FEBRUARY 14th, 2017
7:30 p.m.
Vie Lounge, Mumbai
Amidst the buzzing crowd of youngsters and insanely annoying loud music, she made her way to the bar counter. Dressed in an unsophisticated white shirt with black jeans helped her in not gaining the male attention. The space was poorly lit if not for the disco lights that rotated about its own axis on the ceiling.
'Hi Anu. What will you take? Your regular mocktail, I presume.' AJ asked, readying her drink. Arjun Jaiswal, often addressed as AJ by his colleagues and friends, was a man six feet tall with bubbly and outgoing nature along with curly locks.
'Can I get a bottle of whiskey?' She replied. Arjun shot up,flabbergasted hearing her words. Taking a closer look of hers he found her cheeks red with tear strains evidently visible. It took him not more than minutes to come out of the club with her, requesting one of his colleagues to take care of the club.
Grabbing chairs for them outside the club, he made her sit and later on sat beside her. He cupped her hands, rubbing his fingers around to calm her.
'What happened, Avni?' He questioned. Tears welled up in her eyes as she recalled the incident happened prior to her arrival.
'I broke up with him, Arjun.' She looked down, silently sobbing with frequent hiccups. Arjun pulled her closer, resting her head on his shoulder. He was aghast hearing her and various thoughts flooded his mind. Avni and Varun, her boyfriend, were in a relationship for six years. They respected each other's opinions, loved and cared about the other, or at least he thought so.
'kyun' He whispered. She snuggled closer to him while he ran his fingers in her hair.
'No calls, not even a single message wishing me valentine's day, so I felt he was busy at his office. I rung up at the reception and found he was on leave. I thought he was planning something for me and me being the excited creature went to his house. And he...he was there.With another girl' Words did not come out from her any further and he didn't require any more too. Her tears never seemed to stop and Arjun decided to take charge of the situation,
'Anu, calm down. Why are you crying for that b*****d? Tu meri achi aur pakki wali behen haina, shaant ho ja. I cannot see you like this, please.'
'Arjun, why did he do this to me? Kya kami reh gayi thi mere pyaar mein...' When he felt no movement, he rose her head and found she was fast asleep. He decided to drop her at home when his phone buzzed.
'Hello. Yes, Raghav.'
'The crowd is increasing, Arjun. I cannot manage them alone and moreover that sadiyal boss of ours is also asking for you.Come soon.'
'I have to drop Avni, yaar. Manage for thirty minutes, please.'
'Thirty minutes, you gotta be kidding me. Another five minutes and that good for nothing fellow will fire you.'
Arjun sighed in frustration. These were the time he hated for taking up the bartender job at nights. But he needed enough money to open his own cafe. Taxis weren't safe, he concluded leaving him with no choice except to call his room mate.Three rings and the person on other side lifted the phone call.
'What happened, Arjun?' came a question from other side.
'Can you drop Avni home? I wish I could but I am at work. Please Neil.' Arjun requested.
'Okay, coming there by fifteen.' And he ended the call.
xxx
Planned to finish this as an OS but could not do so. Instead, I'm turning this into an FS (most probably five chapters). Just forgive me for the delay, was suffering from severe writer's block.
Love & Regards,
Nivi
