When life happens

The ITC dinner

"Tisha is waiting for us at the hotel, can you all please be a little quick?" Tani begged them all, who were getting ready at an alarmingly slow pace.

"So is Abhishek," said Rishabh, but no one took him seriously though they did take Tani seriously.

When they finally reached the reception of the hotel, they saw that Tisha wasn't waiting alone after all. Abhishek was showing him something on the phone and Tisha was laughing. They looked extremely comfortable with each other.

Tani went up and banged Tisha on the back, who hugged her and stared at the team in silent wonder.

After she had been introduced to everyone, they went into the dining hall, and Tani sat down beside Tisha and her other side was empty.

Hardik sidled up to Neha and whispered, "Push Rishu there?"

Which made Neha forget she had been annoyed with him, and agree enthusiastically.

"Rishu," hissed Neha, stalking up to him. "Go sit there beside her!"

Rishabh straightaway got nervous, though since that day in the water park, he and Tani were growing quite close, he couldn't be sure Tani liked him as well.

Eventually Hardik and Neha's pressure paid off, and Rishabh sat down beside Tani, heartened to see her smiling warmly at him.

The best part was, Bhuvi thought drily, Hardik and Neha had stopped fighting, and they even sat together at dinner.

Siri, glad to escape from Hardik's overbearing attention for once, slipped into the seat beside Shivam, hoping they could talk a bit which they never did.

....................................................................

Tisha had looking forward to this day for a long time, but now that it had come, she found out that the person giving her most happiness wasn't the senior team as she had expected, but someone whom she hadn't even known about properly.

"Medical student..." said Abhishek thoughtfully. "You're not becoming a dentist, are you? I'm scared of them!"

"I am becoming a dentist," said Tisha solemnly. "Why are you scared of them?"

"Everyone is scared of dentists in their childhood, aren't they?" demanded Abhishek.

"You would call 20 years of age childhood," said Tisha.

"No, my fear just carried on," said Abhishek mournfully, and then went off into a long string of bad experiences with dentists.

"I can't believe a dentist would do that to you!" said Tisha indignantly. "You must have moved!"

But she was enjoying listening to his nonsensical stories as much as he was enjoying telling her.

Tisha and Abhishek exchanged numbers halfway through dinner.

And they both hoped individually it was the beginning of something very very special.

......................................................................

"Can you please pass me the salt," was how Siri tried to begin a conversation with Shivam, which was actually lame as hell.

Shivam hastily reached over and retrieved the salt and gave it to her.

"Thanks," said Siri drily.

Shivam remembered Tani's advice and racked his brains for something to say.

Finally he said, "I like your voice."

Siri, who had accepted that Shivam was simply dumb, choked on her Blue Lagoon. "What?"