#chap21 #chroniclesoflife #Sagas_by_Irvika #sweetlovestory

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Nainaa said cheekily, “Of course… ye lo.. we have reached… you go ahead… Abhinav had messaged that he will meet me outside. We will join you two later.” Shruti teased, “Ye achha hai… mere naam pe bill faadke u also gonna enjoy yourself. Chal theek hai Simran… ja jee le apni zindagi.” Nainaa laughed and returned, “Same to you Nautanki.” And they both parted ways.

To be continued….

Shruti thought of waiting inside the restaurant, politely requesting the manager to reserve a table for two, as she was expecting a guest to come in at any moment. She was asked to wait for 5 minutes as one of the tables was expected to get vacant soon. She impatiently sent a text to someone, getting restless by the minute. It seemed as if she had been waiting since ages to catch a glimpse of the one and only for whom her heart throbbed.

Nainaa was waiting for Abhinav outside the restaurant, when a silver Safari car zoomed in. He gave the car for valet parking and stood outside, trying to call Krunal, but his phone was continuously busy. Atharva was looking around to see whether there was any trace of his friends, when he noticed a girl and kept staring at her. Why does she look so much like Shruti? He simply shrugged; well, he was imagining things as she was just having some resemblance.

Just then, he got a call from Minish. “Hello… where are you?”
Atharva replied, “Am waiting for Krunal and the other friends… tried calling him but it’s busy. Will try calling up Anmol.”
Minish interrupted, “Oh… actually it seems Krunal was also trying to call you, but couldn’t do so.. and called me instead, assuming that I must be with you. Your gang is waiting for you inside.” Phew! He was getting good at this, he applauded himself.

He went inside and asked the manager waiting out if there was any table booked by the name of Krunal. The manager checked his booklet and confirmed, “Yes sir! A table for two has been reserved and the guest has already arrived.”
Atharva was completely baffled and asked, “Are you sure?! I mean, there seems to be a mistake. The expected number of guests are 6.”
The manager was unable to comprehend the situation, as he had been clearly instructed to bring in anyone asking by the name of Krunal.

He guided Atharva towards a table, where a female was sitting. At first, he thought he was being guided towards the wrong table, but then he had a bizarre notion. Although he couldn’t see her face yet, his heart was strangely doing somersaults. He walked as if in a trance, hoping against hope that he was not hallucinating again. God knows, he was love struck enough to visualise her everywhere nowadays.

Just outside the restaurant, he had thought for a second that it was Shruti. He walked towards the table, and the way his heart was reacting, his mind was completely fuzzy to be able to think rationally. He went and stood in front of the table…. and…. just kept staring at her in amazement. She had stood up consciously when he came, expecting him to say hi or exclaim or show his enthusiasm at seeing her. But nothing had prepared her for this… him gazing at her in a stupefied manner, his face mirroring so many emotions at once; disbelief, delightment, endearment, longing…

He finally found his voice, “Shruti… are you by any chance trying to give me a heart attack?”

This was again unexpected and Shruti didn’t know how to answer him. The sudden surge of sentiments was too much for him to bear and he suddenly sat down and gulped an entire glass of water to regain some sanity.
Shruti at last said, “Well.. hope you liked the surprise.”

Atharva still couldn’t believe his eyes. “Are you like… completely crazy? I have been waiting to meet you, to spend time with you, and you kept on putting me off.. all the time planning to meet me?! You are skilled man… I mean.. you didn’t let me even get a whiff of it!”
Shruti was grinning from ear to ear, super elated that her ploy had worked well. Atharva, on the other hand, was brimming with questions. “Hold on! When did you come to Mumbai?”
She answered sheepishly, “Today around midday.”
He looked at her incredulously, “You were in Mumbai for the entire day and you are telling me NOW?! Unbelievable!!”

She couldn’t hold herself any longer, got up and stood near him, indicating him to shift inside. They were seated at a corner table, and Atharva was sitting on a sofa, so there was place for her to sit. She felt her nerves going into hyper active mode, being so near him, but she just felt the urge to tackle this before he got it all wrong.

Before she could start explaining, he popped up another query. “How did you get Krunal involved? He had called me in the morning to meet up here. How did you fetch his contact?”
She decided to spill the beans. “I didn’t have, and frankly it wasn’t my plan to involve him either. I had actually called up Minishbhai, and asked him to come to my rescue as I wanted to surprise you.” Atharva could finally fit in the missing pieces, like a jigsaw puzzle and came to a conclusion. “Okay, so now I understand. Minish must have confided in Krunal, who in turn called me to come here.”
She nodded her head, “Yes..”

Atharva was yet to get a grip on his senses, mentally making a note to talk to Minish regarding this. His brother was way too smarter than he had thought. He was still getting a hold on himself, feeling her presence so near to him, electrifying the whole atmosphere. Just like the previous time, the waiter came in at the wrong moment, but the difference was, he had come with a couple of dishes. She reluctantly got up from beside him, as it would have been inconvenient for them to have the meal properly.

The waiter served them two bowls of soup mentioning that it was Four Treasure Soup (a quadruplet of vegetables prepared in a refreshing coconut broth); and in another plate served Fattoush salad (a Levantine bread salad combined with mixed greens and other vegetables flavoured with lemon and olives) and an Oriental starter called Corny Chestnuts (a duo of water chestnuts and American corn tossed in a tangy sweet chilli sauce). He wished them to enjoy their meal and left.

Shruti mentioned, “I hope it is to your taste. I took the liberty of ordering and had asked him to get it all together, so that we wouldn’t be hindered every few minutes. Hope that’s okay.”
She suddenly lost her confidence and it showed. Atharva was quick to reassure her, “Shruti.. please… no need to be so conscious. I am in fact quite awed by your choice… it perfectly suits my taste.”
She was pleased to hear him say that and they both relished the scrumptious meal.

Atharva acknowledged, while putting one chestnut in his mouth, “Now that I have my nerves under control, I would like to confess that this is the best surprise I have ever got. I was really very upset that you were not even keen on meeting up, but didn’t show as it’s hardly been a couple of days that we have been together. You have really made my day.”
She was smiling as well as blushing while he said so and mentioned, “Mr Atharva Shah, I could see all along that you were upset, and was more than restless to tell you that I am coming, but then thought that an eye for an eye will make you realise; the way you had shocked me in Nashik…”
He was once more dumbstruck. “Achhaaa.. toh ye sab badlaa lene ke liye kiya!?”
Shruti simply covered her face trying to hide her expressions and the laughter.

Atharva warned her in a mock tone, “Just wait and watch lady… I will show you badlaa lena kisko kehte hai!”
An involuntary shiver ran down her spine, thinking about the innuendo, and blurted meekly, “What do you mean by that?”
He said haughtily, “Sorry… please wait and watch… I’ll take an appropriate remuneration for this.”

She scowled, “Hello! This is not one of your business deals that you will ask for remuneration,” she said stressing on the word.
He bit his lower lip and grinned, “No.. it’s very personal, and don’t worry, I’ll demand a very personal kind of a compensation as well.” She took a minute to digest what he meant and it made her body feel hot and cold, at the same moment.

Just then Atharva noticed…..

To be continued…

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