Tender Storm

Chapter 18

Deepa parked her car in front of the hotel she was staying in as her apartment was put up for renovation and she didn't want to go in yet.

It's good to be back in Mumbai after a long time, she mused and slowly made her way inside the hotel lobby for checking in as she couldn't wait to get a room and settle in.

"Deepa?" She gave a start of surprise and stared at the person in front of her as he called out her name.

"Oh my God!"she exclaimed, genuinely pleased "Amit? It's such a long time!"

He gave a wide smile and approached her "I know! It's so nice to see you". She nodded with the same enthusiasm "how you've been? You're still in the city?"

He replied with an affirmative "so far I'm stuck here in Infy...I'm in the PRO department, heading public relations".

"Wow! Finally achieved what you worked hard for" she said, genuinely pleased. "What about you? The last I heard from Apeksha was that you were pursuing a course as a makeup artist".

"Yeah...I have my own salon in Delhi" Deepa said, observing him after a long break of six years. It felt like a flood of memories had been opened and she couldn't help but reminsice the old times. And seeing Amit also opened up the memory of his twin brother Aman whom she was close to, or atleast that's what she had thought.

After the party, he had completely shut her out and had disappeared. Even though she had wondered what went wrong, there was no sign of him and so she had assumed there was nothing between them.

"Hello? Come back to earth!" Amit teased and she blinked "sorry..were you saying something?"

"Yeah...I asked if you're free...we could catch up at the cafe across the street..." he looked around "I was here for a meeting with a client".

"Sure...but can you wait so I can check in?"she said with a nod. He agreed.

As they sat across each other on the cafe and chatted about good old college days, Deepa felt refreshed as she needed a change from her work routine.

"I'm glad we met" she said in earnest "I can't believe life has changed so much".

Amit nodded in agreement "yeah...I'm engaged and we're getting married in a couple of months"he said in a shy tone. She beamed "that's great Amit! I'm so happy for you".

He blushed and showed his fiancee's photo to her. She stared at the phone screen. Even though the girl wasn't that great looking, she looked shy and modest and suited for Amit. "She's nice" she said with a smile.

He didn't reply to that but stared at her in amusement "I was wondering...
you never asked about Aman..you guys were..pretty close, weren't you?"