Part 2D
Khanak's bike-ride back to her shop
"Itna acha mera din ja raha tha, lekin uss monster ki wajah se sab kharab ho gaya!" Khanak furiously took her bike out of the stand outside the office.
"Uss namone ko ajj ka din hi mila tha mere se panga lene ka kya?" Khanak mounted her bike, thanked the valet for looking after it and started her journey back to her shop.
"Ajj toh itni achi sale bhi hui. Aur phir un uncle ko painting bhi bohat pasand ayi." A smiled appeared on her face as she dreamily thought of the day.
Suddenly her smile turned into a frown, "Aur phir woh idiot," she furiously cut through the road, making a sharp turn causing the bystander to jump on the side to save himself. He yelled after her, while she just continued on to her own thoughts, "Usne mera sara din kharab kar diya! Samajhta kya hai apne app ko?"
She took another sharp turn on the left, causing another innocent human being to save his life, "Oye! Dekh ke apni cycle chalao!" Again Khanak didn't pay attention and went on cycling through the traffic.
As she made another turn, she saw red light and stopped traffic in front of her. She brought her speedy cycle to an immediate stop to avoid collision.
"Kya zaroorat thi usko mere saath takrane ki? Aur pani girane ki?" She asked the empty wind.
Two seconds later, her expressions turned from mad to guilt, "Par usne sorry bhi toh bola tha. And you yelled at him, Khanak."
As the signal turned green, the traffic picked up and she started her journey again, "But then he was laughing at me! Laughing!"
She made another slight turn and again managed to doge another bystander, but this time she apologized for almost running him over.
"But Khanak," she started her conversation again, "he was only trying to remove that paint stain off your face. You yelled at him for helping. Instead of thanking him, you showed your anger at him."
"He was laughing at me and I felt embarrassed after he told me what he was doing and I didn't know how to thank him," she continued to reason with herself out loud.
"But still he helped you and you insulted him!" She made a slow right turn on her shop street.
"He called me Cartoon! Cartoon!" she tried again to talk to her subconscious mind aloud.
"That was just a joke, he didn't mean it!" Khanak frowned to herself as she knew her guilty mind was right.
She was almost there to her shop. "You know you were wrong, Khanak. You know what you have to do."
She halted in front of her shop, stood her bike in the stand and rushed inside the shop to tell Ruby of the whole office incident.
Shaan's car
Shaan looked at the card again. He smiled and flicked the card with his index finger for the umpteenth time and looked out the window again smiling.
Finally! I cannot believe me luck. I thought I wouldn't be able to find someone before night time, but here I am heading to my manzil. Shaan thought to himself and smiled again.
And to think my day would get worse…especially after meeting that, that…Ugh! I don't even know if I should call her a girl. Shaan was upset again thinking about the whole office fiasco.
I thought she would be quite and shy-types of girl. But no! I was wrong! Her innocent looks and initial behavior said it otherwise. And those eyes, Shaan's upset expressions changed into a smile as he imagined Khanak's smile, those eyes held such power in them. Chocolate brown, almond-shaped, as shiny as a diamond, gorgeous, seductive eyes with… His thoughts trailed off, "Wait a minute!"
Shaan's sudden yell caused Dharam to look back through his rear-view mirror and slammed on his breaks.
Shaan felt a strong jolt, sending him forward in his seat, "What the…? Dharam, yeh kya tha? Hum kyu ruk gaye?"
"Shaan baba, woh kya hai ne ke appne abhi toh bola tha gadi ko rokne ko toh main ruk gaya," Dharam turned around and explained to Shaan.
"Maine? Maine kab bola tha gadi rokne ko?" Shaan was confused.
"Abhi toh bola tha 'Wait a minute'" Dharam reasoned with him.
Shaan hissed out of frustration and threw his hands in the air, rolled his eyes and responded back to Dharam, "Dharam maine gadi rokne ko nahi bola tha. Woh toh main apne app se baat kar raha tha. Issiliye yeh kissa khatam karo, gadi start karo, aur chalo. Humey jaldi pohanchna hai wahan."
"Par Shaan baba, app agar itni zor se apne app se baatein kareinge toh mujhe kaise pata chalega ke app mujhse baat kar rahe hain ya apne app se? mujhe kaise pata chalega? Pucho kyu?"
Shaan sternly warned him, "Dharam…"
Dharam turned back around and obeyed Shaan because he knew right now arguing with Shaan meant trouble for himself.
Shaan went back to his thinking, I can't believe I was thinking like that…?! Aur upar se yeh Dharam bhi. Pata nahi dad ne isme kya dekha tha? Jab dekho falto ki baatein shuru kar deta hai aur koi kaam theke se nahi karta. Yeh sab uss, uss…ladki ki wajah se hua hai! Uski woh gol gol baatein, bilkul uske gol, bhole chehrey(face) ki tarah. Sweet, innocent, sed—….Ugh! Focus Shaan Focus! Shaan hit himself on the forehead again.
He had no idea what was going on with him and all through the way he was wondering the same.
K. Saraswati and Associates
Shaan and Dharam finally reached the shop. He stepped down and told Dharam to wait in the car as he went inside and talked to the owner.
He looked at the overhead sign and then stepped inside the shop. He immediately liked what he saw.
The inside of the shop was elegantly set up, he saw how the interior designer had creatively used the on-the-sale items to make it part of the shop. The color combination was superbly and smartly done. Shaan was impressed.
He saw unique items that he had never seen before. There was definitely different theme going on, on every corner of the shop. The best part of the place was the paintings. They caught his attention immediately. He had seen many paintings but these ones had something else to it. In each painting, he could feel the emotions coming out of them. He saw the jhalak of the artist in them.
As he moved deep into the shop, he saw a girl working in the counter, which was located in the middle of the shop. He approached her, "Excuse me! Kya app iss shop ki owner hain?"
The girl had light brown hair and she was deeply buried in her accounting stuff. Hearing a manly, sensual voice, she immediately looked up. She was initially shocked as she had never seen a young, dashing man and that too someone like Shaan stepping in their shop before.
She felt embarrassed as Shaan repeated his question because she was openly starring at him. She shook her head and reminded herself that she already was committed, "Yes! I mean no! I mean yes I am one of owners of this shop. I work with my partner, Khanak, in this shop. We both run it together."
Shaan was quite because he got another shock of the day. The name sounded vaguely familiar. He repeated the name to figure out where he had heard it before. He felt nice as the name rolled out of his mouth. It seemed to have fit his tongue too as he repeated the name the third time.
"Ji appko kya koi kaam hai? Koi painting khiridni (buy) hai? Ya phir order karni hai? Btw mera naam Ruby hai." Ruby asked him.
Shaan was brought back out of his day dream, "Nice to meet you Ruby. Nahi. Mujhe koi kaam nahi hai."
Ruby just gave him a weird and disappointed look.
Shaam cleared himself immediately, "Nahi, mera matlab hai ke mujhe koi aisa kaam nahi hai. I'm not here to buy the paintings or anything like that but I am here for another reason."
When he saw Ruby was still confused, he continued, "Mujhe interior designer aur event planner ki talash hai aur maine appka card padha toh maine socha ke main khud kyu nahi ajata."
Ruby, now understanding him, smiled at him and went on to explain Shaan of her and Khanak's job. She told him how Khanak designed the inside of the shop, which impressed him. She explained to him how Khanak do both jobs and how she helps her.
Shaan asked her few questions in regards to his project and then offered her to come and work for his company. Ruby immediately took up his offer and told him that she and Khanak will not disappoint him.
He explained her minor details and asked her to come to his office tomorrow to get major and thorough instruction. He also wanted them to meet his staff and the artist to get their perspective on how to work through this project.
Ruby thanked him and took his card to come to his office. She promised him and noted the time in her calendar.
Shaan thanked her as well and gave one last look around the shop before exiting it.
As Shaan was exiting the shop, he collided with someone again second time in a day. Unlike the last time, however, the collision was harder for him because the opposite person was, it seemed, rushing in his direction. This hard collision caused the stranger to bump into him and losing balance in the process.
Outside the K. Saraswati and Associates
As she was rushing in, she was looking through her purse to take out something. Due to her carelessness, second time in a day, she collided with a hard male figure. The collision was so hard, which caused her to lose her balance.
Before she could hit the ground she felt a pair of hands holding her from the back, breaking her fall before the fall.
She held on tight to the person's shoulder that was holding her. After the initial shock subsided within her, she slowly raised her eyes to look at the stranger who saved her from falling.
For the second time in a day, she felt herself losing again. She was starring, again, at the most gorgeous eyes.
Shaan was stunned because he didn't think he would be bumping into the same person twice in a day. He wanted to say something to her but he couldn't bring himself to say it because he felt himself giving away to the eyes staring back at him.
A strong hold was pulling both people towards each other. He felt his hands going tighter around her waist, as her hands dug deeper into his shoulders. He slowly brought her back to her feet, balancing her. She held him tighter. Not for a second, they took their eyes away from each other.
What felt like ages to them, it was only a mere second that went by and they were still being pulled towards each other. Shaan's left hand left the back of her waist and slowly rose to the side of her face, while holding her from the other hand.
As he was raising his hand, a passing car's loud honk brought them back from their revere. They both let of each other right away. While Shaan ran his hand through his hair, Khanak pushed her fallen hair back behind her ears. There was an awkward silence between them.
Once the initial embarrassment was broken between them, they both yelled at the same time, "You! What are you doing here? Are you following me?"
They both showed their frustration at each other and then just turned around.
Khanak was the first one to recover from the second silence, "Look I wanted to ap—"
Shaan stopped her before she could finish, "Look, I don't have time for this. We are going to fight again and I'm getting late for my meeting. It was nice meeting you! We will fight next time when we see each other," he shook hands with her in a hurry and walked to his car while talking to her, "I hope that never happens because I hope to never see you again! Ok bye!"
He almost jumped into his car and told his driver to quickly drive away from there because he was in no mood to talk to her again and start another fight where she will go and complain about him to his dad again.
Khanak was filibustered at his behavior. She was left there looking on. She didn't know how register what happened here. She closed her mouth and a small frown appeared on her face. She crossed her arms and stomped her foot. She turned around and walked inside the shop, vowing herself never, ever try to apologize her behavior to him ever again when she see him next time.
She went inside and told Ruby about everything that happened outside. Ruby didn't pay attention much to her and told her about the project offer from the K Company, which made Khanak very happy causing her to forget everything. She was oblivious to the fact that this project was with person she vowed not to see or talk to and that he was just outside her shop offering the project.
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I wanted to make Shaan and Khanak to be in their character a little. So i did my best.
forgive me if it is not up to your standard.
rooj
Vanshaj
Love Friendship Dating and Relationships
Udne Ki Aasha
