"You have no idea how happy I am to know that the two of us are working at the same hospital. I mean, I haven't seen you in months!" Sid exclaimed as he took a sip of his chai.The two friends were sitting in the hospital cafe, catching up.
"Same here. So...how are things back at the othe Sanjicani?" Shilpa asked, taking a bite from her cake.
"Things are good. Jiggy and JP are still the same crazy boys. Oh, but you'll never believe this: Jiggy has a girlfriend!"
Shilpa dropped her fork, gaping. "Seriously?"
"Yeah, he emailed me yesterday," Sid said laughing slightly and shaking his head.
"So what about...Armaan and Riddhima?" smiling a little less and looking down at her cake.
Sid looked at her for a moment before answering. "They'e getting married. Riddhima proposed a day before I left for Delhi."
Shilpa looked up and smiled brigthly, but looked a little forced. "That's great! I'm happy the two are happy, right?"
Sid nodded in agreement.
"Hey, guys!" Shilpa and Sid looked up to see Rahul pulling up a chair to join the two friends.
"Hey, Rahul," Sid replied.
"I have some good news. We're going on a picnic!"
"Picnic?" asked Shilpa. "Any reason?"
"Yes, there's a reason. I thought it would be a good opportunity for all of us to get to know each other. Everyone's gonna go besides Dr. Niti. She has a date with her boyfriend," Rahul said, shrugging.
"I don't know if I can go...I have a lot of unpacking to still do.." Sid said.
"Oh, come on, dude! You have to go!" Rahul whined.
"Yeah, come on, Sid. It'll be fun! And Rahul's right, it'll give us a chance to get to know everybody," Shilpa said backing up Rahul.
"Fine, fine, I'll go."
"Great! We leave tomorrow morning, and we're all meeting at my place. I'll text you guys the address and time." Rahul looked down at his watch and said, "Crap. I gotta go, my girlfrend is waiting for me. Bye!"
"This is going to be fun," said Shilpa, smiling once again. Sid nodded in agreement.
******
Simran walked down the corridor, reading her file with imense focus. She was so focused that she didn't notice Rahul coming down the corridor.
Rahul was also focused, but on his cell phone. He was texting his girlfriend, explaining why he was late.
Suddenly, Simran collided into Rahul, the papers of her files flying everywhere. Before Simran could fall, Rahul grabbed her by the hand and pulled her in close.
"Sorry, Simmy. I was texting someone and wasn't paying attention," Rahul said, letting go of Simran.
"Uh, it-it's okay. I was reading my file, I-I wasn't paying attention. My fault," Simran stuttered, starting to pick up the papers. Rahul helped her.
"Well, I gotta go. I'll se you tomorrow at the picnic. Bye!" And Rahul left. Siman looked after him and he rounded the corner.
She looked around the sam corner, and saw Rahul with one of his many girlfriends. Simran looked away quickly, putting her head against the wall and sighing. Why did this have to happen to her? Why did she have to fall for the guy she knew she would never have a chance with?
********
"Why do we have to go for a picnic so early in the morning?" Nisha whinned, punding her head against Rahul's car.
It was 9 o'clock in the morning, and the gang was suronding Rahul's car, putting their things in his trunk as Rahul got his things.
"Because the place we're going is a long way from here," Vineet said simply. Nisha just whinned.
"I didn't know Rahul was rich," said Shilpa, looking up at the giant house and then at the garage, which consisted of almost 6 cars.
"Yeah, his dad is the trustee of some really big company, or something like that," Nisha replied, bored.
"All right, guys. We ready to go?" Rahul came out excitedly.
Everyone either nodded or said a quiet yes. Everyone was tired. How Rahul could be so hyper in the morning was out of anyone's knowledge.
But once they all piled into the car, Rahul turned on the radio and in no time, everyone was laughing, talking, singing along to the radio. It was all fun, until the car came to a stop.
"Why are we stopping?" Sid asked, looking out the windows to see if they had readched thier destination.
"Uh..." Rahul said, looking at the screen that showed how full the tank was.
Simran followed Rahul's gaze to the screen. "You forgot to fill the tank before we left, didn't you?" Simran said accusingly to Rahul.
"Uh...I might've...Rahul said nervously.
"Rahul!" everyoe yelled. Rahul squirmed a little.
They all got out the car angirly. "Now what do we do?" Vineet asked.
"Oh come on, guys, it's not that bad-" Rahul started.
"Shut up, Rahul," Nisha snapped. "We'll just have to get a lift from someone."
"Yeah, great idea, but from who? We're in the middle of nowhere! We won't see a car for miles!" Shilpa exclaimed.
Then, ironically, a big truck came down the road. Before they could miss the truck, Sid stood int he middle of the road, stopping the car. He walked to the diriver's said. "Can we have a lift?"
"Get in!" the truck driver said, smiling. "My name is Amaardeep Singh. I can take you all up to the next truck stop, which is three miles from here."
"That's fine! We need to go to the Flower Gardens, two miles from here," Rahul added.
"Great, I'll just drop you off there," Amaardeep said.
"Thanks," Sid said.
The gang started to pile in the back of the truck with all their stuff. As Sid helped Shilpa up, pulle her a little too hard, and they both ended up on their backs on the truck, Shilpa on top of Sid. They both looked at each other for moment and started lauhging.
The truck started and the group got comfortable, starting to laugh and talk happily once again.
"My car," Rahul said sadily, watching as his car slowly disappeared from view.
Shilpa rolled her eyes. "Rahul, you have 5 other cars in you garage. You'll be fine."
Anupamaa
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