My Solace

Chapter 2

"Things I do for you" My friend Ira shook her head while helping me carry my luggage. I tried to pack light but I just can't. I need everything that I own at some point. I dress according to my mood so I can't just pack like this dress for this day and that dress for another.

"I love you" I sang dragging the words much to her annoyance. She rolled her eyes at me. She acts like she hates when I do that but I know it warms her heart.

"Check our tickets for which terminal" She said dragging my trolley. I gave her the number and the direction. When we reached our terminal I saw Naman from Delhi standing by counter along with few people. I collaborated with him on the paper that I was working on few months ago, he's a friendly guy.

"Ira, there's Naman" I said pointing in his direction.

"Then let's go" We reached him and noticed he was with three more people talking.

"Hey Naman" I gained his attention and suddenly all of them turned towards us that's when my eyes landed on a guy who looked a bit older than me standing there in blue jeans and black formal shirt that hugged his body like second skin. It looked like god took enough time to sculpt his face at his leisure time and as it turned out to be a masterpiece. His eyes were striking cooler of brown, dark yet mysterious while the nerves on his forearm stretched like they were yawning and trust me nothing has been more sexier than that in my life till now. Maybe nows the beginning.

"Ha Ali" Ira nudged me which brought me back to the present. The beautiful stranger was looking at me with a smirk on her face. He clearly saw me checking him out. Hot damn. I turned towards Naman who looked like he asked me something.

"Hi sorry, I was thinking about something" Ira snorted at my pathetic excuse.

"It's okay Alisha, it's great to meet you in person" He said giving me a side hug. He always had this chill aura around him.

"This is Ira Avasti, from Mumbai institute itself. Ira this is Naman Thakur" I introduced them while other three were looking at us intrigued. To be honest it was a bit awkward.

Nice going Alisha! Leave it to you to make things awkward.

They exchanged pleasantries and Naman turned towards the other three.

"Alisha, Ira, this is Amarjeet Singh our mentor, Maya Sharma our senior" He said pointing towards that handsome stranger who is not a stranger now except my mentor. Yikes.

Amarjeet singh, that's his name. He looks very young for a mentor but the way he carries himself screams posh and subtle.

"Hello" I greeted them awkwardly as usual.

"Hi Alisha, Ira" He greeted professionally nodding at both us.

Maya was more enthusiastic. She introduced herself again and shook our hands.

"And this is Avinash Pillai, from Chennai" We greeted him and kind of formed a circle unknowingly.

"Great! Now that everyone's here let's go through the itinerary. We already know much about this expedition from our ppt and the sessions conducted in respective base locations. We will be situated in Salsette island, they have booked us a farm house kind of building that's an insider Information I got from the team but we have to see it for ourselves when we reach there. We will spend next 365 days immersing ourselves in the aquatic way of life, we will study the creatures and the ocean. Not only that, we will be interacting with local people and getting information about how they have inculcated ocean into their day-to-day life, this is an extra task which I included but it's upto you guys if you want to do it or not. Our schedule and topics which we will be researching on is emailed to you guys. Let's make this expedition a successful one and majorly have fun" He said piously making me feel all tingly inside. He had that authoritative voice and I liked the fact that he didn't indulge into the work now itself and kept it short and precise.