OS- Our First Encounter!

"Arey its okay! You don't have to come Priya! I will manage"

"No Ragini.. You are going alone already, I can at least come to see you off and help you with the luggage na"

"You have classes today, you better get going, I swear I will be fine", Ragini told her roommate.. They had come to become very close friends over a period of two years.

"Call me if you need anything okay? Airport is just twenty minutes from here"

"I will. You take care, see you in a month", she told and hugged her friend.

The cab was waiting outside and she got into it, directing the driver to drop her at the John.F.Kennedy airport, New York.

"Thank you, Have a nice day", Ragini wished the cab driver and got down from the cab.

She found a trolley nearby and carefully lifted her travel bags and suitcases and placed them on it.

Luck didn't favor her that day as the zipper in one of her suitcases came undone and the bag opened, spilling some of its contents on the floor.

"Oh My God! What the hell you stupid bag! So much for ordering a new one online ", she muttered, extremely irritated with the suitcase 😆 "I should've accepted Priya's offer and asked her to come along. Now I have to think of something on my own". She tried hard to close the zipper and thankfully, out of the two zippers on either end of the suitcase, one of them still worked and she pulled it, successfully closing the suitcase..

"I would suggest getting it shrink wrapped (Wrap the suitcase in a plastic film to prevent it from any damage or intrusions, many airports generally provide that service) so that it doesn't open again", she heard a husky male voice from behind her. She turned to see a tall guy, around 6ft, in a jean and T shirt, with a jacket over his shirt, looking at her suitcase and then at her..

"That's a good idea, thank you so much", she replied, genuinely grateful for his timely help.

He helped her lift the suitcase and place it on top of the trolley. She thanked him and went towards the Secure Wrap' service booth.

After making sure her suitcase was wrapped properly, she walked towards the counter to get her boarding pass. The guy who had helped her, was talking over phone and when he saw that her suitcase was fine, he nodded and smiled gently.

They had reached early and there were hardly anyone in the counter. She waited in the queue and the guy walked briskly to stand behind her.

She was surprised. He was going to travel in the same flight as her!

Ragini was asked to place her bags on the weighing machine and one of them weighed slightly more than the permissible limit.

"Sorry ma'am, we cannot accept this"

"But it's just two kgs more"

"No ma'am, sorry. I am not the deciding authority", she informed seemingly unhappy at not being able to help Ragini.

"This is so not my day ", she muttered and opened her suitcase to remove some of its contents and shift them to her backpack. Why do I have to have all my embarrassing moments, on the same day, that too in the presence of Mr. Handsome? , she thought, groaning inwardly at her misfortune 😆

"Um Excuse me? Could you hold this for a moment if you don't mind?" she turned and asked the guy, giving him a large minion soft toy, almost the size of her backpack 😆

"You want me to hold THIS?", he asked, partially amused at seeing someone as old as her holding a soft toy and partially shocked at what people will think if he stood there, carrying one 😆

"Dude please just one minute, I need to take out some stuff from here", she replied hurriedly because people were starting to come towards their counter.

He could see that she really needed help, so leaned forward and took the minion from her hand, looking around to check if anyone saw him 😃

Ragini successfully managed rearranging her bag and it now weighed below the permissible limit. She was given her boarding pass and baggage tokens and she left for the security check, happily forgetting the guy and her minion 😆

"Hey! Excuse me! ", he called but right at that moment, she got a call from her roommate and he was called forward by the lady behind the counter, cos of him being the next in the queue.

Nachiket found her happily sitting in one of the seats in the waiting area/gate, with earphones on. Though he was angry with her for being so careless and forgetting her belongings, he couldn't stop admiring her beautiful features and her calm smiling face, with her eyes closed.

"Um ... hey!" he slowly called her, after a full five minutes of admiring her 😃

She looked up at him and then at her soft toy in his hand and realization dawned on her.

"OMG OMG! I am so sorry! I totally forgot!" she said, taking the minion from him.

"You have no idea about the number of weird looks I got from people here", he said and both of them burst out laughing, imagining how awkward and embarrassing it would've been for him.

"I am really very sorry. It sure would've been funny to see some stern faced handsome hunk like you walking around with a minion", she said before she could stop herself 😆

"Ah! I can do with the handsome hunk part but stern faced eh?" he asked, placing a hand over his chest, signifying that he was hurt...

OMG Nachiket! Are you actually flirting?' This question from his brain made him realize what exactly he was doing.

He could see that the girl felt kind of conscious now. Damn you', he told himself..

He wanted to lighten the mood and so replied with a "Arey I was kidding! Anyway it was nice meeting you', he said smiling genuinely, hoping he hadn't created any permanent damage to his image 😆 Even he didn't know what came over him to give her that kind of a reply. But she was the one who described him so ,right ?

Ragini was lost in her own thoughts. 'Why did I say that? Me and my big mouth! Make a fool out of myself in front of a random stranger. The poor guy is now trying to make me feel better for my stupidity. Okay damage control from my end'

"Nice meeting you too , And hey! don't judge BTW ! The minion was for my friend's kid!", she replied, hoping that the whole embarrassing situation would be forgotten 😃

"I never said anything", he said chuckling and walked to the other end of the waiting area. Both of them spent the next couple of hours, stealing glances at each other and thinking about the whole conversation from the time that suitcase gave up on her.

"Boarding call for flight U48 from New York to Mumbai" brought them out of their thoughts.. They got all their carry on's and proceeded towards the flight..

After getting a part of their boarding pass back and being shown their seats by the flight attendants, , both of them went in, unaware of the fact that they had to travel together for the next 14 and a half hours 😃

Ragini placed her bags on the overhead bin and settled in her window seat, enjoying the view outside.

"Seriously?" she heard someone say and turned to find the same guy with a look of surprise on his face.

"So we meet again", he said and took his seat beside her.

"What? This is your seat?"

"Yeah, that's what my ticket says", he said rolling his eyes at her obvious question. "Where's your minion?" , he asked chuckling

"Hey don't tease me! I already told you it is not mine", she said pouting.

"Okay Okay! Anyway, now that we are going to be stuck with each other for the next 14 hours, why don't we atleast introduce ourselves? Hi, I am Nachiket! ", he said smiling and extending his hand for a hand shake,

She found what he said making sense. Yeah he was a stranger but he did help her a couple of times too.. "Valid. I am Ragini" , she said, shaking his hand.

"Ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking.We like to welcome you onboard this flight to Mumbai. The flight duration is around 14 hours 45 minutes and we are expecting a fairly smooth flight today. Once again we thank you for choosing to fly with us today and we hope you enjoy your flight. Please switch off your mobiles and fasten your seatbelts. The cabin crew will let you know all further instructions", they heard the pilot say and Ragini muttered a "Oh god I am so fed up with this safety instructions part. It's the same video over and over again. I pity these flight attendents who would've done this a million times already" , making him chuckle.

This girl is interesting..This is going to be one fun flight journey' his mind commented.

The journey was uneventful the first couple of hours and they spoke occasionally cos both were busy watching movies.

Dinner was served within an hour and unfortunately,there was only one vegetarian meal available as they were running out of stock.

"How can it be so? I had specifically mentioned vegetarian! ", Nachiket replied to the air hostess, when she tried explaining to him. He let Ragini take the one that was available but he was irritated with the flight people.

"Sir, we are very sorry for the inconvenience ", she told over and over again but that didn't serve the purpose.

"Nachiket. We can share this if you don't mind and maybe get some juice , anyway its night time and its not good to eat a lot right ?"

"No Ragini! You don't have to suffer because of their carelessness"

"And you are planning to sleep without eating anything?"

"Hmm I don't know"

"Listen, seriously this is a good plan"

"Fine. Thank you! "he replied smiling at her and the air hostess left after apologizing to him one last time and giving them two glasses of apple juice.

Ragini and Nachiket enjoyed their dinner, chatting about many things from politics to favourite sport to family. They got to know many things about each other, like the fact that Nachiket was a doctor in a hospital in New York and Ragini was pursuing her research in cancer biology. They were happy that they were from the same field, more or less.

Ragini took a book from her backpack after dinner and was busy reading, that she didn't notice him trying to read what was on the cover page.

"Gone Girl eh ? I liked the movie. So different ! "

"The book is AMAZING! My friend told me that it had so much more depth and details and I should read it even if I have watched the movie. So, borrowed this copy from her"

He smiled and nodded. He was a voracious reader himself. One more similarity between them 😊

He decided to call it a day and sleep for a while. He recalled the events from the whole day and couldn't stop smiling at how he seemed to talk so freely with a girl he had just met couple of hours back. Somehow, she was different and he liked her company.

Ragini, though she had a book in her hand, couldn't concentrate much, when she felt his head slightly falling on her shoulder after a while. He was in deep sleep and he looked so good and his face looked so serene, when he was asleep. She tried to gently move his head to rest on his seat, but failed in her attempt 😆 She swallowed hard and willed herself to get back to the book but nope, her mind just didn't cooperate. So, she closed the book and leaned on her seat and fell asleep before she realized.

The sun was shining brightly through the window which made Nachiket slightly stir in his sleep.. When he slowly opened his eyes and realized he was leaning on someone's shoulder, he got up in an instant and the memories from the previous day came flooding before his eyes.

OMG the poor girl. Her shoulder would be paining like crazy'..He slightly blushed and hoped that she wasn't aware of this, because she herself seemed to be in deep sleep. So for now, this was his little secret 😃

He went to freshen himself up and when he came back, Ragini was awake,

"Good morning", they wished each other and she went to wash her face. She hoped that Nachiket didn't realise he was resting his head on her shoulder and she wasn't planning to comment on that either. It was her little secret and she somehow enjoyed that 😃

Two more hours before they reached Mumbai and this time, both of them were lucky enough to get the vegetarian breakfast that they had ordered. The same thought crossed their minds, when the same air hostess gave Nachiket his breakfast and they chuckled when they caught each other's eyes, after she left. 😆

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are about to begin our final descent to the Chatrapathi Shivaji Airport, Mumbai. Currently the weather is 35 degrees. We have certainly enjoyed having you on board today, we hope to see you again real soon, and thanks again for flying United Airlines", they heard the Pilot say.

Ragini and Nachiket, kind of felt sad that their flight journey was coming to an end.

The flight landed and they took their carry on's and walked towards the Baggage collection section, silent all the way.

After getting their respective bags, they turned to each other to bid their goodbyes.

"It was very nice meeting you Doc! I will definitely remember this flight journey for a long time! Especially the look on your face when I asked you to hold the minion", she said chuckling and extending her hand.

"The feeling is mutual Ragini. It was great talking to you. And BTW, I still think you got the minion for yourself", he said winking and shaking her hand.

They went outside the airport and after getting cabs, headed towards their respective homes.

Couple of days later :

"Ma! How many times should I tell you ? I don't want to marry!"

She couldn't get her mind off her co-passenger the past few days and her mother was talking about her marriage all the time"😃

"Atleast have a look at the guy's photo na? I am keeping it here". Her mother said and walked out of the room.

She was so totally not interested but destiny had other plans 😆. The fan which had stopped working due to power cut suddenly started working and the photo which was already almost out of the envelope, fell near her leg. She reluctantly turned towards it, thinking of placing it back in the envelope when her jaw dropped at the face in the photo. "Nachiket??"

Meanwhile, Nachiket's mom was pestering him for the same reason and also making sure to let him know that he was growing old every day 😃 And in almost similar circumstances, Nachiket happens to see her pic and his face breaks into a wide smile "Ragini?? WOW! Mom go ahead"

And so, this is how destiny played a role in bringing them together. Their first flight journey together turned out to be the reason for their happily ever after 😃