"So there's a Valentine's Day party tonight at the club. You guys want to go?" Shilpa asked the gang in the Locker Room.
"Yeah, sure," they all said, nodding but all a little lost in their own thoughts.
"I can't," Nisha said simply. Everyone's attention snapped to Nisha's suddenly, each remebering the fact that their friend was going to be leaving that very same night. "I'm going to Mumbai tonight."
"Oh, I'm so sorry I forgot. I can take you to the airport instead of the party," Shilpa said apologetically.
"No, there's no need for that! I'm a big girl. I can take myslef to the airport. You guys go ahead and have fun," Nisha said, smiling. "Now let's go before Dr. Niti gives us more hours. Last time she wasn't to happy that we were late."
******
"So are you going to do anything about Nisha?" Shilpa asked Vineet as the two friends reviewed a patient's file.
"What do you mean?" Vineet asked nervously, averting his eyes.
"Oh, please. I know you know the reason why she's leaving. Sid told me."
"Damn it, Sid!" Vineet said under his breath.
"Did you say something?"
"No, nothing. Look, I don't know what I'm going to do. I didn't know she had feeling for me."
"Really? You didn't know she had feelings for you. Did you not notice that the one person that always got into fights with you all of a sudden wanted to be close to you? That that person wanted to get to know a little more?" Shilpa said a little angrily.
"I thought she was just trying to get with me like she does with all those other boys. How was I supposed to know I was any different?"
"Maybe you could've spent some time with her like she was asking and you would've known." Shilpa sighed seeing Vineet shift uncomfortably. "Vineet, what you do is up to you, but remeber that whatever decision you make effects Nisha's. Don't have her stay just because you feel bad. If you have feelings for her, then convince her to stay. Otherwise, let her go. Don't give her false hopes, okay?" And Shilpa walked out of the room, leaving Vineet to ponder on the things Shilpa had said.
******
"You're just going to tell her. Nothing special?" Rahul asked bewildered.
"That's the point, you idiot. Valentine's Day is about expressing you're feelings, not spending money to impress a girl. I'm just going to go for a walk or something with Shilpa and tell her," Sid explained.
"Fine, you do that. I have something else in store," Rahul said, walking out of the room.
******
Valentine's Day Party
"Hey, Simmy. You like really beautiful tongiht," Rahul said smiling down at the girl he was madly in love with.
"You don't look to bad yourself," Simran said, smiling brightly.
"Um, do want to go somewhere a little more quiet? I want to talk to you," Rahul asked loudly over the explosively loud music.
Simran gave him a curious look but nodded and yelled back, "Sure!"
Rahul led Simran into a room in the back of the club. As soon as they stepped into the room, Simran was awestruck. The room was bright with candles all over the room, There were red rose petals all over the floor with balloons floating all over the room. In the middle of the room there was a table that seated two.
Rahul walked over to one of the chairs, pulling it out for Simran to sit in. "Would you join me for dinner?"
Simran smiled. "Yes, I will."
******
"Where did Simran go?" Shilpa asked as she came back from the bathroom to see Sid sitting at the bar all alone.
"Rahul took her somewhere. I know for a fact today's the day Rahul tells Simmy that he loves her," Sid said, smiling.
"That's great! I'm happy their relationship is finally progressing," Shilpa said excitedly, sitting down next to Sid.
"You wanna go for a walk? The music is giving me a headache," Sid suggested, motioning to the loud crowd of people on the dance floor.
"Sure, I'd like to get out of here."
The two walked out of the club towards a long wooden walk way that led one out of the club area and into the busy city streets.
"It's really nice here. Quiet but not too quiet. You can hear the cars in the distance. It's calming," Shilpa said, stopping halfway on the wooden walk way and leaning against the long rail on the side of the walk way.
"Yeah, it's a nice place to talk," Sid agreed, joining Shilpa on the rail. The two stood their quietly, taking in the quiet scene.
"I need to tell you something," they both said at the same time. They laughed and Shilpa said, "You first."
Sid took a deep breath. "Shilpa, for the past couple of days, I've only been able to think about you. I close my eyes, and I see you. I open them, and my eyes yearn to see you. I know it's cliche, but I really think I'm falling in love with you. After what happened with Riddhima, I didn't think I'd take a chance with love for a long time, but then I saw you again at the hosptial. We started to spend more and more time together and slowly, this friendship i held with you became love." Sid took Shilpa's hands into his and looked deep into her eyes. "Shilpa, I love you, and it'd be a lie to say i've never felt like this for another person, but I really, really, love you and I'm ready to stand by you all the time. I love you, Shilpa."
Shilpa looked into Sid's eyes, her heart pounding so hard with excitement that she was afraid that Sid might hear her heart. "Sid, I've been feeling the same way for the past couple of weeks! I also hadn't planned on falling in love after Armaan, but then something did happen between our friendship that changed. I fell in love with you, Sid. I love you too, Sid, I love you too." And Shilpa took Sid into a very tight embrace, smiling with satisfaction and joy, Sid doing the same.
******
"Hi," Nisha said to the waman behind the counter that was checking in people to wait in their proper terminals for their planes.
"Hi, ticket please?" the waman said with a sweet smile.
Nisha was reaching into her purse when someone grabbed her wrist. "She's not going to check in. Sorry to disturb you." Nisha looked up the person that had grabbed her wrist and saw Vineet.
"Wha-? Vineet, what are you doing here? And will you please let go of me? I need to check in or miss my plane!" Nisha said, trying to pull away from Vineet as he dragged her out of the line and to a more quiet corner of the airport.
He finally freed Nisha of his strong grip. "Where do you think you're going?"
"I told you this morning. I'm going to Mumbai for a month or two, remember?" Nisha said, a but annoyed that Vineet was stopping her to big her baout something she had mentioned a few times already.
"Okay, fine. You can go after I ask you something that's been bugging me for a while."
"You're telling me you pulled me out of that giant line to ask me a question?! Vineet, couldn't you have waited to call me when I landed in Mumbai?" Nisha asked, completely bewildered.
"No, it couldn't. I needed to ask you in person."
Nisha rolled her eyes, obviously annoyed. "Fine, ask, but quickly! I need to get back into that giant line!"
"All right, all right. So, I have this friend and only two days ago, he found out that a girl he totally hated is in love with him and that she is leaving thecity because she can't take the fact that he can't love her back. My friend was totally confused. He called me up and asked me what he should do. But me being me, I didn't know what to say. So I'm asking you." Vineet stepped in closer, watching Nisha's suspisous face redden a little. "What should my friend do?"
Nisha looked at Vineet for a moment, her heart racing 100 miles per hour. "Well, it really depends on your friend now, doesn't it? If he loves her, he should try to stop her. If not, he should let her go."
"Well, he told me that he thinks that he loves her. He can't be sure until he spends more time with her." Vineet said, stepping in a little more closer.
"Then your friend should tell the girl that." Nisha was now feeling a million butterflies fly around her stomach. Is he trying to stop me from leaving? But Nisha snapped out of her thoughts. He could really be talking about a friend he has. Nisha took a step back, smiling once again. "Well, I hope that helped you, though I don't see how you couldn't ask me this over the phone. But I really have to go now. My plane is leaving in an hour and I still have to check in my stuff. So I'l see you in a month or so, Vineet."
Nisha picked up her bag and turned to walk away when Vineet grabbed her wrist once again and pulled her back so that her body was pressed against his. "Nisha, you can't be that stupid to think that I have a friend going through something like that. The friend is me."
"Vineet, people are staring..." Nisha said, very, very, nervously.
Vineet turend Nisha around and looked her straight into her eyes. "Then let them look. Nisha, I don't want you to leave. I want you to stay here because I might actually be falling in love with you, but I can't know until you spend some real time with me. Don't leave and give me a chance to be with you. Give us a chance."
Nisha smiled softly, looking right back at Vineet. "All right, I will, Vineet. I'll give us a chance to try this out. I won't leave."
A very big smiled appeared on Vineet's face and the two walked out of the airport, hand in hand.
******
Simran and Rahul hand finished eating and were now just sitting at the table, talking, laughing, and having a good time. "Simran, there's something I've been wanting to tell you something for a while now."
Simran looked at Rahul. "What?"
"Simmy, for the past couple of days, all I've ben able to do is think about you. When you came to work with a different look, and then showed off you're 'wild' side, something clicked inside me. I liked that part of you, but then I realzied that I loved the part that was quiet and caring. I fell in love with you, Simmy, in a matter of days. I don't even know how it happened it just did."
"Rahul, that's what you call love. You don't know why it happened, it just does. Beleive it or not, a year ago, I fell in love with you." Simran laughed a little at Rahul shocked expression. "Yeah, i did. I couldn't belive I was thinking about you so much because you are the oppostie of me, but I found myself lost in your thoughts."
"So you've loved me for a year? Why didn't you ever tell me?"
"Becuase I never thought you would go for a girl like me. Like I said, I was so different from you. You had a new girlfriend every week, and I didn't want to end up being one of the girls you keep for a week."
"Trust me, Simmy, I don't plan on keeping you for only a week. I really do love you. I've never felt like this for any other girl before. You're different."
Simran smiled, reaching over the table to hold Rahuls' hand. "I know, Rahul. For some reason, I believe it when you say you love me."
"I love you, Simmy."
"I love you too, Rahul."
******
I know it's a bit weird that I split the Simran/Rahul thing but i was planning to keep splitting between the couples but I just kept writing and writing and it all played out well so I just kept it. I hope you all like it!!
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