Sejal applied the strongest colour in her lipstick collection; magenta is the colour she could never go wrong with. From yesterday she had switched off all her social accounts avoiding any direct contacts with media person and thankfully Nikhil has arranged for two bodyguards at the building from his security team so that any media persons couldn't force entry into their apartments.

Something Sejal has learnt all these years is your dressing vibrates your attitude and reflects on the confidence radiating in one self; she choose a plain cream shirt paired with red formal pants complementing the look with straightened hair giving a waterfall style to the left partition. Not being much into makeup Sejal went with a little wing by the eyeliner a hint of mascara in addition with a little blush.

Giving one last smile to the person in the mirror she put on her black sling purse and took the car keys from the key stand not before checking if the gas was off in the kitchen or not and whether all the things were in their appropriate places or not.

Her heart was sinking that she couldn't put on her toms today; very sadly Sejal paired her dress up with cream buttoned wedges which were hibernating in her closet since the last two years as she hadn't found any suiting occasion like today to put them on.

Ready to finally face the world Sejal pulled the door and jumped back finding somebody standing with a bouquet on her precious door which made her to immediately close the barrier between them allowing herself to take in few deep breaths to face the life threat waiting outside; maybe one of the media persons but she has promised herself to face the challenge instead of cowering back and putting her friends reputation on jeopardize like yesterday.

Before she could open the door again the doorbell rang which made her curse whoever the impatient reporter was because it's not like Aryan is going to come and pick her up with roses and orchids; anyways that's a horrible combination of flowers to think about.

"What do you- you!?"

Sejal closed the door as soon as she saw Tiger with the bouquet, it was embarrassing to meet him after their last encounter when he caught her and Aryan in a not so compromising position at latter's flat that day. Now finding him with roses on her door was like a mini cardiac arrest; what does that man want to do and how did he find her address?

Remembering her manners Sejal opened the door finally watching Tiger look skeptically at her as if wondering why he had even come here to visit a mad woman.

"Good Morning Tiger, how can I help you?"

"Aryan sent these and asked me to pick you up."

Tiger said in a boring tone shoving the bunch of tied roses into her hands taking her by surprise, Sejal twirled the bouquet with a little smile and found a dreamy note on the edge of it; who could ever think Aryan would be an old fashioned flower guy!

Muneca,

I know you are going through a lot at the moment

I have some important meetings to attend today,

I'll pick you up from the hospital and how about you wear red?

Yours,

Dr Aryan Shetty :)

"Is he asking me out on a date?"

Tiger gave a not so amused expression stating the obvious that yes Aryan asked her out for a date, hanging her keys back at the stand Sejal followed Tiger gushing over the bouquet like a teenager; obviously no offense but this was the first romantically sweet thing Aryan had ever done for her.

"Can you stop blushing?"

Sejal rolled her eyes at Tiger who was being such an ass right now; couldn't he let her enjoy a few moments of her love life?

"Do you go mountain climbing with this?"

Sejal asked not trying to be rude because Tiger came was roaming in a soot colored jeep truck on the plain roads of Kolkata, he didn't reply so she silently entered into the seat as he closed the door for her trying to be a gentleman.

"This is Jeep Wrangler not a truck and if you are thinking why I am driving it in the middle of West Bengal then let me clear that I don't have any family so putting my money on a good house is waste so instead I choose to spend it on a vehicle as I have to keep travelling to many parts of the country which I can comfortably drive to with this possession."

Tiger explained after they had crossed one signal by the time Sejal was sure that he wouldn't speak up so she tried switching on the radio also but some crappy song was playing so shut it down again, maybe sensing the awkwardness in the atmosphere Tiger spoke up about his Jeep and the tone with which he spoke clearly stated how fond he was of his precious collection.

"Nice, and sorry I didn't knew about your family."

Sejal regretted the moment she said sorry because the next second he cockily replied her that obviously she wouldn't know about it.

"I had always dreaded to ask any of you guys about how did you become friends in spite of being from entirely non relating profession?"

Sejal was glad she asked this question because she got to know two things, one; Tiger, Darshan and Aryan were from the same batch of medical but due to the passing away of his only mother Tiger couldn't support his further education financially after the third year so he dropped out of college and started following his passion for dance which lead him to the position of a well known choreographer in the cinema industry of today.

Tiger was now a financially much stable working man of the state who is the owner of the Shore Community; the famous LGBT activist group RCSM supports, which came in as a shocker for her because out of everything she didn't expect Tiger doing such noble things.

Second; Sejal realized how wrong she was in judging him after the first meet at the metro station because Tiger that day wasn't doing something for publicity he was actually waiting for his crew to come as they were due on shooting some song sequence.

"You are an amazing person Tiger! Okay, what was the driving force for starting Shore Community?"

Sejal was actually having a good time with this cocky guy because he seemed to be doing things which she only wished she could do but he was actually doing it and moreover he wasn't somebody who had received something from family business or something, he has made a name and fame for himself with his hard work. He was such an inspiration to thousands of people out there for having a positive attitude towards life, what would have happened if he decided to drink himself to isolation after his drop out from college?

"Aryan was the driving force; he had done so much for me so I wanted to return back the love and affection."

"What has the community to do- wait is Aryan-"

Tiger trotted into a spree of laughter not allowing her to complete the sentence, it was funny for him to see his best friend's girlfriend assuming Aryan as a gay.

"It was for his sister."

"He h-as a sister?"

Tiger looked at her in shock while Sejal was quite confused and embarrassed not knowing anything about Aryan; family is the basic thing she should have asked about and look at the contrary Aryan knows at least of her family history.

"Okay, he had an elder sister who was a lesbian and committed suicide because of depression about ten years back, her name was Shreya."

That was news to her because Aryan never mentioned about family and now suddenly everything felt gloomy of how little she knew about the person she was in love with, Sejal didn't even knew about Mahima and guessing the statistics Aryan was never going to tell her also about his mother at least in person and now she came to know he had an elder sister also. Why was Aryan so mysterious and difficult to understand?

"Don't be a such a bitch now, it's not a big deal that you didn't knew about it because Aryan is just like that and maybe now you know about the main reason behind the Beyond Black event held every year. By the way you look beautiful today."

That's when she remembered that fateful night when Darshan has taken her to the charity event as his date and how happy Aryan was regarding the event, the day when she ended up thinking that Mahima was the hot ex girlfriend of Aryan, the unforgettable day when her father spoke to her for the first time after eight years and even the day when she met Nic for the first time although unofficially and not to forget the day when Aryan left the important event worried that she was in trouble and ironically she thought he wanted to see the model of her new phone.

Why was life being such a jerk these days? First her father threw a bomb on her freaking head revealing the media about her and now Tiger threw another series of grenade about the important bits of Aryan's life.

~

Successfully surpassing all the unwanted stares and audible whispers at Block A of RCSM she went to the floor she could find her father, no surprise he was in an important meeting and this time the receptionist Shweta didn't dare saying anything but today Sejal wasn't in the mood of entering unwanted territory so she politely waited at the desk thinking about how much of an influence Tiger was.

"This is for you."

Sejal said placing a chocolate in front of Shweta as an apology of her wild behavior on the other day which Shweta was reluctant to accept now that she knew Sejal was their new owner.

Piyush walked out of a room and wished Sejal a respectful morning which was new to her making her realize power has many perks, nodding she followed him knowing her father has sent him to get her.

"I see you are already getting into the character princess."

Shravan said with a smile looking at her how her dressing choice was more like a professional get up, Sejal couldn't help but appreciate her instinct of confidence today.

"Do you know the life span of a mosquito?"

Sejal knew how much her father loved to play with general questions, but today she didn't wanted to satisfy her father with answers instead her heart had a change of decision after her little chat with Tiger.

"In two weeks arrange a press meet and I will take over officially."

Shravan was delighted to hear the answer because two weeks was the answer to his mosquito question and Sejal finally agreeing to handle business was such a relief, already leading to the imagination of how perfectly Aryan and Sejal could manage this awesome place of his creation.

"That's great. See you then princess."

~

Passing the day with few nagging nurses about being the heir of RCSM wasn't an easy task at all, but all that helped her in surviving the day was the little sweet note of Aryan and the so waiting date he proposed for.

To be honest Sejal did not have any experiences about how a date must be, thinking contrary she could only term her birth day as a date when Aryan spend the day with her although they weren't in a relationship back then and thinking much it's not like they are in any commitment even today; they are serving a trial and test case for their emotions.

Now she wished of having at least a boyfriend in college so that it would be helpful in knowing the basic dating rules, Sejal didn't want to spoil the fun due the lack of her experience in relationship because Aryan was a point ahead; he had Avantika in medical school.

Realizing Katyusha and Nikhil are getting married that means they know the rights and wrong when on a date, not wanting to disturb with a call Sejal dropped an emergency message to Katyusha.

Whatt is it/

?*

-Katyusha

Dr Shetty asked me out

: ][

-Sejal

OMG!

I alwaya wanted us to marry together

:@

S*

-Katyusha

:'0

It's a date

-Sejal

:[\

That's great!!!!

-Katyusha

Can we talk/

?*

-Sejal

~

Right on time at seven Aryan came to pick up Sejal at the hospital and was quite happy to see her for no particular reasons maybe finally the words of monk Darshan were falling place of how much he was missing about the present living in the past.

Sejal watched Aryan waiting near the parking leaning his back to the Black Audi which was blending with the color of his monotone suit perfectly; the top button left opened of his white shirt was giving more of a sexy look to the handsome devil. When Aryan opened the door for her to enter Sejal was quite in a shock because this was the first time he was doing something like a gentleman.

The ride was much comfortable with the occasional looks at Aryan and the breeze playing with her open hair which she had tidied almost five times today only that it could be perfect for the date, but now the cool air was probably making it a bird nest.

Initially she thought about buying a gift for Aryan but having such a short time period and again her appointments for the day were plenty much so she dropped the idea for any other day, if her soul couldn't be satisfied without giving a gift she will insist on paying the bill for the food but now seeing the venue her food paying option was out of the list.

"Why are we here?"

Sejal couldn't stop herself from questioning because either Aryan has stopped the car at the wrong location or they were actually at the Air-High; it was a very famous place name she had heard about but never had a chance to visit but she would have never thought his idea of a date wouldn't be a fancy five star restaurant.

Smiling Aryan opened the door for her and gave the keys to the valet for a suitable parking. Extending his arm Aryan watched Sejal entwine her hand around his with amusement flashing her pretty face maybe because of the choice of place.

Entering inside Sejal met with an empty hallway as a person dressed in some official costume hurried towards them whispering a low apology to which Aryan just nodded with a smile; that was also a strange sight to witness!

"Welcome to Air-High, you both make a lovely couple!"

To this compliment Aryan let out a small chuckle and followed that person, by now Sejal figured out two things one of them was Aryan was behaving like a person on drug and the other was this place had something to do about space because the way was decorated with plenty of shiny stars and turning around the space she could actually make out the scene being presented like a galaxy; it felt like watching the universe with naked eyes.

They entered into a dark room and it took a little bit of seconds for her eyes in adjusting to the change in lighting then slowly Sejal could start shaping out things like she saw different coloured shining minute objects maybe stars of some galaxy, she heard the official saying something to Aryan and closing a door maybe the portal they had entered through.

It was so mesmerizing to watch such a beautiful sight, it felt like standing in the space with your love and experiencing the functioning of the universe. With fiddling joy Sejal craned her neck upwards and the sight was much more beautiful than the surroundings, as if the moon was directly looking at them and approving the purity of their love.

Sejal turned around to show one of the stars to Aryan who in turn was staring at her making her feel intimated leading to the blushing of her cheeks, she was thankful that it was all dark here or else it would be such an embarrassing encounter.

"Why are looking at me? Watch around, the universe looks much beautiful!"

"I think I am falling for you because it seems that you are the universe in my life."

Sejal wasn't expecting that confession, not understanding what to reply she just cleared her throat and gave a little smile in the dark, trying to focus the attention on some other star but Aryan pulled her closer and with the tip of his finger craned her neck up so that they were on eye level.

"You look cute while blushing."

Those only made her blush harder.

"You changed many things in my life and I am thankful you came into my life."

Aryan said softly and Sejal would have almost missed listening to it with the AC voice booming like some high pitched generators.

Aryan kissed her forehead and Sejal knew he was smiling, but the happiness didn't last longer because suddenly there were lights and at first she thought the dimness was reduced in the room then later realising it was a flash and not a light which meant somebody clicked their picture.

It didn't end with just one flash, multiple lights started shining and both of them couldn't help but just watch being bombarded with reporters.

. . . . .

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Love,

Sana Afreen.