"Bhaiyya, be careful!" she gasped as she saw someone hopping in to block the road to stop the autorickshaw.
Before they could react, he leaned in, requesting a ride. She knitted her brows at him, who seemed to not notice her. The driver declined his request; he had to, as she had booked a special auto to be somewhere.
When her classmate asked her out, she admitted liking him and informed him that she couldn't date until she got a job. A month later, she got into a teaching institute—two buildings besides his bank.
It was her first date tonight.
He pointed to his friend, explaining his bike broke, while she ignored him and asked the driver, "Bhaiya, chalo. I'm getting late."
"My dad is hospitalized, and he might not make it," he cried as the rickshaw started, and she stopped the vehicle.
****
"Sorry," he mumbled as he collided with her at the entrance.
She glanced up, tears threatening to spill out of hers. She bobbed her head and fled.
His smile faded. He had been on cloud nine after getting his first big contract. He was flitting and chirping.
"Not because of you," his friend added as he pulled them chairs, waiting for Neeraj Shah, their new account manager to finish the paperwork.
He still thought he collided badly.
His friend was right.
In an empty, employees-only resting room, he saw a pastry box with a sticker: To the one I love, left on the table.
****
"You can sit here if you want," she heard from behind.
He sat only in the crowded common cafeteria on a table for two. As she pulled out her lunch box, he asked, "No friends?"
"First day," she answered. A stranger need not know she has no friends. "You?"
"I have friends and an office with a canteen," he replied, then confessed about losing an important contract. His friends would kill him for bingeing on junk food.
The company of this stranger was comforting. "My mom says every end is a new beginning. Day one motivation." It came out naturally, and she giggled along with him, realizing she had not forgotten to smile yet.
****
"Thod do apni Bheeshma pratigya," his friend shouted.
◇
She glared at her friend, who set her up on a blind date with her fiancé's friend at her mother's instance.
"You don't have to get married right away. Just meet him," her sister added.
◇
"Then you'll say, just go out a few times, then date, then marry," he scoffed.
◇
"I'm getting married next month. And this is my gift," her friend blackmailed.
****
"Sorry. I thought you were my friend's fiancé. Sorry. Fiancé's friend. I mean, my friend's fiancé's friend," he stuttered. "Sorry, blind date. And I thought you're the one."
"I'm the one!" She stopped him from leaving and got up to introduce herself.
"How did you even recognize me? Let me guess. She showed you my cover photo in the magazine."
"No. She mentioned your anxiety and blue-green eyes."
****
"Someone will see us," she whispered, trying to free her hand from his clutch as he dragged her away from the new year's party in the hall.
"So what?" He pushed her against the door. Eyeing her ring, he said, "Haq hain mera!"
"Ram," she gasped.
"Yes, Priya," he smiled, then stepped forward and reached out to tuck her hair. She turned to the door.
He pushed her hair to one side and tied a chain around her neck.
She spun around when he grinned, showing the jewelry box with a note on it reading: To the one I love.
