It was a food heaven. She thought it was poor analogy yet, she couldn't help it, she was a techie at heart.

Abhi watched her admire all the activity around them. She had that school girl look of drinking in her surroundings and he was particularly pleased. He did not bring her here to impress her but to show her how he liked to live. He wanted to desperately share his lifestyle, the kind of friends he had with her and get her nod of approval.

"I must say you know how to impress a girl Abhi. This is awesome. I was never inside a kitchen of such a big restaurant before. Wow!! Really, kudos to you," she raised her glass of fruit punch and he was obliged to do the same for a toast.

"For all the great time we had today."

Abhi thought that it was lame toast but did not complain and just smirked.

Tanvi cringed playfully, "I know it was a bad toast. What I really want to say is I had a great time today with you, including the time we spent with the girls there. And this is truly amazing. I'm completely flattered and impressed beyond words. You are truly my hero." She finished with a dramatic gesture.

Abhi threw his head back and laughed out loud, "You know, you have a great future as a stage artist? I would stick with your first toast. It was must more truthful."

Tanvi made a face,"I meant everything I said."

"Then Thank You Tons. That was the idea, to impress you beyond words."

Tanvi just smiled and shook her head. He knew she was telling the truth, especially, about the girls. He saw her in her element there. She was initially clueless and did not know how to interact but slowly warmed up and initiated many games with the kids.

She told them wonderful stories and shared food out of her tray. They were charmed and slowly worshipped her. She interacted with the in-charge and showed keen interest in all the activities happening there. She promised to return soon.

He also noticed her looking at him with some odd emotion from time to time. He just hoped it was something more than just 'like' she claimed she had for him. She was a stubborn creature. Even if she realized she had something else for him, she would find it difficult to accept it. But she was loyal and woman of her word.

He was drawn to the present again with Tanvi's insistent voice, "Abhi can we go back to the charity home some other time? I really liked it there."

"Of course babes, anytime you want! May not be in this trip. Next time when we are here?"

"Sure Abhi. That sounds good."

They finished their food talking about few more things happening at the charity home. She had a few ideas. Abhi encouraged her to build on those and convert them into workable solutions which could be implemented easily. Tanvi nodded as she finished her food.

"Shall we leave babes? "

"Yeah, it's pretty late and I'm very tired."

Abhi chuckled, "With all the games you played, I thought you would never get tired. I was wondering at your energy levels."