• Second Chances •

9. The Date Plan

"I want you to go on a date!" 

Ram looked at Brinda's grinning face and the pen almost slipped from his fingers. Either she had completely lost her mind or he had begun to hear things now. 

"Get out of my cabin right now. Okay?" Ram glared at her. 

"What?!" Brinda yelped. 

"Yes!" Ram said and went back to the file he was looking at. As it is he was swamped with work because of Shubham. He didn't want any more distractions in the form of Brinda's foolish demands. 

Brinda angrily closed the file Ram was reading, grabbed his face and turned it towards her. "How dare you ask me to get out? How dare you ignore me!" 

Looking at her angry face, Ram almost giggled. He then shook his head and joined his palms in a sorry. "Meri Ma! I am sorry. Happy now? I won't ask you to go out nor will I ignore you. But I will not go on a date." 

"Ram!" Brinda whined like a child. 

"What?" Ram frowned and got up from the chair. He agitatedly walked towards the couch and plopped down on it. "Why are you forcing me to do this?" 

"Because this is going to be great for you!" cried out Brinda. 

"No!" argued Ram. "Remember the last time you sent me on a date? She couldn't string a proper sentence together. She was just so floozy. And you had described her as a good, funny, well-educated girl." 

"Obviously na!" Brinda stood in front of him. "Because if I had not used those adjectives for her, you would have never gone to see her." 

"But that's exactly what! All this is so pointless!" said Ram. "You know how you feel about love and marriage. After Vedika..."

"Ugh!" Brinda sat down beside him and held her head. "Please don't start crying about Vedika. I don't want to listen to anything. I beg of you." 

Ram swallowed his words back. There was no one who would understand what he felt for Vedika and why. There was no point in arguing with Brinda about it. So he remained quiet. 

"Listen, Ram!" Brinda clicked her tongue and held his hand. "I must have said this a million times and I am going to keep saying it till the time you understand it. You need to move on. And for that, you will have to find a girl. For that to happen, you will have to meet people. So please go on this date." 

Wordlessly, Ram shrugged. Brinda insisted. "It is okay if you don't like this one. It's okay if nothing comes out of it. Just go and have fun, Ram. You deserve to live a little." 

Ram knew that Brinda was not going to back off. And he also knew that Brinda was right. He was just wasting his life away. But he never had the heart to do things like these. It all felt juvenile.  

"I don't know...I just...I..." Ram couldn't speak. All his emotions felt like they were all over the place. He couldn't explain Brinda what he was feeling. He just sat back, blankly staring at the ceiling. 

Brinda placed a hand on his and softly asked, "What is it, Ram?" 

Ram looked at her and sighed. "As if you don't know what it really is." 

She smiled and scooted closer to him. "I do. And that's is exactly why I am sending you on this date. Trust me, this is going to be your last first date. After this, your life will change. I know it. I just know it. You are going to be so happy. I can feel it." 

Ram's eyes closed. He had a strange relationship with happiness. He knew happiness. But happiness had never fully known him. 

"Priya is..."