Foresight

Chapter XXXI

"Mom, one more." Rajesh orders from the dining table, as the paratha in his plate is gulped down in seconds. It has been months since Rajesh and his friends took some time off their company. Intending to make the most of the holiday, Rajesh has only one thing planned for his weekend, sleeping it off. His parents had invited him for a marriage function, which was swiftly refused in spite of the delicious food and eye candy. Since Neeraj was away for the time and Tarun was still wallowing over his break up, Rajesh found this to be the best time to catch some good sleep. Neeraj had already informed Mr. Ashok that they are unavailable for the weekend and it was agreed over the whopping succes in the intial success in the launch of 'Circus Charlie 2'.

Glad to see Rajesh catching some sleep and eating properly, Mrs. Khuranna took it up to herself to feed her son, for who knows when their whole night coding will start again. So she was stuffing him with fatty foods, for in her eyes Rajesh had lost a ton of weight. Rajesh's mind wanders towards their activities for the past three months. The constant workload, stress of making the game up to the customer demands, last minute bugs which surprisingly enough were popping up pretty much everyday. Thank god Tarun and Pallavi teamed up on wiping out the last minute bugs. Thinking about Pallavi bring a faint smile on Rajesh's face. Just then Rajesh's mother drops another chappathi on his plate. Looking at the smile on her face she guesses correctly, that her son might be thinking about some girl.

"If you are remembering her so much, why don't you call her up and talk, rather than just remembering about her?" Mrs. Khuranna mocks, as she makes her way back to the kitchen.

Caught off guard, Rajesh has nothing to reply other than just grinning sheepishly. Just at that moment, Mrs. Khuranna's head pops out from the kitchen, looking at him grin.

"Looks like my guess was right" she chimes from the kitchen.

"It's nothing like that mom. If anything pops up, I will let you know in the first place" he assures as he drops his plate in the sink and proceeds to his room. As he plops down on his bed, he decides to drop a text to Tarun regarding his well being. Since Neeraj is out of town and the attempt to call him up yesterday evening was futile, Rajesh drops his phone and decides to catch some shut eye for the noon, before he heads for the movies in the evening. He had planned to catch up with his old school friends. As he lies down, Pallavi's face flashes through his mind. He shrugs it off and turns around and sleeps off on his stomach. The moment he again closes his eyes, Pallavi's face again pops up in front of him. Rajesh gets up in a jerk, throwing his covers. 'Why am i thinking about that Pallavi again and again. Maybe because mom kept telling about some girl. But I still don't understand, why Pallavi is coming into my thoughts. If it were Andrea and adventures with her then I would be little happier.' contemplating such, Rajesh again hits the hay. This time, Andrea visits his dreams and Rajesh goes to sleep with a smile in his face, only for Andrea's face to change into Pallavi's.

Meanwhile at SIDCO, Pallavi is just trying to get through the Saturday. Since the time she got the wind that Rajesh and his group are unavailable for the weekend on Friday morning, her face kind of dropped. Whole Friday, she just mulled through, doing small projects. She couldn't understand why she was feeling this way, but she was helpless against it. She just wanted to get over her Saturday and Sunday. Luckily for her, Ashok told her to take Saturday off in the half. So in an hour she would be heading home. Usually, she prefers to hang out with her roommate in the hostel. but when her roommate planned for outing this weekend yesterday evening, she gloomily refused. Her roommate though taken by surprise, did not prong Pallavi for details and gave her own space. Pallavi decides to pack and call it a day, as she was not doing anything other than playing their new game and checking the sales and internet downloads. Looking at them cheered her up a little. She began reminiscing her last three months. How she was neck deep in work which surprisingly never bothered her like it did before, those last minute bugs she used to brainstorm with Tarun. Even though her lot of contact was with Tarun, owing to both being really good coders and programmers, she was somewhat smitten with Rajesh's professionalism . He was always cordial, soft spoken but confident. He had some smoldering, sexy look in his gaze., which reminds her of someone very dear to her past, bringing tears into her eyes. Taking a moment, she breathes in hard, wiping away her tears and puts on a game face.

"No. I promised myself that have moved on from my past and never will let myself think of him again" Pallavi said to herself as she stood up from her desk, swinging her back pack and heads towards Ashok's cabin.

"Yeah. Come in Pallavi. What happened?" Ashok asked, looking up from his desktop.

"Sir can I head home. I am feeling little uneasy. Plus I also don't have any project where I can immerse myself. "She asks his permission, though she is sure that Ashok will not reject, as he himself had given her half day off.

"Yeah sure. Just head to the company doctor, if you feel the need for any medicines." he answers with a soft smile.

"Thank you sir" and Pallavi heads out of the office, towards the elevator. Forty minutes late, she is at her hostel, in her room, about to it the hay. Just before closing her eyes, she picks up her phone, contemplating whether to text Rajesh or not. After 10 minutes of grueling thinking, she decides against it and heads to sleep.

A piercing ring wakes up Pallavi in a jolt. As she rubs of her drool from her chin, her eyes fall on the clock on the desk

"Oh gosh 6.30. I slept for four hours." she mutters as she grabs her phone to put rest to the shrill ring. Just as she looks at the screen, she is taken aback. The screen was flashing 'Rajesh'. She could not belive her eyes. A weak smile made its way in her face as she attends the call.

"Hello"

"Pallavi. Hi how are you? Did I catch you at wrong time? Your voice seems little groggy"

"Hi Rajesh. I am fine. I just woke up."

"Ohh. Looks like I woke you up" he jokes, his mild, nervous laughter evident in his laughter. "It's ok. I will call back some other time"

"No. It's fine. It is about time I wake up too." she replies, her smile broadening over his chivalry.

"Well I just called you up to ask you that whether I can call you for a congratulatory dinner. You have been an immense help in developing both the projects and in putting us in the map. And I, being the idiot, haven't congratulated you on any of the occasions. So I thought maybe tomorrow we can meet up for some coffee" he asks, sheepishly.

"Well I really don't think there is a need for such a thing" she replies, biting her nails nervously.

"Oh, I see. It's ok" he trails off, disappointment clear in his voice

"But... I would accept in this case, as your project brought me into the map of SIDCO too. So I would like to treat you too" she replies, now being her turn to grin sheepishly like a 15 year old.

"Ohh great then. I will come pick you up where it's comfortable for you. Bike is ok right?" he asks, literally jumping in excitement

"Bike would be ok. In fact perfect. I will message you the meeting place and time in a couple hours. Sounds fair" she asks.

"Sounds perfect. See you tomorrow" he replies and hangs up.

Unknown to each other, both of them are flashing a big grin on their faces...looking forward for tomorrow.