Foresight

Chapter XVIII

"Hi jenny, its Tarun here. You free for some time?" Tarun gleams up as he speaks up, with a burning cigarette in between his fingers.

"Hi Tarun. I am glad you called back. Yes I am free for some time." Jenny replies from the other end.

"Who's he talking to?" Rajesh asks Neeraj awhile taking a puff. "Jenny, the girl he met in Matheran. He called her before, when you went looking for Mr. Sharma." Neeraj replies, blowing away. "Tarun doesn't call up any girl he has a one night stand with. This is unusual." Rajesh speaks up. "Tell me about it man. He had child's grin on his face when he was talking with her an hour ago." Neeraj voices out, taking a drag from his cigarette. "Think he will get serious with this girl?" Rajesh asks up. "I don't know man. All I care about is that she doesn't ditch him and goes running for a total douche later on." Neeraj replies, while looking away, with a slight disappointment in his face. Rajesh notices this and is about to ask him about, just as Neeraj drops his half smoked cigarette and crushes it. Rajesh backs off, knowing very well that if Neeraj drops his cigarette half smoked, better to give him some space. He always comes around after a couple minutes. "I hope the same, man" Rajesh looks at Neeraj, who walks a couple steps way, then turns to look at Tarun, who is currently in his world.

As Rajesh finishes his cigarette, Tarun finishes his call and starts to make his way back to his friends. 'He has distinct gleam in his face. Maybe he asked her for a date and she said yes. Hope he is not going to send me and Neeraj back from this place, with some travelling money.', brainstorms Rajesh as he notices the jump in Tarun's walk and the ear to ear grin in his face.

"So what is the good news?" Rajesh asks up before Tarun gets to open his mouth.

"She agreed for a date. That too right now. We are going to her office to pick her up" Tarun barely manages to get out his last word, as he is jumping with joy. Though the word 'we' calms down Rajesh from his 'a second ago thoughts', it brings down that it will be four people meeting and his friend won't get his needed privacy. Rajesh tries to play it cool and be a good friend, but before he is able to voice his thoughts, Tarun speaks up

"I told her that I am with my friends and can't ditch them. So she said just bring them along. We all can have lunch together. This way you guys get to meet her in the starting itself and my further dates will be just me and her."

"That is nice of you guys. But Me and Neeraj would have totally understood if you needed some space", though all Rajesh can think is 'Thank god. He didn't ditch us'.

"What's up with Neeraj?" Tarun asks, noticing that Neeraj is little away, smoking off.

"He threw a cigarette half-finished." Rajesh replies with a well hidden concern in his face. Tarun shots a surprised look to Rajesh, but plays it off coolly, "Well you did the right thing man."

"Hey guys, what's the screenplay now?" Neeraj asks, as he blows from his second cigarette. "Jenny will be joining us for lunch. We are going to pick her up from her office now. So finish up fast dude" Tarun answers with a jitter in his tone. And why won't he have jitter's. After all he is also a boy, who is going to pick up his new girlfriend for a proper date, no matter how many dates he had previously been. "Well then, why to delay", saying thus Neeraj throws his cigarette off and they all board the car and zoom through the traffic, for 'Accent Corporate Park'.