Like you were never gone

Chapter 2

<<10 years ago>>

A house party was full in swing. Friends and family were gathered and having a swell time.

"I couldn't believe when Meera called me and told me she was getting married." Meera's older sister announced with a smile on her lips before continuing,

"It made me sad, because our parents weren't here to see it. And then she told me Samar didn't have his parents either and it made me more sad. But then I realised, this is about starting a new family with the people we love. So here's to a new beginning." She raised her glass in a toast, everyone else joined in.

Meera who was standing on the other side of the crowd had tears in her eyes. She was leaning her back against Samar's chest. Who had her in a warm embrace of his arms. He leaned forward and planted a kiss on the back of her head. It put a small smile on her face.

Meera saw her sister approaching and freed herself from Samar's grasp to give her a hug.

"Congratulations again, Meera."

"Thank you didi."

"and you too Samar, take care of my sister."

"I intend to sapna." Samar replied bashfully.

-----

The party was going on in full swing, people were chatting around, drinks and food was being served. Samar and Meera were both talking to two different groups of people not too far away from each other. Meera could hear him telling the ladies about his job at the department of transport.

"Oh it's not like the olden days now. It's all digitised, you know?"

"What exactly do you do there?"

"I study the traffic patterns. You hit the brakes for a second, just tap them on the highway, you can literally track the ripple effect of that action for over 20 miles. It's amazing because traffic has memory."

Meera smiled to herself. She knew that the ladies he was talking to understood nothing but they looked at him with awe. But her Samar was a bit stupid when it came to it, a woman could be flirting with him and he wouldn't know.

After a beat of awkward silence, he took the glass from one of the lady's hands,

"Let me get you another drink." And walked towards the kitchen.

"Oh I'd marry him right now." The same woman commented dreamily. Earning a very nasty look from Meera.

-----

"So, a three week heli-boarding honeymoon?" Meera was brought back to the present by one of her friends asking her a question.

"Uh yeah-"

"So you actually get dropped from the -"

"from the helicopter yeah." Meera confirmed her friend's assumption.

"It's how they met. Tell her the story." Another one piped.

"There is no story Ellie." Meera tried to avoid it.

"Oh c'mon!" But Ellie insisted, before continuing,

"First of all, no one was ever good enough for Meera. Not spontaneous enough, not adventurous enough, not funny enough-"

"Oh please stop it!" Meera responded giggling.

Samar was watching her from the other side of the room, standing almost 20ft away. His Meera looked the prettiest according to him, when she was relaxed and having a good time. The group was talking about the time he and Meera met for the first time.

"-so Meera being herself, gets into the chopper, at that lake. What was the name of the lake again?" Ellie looked over at Meera mid story telling.

"Lake uh-" Meera drew a blank. She couldn't remember the name.

"Lake Tsomgo. Tsomgo." Samar yelled from the other side of the room, surprising everyone. He had a stupid happy grin on his face, obviously unaware of the fact.

"Tsomgo. Thank you." Meera replied, reciprocating his grin.

"How did he hear that?" The rest of group still remained confused.

"Show off!" Meera mouthed at him and he winked back at her. Yeah he could read lips.

Meera knew that. She also knew that he was not working at the department of traffic studying traffic patterns. Meera knew that he was working as a spy for the RAW. She wasn't supposed to be knowing that, it was against his contract. But Samar didn't keep any secrets from her.

Meera was a nurse at the city hospital. She loved helping people. When she wasn't working at the hospital, she would go on these medical camps in rural areas. She was on one such adventures of hers in Sikkim, when she came across this cute guy who had sprained his ankle. Samar or Pathan -per his spy name- was on one of his missions when the land slide happened. He had gotten injured when he was helping someone else during the land slide. He could walk, didn't really need medical attention right away. But he kept hovering around her, trying to butt in every now and then, until they were airlifted a few hours later and he finally took her advice and got into a bed.