ISHVEER FF: The True Soulmates( chapter 14:page 29) - Page 9

Aww...your a cutie!

"So finally! We are going to France!", Saurabh said enthusiastically." What have you thought about our lodging in the city? I guess we are going to some decent hotel, aren't we?".

Ranveer sighed,"Saurabh can't you just seat silently for a while? We are in a plane! Everyone here is fast asleep and so should we. It's still couple of hours to reach Nice. "

Saurabh looked at Ranveer disappointed, "why are you hellbent on being silent? Instead of this You could have simply told what I have asked you."

"Ok,Ok! We're going to stay at apartment. Puneet has arranged everything there. So you need not to worry about it. We'll be searching for ishani once we get there. To tell you frankly I'm still unhappy about your decision. Only for the sake of my promise, I have brought you along with me. I didn't wanted to let you waste your holidays by wandering around with me."

Saurabh stared hard at Ranveer, "you know, there is no point talking about it since I am not going to change my decision. And if you think you are wasting my holidays, then you are wrong. Just like you said that you never break your promises,I too,never leaves my friends when they need me. Let's not argue over it."

With this, he swung his head in opposite direction and pretended to sleep. He ,by now,had similar conversation about third time and he knew that it had no outcome possible out of this argument, for Ranveer kept trying convince him to go back and he was firm over his decision. Though Ranveer was underestimating his health, he would not do that. He remembered what his father had said,' I'd not stop you from going, for if I was in your place, I'd have done the same. Just don't allow him to take too much stress. I'm proud to be father of such son!'

He had gotten support of his father and he was adamant about it.

Ranveer sighed again as Saurabh looked away. He was not really languid at the turn of events resulting in Saurabh's company. Actually he had always enjoyed being with him. He agreed on the fact that he was indeed a chatterbox and generally took things light hearted. He was a jolly type of guy who loved to live the life carelessly and at its fullest. At least one who has met him for couple of times would have same opinion. But Ranveer also had came to know the other side of him in short time or to be precise,in previous 48 hours.

He had seen a completely different Saurabh who cared for his friends and family so much, who would happily help others, who had a emotional side of his own, which he never showed to anyone. Events of past few hours tossed before his eyes as he closed his eyes leaning on the seat. Disha,shikhar and puneet had stayed at the Saurabh's home in night. They had left in early morning to get the work done that was awaiting them.

Shikhar had gone to prepare legal documents needed and disha had gone to office to get the brief summary of all the business for Ranveer. She had decided to call to home once Ranveer left with Saurabh. She was sure that if she tells anyone about Ranveer, he was going to get delayed.

Puneet had gone to police station and informed them of everything that had happened. He had came to Saurabh's home in couple of hours with police officers who took their time to ask questions to Ranveer. Interrogation lasted for whole evening ending on 4 PM. Ranveer had became so restless by then. He had his tickets booked for next flight at 7 PM. They had left the country as the word had began to spread about RV's miraculous return.

Even though Ranveer tried to get a nap,he could not do so. Sweet memories of past kept flickering in his mind. He remembered several nights they had spent together after everything had sorted out. He had never thought then, that they will ever be separated.

He clearly remembered the night he had heard ishani talking to someone tensely. When he had asked her, she had tried to hide it but he had figured something was wrong. When he had gone in detail he had came to know that someone was trying to harm him, his company, his reputation. Ishani had found out about it and she was trying to sort it out on her own. But things were not as easy as she had thought. Soon the man was asking for huge ransom from her. She had, to his shock, agreed to it without telling him a word about it. He still could not understand why she had done it. He had decided to find everything about it.

He had planned cleverly with puneet and had executed it well. They had been quite successful in their plan. They had come to know that He wanted not only to destroy Ranveer but to kill him, to take revenge. Ishani being unaware of all this, thought he was some ordinary criminal, doing it all in greed of money. She had decided to catch him red handed with help of police. She thought that she was doing it all on her own but Ranveer had kept eyes on her for protecting her from the person. He remembered it all too well.

Ranveer took deep breath in as he thought about it. Had they both had told everything to each other this would have had never happened. He once again got lost in his chain of thoughts as aeroplane sailed it's way through clouds.

Ishani took another sip of steaming espresso before continuing survey of the customers in the cafe. Some of them were busy on some smart devices or the other, while others were chit chatting with another. Some youngsters from college suddenly broke in round of laughter ,enjoying their free time. Despite the energetic and cheerful atmosphere of the cafe, her cabin had quite a sombre aura about it. She flipped through the schedule of the day absentmindedly. She had to attain a meeting within one hour,after which she had to go to a charity event where 'Sunshine' (that was the name of the NGO) was going to look after catering services. She had been told by Alice that she was to make sure that everything was going on smoothly. She remembered lily before departing from home. Though she chose to remain silent, her innocent yet mysterious smile had confounded her,though she also chose to not to show it, simply giving a smile.

She sighed heavily. Maybe she was thinking too much about it. She began to flipped through the file kept on the table, when her mobile beeped. She reluctantly picked up mobile to see who was calling her. It was lily.

"What happened lily, why you called me this early? ", it was barely half hour ago she had leaved for caf.

" nothing serious. Mom told me to call you to tell that meeting has been postponed and she has called you to event directly in a hour. Do reach in time. "

"Ok lily, I will be there in time. Anything else?"

"No, just make sure you wear clothes that are kept by me at home and no need to worry if they get spoiled."

"What? It means I will have to come home to change clothes. And what is the event about? And why on earth my clothes will get spoiled?I am going there to only watch over the arrangements." Ishani got baffled at this information.

"That goes without saying. You may make arrangements or participate in it, you will get colored any way. Remember I was going to an event today? It's the same one. So here is your surprise! Oh,how I wish to be there while telling you this. Yeah, I didn't told you earlier, it's name is 'color run'. Now you must be imagining a marathon but it's not like that. All we have to is to simply walk. It's what you can do in a crowd like that. It's 5 km event starting from Preston avenue extended upto north mountain road. They say it's a real fun, dancing on the music and enjoying ourselves, throwing colours at each other, and much more. It's our version of your Indian festival Holi. But here money earned will be used for charity. So here you come in horizon. Managing catering services for a charity event! Sounds good to ears, isn't it? Ok,

Mom will be waiting for you at there, and me too. Come quickly!"

With this lily abruptly cutted the call.ishani now understood why lily didn't compelled her on the before yesterday. Ishani stood up and went outside to instruct the staff. She made sure that everything will work properly in her absence and leaved for home. She had no other choice.

Memories of her childhood when she had spent her Holi with Ranveer and her siblings floated in before her eyes. She missed her family terribly, but she thought it would be good if she stayed away from them. She had always caused many ups and downs in their lives before too. Now when everything was this calm, she didn't wanted to cause any hurdle. But that doesn't mean she didn't missed them. She remembered how disha and Ranveer had quarreled once for the stupid topic of who will colour her first on Holi. Ranveer claimed that being her best friend he had that right and disha said being her younger sister she will apply color first. Ishani didn't know then what to say for she could not disappoint any of them. Disha had made her sleep in her room on the day before Holi, but Ranveer had managed to sneak in the room and had colored both of them very terribly. They hadn't realised it upto morning when prateek, gauri and devarsh had laughed at them holding their bellies. Disha was so furious over Ranveer that she had not talked to both of them for whole afternoon. Finally Ranveer had apologized to make her happy and matter was settled.

Disha had covered Ranveer and ishani then,with every color she could lie her hands on.

A smile crept on Ishani's face as she reminiscently thought about her childhood. She had now reached to the Preston avenue. The noise brought her back to the bitter reality.

She signed heavily and began to observe the surroundings.

The atmosphere here was cheerful, energising and enthusing. But feelings that came to her when she descended from car were quite different. Her desperation looked somehow illogical to her. It was as though her desperation was replaced by suddenly a string of hope to which her heart kept clinging. She couldn't understand sudden change of her emotions. Her heart was pounding heavily. She felt uneasy by the sudden burst of her emotions like this. She took a deep breath to calm herself and took the steps forward.

She could see huge crowd of people entering through the entrance eagerly inwards. The music was blaring everywhere. The road was fired off in a blaze of colours,colours bombs,colours cannons, colours mortars placed along the road with volunteers helping everyone getting coloured. A small passage was left on the both sides of road so that anyone could come out of it whenever he wants. Several stalls war were also kept in this free space for refreshment of people. The colours were everywhere, till her eyes could reach.But unlike in India she didn't found water anywhere. It was obvious given that it causes pollution and people here were more aware of environment.

She accepted the sunglasses provided by devid , the in charge for the catering services here. He lead her to Alice and lily. Lily had worn a simple white top along with a three fourths. She beamed at the sight of ishani.

"Ishani! Here you are! The dress is suiting you perfectly. Let's go, our time has begun already."

"I will come shortly. You go and enjoy yourself.I have to make sure of everything first." Ishani said.

"Yes honey, she will come in a while. You can go." Alice too

Signaled lily to go.

"Ok, for now I am going but if you didn't send her in another fifteen minutes, I'm going to come back. Ishani ,I am there, could you see those two girls?", pointing towards a direction, she told further," these are my friends. They too have come here. I'm going to them. Catch me there. Or I'm coming to you!"

Lily went cutting through the crowd towards her friends.

Ishani turned towards Alice.

"You should have told me about this earlier. I know, you wants me to enjoy this ,but for the sake of it, I couldn't let my work suffer. You should go with lily. I will manage everything here."

"Didn't you heard what lily said? She won't listen to anyone now. And you needn't worry about work. I'm here to take care of it. Just go quickly, age must be waiting for you. Go."

Alice gave her reassuring smile and patted her back indicating she should leave now.

Ishani reluctantly agreed and began to pass through the crowd. It would take her another five minutes to reach upto lily, she thought. She had nearly crossed half distance when her heartbeats began to flutter irregularly. She stopped dead in the tracks as the feeling wouldn't let her go any further. Her feets refused to move forward. She stood bewildered in the crowd while everyone around her were too busy to enjoy themselves.

Why my heart is betraying me so much today? What has happened that it has began to flutter again like this, something it would do generally when, when... No! It's all must be her imagination.she must go to lily who would be waiting for her.

"What a fool I'm making of myself!" She nodded warily to herself and as she had gathered herself together to move, she noticed someone, and the sight before her made her skip a breath.

There, in the middle of people who were laughing and throwing colours, stood a man who was looking at her, she could not see his eyes but that didn't prevented her from recognizing him. She trembled as she took a step towards him. Her brain was yelling at her that it was not true, but her heart told her she was right, she just had to listen to him. She refused to listen to both of them as she was caught between the dilemma, dilemma whether she was actually day dreaming or it was really him, or she had mistaken him for someone else. But this did not prevented her feets that were still enhancing towards the man.

He slowly raised his hand upwards and removed his sunglasses. And with this ,all doubts ishani had, flew away. She instantly recognised those pair of eyes that were always filled with love for her. She went numb when she realised that it was Ranveer, her Ranveer. He was alive, here ,in front of her,looking at her with Same eyes that were always flooded with love, always longing to admire her every second they looked into her own.

The world around ishani suddenly had gone silent. Only thing she could feel were her own heartbeats which were now throbbing faster, like they had gone crazy, like they hadn't in years. She too removed her sunglasses by instinct and let her eyes meet his. Somewhere inside her heart, a fountain of happiness erupted, increasing in intensity with every second that was passing. She began to walk slowly towards him, tears now falling from her eyes continuously. Ranveer smiled at her, with tears in his eyes too, contently.

But before she could go any further, she heard her name being called by someone behind her.

"Ishani! Here you are! What are you doing here? Didn't I told you I was waiting for you there. How i got worried! Ishani, look at me."

With this ishani felt being turned around by someone.

"Ishani are you ok? What happened? Why are you crying? Tell me, tell me everything, now!", lily worriedly asked ishani whose face had traces of tears.

Ishani didn't understood at first what was happening but she soon guessed what had happened.

" lily,lily he...he is here! Ranveer is here! Look he's standing there.". Ishani turned back again towards Ranveer .

"There he ...", ishani got thunderstruck. He had vanished like he was never there. She tried to locate him around but in vain.

"He was here, lily! I'm telling you, I saw him. He was looking at me, alive. He smiled looking at me. Anyone could falter in recognizing him but not me. He is somewhere here,we have to find him,we have to." Ishani spoke in one breath with so much urgency in her voice. She wanted to go to him as early as possible. Everything else seemed meaningless to her at that moment.

Ishani tried to go away to search for him when lily's grip on her hands restricted her.

"Lily what are you doing? Leave me. Leave me now!I have to go to search him. Leave me."

Ishani nearly yelled at lily, but she didn't gave a inch. Lily looked ishani who was struggling against her. Ishani had a strange glow in her eyes she had never seen before. She instantly guessed what would have happened.

Lily stared at her and spoke seriously, "Ishani, look at me.no one is there. It was not the reality. Calm down ishani, calm down!"

"No he was here and I'll prove it. I'll prove that it was not my dream, he was here in reality, his eyes ,they couldn't lie to me.he is here!" Ishani was sure she had not been dreaming this time. She didn't wanted to think about anything else. In the war of heart and brain, heart had won after a Long time.

Lily didn't knew how to pacify ishani,she was about to say something when she heard a weak but yet determined voice ," she is right. I am here."

Saw you after long time here! 😃

I was quite nervous this time as chapter involved ishveer's coming in front of each other.

But now I am happy that you all are liking it.😃😃