Before he could react properly to everything she said, they were called in for the shot. Throughout the scene, however, he had avoided eye contact with her and only looked at Shireen. He felt betrayed and he was not used to it. He didn't like it. He didn't like the fact that he felt betrayed from what is not even a betrayal but he couldn't deny the fact that he did feel betrayed.
Without even speaking a word to her or Shireen, he left from there and went to his room. Yes, he did decide that they could only be friends and he did decide that he would hide his feelings, but after hearing her say she was going on a date, he felt a terrible ache in the pits of his stomach.
He kept pacing back and forth as the pain only grew after every passing minute. He had no idea what to do, just knew that he had to stop this. Stop this pain. Somehow. He decided to sit down and think about why he wanted to stop all this in the first place. He thought about work, his previous work, his aimlessness before coming into acting, how he loves his work now and much more...but after every topic, he would picture her face, her sweet smiling face. He covered his face with his hands and tried to block it out but to no avail. He was certainly going crazy.
Just then Pankaj entered the room. He looked at him for a moment and decided to talk to him to take his mind off of her.
"Hey man," Pankaj said.
"Hey. Working today?"
"Yes, have a scene with Divyanka later today." There it was. Her again. Her all the time.
Vivek sighed. "Oh that's cool. I just had mine with her."
"Works a lot that woman, doesn't she."
"She does." He smiled. "Accha listen, how long have you known her?"
"Almost ten years now."
"Wow, that is a lot of years."
"Yes, we worked together on her first lead show."
"The show she did with her ex-boyfriend."
"Yeap, that's the one."
"Do you know what happened with them?"
"It's simple actually, they started dating in the show and it went on for years until it came to a point where she wanted to settle down and he did not. So she let him go without hanging on."
"She wanted to get married?"
"Yes. And he did not."
"I see." So that is why it ended. She was looking for marriage. Then what about this date? Was this a marriage date? "Anyway, you go get ready for your shot. I won't keep you waiting."
"Alright then. See you later."
She was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She didn't let anyone except Shireen know about this and she didn't know what she was doing. She decided to go as Divyanka the normal girl but ended up wearing a knee length halter top dress, which was completely contradictory to who she really was.
She thought she would call her mom and ask her if this was alright but she decided against it because she did not want to be influenced by anyone. She thought that she may be going on the most important date of her life and she did not want anyone else's opinion but hers, because it would be her who would marry him and not anyone else. So she decided to go with the dress, even though she didn't feel right about it.
She had asked him to come to a restaurant near her work so it would be easier for her. She left work at about 10:30 and reached the place in fifteen minutes and had seen that he was already there waiting for her, wearing a black suit looking like the typical businessman and she noticed that he was quite handsome. She went to their table and he stood up.
"Hi. Adarsh," he said, extending his hand with a sweet smile.
"Hi. Divyanka," she said shaking his hand. They both sat down and he didn't help her with the chair like she thought he would. Instantly, she was reminded of the way Vivek would always do that. She shook her head, trying to get him out of her mind.
"Is everything alright?" he asked, looking at her confused.
"what?"
"Your head."
"Oh yea, it's just...it's just a headache." She did notice how she easily lied to him, without any malice.
"I see," he said, turning to the menu in front of him like it wasn't a big deal. Okay, she thought. "lets order."
"Yea sure."
"The chicken kebab here is amazing. You should definitely try it out. I'll order that for the both of us."
"Uhh. I don't eat meat. I'm vegetarian."
"What?" he said with disbelief. "You don't eat meat? I have actually never met anyone who doesn't eat meat. Tell me, how does it feel?"
"How does it feel?"
"To not eat meat. Do you people not get repulsed around meat? Do you find it hard to go to restaurants with meat?"
"Hmm no. We people feel normal. Just like your kind," she said, putting emphasis on people. He referred to vegetarians like they were a different species.
"Oh well. I will order the chicken then. You? Salad?"
She was already annoyed with him. Instead of getting up and storming away from there, she decided to give him a chance. "No, we people eat other food items other than salad. I'll order a butter paneer with naan."
"Cool. I will get the same with chicken tikka."
They gave the waiter the order and sat in awkward silence.
"So you're famous."
"Yes."
"That must suck."
"Why?"
"Well for instance, you probably can never be early to a place. Like today, you were late for this date. You can never go somewhere without being recognized, and while it would take 5 minutes for a normal person to get somewhere, it would probably take you 15 minutes with everyone stopping you. And you work ridiculous hours and your private life is exposed to the world."
"I'm mostly early everywhere and as far as this date is concerned, I was on time you were just earlier. Fans may tamper with my time and work but that's a blessing. I find it to be a blessing to be stopped by someone while shopping and have them tell me how much they admire my work, or have a small child come up to me and hug me. It's not a shortcoming of being famous but an absolute blessing and it doesn't matter if it takes longer for me to get to places than most people because my time is a small entity compared to the outpour of love I receive from my fans."
Before he could say anything, the food arrived and they both started eating in silence.
"Do you like pets?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Cool. Ever had any?"
"Yeap."
"I see."
The rest of the conversation consisted of him asking boring questions about her school and him explaining his business, which to be honest, she wasn't paying any attention to. He requested to drop her home even though she insisted to go alone. He came all the way up to her house to make sure she got in safe.
"Okay then. Thanks for dinner."
"Thank you. I had a lovely time."
"Yea, me too." She lied. "Okay."
She was about to turn around and open her door when she felt him hold her elbow and turn her back around, with him only inches away from her face.
