Until We Meet Again - I

Chapter 14: The Unplanned Ride

As we entered February, Rudra's health recovered greatly. His bones were almost healed, the doctor had said in 1-1.5 week, the plaster shall be removed, mom and Dad were ecstatic, the airline had also compensated us with a good amount as it was their fault, they didn't did a thorough check of the aircraft. Thank god that no casualties were reported, although every passenger suffered some sort of injury no one died. Rudra confided in me, he was scared, he didn't waned to fly again, his hands trembled and he sweat profusely, even the sight of an airplane. Sometimes when I slept in his room, he would suddenly wake up in the middle of his night, his clothes wet with sweat. He also attended a few counselling session with a psychiatrist. As soon as his plaster was removed, he resigned from his post and enrolled for an open MBA course.

I was visiting the office more often, observing how different sections of our company perform. Dad was planning to announce me as the CEO in April, but fate had other plans.

Meanwhile, as 14th February approached, the celebrations begun at the Malhotra's residence. The relatives who would be travelling to Goa had arrived on 10th. There was dance and music, laughter and some teary eyes, on the other hand, Emma and I were working on our plan.

Emma and I met Ranbir's ex, Jia. Adi had given us her contact info, he had already talked with her and she agreed to help us. I had called her the other day and asked her to meet us in a café. Emma and I, we reached the café early to discuss our plan ahead of our meeting. We were supposed to meet at noon, but she still hadn't reached, when I got a call from an unknown number.

'Hello, is this Dev?' the voice on the other hand said.

'Hey, yes. Who is this?'

'Hey, I'm Jia, we were supposed to met today. I am standing outside the café, where are you guys?'

'Oh, hey Jia. We are sitting inside the café. We are sitting at the table facing the city.'

'Ok, can you wave your hand, there are many people sitting exactly the same way.'

'Ya sure.' I said as I waved an arm at the door, where a few people had just entered, when a girl waved me back. I was skeptic at first if she was Jia, as I had imagined Jia to be just like Ranbir, a cassanova with a flirty demeanor, but she was the complete opposite. She wore an off-white kurti with jeans and held a big handbag, her hair were wavy, flowing as she made her way towards our table. She wore a silver nose-pin and her greyish eyes wore a line of Kohl around them, making them stand out and more attractive. She wore a leaf earring that dangled whenever she put her hair behind her ears. In short, she was the complete opposite of what Ranbir was, I wondered, how she entered a relation with Ranbir.

'Hey, Dev Kaul and this is my friend Emma.' I said as I extended my hand for a hand shake when she approached our table.

'Hey Dev, hey Emma. I'm Jia.' She greeted us in a rather sweet voice.

'Shall we order something first, I am damn hungry.' I said as Jia took a seat opposite us and i took the menu and ordered some food.

'So, I guess we shall come directly on the topic. We don't have much time.' Emma said, which I found to be rather rude.

'Yes, sure. Aditya did tell me a few things, like how Ranbir coaxed this girl, Anaya to marry her, how her father knew about Ranbir and still went further with this engagement and how his friend is trying to save his love.' Jia said as she took a sip of water.

'Yes, all that is true, but Anaya is not my love, she's just a close friends about whom I may have had some feelings.' I replied.

'Oh, so you are the friend who's trying to sabotage this engagement.' Jia said as she looked me directly in the eye, something about her attracted me. I don't know if it was her hypnotizingly sweet voice, or her captivating eyes.