The Tale of Coincidences

Chapter 3

"Aarav do you by any chance have an extra backup for the photos?!" Kunal, a member of the photography team from the DreamCraft Events asked. DreamCraft was an event management company which had set up the whole book launch event.

"Aarav ?! Are you even listening to me" Kunal asked Aarav who was daydreaming and smiling foolishly.

Startled by the sudden jolt Kunal gave him, Aarav snapped out of his trance. "What do need Kunal?!" Aarav snapped at his friend. 

"You leave that, first tell me what is the matter with you. I am noticing you since the time of the quiz, you look so lost. Common speak up!" Kunal demanded from his best friend.

Aarav and Kunal had known each other since college and now that Aarav had also shifted to Hyderabad, they were colleagues too. Aarav knew there was no use in hiding anything from his best friend because Kunal knew him better than he himself. " Is it that girl who conducted the quiz?!" Kunal asked with a teasing smile nudging Aarav's elbow playfully. Aarav chuckled and nodded being as amused as ever as to how Kunal just got to know what he was thinking.

"Dude we had an eye contact kinda stuff while she was leaving, just a few moments ago! She's just so beautiful.." Aarav trailed off drifting into his thoughts again. "Oh Romeo , zara aaram se bhai! Do not get so carried away!" Kunal warned with a little chuckle. Aarav dismissed him with a wave as he helped him pack his belongings still thinking about the "quiz girl".
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Avantika strolled through the bookstore aimlessly in an attempt to pass her time until Kriti called her to pick her up.  Suddenly she remembered a particular book that she had been wanting to read when she saw its poster on one of the side walls of the store. She decided to go and enquire the helpdesk regarding the whereabouts of the book.

On the other hand, Aarav had managed to convince Kunal to detour to the bookstore as he really wanted to buy a book which he had been wanting to read for a very long time. As he made his way towards the bookstore he saw the poster of the book and let out a sigh of relief as he hoped that the store would have finally managed to renew the exhausted stock of the book.

He rushed to the helpdesk to enquire about the book when he noticed a familiar figure coming in the same direction.

"Excuse me, Do you have the book called "Destiny or Coincidence" in stock?!" They both asked in unison. Surprised by the sync they both turned to look towards each other only to receive a bigger shock or surprise.

"Quiz guy!!"

"Quiz girl!"

They both exclaimed pointing at each other in shock. Ignoring their startling rendezvous,  the store manager informed them that they could find the book in the last row of shelves and that he wasn't sure if the new copies had already been arranged on the shelves or not. Both of them thanked him and made their way towards the shelf in silence, trying to digest what had just happened.

They were soon successful in finding the book but to their utmost disappointment, there was only one copy of the book left on the shelf. The new stock hadn't been arranged and had successfully landed them in an awkward, confusing and ambiguous situation. They looked at the copy and then at each other confused not knowing what to do.

"I tell you these bookstore people are good for nothing! I have been trying to get this book for a while and all they could tell me was to wait until the new stock came and when it has this is the situation"  Aarav spoke up in an attempt to break the awkward silence between them. "Me too! I have been looking for this book for like months now!" Avantika responded with a frown.

"So what do we do now?" Avantika asked visibly making a sad and disappointed face hoping he would let her have the book.

"I really don't know what to say or do because I have been looking for this for a while and I also have a friend waiting outside who would chew my ear off if I didn't get back to him in another 10 minutes" Aarav said trying to match her disappointment hoping that she would let him have the book. 

"Looks like both of us have been really trying hard to get this book" Avantika said with a light chuckle. "Do you have a solution which doesn't involve tearing this book apart because I really can't think of another way" Avantika added jokingly.

"We could share the book maybe" Aarav blurted before he could stop himself. The girl in front of him had totally knocked out his sense of people speaking.

"Huh! What!" Avantika replied sounding as shocked and stunned as she was hearing those lines. There was another wave of awkward silence as Aarav struggled to find his voice to apologize for his dumb behaviour as he was too embarrassed of himself for saying such stupid things.

Suddenly one of the staff members appeared from behind the adjacent shelves much to their relief. She was carrying a large lot of the new stock of the book which had arrived in the morning. She quickly rushed towards the staff member and grabbed a copy as the latter started arranging them on the shelf.

"I guess we don't need to anymore," Avantika said with a smile  trying hard to hide her flushed face as she turned to go towards the reading section.

At that moment Aarav could feel the blood rush to his face as he hoped that he could make himself invisible or just get swallowed into the earth. He just managed to respond with a tight-lipped smile as she left towards the reading section.

Only because Kunal called him and reminded him that he was waiting for so long, Aarav decided to drop his plan of following the "quiz girl" and seeking an apology for his weird behaviour and also try and strike up a friendly conversation with her so that she could have a better impression of him.

He bought the book and joined Kunal who was waiting outside the store ready to beat him up even if there was a slight more delay. On their way to his house, Aarav told Kunal what happened at the bookstore only to receive a series of muffled laughs and criticism of his behaviour. 

"And do you know what's  even worse than all of these dumb things you have done?" Kunal asked laughing as he finally ended his taunting, making-fun-of and criticism session. 

"You don't even know her name dude!" Kunal added laughing even harder. 

That is when realization dawned upon Aarav that he had been referring to her as the "quiz girl" and did not even know the name of the girl who had swept him right off his feet.
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