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CHAPTER 1
"Here's your cheese sandwich...and caramel cappuccino". Zoya placed the dishes carefully on the table.
The boy looked up and gifted her a warm smile. "Thank you." He nodded.
The girl didn't look so happy about it. The corner of her lip twitched in a smirk which was far from friendly.
"Let me know if you need anything else, m'aam." Zoya politely nodded and left the place in a hurry.
"This is why I never date!" she exclaimed as soon as she was back in the kitchen.
"Why? What happened? Another kid falling for our beautiful waitress?" Angela winked. Her hands were swiftly moving with the precision of a professional, decorating raspberry flowers on a chocolate cake.
"I mean, look at that couple! One of them looks bored out of his mind, another one is so full of insecurities she won't even let a female fly touching her "boyfriend"!" Zoya made a quote-unquote gesture with her hands and sighed.
"Oh dear, why do I've a feeling that another one of your anti-love lecture is coming? You're the ultimate cupid killer, you know that?" Angela sounded genuinely horrified.
Had it been a few months back, Zoya would've explained her the dangers of being in love (Oh, the bliss of being single!), but recently Angela had started dating the guy from the flower shop across the road, so Zoya was sure all her well-intended argument would prove to be a futile exercise.
Angela was seeing the world through her rosy tinted glasses and nothing, or nobody could stop her from gushing about how great it felt to be in love right now.
*Cupid sucks!* Zoya shook her head absentmindedly.
*When realities of life hit hard, all those fluffy feelings flow out of the window. Look at her, for example. She was 22, living alone in a city full of strangers, working 2 shifts a day on weekends, paying for her medical studies...then paying for the cardboard box she called her 'apartment', water bills, electricity bills, local cable...and the list went on and on.*
Just thinking about it gave her an uneasy feeling at the pit of her stomach.
*Love! Who has got time for that?* she wondered.
Voices from the far end of the counter interrupted her train of thoughts. It sounded like a heated argument was going on at the bar.
Zoya recognized one of the voices as Arjun, the young bar-tender in the 'Magic Lantern' (the resto- bar where Zoya's currently waitressing on weekends).
"I'm sorry, Sir. We do not serve hard liquor after 10. It's already 10.20. We're closing for the night." He pleaded.
"I want to talk to the manager. Where's the manager?" the other voice was deep and had a little drunken slur.
"Please, Sir. Try to understand. We are CLOSED for today." Arjun's voice was trembling a little. He was just a new kid, Zoya knew. Perhaps a complaint to the manager was not something he was looking forward to, specially at the end of a busy Saturday night.
Zoya decided to step in. She put on her anti-glare glasses (people always tend to take her more seriously when she had her glasses on) and walked with a dignified, slow pace towards the bar.
"Gentlemen, do we have a problem here?" she had an added edginess in her voice.
Zoya found a pair of dark brown orbs pinning her with disturbing intensity. She shook her head a little to come out of the sudden trance, and slowly the form of the stranger became clearer to her.
The first thing that struck her was the abundance of the colour black surrounding him. The man was wearing a black leather jacket, over a dark coloured shirt (even the shirt looked black in the muted golden light). Both of them were complementing his muscular, well-toned feature superbly.
He was a tad bit taller than her; just the height where she could comfortably rest her head on his chest. (Allah Miyaan! from where did that thought come??). Those bright eyes were set on a perfectly sculpted face, with sharp nose, cheekbones and jaw-line. His face was looking a little gaunt, probably from all the drinking, but the light stubble on his face had given him an undeniable charm.
Zoya swallowed hard as her gaze briefly shifted to his lips. His lower lip was a little fuller than the upper one, and it had turned bright crimson since he was biting hard on it. Looked like he was trying hard to contain his anger and chewing his lips from keeping himself saying something which he might regret later.
"I want to talk to the manager." He demanded angrily.
Zoya could see the blue vein on his temple throbbing painfully. It matched the erratic pounding of her heart.
Zoya opened her mouth but realized her throat had gone very dry all of a sudden. She gulped and cleared her throat awkwardly.
"You can talk to me." her voice came out weaker than she imagined.
"Look, I don't have time for this. All I want is a good bottle of scotch-a fairly reasonable demand, you see, which this gentleman is hell bent on denying me." the guy threw his arms in air wearily.
"I believe he has already made it clear that we're closed for tonight...clear enough for even a drunk man's understanding." Zoya gave him a cold glare from the top of her glasses.
She seemed to press the right buttons, as the guy's eyes flashed with a blaze of anger, which was replaced with an icy cold glint moments later.
He didn't say anything for a long time. Then he fished something out of his pocket and put it on the counter.
It was a 1000 rupee note.
Zoya stared disbelievingly at the note. She couldn't believe the guts this guy's got.
*So he is one of those douchebags who thinks they will buy their way through everything.* Zoya crinkled her nose in distaste.
She silently put a finger on the note and pushed it towards him.
They stood in silence for long, her fierce gaze colliding against his steely calmness. He then took out a bundle of notes and casually spread them on the counter.
"Zoya" Arjun whispered in her ears "he's offering ten times. We could just give him a bottle and finish it."
Zoya silenced him with a decisive swing of her hand. She would like to see the extent of this man's ostentatious nature. It was not a matter of money anymore.
Zoya picked up the notes with slightly trembling fingers. Then with all her might, she threw it on the man's face.
"I said WE'RE CLOSED. Now get the f*** out of here before I call the police." Zoya spitted out. She felt a tug on her arm, realizing that her friends were stopping her from literally hitting this guy.
She jerked her hand off and screamed "Make sure to take your filthy money out of my table. If we EVER see you here again, we will call the cops. Now, just get lost." she waved her hand threateningly.
"What's the matter with her? Are you PMSing or something?" the corner of his lips twisted with a smirk. A crease appeared on his cheek which would've looked adorable under different circumstances.
Zoya's face burnt with humiliation. Her mind went temporarily vacant. In a fit of blind rage, she picked up a glass tumbler and threw the liquor all over him.
"ZOYA! What are you doing?" Angela was scared out of her mind. She grabbed her arms and held her back from launching another object at that disgusting man.
The guy looked surprisingly calm amidst the storm. He took out an impeccably neat handkerchief out of his trousers' pocket and wiped every inch of his face dry with it. He then threw it to ground, mouthed something that sounded like "crazy b****" and walked out of the bar with the swagger of a wounded lion.
"ZOYA! Are you out of your mind? Do you know who he is?" Angela sounded on the verge of tears.
"I don't give a damn about who he is. To me, he is nothing but an arrogant b***** who needed a few lessons in manners." Zoya fumed.
"God! Save this girl...He is Asad Ahmed Khan, one of the richest businessman in Bhopal." Angela looked like she's going to have an anxiety attack.
"Not only in Bhopal. He is one of the most recognized name in construction business globally." Arjun corrected her.
"Next week, he is having a grand party in his mansion. We were supposed to be in charge of the food and catering there. Looks like everything is finished...after all these." Angela tugged hopelessly at her hairs.
"If that was Asad Ahmed Khan, my career is finished. Nobody can save me now." Arjun dropped to one of the bar stools, burying his face in his hands.
"I don't know. People say things about him. He is a really mysterious character. Unpredictable. Rumor has it he is a big womanizer too. There are so many stories floating around, but nobody knows the man behind the story." Angela said thoughtfully.
Zoya's eyes fell on the bunch of notes lying on the counter. Some of them were dripping liquor now.
"Useless!" she muttered.
Before anyone could stop her, she hurriedly grabbed the cash and dashed out of the restaurant.
"Hey, your money. Take back your filthy money we don't want any part of this." she yelled behind the speeding black SCORPIO.
In her state of confusion and anger, she didn't even notice the soft drizzle pouring down from the sky, not until the dampness soaked her cloths and reached her skin.
To her surprise, the car suddenly screeched to a halt. The familiar leather jacket clad form stepped out in the cloud of fog and mist seeping out of the rain-hit earth. For a moment Zoya thought he looked at her direction.
What he did next came as an even bigger surprise to Zoya. He took out the leather jacket, wrapped it over the tiny frame of a small child, sitting by the side of the road, with a even tinier looking street puppy curled up in his arms. Even from the distance Zoya could spot the grateful smile that lit up the child's face.
The man then handed him a red box, which the child took rather reluctantly. It had a logo of 'pizza hut', Zoya could swear. Then without even throwing a glance at Zoya, the man stepped inside the car and drove away.
Zoya stood there in stunned silence. The crumpled notes slipped through her fingers and scattered on the ground.
Who was that man really?
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NEXT CHAPTER 2 : PAGE 4
CHAPTER 3 : PAGE 5
CHAPTER 4-5 : PAGE 10
CHAPTER 6 : PAGE 13
CHAPTER 7-8 : PAGE 17
CHAPTER 9-10 : PAGE 21
Prologue to CHAPTER 11: PAGE 23
CHAPTER 11a : PAGE 25
CHAPTER 11b & 12: PAGE 27
CHAPTER 13: PAGE 30
CHAPTER 14: PAGE 33
CHAPTER 15a: PAGE 35
CHAPTER 15b & 16: PAGE 37
Teddy ❤️
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Kumkum Bhagya
Bade Achhe Lagte Hain
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