Javed naam hai mera phir se

Chapter 16

Shantivan was unusually quiet. Anjali was sure that there were men outside the house assigned to the security… but inside it felt like world just stopped mid-spin… it was almost too quiet.

Today was the day of the show. It wasn't a moderate success Anjali had hoped it to be… It was tremendous success! Their new collection (and Anjali was credited as a designer for most of it) was called "visionary" and "inspired" in terms of "fresh and upbeat combination of patterns and fabrics".

Anjali secretly laughed at the notion that this "new spin in fashion design" came from her assistant's mistake in fabric order… but Anjali tried her best to make this mistake work and, unexpectedly, it turned out to be really good!

But apart from being huge and unprecedented success this show was very exhausting. It took every ounce in Anjali's body to go through official part but when show has shifted to press-conference and then to after-party…

People after people who wanted to pick the brain of "new home-bread talent of Raizada's house"… camera fleshes and "look over here" screams that made her feel way to self-conscious… shining jewelry… shining dresses… shining people.

Anjali was getting down quickly till somebody took her by the elbow and turned her to a dark corner. She should've get scared… but she was too tired to get scared now… and it was Javed.

- Anjali-ji, I have a favor to ask.

She raised her eyebrow to express polite… but sardonic interest… let's just say he was not in her "best behavior" list today.

- Yes, Javed-ji, how can I be of assistance? Do you need me to introduce you anybody else or have you already met all of our…

Javed was overlooking a crowd behind them and wasn't paying attention to Anjali's snarky remarks – so no wander he interrupted her before she finished her sentence:

- Can we go home?

Anjali suddenly became aware of his disturbed gaze and looked around worried:

- What is it? Is he… here?

Javed looked directly into her eyes and smile revealing some of the tension – if he was smiling it couldn't be that bad, right?

- No, Anjali-ji, nothing like that… I just need to finish some work for tomorrow's meeting and… Well, Lavanya is having a time of her life… so does NK… Arnav said he has to see this show through… and Khushi-ji, obviously, wouldn't leave his side…

Javed shrugged nonchalantly and finally voice his request for Anjali:

- So I thought… You could say you were tired and I could volunteer to escort you home.

- Ah-huh…

So he wasn't offering her a ride IN CASE she was tired… he was basically suggesting her to PRETEND to be tired so he could have an excuse to leave… and that with a big neon sign on his forehead "knight in shining armor helping out a damsel in distress".

Anjali hated the fact that she wanted to agree to this so badly! She was no longer required for the party and she was so very tired! So Anjali decided to play along just this once and nodded:

- Let's go, show-off! I'll go tell Chote we are leaving.

Javed bowed and offered his hand to lean on. Anjali didn't want to but she took his hand nonetheless – her leg was killing her and she needed all support she could get.

And that is how Anjali ended up back home. Alone… except for Javed being somewhere upstairs doing his homework.

Show-off!