TravelBoard Romance

Chapter Three - Bay Area.

"Are you sure you don’t want to come? It’s so pleasant outside" enquired Maya.

The two families had checked into their hotel in San Francisco, and decided to meet again in some time for dinner. The long 18 hours of travel and the sudden change in time zones had left everyone tired, well everyone except Maya.

She was a true traveller. She had not come on a vacation to US to snuggle and lazily lie around in comfortable hotel beds. She had come to explore and she was going to do exactly the same whether someone was going to accompany her or not. 

The beautiful San Francisco bay area was enticing her from the very minute she set her eyes on the beautiful blue expanse. The serenity of the bay was too alluring for Maya to resist.

Residing in a land locked city, Maya never really got a chance to visit the beach or the bay. Hence, she was not planning on wasting even a minute inside the room, when she can enjoy the calmness emanating from the bay waters with just a short walk from the hotel.

"No, Thank you! I can enjoy the scenery and climate tomorrow. If you are going, Leave Fast, I really need to have my beauty sleep now. I look miserable and so do you, but not like you care", Mukthi added irritably while stretching and searching for a soft part on the pillow to get lost in her dreams. 

"Ya I don’t care! We are here to travel, not to relax in the hotel room. And by the way you look soo miserable that Linga couldn’t take his eyes of you on the bus ride to the hotel" teased Maya, earning herself a face-smashing pillow attack.

"Ouch Idiot" laughing Maya threw the pillow right back at her. Well, fortune must hate her. The pillow landed right next to Mukthi, scarecly touching her. Mukthi started laughing at the miserable back-fire. Maya, uhh, well she was embarrassed like hell.

Mukthi was the kind of girl who was used to the attention poured by the men-folk. However, unlike many girls her age, she dressed up and prettied herself because she loved doing so and not because she wanted to attract the attention of the boys. She loved herself, but was sensible enough to understand that looks don’t mean the end of the world.

"I don’t really like him! Now off you go. You are annoying me, Big Time", muttered Mukthi before turning around and trying to sleep. She heard the door shut close as Maya left the room.

She was reflecting on what her sister said. She did notice that Linga's unwavering attention to her during the bus ride. However thinking back on their first meeting in the airport where he had insulted her celebrity crush, all thoughts of softening towards Linga disappeared.

"Its fine if he didn’t like the all time super star of Indian Cinema.He could've  been nice enough to politely refuse to accept my opinion. But, No. Instead he had to insult him and talk crap about celebrity gossip" muttered Mukthi to herself before finally tumbling into deep sleep.

Maya on the other hand had made her way down to the lobby. She was pretty apprehensive of what her father's reaction might be, when he realized she went alone to the bay area without informing anyone. Well, she did tell Mukthi. But, that technically doesn’t count.

She opened the door, and felt the gush of wind hit her face. She took a deep breath and inhaled the pleasant climate of SFO. "Wow, Just Wow" exclaimed Maya as she briskly walked to the bay area, loving the sense of freedom in her.

She loved the calmness of the early evening around her. She thought back to her home in the city. She internally felt disgusted at the pollution, the cluttered traffic, the hot sticky air and the terrible noise back at home. 

She briskly made her way to the bench and took the entire expanse in. She could see the distant outline of a couple of airplanes landing and taking off from the airport. Maya took out her DSLR, and started to randomly click pictures.