One Shot: Campa Cola Summer

Hello lovelies!

I had written this for an OS content which I didn't end up participating in as I couldn't complete my OS on time and had lost the zeal to continue it. I finally got around finishing it. And I'm both busy and bored and badly want to post something. Because...kal ho na ho.

I write Arnav-Khushi fanfics but this one has my own characters (as were the rules of the OS contest). I didn't want to change the names honestly, but I did try. But couldn't. It just didn't fit in. I just had different characters in mind, I suppose.

And exactly why I had the 90s in my mind while writing is beyond me. Really, just beyond me.

Hope you enjoy it :)

-----------------

Campa Cola Summer

"Shoo," Shiuli looked up to find her friend walk in through the iron gates of her house and made herself confortable on the jute chair next to hers, "have you been able to catch a glimpse of the new guy yet?"

"No" came Shiuli's reply as she turned to the new page of the magazine she had been reading ignoring the basket of mangoes in her friend's hands. "And it's not like I'm interested either. I don't even know his name."

"Rehan." Her best friend, Neeta, said, "His name is Rehan."

Shiuli looked up. "I never asked you his name."

"a) You stay in the same building as him, not I. And b) It's for the first time in twenty-six years of our existence that a very-attractive man has come to stay in our neighbourhood. Just how...can you not even be interested in knowing his name? I mean...it's been two weeks for heaven's sake!"

"Last time I checked, you were married," Shiuli reminded her friend, "Why exactly are you eyeing out other men?"

Her friend smiled at her mischievously before saying, "But where was the fun in that? No drama, no love letters, no..." Shiuli raised her eyebrows as her friend continued, "I'll tell you what is fun... a stranger living in your house, falling in love him and then marrying him. Oh, imagine, Shoo!"

Shiuli gave a good look at her friend's dreamy expression. "You have officially lost it." She said and went back to reading the magazine which she was coming to realize, she had lost interest in.

"But jo bhi bolo, the man is quite a catch. What impeccable style of dressing, what command over both English and Hindi, what chappals."

"Chappals?"

"Imported." Her friend said, clearly impressed with the idea of having importedchappals. "Maybe he has cousins abroad who get him imported slippers everytime they visit Delhi."

Shiuli rolled her eyes are the piece of information. "I can't imagine finding a man attractive who cares about wearing imported slippers."

"He's a nice guy. Stop hating him just because he takes up your parking spot." Then remembering the mangoes and offering them to Shiuli, her friend said, "Sorry I almost forgot about them, ma sent them for you. Take them... your favourite unripe mangoes. God, I wonder how you eat them."

Shiuli took no time to grab them from her friend. "Thank god, I was beginning to think you won't give them to me just because I don't like him."

"I don't get why must you judge him already?" Her friend said sighing.

"Why must you try to fix me up with every single person you come across?"

"Because, you my friend, are getting too high handed. Besides, why do you think your father let him stay here? Of course, he wants to get you married to him. He's beginning to get scared with things having not worked out with the last three boys he had selected for you." She told Shiuli and then with a raised eyebrow and one sided smile, she added, "Besides, I never said he's single."

Shiuli rolled her eyes to hide the embarrassment at her assumption. "Baba would never do that."

"Oh, yeah? Then why would your father only ask for a "Brahmin" boy for a tenant?"

Shiuli cringed in embarrassment. Her father had done that? What would have the advertisement for the apartment said, 'Needed a good, educated, Brahmin boy as a tenant?'

She turned to her friend. "I'm sure baba would never do that. Besides he's only here for the summer. After that, he'll look for accommodation near his work place." She repeated what she had heard her parents say. "And I'd finally be able to park my car in peace."

Her friend artfully raised an eyebrow and smirked. "For your I-don't-care attitude, you've gathered quite a bit of information on him."

Shiuli rolled her eyes. "Yes because I'm obviously dying to marry him."

Her friend chuckled. "Oh I can see that from the way - " Neeta trailed off and Shiuli turned towards the direction of friend's gaze to see the distraction.

"Shit" they both said in unison.

For right in front of them, they saw the back of figure walking by, towards the gate. From her friend's expression, and knowing that the back did not belong to Shiuli's brother or father, she figured that it must belong to none other than Rehan Bedi, their new tenant. And she also figured that there was possibly no way to walk to other side of the foyer without passing the place they had been sitting at. Another matter of fact was that there could have been no way he could have passed that place without hearing their conversation considering how they were not exactly considered soft-spoken.

*****

They say embarrassments of the young age can be forgotten, but it's hard to forget if one manages to embarrass oneself in their adult life. Shiuli wasn't sure who said it, but somebody must have...some philosopher. It just made sense for she came face to face with the person she was trying to avoid ever since, well five days ago, when he had heard her embarrass herself in quite a fashionable way.

But how did this happen? She had calculated his timings of entry and exit and made extra efforts to never cross his path. Of course, now she had finally seen his face, having been stalking him from a window since five days, when his backside had intrigued her enough to desperately wanting to see his front. Besides, she had wanted to see the face of the man who had managed to reduce her to a nervous sisteen year old from a twenty six year old working woman.

Now, of course she had been always aware that he was a handsome man. She trusted Neeta and her own eyes never lied even from twenty feet away, but now, standing, less than two feet away from him, and seeing him upclose knocked her breath away, something which hadn't happened in a long, long while. He was dark-eyed, tall and handsome...the kind of handsome that made you jittery and twisted your tongue.

"Are you Bagchi uncle's daughter?" he asked smiling politely.

She nodded and pretended that she didn't recognize him. Really, after getting herself embarrassed, that's what she pretended! He must have been expecting some recognition because when he didn't receive any he was quick to add,

"Err, sorry...I am Rehan, your new tenant."

She took his extended hand and made a big show of remembering him. "Aah, yeah, of course. I'm sorry, it has been almost three weeks and we haven't gotten a chance to meet even once."

He agreed saying something formal in return and made some small talk. They must have talked for some five-ten minutes more where she found out that he indeed was single, which she assumed, and worked for some cool magazine as opposed to her boring government nine-to-five job.

Feeling thankful for he was polite enough to not remind her of that conversation or the slight possibility of him not having heard it at all, she was about to make up some polite excuse to end the conversation when she heard her name being called...her nickname to be precise, given by her dear brother...

"Shushu!"

She sighed. She should win championship in ways to embarrass oneself again and again in front of a particular handsome man.

"You're home!" her brother said a little too happily. Funny how he never looked that happy to have her home before...ever, she thought "Ma said you'll help me with - oh," he paused noticing their new tenant. "Rehan bhaiya! Thanks for helping me last night with that essay."

Shiuli watched with narrowed eyes as her brother continued to thank his new "bhaiya". Seriously, when did this "relationship" grow?

When her brother finally made himself gone from the scene, she looked back at Rehan and had the sudden urge to explain. She just couldn't live with the fact that he'd possibly think that her loved ones referred to her as "Shushu".

"Umm... my name is not Shushu', okay?" She said to an amused looking Rehan. "Only my brother calls me that. He couldn't pronounce my name when he was young, you see...so.."

He chuckled. "Yeah, I reckoned."

"People always get my name wrong and then they come up with odd nicknames." She blabbered. "If you can't pronounce too, you can call me Shoo', I can live with that."

He just chuckled some more at that.

And then it hit her that he hadn't actually even asked her name yet, which she had forgotten to mention during introductions. And she had actually she went on to ask him to call her by her nickname of her choice. She cringed, and decided to not end the conversation. Really, why did she keep doing this to herself?

With an awkward polite smile she excused herself and made her way inside but not before realizing that she was in her fully starched cotton salwar suit looking no less than a boring, dull aunty to whom no guy would spare a second look at. So much for ruining already ruined impressions.

*****

Huffing, puffing and drenched in sweat she stepped inside her house after her evening jog and found her very attractive tenant sipping on Campa Cola whilst chatting her parents.

Not having been noticed yet, she was quick to adjust her ugly baggy T-shirt and shorts into a presentable position, and successfully managed to make a few curls escape from her ponytail and frame her face. Hoping that she wasn't stinking of sweat, she made her way inside.

A minute later Shiuli was sitting cross legged - for it appeared slimmer that way - and smiling back at the man who she came to realize, had a very nice smile, one which which reached his eyes.

"Just started today." She said in reply to Rehan's of question of whether she jogged every day. She noticed that he looked quite impressed. Not to tarnish this one good image she might have had a chance of forming, she lied.

"You look tired. Chai, Rasna or Campa?" her mother asked. Shiuli was about to take her pick - which would have been Rasna - when her mother added, "Oh, I almost forgot. No sweetened drinks for you. You had mentioned this morning. Her mother then, much to Shiuli's horror, turned towards Rehan to explain, "She is trying to watch her weight. Girls these days only want to diet. I tell her that these things won't - "

"I'm not dieting!" she said, rather loudly. And just to prove her point took the Campa bottle which had been sitting on the table and drank straight from it. "ILOVE Campa Cola. I cannot think of staying away from it even for a moment."

"And you don't need to either. You're fine just as you are." Rehan said with a smile and she allowed herself to secretly blush a little when she saw her parents exchange glances and everything went silent for at least two seconds. With a formal cough indicating a change of topic, Rehan voiced, "Where's Suchit?" asking about her brother.

"Oh, that boy has gone out to play cricket." His mother complained in her usual tone. "All evening, he does only one thing - cricket. No studies, no cleaning. Bas cricket cricket. Now only you can make him understand beta, if he wants to be an engineer, he has to study na."

He said something cool and magazine-like from those Why-all-work-and-no-play-makes-Pappu-a-dull-boy articles from his magazine in reply to her mother, and she wasn't sure about her mother, but Shiuli was surely impressed. She was about to add some more intelligent comments when she heard her father say,

"Beta, you haven't been parking your car at the spot since past few days..."

Shiuli stilled. So her father had given him the space? And then sighed. Even if had forgotten than embarrassing conversation from a few weeks back, this was surely to remind him.

"Oh, uncle, actually, I just realized that I won't be needing a place for my car. I mean I'm hardly there during the day, and I've found a spot near the park. But thank you, I really appreciate you helping me out. But I'm only here for the summer. I wouldn't like to cause too much trouble." He finished but not before catching her eyes for a tiny second before looking away.

*****

She had meant to talk to him. She really had. An apology and an explanation were in order. But she let a few days slip before she could actually gather the courage to walk up to him. She wasn't someone who felt the need to go dig into old embarrassing situations and embarrass herself further. But she felt a deep urge to somehow ask him to take the parking spot which would, give or take, mean going back to the first day she had met him. Or met his back, rather.

And for that, one bright Friday morning, Shiuli had put on her favourite yellow georgette sari instead of a cotton suit and braided her curly hair into a French plait instead of the usual one. If she were to finally speak to him about it, she could at least feel confident about herself first.

But her confidence died a fast death when every member of her family and workmates had the same sarcastic question to ask looking at her attire, "Are you going to meet a suitable boy today?"

By the time she had finally returned back from her work - earlier than her usual time to buy her some time to fix her hair and face - and ready to talk to him, she was feeling like an overdressed spinster on a mission to fetch a husband. Not a good feeling, that. Nevertheless, she decided to talk to him and get it over with.

But after half an hour of waiting for him sitting on her porch, Shuili had almost given up. She told herself that this must be one of those Fridays where he walked in extremely late at nights. She often wondered why he came late on Friday evenings. Too much work or date nights?

Deciding that she'd have to talk to him tomorrow for he wasn't going to show up until really late, she went inside to fetch some newly purchased magazines. Folding her legs in a rather unladylike fashion, she made herself comfortable on the jute chair and began reading the magazines. It was still five. She could be on her favourite spot and read before the sun went down.

Fate however had different plans for her. Instead of her approaching him, it was Rehan who did so. And what timings did he have.

"I see you're reading my magazine." He said huskily from somewhere behind her and she stilled. Exactly how did she not see him entering?

Quickly adjusting her sitting position she looked up to see him in his casuals with a Campa Cola bottle in hand. He looked like Campa model with short black hair, trendy clothes and imported slippers, she noted. "I didn't know you ran a magazine empire." she said. Thanks to her quick reflexes she had managed to shut the magazine. The last thing she wanted him to know was that she had been reading the section he wrote for. His article, to be precise.

Rehan just smiled in reply. "Want some?" he offered her the bottle.

"No thanks, I..."

He raised his eyebrows and with an amused expression said, "Why, I thought you loved it and couldn't stay away from it."

She was caught. "Yes, I do but..."

Chuckling, he withdrew his hand. "All the gas fizzled out anyway. It tastes like cold piss now."

She had to laugh at that, now. Who says such things? No wonder her brother liked him so much. "And you have tasted piss?"

"I do not talk of such things to girls."

"You just did..."

"You must be a special one then." He gave a lazy smile although she knew he was in the middle of something and only stopped by to talk to her. She looked away and tried to suppress her smile. "So, liking it, the magazine?" he said, a few moments later after they had gone silent.

Shiuli shrugged. "It's nice. Really new age."

"You think so? Did you read my articles?" he asked casually asked as he turned to look back, as if waiting for someone to show up out of their door, before turning her attention to her again.

She pretended to flip through the magazine. "I didn't I read it just as yet, I think." She lied. Ignoring the look of disappointed on a handsome face cause by her, she added, "Actually I mean to pass it on to Suchit after I'm done reading it. It's a great magazine. He needs to read it."

"Thanks. It's a great read for teenagers. By the way," he said passing her a look of appreciation. "You look lovely in a sari. I don't think I've seen you in one before."

Shiuli gave out a shy laugh. "Thank you."

"Special occasion?"

She shook her head. "Just like that."

"You look like a sunflower."

A sunflower? Was that supposed to be a compliment, she wondered? She didn't reply, what could she have said?

"That was a compliment." He voiced her thoughts.

"Thank you" she said, not quite meeting his eyes and pretending that it was the hot June setting sun which was playing the havoc. "How come I didn't see you enter the house?" she voiced her doubt.

"That's because I entered from the back. Had to load some boxes into the car." He said to which she replied with a rather stupid sounding Oh'.

It was a few awkward seconds later that he said, "Um, Suchit said you were asking about me?"

Entering home from work she had asked her brother whether Rehan was back or not. She hadn't known that big mouth would actually go and inform him the same. Whose blood brother was he anyway?

However instead of denying it, which she easily could have, she decided to come straight to the point. "Actually yes. Remember the day when you heard the conversation between - " Shiuli's voice faltered when she heard another voice... of a woman, addressing Rehan.

"Re, it's done. If you need more help then - "

She had emerged from their house in all her prettiness and confident glory. Painful introductions were made. She turned out to be a family friend of his, but to Shiuli, she appeared a bit more. Neha, her name, was a beautiful girl with straight hair, kohled eyes, black fitted T-shirt and trendy blue denims.

Shiuli hated herself for feeling disappointed and a little betrayed because she had actually believed that those smiles and eye contacts, and the rare conversation they had shared were real.

Feeling a little out of place, and suddenly, a little hot, she made some silly excuse to get out of there. With a straight face, Rehan nodded in understanding, but just when she had turned, when he voiced,

"Shiuli"

And she had to stop and replay the sound of it. Once, twice. Thrice. It didn't take her breath away because it was for the first time he had taken her name. It took her breath away because her name had never sounded like that before. She turned slowly. Not wanting to smile, and trying hard not to run to her room and sulk. Because suddenly she wanted to do both.

"We'll talk later, okay?" he said, his voice soft and eyes, apologetic.

She nodded in agreement and made her way inside, leaving a confused looking Neha and a silent Rehan, staring at her back.

*****

That evening things had changed. Rehan wasn't aware but Shiuli's heart had unknowingly broken. Avoiding him was not much a problem for he was absent for most part of the day, and on weekends, she made it a point to not cross his path. Her work and meeting potential candidates for marriage seemed like the only way to pass her time, and she was getting tired explaining to her parents exactly why she couldn't settle for a nice guy before her "marriageable age" slipped away.

She was confused and heartbroken to no end. And feeling stupid for she assumed their talk on subjects such as piss as casual flirting. Really though, her heart had started beating fast and stomach had acted funny when he had called her "special one".

A month before Rehan was to leave their house she bumped into him in the middle of the road, where her car had broken down. It must be fate, because there could have been no way they could have met otherwise after Shiuli had made extra efforts to avoid him.

Parking his car at the side, he took off his dark shades, and walked up to her with a smile. "Looks like you're in need of help."

She badly wanted to flung her arms around him, too overwhelmed at seeing him upclose and talking to her after so long; and thankful that she had bumped into him for she couldn't spot a phone booth in the vicinity to call her father and didn't want to be stuck there.

Fifteen minutes later her car had been for the time being, parked under a tree. Shutting the door, Rehan leaned against her car and it was then she took in how handsome he looked in blue denims and a fennel shirt. "I've called a guy. He'll take an hour to get here."

Shiuli nodded. "Thanks."

They were silent for a while and she wondered if they were to stand there and wait for the guy. She was about to start some small talk, when she heard him say, "You never came to talk to me."

"What do you mean?" she asked, feigning a confused look

He met her eyes then for a couple of second. "Nevermind." He said. "Do you want to wait here or go for ice cream to India Gate?"

She chose the latter. A minute later they were seated in his car and driving towards India Gate. At the red light, they found a man selling Gajra, the ornamental flower garland for hair, and Shiuli couldn't help but smile at the beautiful scent of it. The next moment, to her utter shock, she found his hand stretching out of her window and asking for two strings.

"You don't have to - "

"You can just say thanks." He said with a smile as he handed over some money to the man.

She smiled back. "Thank you. They smell divine, don't they?" she said as she took the Gajra strings from the seller and rolled up the window.

"I prefer the smell of Shiulis more." He said, looking ahead at the road. Her eyes widened and cheeks warmed. "Night jasmines, aren't that what they are?" he said and glanced at her. She nodded overwhelmed that he had conducted some light research on her name.

For a few moments neither of them spoke. The car was filled with the smell of jasmine and it somehow gave peace to her. The silence was both beautiful and insufferable.

Breaking the silence, he suddenly spoke, "I wear Bata, not imported chappals."

She had to do a double check on that before she started at his face, and concentrated in what he said further. "I hate unripe mangoes, especially achaar, but I would hate for you not have access to them just because you don't like me."

"Did you hear the entire conversation?"

He conveniently ignored her question. "I hate being judged, but you had already formed a judgement on me before even meeting me once and of course, it wasn't in my favour."

"What?" Shiuli voiced. "That's not - "

"And it hasn't ever happened before, but I somehow wanted to change that judgement badly."

It was clear by then to Shiuli by then that this was a monologue and so just sat quietly staring at his face, as he continued... "I'm not a Brahmin. Seriously, why would your father do that? I don't know if I have impeccable style or smooth command over languages, but even if I do, they do not seem to impress you."

He took a deep breath. "At the risk of sounding cheesy, yes, I once took over your parking spot, and I really wish to do the same with your heart."

She had to smile then, or it could be called a grin. "So Neha is just a - "

He looked amused at her reply. "Just a family friend. We're almost cousins. She was helping me with a few things that day."

Relief...was what she felt and she smiled some more. "I thought - "

"Shiuli" he said her name and she knew she had stop what she had been saying for definitely had something more important and interesting. "I like you."

She gulped and clutched the gajra strings firmly. Too firmly. He continued, "And I think you like me too. But you confuse me to no end." Shiuli had to press her lips to stop herself from smiling.

"And I'm hating the feel of seeing you go through all those "good" marriage material boys. And here I am sitting and thinking whether or not you like me all because of my stupid imported chappals which actually are not..."

Shiuli let a round of giggle to escape her lips. "I actually want to apologise about that day..."

"You do?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, and I also meant to ask you to park your car in my spot. But then Neha came out and..."

"And you assumed that we were together?" He said with a knowing smile and she nodded. "Is that why you have been avoiding me?"

"Well, not exactly but..."

"Goodness, Shiuli, you are absolutely mad." He said loudly but there was a huge smile in his face and his voice.

"I know." She grinned at him. When her face almost hurt with too much grinning she said, "By the way, I think I wouldn't mind even if you wore imported slippers."

He smiled...rather smirked. "Why, if I must ask?"

"Because... I guess you're right. I do like you, too." She confessed and dared to glance at him from the jasmine flower strings place on her lap. Feeling the intensity of gaze, she decided to look back at her lap again.

They had already reached India Gate and were now parked under a tree. "Let me fix that for you." He offered and grabbed the flower strings before she could refuse.

She wanted to tell him that she would look rather stupid with gajra in her hair when she had shirt and trousers on, but he had managed to silence her with slight grazes of his fingers on her neck.

"There." He said, his breath fanning her neck, "All done." He had done the work so artfully as if he had been trained in tying gajras.

She turned suddenly feeling shy. Feeling the need to fix her ponytail-escaped curls, she began to lift her fingers to put them behind her ears when she noticed another set of fingers proceeding to do the same task. But before he tucked them behind her ears he took his sweet time to roll his fingers in curls and play with them for good few seconds. "I wanted to do that since the first time I saw you." She felt her cheeks get warm just as he said, "And.."

"And?" she asked softly when he didn't say anything for several moments.

"And this." He bent down and planted a soft kiss on cheek.

She kept her blush in check just as she said, "Oh come on. You couldn't have possibly wanted to do that the first time saw me."

"Hmm... you're right. It probably must have been the day you asked me to call you Shoo' instead of Shushu' or the day you pretended to be in love with Campa Cola."

"I didn't pre - " she began but gave in to chuckles when he raised his eyebrows as if to say, Oh, really?'

Shiuli passed him a smile before saying "By the way, I loved your articles."

She saw in indulge in a happy sigh and say, "So you have read them."

She shrugged. "Yes and I made Suchit read them too."

"I think your brother likes me." He stated confidently.

"And I think my parents like you too." She added with smile.

"Even though I'm not a suitable, marriage-material Brahmin boy?"

"Yes" she added with pressed lips. "But we would have to talk to them."

"Which would mean more Campa Cola parties after your evening jog." He said smirking. "Poor you."

As they broke into laughter she couldn't help but lean in to kiss him lightly on the cheek, the flowers on her hair spreading the wonderful jasmine fragrance and she realized that she hadn't felt such happiness and joy in days. "Hey, what about my ice cream?" she reminded him of his earlier offer.

Starting the engine and making the car stop in front of an ice cream cart, he turned to her and said, "I suppose you don't want Cola flavour now, do you?" he said with a teasing glint. Oh well, she supposed she'd have to deal with his teasing for a lifetime and more, which was both lovely and convenient. Very lovely and convenient, indeed, she decided.

--------------

Hope you all liked it :)

Lots of Love,

Ananya