VOID

Chapter 03: Family

28th August 2021; Godavarikhani, Telangana.

09:02 p.m. 

"Hey P" Anushka sounded fresh, like she had just had a lengthy bath, "are you done with the shoot?"

"Yeah we wrapped up around 8" Prabhas replied, his eyes on a distant vehicle, "how about you?"

"I'm at my apartment right now" she seemed preoccupied.

Prabhas smiled, he remembered her concentrated expression.

"By the way, tell me what food to order, I've locked horns with these dumbasses and they're both opting for Vietnamese" Anushka said smugly.

"You want Vietnamese?" Prabhas asked, knowing her taste a tad too well. She rarely ate Vietnamese.

"Actually no, I was craving for some Paneer early in the evening" Anushka confessed, she was tired of compromising with her taste.

"Try phở xào hải sản, you'd like it" Prabhas suggested, to her disappointment. She somehow had expected him to understand.

He was the food expert wasn't he?

"Okay it looks like stir fried noodles? What should I order with it?" She was looking them up on Google.

"Hmm, gà xiên nướng" he replied, to her amusement.

He was a live, walking menu.

"Done" she smiled with satisfaction, tracking the order on her phone.

"Oh I almost forgot, these may be high on fat" he spoke softly.

She smiled again to this, he was too considerate at times. "I'm having a cheat food day Pubsu, my trainer is fine with it, and thank you, go sleep at home without hanging around on the sets."

She hung up with a smile.

Prabhas smiled again, she had that effect on people. She made people smile.

With a sudden boost of energy, he shot up, called his mother, and informed her he'll be late. 

He had new plans.

He went over to the parking lot and started his Range Rover, hurriedly texting his chef to cook up a hurried compilation of Indian food. 

He had to be at Jubilee Hills asap. 

*

28th August 2021; Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad.

11:37 p.m.

Two and a half hours later, laden with containers of aromatic food, Prabhas rang the doorbell of an apartment at Woods.

Hushed voices and thirty seconds later, a pony clad, fresh faced woman, opened the door and squealed in delight, jumping up to crush him in a bear hug.

He hadn't known Tamannaah was at Woods that night.

Prabhas had taken Sweety's mention of 'dumbasses' to be her brothers, and this was pretty unexpected for him.

Hugging her back with subtle mortification, he walked in slowly, and to his amusement, Rana came prancing in and smashed straight into him.

"BAVAAAA", Rana was a little tanked, he observed.

"How you doing" Prabhas smiled at the energy around him and headed into the kitchen, to set all the food down.

Now freed of his luggage, and accompanied by Tam and Rana, he headed to the living room, where Sweety was seated on her plush sofa, remains of Vietnamese food, some cans of beer and a huge bucket of popcorn and chicken surrounding her.