Gunia left the building and looked back for a few seconds, the image imprinting in her mind with every passing second. She loved this place, she loved her new job and somehow, she was falling in love with her work hours as well. She almost left at the same time everyday; it was that time when the tug of war was strongest between the darkness and the light.
She fished out a few pages from her bag as she walked to the tube. She'd been the resident of the week for which she was awarded a set of coupons to various food joints. She'd been contemplative about taking out time to visit these places, but it had relieved her that all of them were quite close to her apartment. She found it weird that all the coupons had the validity of only until four days from now, but she nevertheless decided to make the most out of it and took the tube for the first restaurant on her list.
Gunia entered the Roberta's and a strong wisp of Italian seasoning hit her senses. She saw the place filled with people mostly her age fooling around and settled down in a nice quiet corner. Her New York famous pizza came few minutes later and she bit into the piece of heavenly joy only to be sucked into a world of pure bliss. An hour later, she left the place with a gift bag that contained a piece of a puzzle. They told her she'd win something if she managed to preserve all the other puzzle pieces as well and she'd mentally laughed it off on her way back home.
The same thing happened for the next three days when she went to the Shake Shack for their delightful burgers and sandwiches, the Roebling Tea Room for their scrumptious brunch and the Blue Smoke for their Barbecue. Each day she received another piece puzzle that intrigued her more than anything else. The parts of words made sense to her finally when she put those pieces together The City Bakery. A squeal escaped her as soon as she read the words. She decided she was going to snapchat the stuff at the bakery and how. She was gonna slay this last place like a pro.
As decided, Gunia reached the bakery looking chirpier and cleaned up than most days. Usually she wasn't a sweet and sugar person, but she could feel the difference today, she was happy, period. She opened the door to the bakery only to be taken over by the loud cheers and hoots and whistles along with the Punjabi music taking the place down. Ritchelle, Mohini, Jot and Pooja towered her from all directions and she was struggling to breathe in their embrace.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUN!
They all screamed in unison as soon as they let go of her, causing her eardrums to explode with the abuse. They filled her in about getting the hospital staff to play along with their plan of putting you on this treasure hunt. This explained all the secretive sniggers and stifled laughter of her colleagues whenever she narrated her experiences to them.
Mohini: Gun, why are you glaring at Ritch?
Gunia and Ritchelle's faces carried an expression similar to that of the deer caught in the headlights.
Jot: Cut them some slack, Vanny. Gun was probably just expressing her disapproval of our extravagant spending.
Mohini eyed the trio suspiciously, but nevertheless gave in and walked off with a shrug.
Gunia: Sooo, where's the fun stuff?
Ritchelle: Mo and Pooh were being extremely adamant about not getting any hard drinks, so I just decided to get them drunk instead. Then we'll be all clear for our own fun.
Jot: And that is why we've been waiting for you to cut that amazing piece of cake. It's been calling out to you since forever.
Ritch: And all of us!
Gunia saw Jot looking at the cake suggestively and a wide grin broke on her face as she called in everyone to cut the cake. She blew the candles and fed pieces, one by one, to everyone. Let's just say what happened next is something that's too good to be disclosed in public. *evil grin*
Happy Birthday, Gunia!! We love you loads!
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Indian Premier League
9