• Second Chances •

10. The Date

Priya saw him sitting at the faraway corner of the restaurant, nervously tugging his shirt's collar and shaking his right leg as if it was a broken toy. Even from a distance, she could see his trustworthy pillbox on the table. She had to pause and prepare herself for the impending bloodbath. She hated nervous people. When edgy, people acted weird. She couldn't handle such stuff. 

Ram was all that and more. The one meeting they had, Priya had seen just how skittish he could get. Only God knew how he was going to act now. 

"Just stay cool!" Priya told herself and walked towards the table. 

As if on cue, Ram looked at her. His mouth opened slightly and he stared at her completely frozen. Giving him a small nod of acknowledgement, Priya pulled out the chair in front of him and sat down. When she did that, Ram woke up from his stupor. Shaking his head, he sprang up from his seat and extended his right hand for a handshake. 

"Hello..." he greeted sheepishly. 

Priya looked at his hand for a few seconds. She couldn't decide if it would be appropriate for her to shake hands with him. But before she could even think of anything, Ram snatched his hand back and sat down again. He smiled like a goof and exclaimed, "You are here!" 

Priya really didn't know how was she supposed to react to that. Over the years, she had seen her fair of crazy men but Ram took the whole damn cake with him. For a businessman as big as him, Ram was not at all confident or in control. Even at her house, he seemed like a lost child. And now it hadn't even been a few minutes since she had arrived and he already had goofed up twice. She wasn't the vengeful kind but she had to admit that she was getting a kick out of it. It was nice to see him fumbling like that. 

"Yeah," Priya nodded. "Let's talk."

"Yes, yes! Let's talk!" Ram agreed and grinned. He then scanned her clothes a little and complimented. "Nice clothes. You look good." 

Slightly taken aback by the sudden comment, Priya looked down to check her clothes. The work at the institute had kept her unusually busy that day and she had straightaway come to this meeting in the same clothes. The kurti was a two-year-old, worn-out one and there was nothing remotely nice about it. Even her hair was sticky. 

Perhaps Priya's expressions weren't kind because the smile fell off Ram's face and he looked away. He awkwardly tapped his fingers on the table and mumbled. "Sorry. I haven't done this for years." 

Priya narrowed her eyes in thought. "Done what? Go and talk about your sister's future?" 

Ram's face froze in a confused expression when he heard Priya's words. He raked his brain, trying to remember what had Brinda told him. It was a date. He knew it. She had told him that Priya had also agreed to come on this date. He didn't want to stand her up and embarrass Priya. Hence, he had decided to come here. But now going by Priya's words, it looked like she had a different impression of this meet. Had her family lied to her? 

"Uh..." Ram stammered. Looking at her questioning eyes, Ram said, "Yes." 

Priya nodded solemnly. "Me too. Akshay has never been this brass and irresponsible. He has been a good kid all his life. I don't know what happened to him this time around." 

"Yeah. Even Shivina is nice..." shrugged Ram. "She is a little spoilt but never this reckless." 

Priya nodded again. She fidgeted with her fingers and asked, "So. What now?"       

Ram could feel a trickle of perspiration roll down his temple. She really didn't know that this was supposed to be a date. If he told her the truth, Ram didn't know how was she going to react. So he smiled and lamely offered, "Let's order some food. Yea?"