Foresight

Chapter XXVI

"Excuse me. May I talk with Mr. Tarun Shetty?" a sweet voice comes from the other side.

"I am Tarun Shetty. May I know who is this?" Tarun responds, with a bewildered look in his face.

"Good morning Sir. My name is Pallavi Mehra. I am calling from 'Sidco'. We noticed your game on the internet. We see that your gaining a lot of popularity and would like to bring you on board with us." the voice on the other side calmly explains.

"Yeah...yeah. Sure. We would like that very much" Tarun sits up on his chair, unable to control his excitement.

"Very well Sir. I will send you a mail regarding who to contact and further details, to you right away. Thank you. " she explains herself and hangs up.

"Yaaahoooo" Tarun screams at the top of his lungs, jumping from the chair landing on the floor.

"Are you out of your mind? What the hell happened that your shouting and jumping like a mad man?" Rajesh reprimands him a glaring tone.

"'Sidco' just contacted us and asked us to come onboard with them for further projects" Tarun exclaims, with a huge grin spread across his face.

"You are not kidding right?" Neeraj jumps into the convo.

"Hell no. A girl called Pallavi just called me and told me that she will get back with some contact information."Tarun explains the call he had just moments ago.

"Wow man. We have come up to an important milestone dude." Rajesh exclaims as he gets up from his desk heading to the main server where Tarun and Neeraj have shifted to check the mail.

"Important?" Tarun asks with a surprised look.

"We have hit an amazing milestone bud. 'Sidco' is one of the leading firm's in mobile applications. If we have grabbed their attention, that means we have made it to the big league." Neeraj explains.

"That is true. I just don't want to take our hopes too high man" Rajesh justifies himself, for his kind of mellow expression.

"You wallow in your mellow celebration. For all I care, we have made it to big leagues like Neeraj said. We may not have to worry much about our growth now." Tarun exclaims as he looks at their mail.

"There it is. They have asked us to make an presentation of an application that identifies your taste in music based on your current songs present and suggests you new songs on that category. They want us to present the presentation next week on 19th July." Tarun reads the mail aloud, as Rajesh is smoking away near the window.

"So how are we going to do the presentation. We already have a lot on our plate. 'Sun Software's' is due on 17th July and 'Aventura' has its due on 20th. We are packed on." Rajesh explains their current situation.

"Don't worry dude. I will work on the presentation for the project on the side without hindering our current projects." Tarun assures Rajesh.

"I know dude. We will help you on that too. We are a team man" Rajesh replies back with a smile.

"Yeah man. We will need your impressing expertise. If we are able to bag this contract, we will have at least sufficient funds, to hire more people and grow big." Tarun gleams in joy.

"Wow. Tarun really wants to boss around a young programmer" Rajesh mutters into Neeraj's ear.

Neeraj cracks up into a laughter, as they all high five on their milestone. Looks like tonight will be huge.

"Lets call it a Day, come back at 9 and party" Tarun suggests.

"I suppose we got work to do. We can do until the party dude." Rajesh suggests.

"No we can't. There is an extent to which we can lie at our houses. They will get suspicious." Neeraj explains, siding with Tarun. "Yeah. Plus I got a date too" Tarun adds in a low voice. "Ahh that's why sir wants to escape huh" Rajesh mocks. "Dude we have been working our asses off. Plus it has been three weeks since I have seen Jenny. Last two weeks whenever I invited her, she said she has work or relatives at home. Luckily she said she is free today. So I have to grab the opportunity." Tarun tells, in somewhat commanding tone.

"Dude I was just joking man. We know that man" Rajesh jokes, as he puts his hand over Tarun's shoulder.

They decide to wrap up and meet at their usual meeting point at 8.30 in the night.

Tarun got little late to his date, as he got stuck in traffic. He hurriedly makes his way into the cafe where he spots Jenny sitting in the corner looking little worried. He races to her and jumps into the seat next to her, taking her into his arms. Surprisingly she squirms a little. Taken a little aback by that, he shoots a little concerned look to her.

"Its the sweat honey. That's why I squirmed. Don't feel bad" Jenny pinches Tarun's cheeks, pouting herself.

"Don't worry babe. I was just joking with you." Tarun comes back to his usual self. They spend the next two hours romancing in between the sips of coffee, in each other's arms.

'Today she seems off, even though she thinks that i am taking her to be all ok. Wow she deserves an award for her acting skills. Will ask her at the end of the date. Maybe something is disturbing her' goes through Tarun's mind as he flashes a smile for some joke Jenny cracked. Just before Tarun is about to tell her their recent success, she goes dead serious and looks down at her feet, fidgeting with her straw in the cup.

"Is everything ok Babe? Tell me. We will solve it." Tarun assures her, holding her shoulders.

"Actually Tarun, I am going to Delhi for 3 months. For project." Jenny confesses up, slowly turning her head towards Tarun's direction.

"That is great babe. Congratulations" Tarun shakes her hand. Even though Tarun is genuinely happy, deep down a small discomfort is rising that my girl is moving little far.

"I didn't want to actually. But my manager Mr. D'Souza mentored me that this will be a great opportunity for me to grow. I had already passed on the Bangalore project couple months ago, so I had little say in this project if I wanted my future secure with this firm. Him and Tanvi are accompanying me" Jenny explains herself, with puppy dog eyes.

"Its ok babe. Career is important for us. If we are in a better place professionally, we will be better prepared to face our parents" Tarun assures her with a smile.

"That is true Tarun. Wow every girl should have a boyfriend supportive like you" Jenny exclaims and goes for a hug.

"Baby if that happened, very soon we will run out of romance movies" Taurn jokes.

"That is true..." Jenny says and breaks into silent sobs.

"Hey don't cry babe. It hurts me. Everything will be ok. We will be on call every day. We will have Skype dates and lot more. Don't cry" Tarun assures her, though he can't help feeling little fishy in his heart. His gut instinct is telling him something wrong is going to happen. But he brushes off all those feelings and comforts her. Once she gets a hold of herself, they make their way out and Tarun drops her near her home. He then proceeds to buy alcohol for their party. Unable to digest the gut instinct, he buys an extra beer for himself and gulps it down on the way to their meeting point.

"Hey guys get in." Tarun orders as he hits the tea joint, opening the door for his friends waiting for him.

"You are not getting out for a cigarette? What is wrong man?" Rajesh asks from the window.

"Nothing man. Everything is cool dude. Just excited to party" Tarun explains himself, with a weak smile.

"Neeraj don't get in. Tarun is already a little drunk" Rajesh stops Neeraj, who is about to get in the car.

Tarun gets out of the car in a flash and heads for t shop, gets one cigarette and lights it up asap.

"Jenny is going to Delhi for three months for project work with her friend and her manager. My gut instinct is telling me something is about to go down. So I had to have a beer to calm myself" Tarun bombards out without taking a breath.

"Let's get to the office, open up the bottle and get talking. Everything will be alright" Rajesh keeps his hand over Tarun's shoulder. They enter the car and zoom to their office for their party/ discussion session.