SWEET NOTHINGS - A COLLECTION OF MISHBIR OS

OS 10: Hand in hand - An OS celebrating 100 episodes of YRHPK

Café 100.

Mishti looked up at the old rickety board staring back at her. A floodgate of memories opened, drowning her in some painful, some soothing childhood memories.

Shortly after moving to Rajkot she had run into her mother here. She had pleaded and cried, not understanding why her mother had left her. And in front of her group of new friends, her mother had yelled at her to stop being a crybaby, that she had had enough with her drama, and she was done with her. She had a new life now and Mishti should too. And just like that, leaving her own daughter crying, her mother had coolly walked off, not once turning to look at her.

Yes, this place held a lot of memories. Memories of a 14 year old girl being abandoned by her own mother. Memories of a 14 year old girl whose bade Papa brought her here, trying to ease her pain, teaching her to find the strength to make new memories...

This place reminded her of the abandonment. So she tried to avoid it. This place reminded her of the love her bade Papa had given her. So she couldn't ignore it. She didn't love it. She didn't hate it. But it was here that the 14 year old girl also learnt to move on.

And now, so many years later, it was here, again, that life had brought her, searching for him...

The frantic call from nanu told her that Abir had been very angry when he had walked out of the Rajvansh house. Nanu hadn't told her anything else, just that Abir went to café 100 when he was disturbed and that's where he would be, and she'd know what to do.

She wasn't sure of that. She wasn't sure she could help Abir. But she was sure it he was upset about something, if something disturbed him, then that's where she would be, by his side.

She didn't care that his mother had warned her to stay away. She didn't care that his mother had threatened to call off kuhu's wedding if she didn't. She didn't care she only needed to hold back a couple of days more until the wedding happened.

All she cared for was this man and her love for him. Even if it meant stepping into café 100 again.

Because today she wasn't that scared, broken 14 year old. Today she was his angry chorni looking for her Ajeeb aadmi.

Yeah, she hadn't told him how she felt, and he hadn't - not in direct words - but she knew. And he knew.

Sighing, she stepped inside, her eyes searching for his face amidst the crowd.

Writers. Business meetings. Friends. Lovers. Families. No Abir.

Biting her lip, she scanned the room again, her mind working up a dozen possibilities on what had actually happened at the rajvansh house.

Every possibility her mind came up with was scarier than the previous one, so she shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, when she found him.

Her heart dived into the pits of her stomach, as her eyes found him - alone by a little table in the far corner on the room, his shoulders slouched, a cup of coffee untouched before him, his long fingers idly stroking his watch.

Suddenly feeling like that 14 year old girl again, she quickly closed the distance between them, plopping down in the chair opposite to his.

He looked up briefly, recognition flashed in his hazel orbs for a nanosecond before he masked it with indifference.

And that plunged a knife into her heart. Because this man was anything but indifferent.

Anger coursed through her. Anger, not at him, but at whatever had landed him here. And she wanted to know what the hell was going on.