Jennifer sighed, as she sat down on the plastic chair at the end of a long day of shooting. Their director, Aniruddh was watching the scene she had just filmed alongside Harshad. It was quite a romantic scene where Harshad held her in his arms for a photoshoot that they were doing for their company. Jennifer got a look of the scene and saw Aniruddh's smile grow as the scene progressed.
"Your chemistry with Harshad is always crackling, y'know?"
She looked away listening to her director, "it's called acting."
Jennifer always liked to keep things professional on the set, especially when it came to co-actors. What happened on the set of one of her old shows was something she didn't want to relive. Harshad was a genuinely nice guy, though. He had been nothing but sweet to her and their level of understanding only grew with each day. When it came to doing romantic scenes with him, she just went with the flow and it seemed like romance came naturally to them. She had decided not to look into the matter too much because that would only complicate things on the professional front. Whenever somebody complimented their chemistry, she quickly brushed it off by calling it acting or the equation of the characters or basically the first thing that came to her mind.
"I guess, I'm going to leave now."
Jennifer heard Harshad's voice behind her chair. Aniruddh got up and gave Harshad a quick side hug to bid him goodbye since he wasn't shooting the next day. She, however, waited to think what she should do. She hadn't felt this nervous before with any of her co-actors and even though Harshad and her had quickly become really god friends, she didn't know what level of closeness she should maintain with him.
Suddenly, she felt Harshad's hand on her shoulder and he bopped his head lightly against hers saying, "bye!"
Fair enough. She smiled at him and said nothing. Harshad proceeded to leave from there and Jennifer went to her vanity van to change so she could get ready to leave to.
In just another 10 mins, Jennifer had taken out her extensions, rinsed off her makeup and changed into her comfortable clothes. Just then, a message popped on her phone. She opened the message that had been from Sehban asking her to join their group of friends to surprise a very dear friend of hers whom she liked to call, Pratz.'
Without thinking, Jennifer responded with, "Yes, of course. I'll tell Harshad too." As she hit, send', she realised that Sehban had actually not mentioned Harshad at all. It happened by instinct since Harshad had been making his way into their years old friend circle really quickly. His personality was fun and amicable and all of her friends were always all praises for him. Since him Pratz were also friends, it seemed only normal for him to come along for the midnight birthday surprise. Right?
She continued to justify herself in her mind, when she suddenly realised that Harshad had probably left. Hastily, she got out of her vanity and shouted his name. Everyone on the set who was busy packing up for the day, turned to look at her in surprise. Jennifer's cheeks flushed with hues of red as embarrassment took over her. Not the best idea to shout his name out of the blue, she told herself.
"Yes?" Harshad's voice came as a relief to her ears. She saw him standing beside Aniruddh so they were probably having a last minute conversation about something.
Ignoring the stairs and Harshad's confused voice when he responded to her, Jennifer walked towards them.
"What happened, Jenny? Is everything okay?" The concern and confusion in his voice was clear and she smiled when he called her, "Jenny." That's what everybody including him called but this time, it just made her smile for a reason, she failed to understand.
"We're going to surprise Pratz right now. Why don't you join us?" She hoped for an affirmative answer as she asked him.
"Umm... sure. Come, I'll drive you there." Jennifer smiled as she nodded.
They walked together towards his car and sat down as Harshad began to drive.
"You're sure that my presence there would be okay, right?"
"Of course. You're a part of the group now."
She saw him smile at her response and looked out the window, to supress the butterflies in her stomach. It's like she was being a teenager with a crush, all over again. Jennifer was a professional actress, for god's sake. This was not only strange to her but also made her tensed about the consequences.
______________________
The car ride had been comfortable with them, joking around and the music made for a soothing background. When they finally reached their destination, Jennifer began checking her appearance in the side view mirror and fixed her hair. She noticed Harshad looking at her and asked, "what?"
He laughed as he said, "You always look great, Jenny. Us peasants should be worrying, not you!" HE continued to walk towards Pratz's house with that last statement.
Jennifer smiled and looked at herself in the mirror one last time, only to see the blush making its way back to her cheeks.
______________________
When they surprised Pratz, it had been anything but a surprise. Sehban had reached first, thinking that everybody else had already reached. This meant that he surprised Pratz alone and they simply waited for everyone else to arrive, Sehban told Jennifer.
Jennifer and Harsad had reached last and everybody was waiting for them to cut the cake. Jennifer hugged Pratz and wished him a happy birthday and to her surprise, Harshad joined by hugging Jennifer from behind and spreading his arms far enough to engulf Pratz too. Her back was pressed against his chest as everybody shouted, "Happy Birthday!"
Harshad withdrew from the hug and so did Jennifer. She, then spotted her friend's adorable daughter and picked her up in her arms as Harshad started lighting candles on the cake.
Pratz cut the cake and everyone clapped as Sehban recorded a video of the party. Jennifer could only think of how many #HarshJen posts she was going to be tagged in the next day knowing how crazy their fans went when the two of them were spotted together.
It made her happy knowing that her fans were this passionate about their apparent, "ship" but also made her fear that this may create awkwardness between the two of them. Harshad always joked about it and that's how they chose to deal with it.
The turn came to feed Pratz the cake and Jennifer held the hand of her friend's adorable daughter and took a piece of the cake as she extended it towards Pratz. Harshad joined in from behind and wrapped his hand around theirs to feed the cake together.
It seemed like they were a family, if Jennifer was being completely honest but she chose to push aside that thought as soon as possible. She looked at Harshad's face that was just beside hers as he looked Pratz and laughed. Her eyes were fixated on their closeness and he looked down at her after Pratz had eaten the cake from their hands. She realised that he was probably thinking the same thing, since his huge grin started fading away slowly and his look in his eyes grew intense.
Jennifer looked away to avoid the awkwardness that would follow. She saw Harshad look towards the other side too and decided to go and speak to one of her friends to distract her mind.
______________________
What followed was a night of madness. They danced and chatted and made fun of each other till 3 in the morning. Harshad and Jennifer came across each other multiple times while randomly danced and Jennifer chose to enjoy moment. So, when the song, Ban Jaa Tu Meri Rani' played and they were opposite each other, she placed her hands on his shoulders and he abided by lightly resting his hands on her waist. They shouted the lyrics of the song as they jumped together and she noticed Harshad pointing towards her with one of his hands when the hook played, as if he dedicating the song to her. It was probably the alcohol kicking in, but Jennifer only managed to laugh at his gesture and almost lost her balance doing so. Thank god for Harshad holding her up or she would've been on the floor in no time. He was concerned for a second but continued to jump and bop his head with the music while still assisting Jennifer's stance by holding on to her waist.
______________________
The party came to an end when everybody began to leave around 3:30. Even though, Jennifer and Harshad didn't have to shoot the next day, Jennifer knew it was getting really late.
She hugged Pratz once again and decided to leave when she felt someone holding on to her wrist. She turned to look at Harshad who was the one stopping and giving her a perplexed expression.
"Where do you think you're going? I'm driving you, remember?" He let go off her wrist and walked ahead of her, "come."
Jennifer mentally face-palmed herself realising her mistake and followed Harshad downstairs.
"One hell of a night, no?" He asked before unlocking the car and getting in the driver's seat.
Jennifer was absolutely drained out by the time she settled herself in the car. She was exhausted and it seemed like to her, that her head was going to explode any minute. She closed her eyes and relaxed, mentally stopping herself from dozing off to a sweet slumber in Harshad's car. She knew he would be oh-so-nice about it and either wake her up or lift her up and safely drop her to her apartment but that would be too much to ask. So she tried to rest in her half-asleep state and opened her eyes abruptly every few minutes so as to not sleep.
Eventually, somehow, she had gotten into a state where she almost asleep and her mind tried to process her position on the thin line between dream and reality. It felt like she dreaming and her unconscious mind was slowly taking over sending her watchful ego away.
She found herself relaxed and at peace, resting her head on Harshad's shoulder. The music had stopped playing long ago since Harshad had probably turned it off so she wouldn't get disturbed.
The car came to a halt, she didn't know many minutes later since her burned-out self, had already lost track of time. Her eyes opened slowly, as the car jerked when it stopped.
"Jennifer?" Harshad whispered. He didn't move his shoulder but looked at her with care.
"Yeah, I'm up, don't worry." Jennifer lifted her head from his shoulder and without giving much thought to what she was going to do next, planted a soft kiss on Harshad's cheek while whispering, "Thanks for everything." She saw him change his expression from shocked at first, but to a shy smile in just a few seconds.
"Bye." She opened her door but heard him say, "Wait, let me come and drop you upstairs. You're not in the best state to be going alone right now."
Jennifer looked at him, appreciative of his caring forethought for her and said, "I'll be fine, I promise. I'll wave you from the balcony, okay?"
"But-"
Without hearing his full response, she continued to walk towards her building. She knew Harshad would insist on coming upstairs and she knew she would just end up embarrassing herself with what state she was in at the moment. She took the elevator to her floor, unlocked her apartment with the keys and haphazardly rushed the balcony. She knew he would waiting downstairs like the gentleman he was and probably getting anxious for her.
Jennifer took her phone out of her pocket and dialled Harshad's number. As soon as the dial tone started ringing, she saw him come out of the car. She disconnected the phone, not trusting herself with what she was going to say and waved Harshad, goodbye. She saw him look confused but sigh, later and wave back to her.
With one last beaming smile that he flashed at her, he got back into his car and left.
Jennifer went to her bedroom after watching his car speed off and closed her eyes as she collapsed on her bed.
One hell of a night, indeed.
Indian Premier League
