Ik Mulakat...

XV

20 July,  Abu Dhabi, UAE

"Ronobir!" Mishti whined like a little child. "Why did you have to drag me here?"

"You know it wouldn't hurt to get a bit of culture into your life Mishti." He said looking around the expansive rooms and beautiful hanging art in the Jameel Arts Centre.

"I have plenty of cultures thank you." She replied curtly. "I would just much prefer to have some deyay nashef, ma khoboz wagarfi, and a rich serving of robyan mashwi in my stomach right now."

"Do you ever think of anything but food?" He asked raising his eyebrows at her.

"Not really, hey I can't help that I have a healthy appetite." She replied defensively.

Ronobir shook his head, after spending about two months with her, he was discovering all her little habits, including her love of food. Not that he minded he couldn't stand those girls who ate like sparrows and only lived on salad and not much else.

"Okay how about we finish up here and head to the Pinoy Street Food Hamdan Street and get you some luqaimat, can't have you starving to death sweety." He smiled.

"Sounds good, then maybe we could go past the Royal Palace on our way back to the hotel."

"You realize the Royal family don't live there right?"

"Yes, Ronobir but I still want to see it. Unfortunately, we all haven't had the luck to have houses in Britain amidst fancy castles and meet the Royal Family."

"No, I guess not." He laughed. "Let's strike a deal, we will visit my UK home after these eight months and I'll take you to Kensington Palace, maybe we can get a peek at Prince and Princess if we're lucky." She smiled excitedly. Ronobir could barely remember life before Mishti; he had become so accustomed to living, traveling, and spending time with her that memories of his past had just faded away. He thought he'd miss being able to go out and sleep with multiple women but he was strangely content with their arrangement, albeit quite sexually frustrated.

They had left Manali at the beginning of the week and were in UAE for Mishti's performance at the Smule Mirchi Music Awards the next night. He had never been to a music awards event and was looking forward to it. If Mishti's singing was anything like her impromptu performance at the Casa the last month he was excited.

He knew she was a good singer but it was only when he heard her singing live that he realized just how amazing she was. Mishti had grabbed his attention the minute she started singing and he was almost disappointed when the song ended. He'd asked her to sing for him since then but she seemed embarrassed for whatever reason.

Ronobir couldn't understand why seeing as he should have been the one that was embarrassed after his meltdown in Manali. He was usually the strong, emotionless guy that didn't show weakness and he'd done exactly that. Mishti had been so caring and surprisingly he felt relieved after he'd told her everything, almost like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

His phone rang interrupting his thoughts. He looked at the caller ID and connected a big grin on his face.

"No thanks are necessary Rishu, I was more than happy to get Riddhima Khanna to star in your new film."

"Well, it's good I'm not calling to thank you if you remember our conversation that was a favor you owed me considering the exorbitant amount of money I'm paying to have you in my film." Rishabh scoffed.

"Well, I'm worth every penny." He laughed. "So if you're not calling to thank me then what's going on?"

"Well, I happen to be heading to UAE as we speak and thought it might be a good chance for us to catch up."