Mitali Jain

I quickly walked into the café and even before I could look for Daksh or Shakti, Rey was there by my side with a bright smile on his face.

"What is it?" I asked eyeing him skeptically. It wasn't always that this guy would be this bright and shiny, even Shakti couldn't tell you the last time he was this happy.

"For days that girl has been gloomy, what did you say to her?" he asked leaning a bit closer to me and gave me a tight hug.

"Whatever it is that I told her isn't for you; you are one of Naveen's spy's," I pointed my finger at him, with my eyes narrowed at him dramatically and said, "so you stay out of it." And with that I walked towards my favorite corner and sat down.

"Did you guys ordered?"

"Hi Mitali." Daksh said as always, while Shakti shook her head at me, and then turned towards Daksh and said,

"I am sure she is overdoing it. Come on, the number of times that you have told her about it any person would have got over their worst habit."

"Rey, one cheese toast sandwich for me, one red sauce pasta without mushroom for Daksh and a bottle of rat kill poison for Shakti... Ahh, Shakti you are hurting me." I snapped at her while nursing on my leg.

"That was meant to hurt you, now tell me what is it that you wanted to talk about?" Shakti asked as she dropped her hands on the table. I turned to look towards Daksh who seemed a bit lost in his own thoughts as he kept on gazing at me.

"What I have to tell you is something that I had always expected, but tell me something don't you think this person here now a days seems to be a lot lost?" moving a bit towards Daksh I asked in a louder voice, "whom are you dreaming about?"

"Huh, no nothing..."

"Come-on don't lie to us, to me..." I tried to close my eyes to such an extent that it would look cute, may be convincing. As I did so the two laughed,

"Mitali you are a complete package of nonsense, now tell us what was it for which you had called us?" Daskh asked, and though I wanted to ponder on the same topic it was better to let it be for a while.

I believed if there was something that he wanted us to know, than we might know in the right time... wasn't that the best thing to do?

Shaking off the thoughts, I took a deep breath and said, "Jai had called me last night, he asked if he could take me out on a date tonight, and I am not sure what I should do."

I could only let out a huge breath. For days I had expected something like this to happens, for Jai to walk up to me and make some efforts and now that I am actually facing those situations it worried me.

"This is it, I am telling you this is utter nonsense, Mitali this isn't something that you need to think about for so long, Jai is a nice guy even you know that what is wrong with you?" Shakti's voice increased as she said each of the words.

"I am seriously done with this girl." She said in exasperation, and was again going to reprimand me when Daksh stopped her and said,

"Mitali, you are not a kid, this is something really serious, whatever it is that is going in your mind, talk it out with Jai once again, this is really stretching out for nothing... remember even a rubber band breaks off if you give a lot of pressure on it... so are relations, yes you need to think them through but over thinking will only lead to their destruction."

I nodded my head, as Shakti took a deep breath and said, come let's get you ready for this date of yours."

*****

Jai Kapadia

Switching off the lights of my cabin I walked out only to bump into Daksh who looked at me up and down and said, "take some flowers she might like them."

Though I was shocked for a minute, I did have to see this coming. It was weird how close and good friends Mitali, Daksh and Shakti had become. Though I was yet to meet the lady, but with what I had heard of her from Naveen and Mitali, I can say Mitali cherished her like anything.

"Are you surprised?" Daksh asked as we made our way towards the elevator.

"Not really, it seems Mitali is your close friend than I am."

"Do I smell something burning? "

Though I had my eyes glaring at him, Daksh had always had this indifference to this attitude of mine, he waved at me as we walked out off the lift to different direction.

And even if I had to say I was jealous how close they were as friends, I took up to his advise and got a bouquet of flowers. It was never my thing but to do something as simple as this for Mitali made me happy.

As I walked inside the gates of the Gallery I was greeted by the receptionist, walking towards her I said, "I am here to meet Miss Mitali Jain..."

"Yes, Mitali had informed, I will just give her a call and let her know you are here, why don't you take a sit here or may be have a look at the paintings?" the receptionist said. Taking up on her offer I walked towards the opposite side from where the paintings began, it seemed Mitali would eventually know her way to me.

But it was me who was shocked to see her walking towards my direction, a couple of people surrounding her as she guided them. The spark in her eyes as she talked about the paintings that she crossed made my breath hitched; her love for the paintings, the passion could easily be seen in them.

For someone who didn't know her would say she was a painter herself. May be it was true, you didn't had to be a painter to have an eye for a good painting, just like you didn't really had to be a good person to find the good in other.

I stood there in my spot, waiting for her to take in my presence, but more than that, I was trying to drink in as much of this sight as I could. How stupid of me to miss it for such a long time. This again made me wonder, if Daksh had as well seen her like this... in the most happiest moment of her?

This only gave me a weird feeling. I wasn't jealous of my friend, but it surely was an ill feeling.

As I stood there with my eyebrows scrunched, I saw Mitali smiling at them as they reached the last painting and her eyes met mine.

And even if there were a huge number of people out there, a lot of murmurs going on, I did realized and heard the small gasp that left her mouth.

It made me happy to know she was affected by my presence, not in a bad way ... rather a good one.

"Hii." I breathed, as she walked closer to me, her small Hi made me smile even more.

"Here these are for you." I said and handed her the bouquet of flowers. And then there were those giddy feeling within me all over again.

"Thank you, I hope you hadn't had to wait for long." She asked as she smelled the flowers and let out a sigh. "I love lilies."

The bright smile on her face made me chuckle. 'Yep I know." For a while she kept on looking at me and then she said, "And I know nothing about you."

Her voice made my heart beat in a strange manner. These romantics were never my thing. I had always preferred to be straight forward, but with Mitali, I wanted to take my own pace, yes I did take the first step wrong but now that I had a chance why let it go?

Taking a step towards her I pushed back the small stray of her hair and said, "than learn all you want to know about me, I am here." the small smile that spread across her face made me smile as well. Was it even normal to smile at something as simple as this?

"Where do you plan to take me tonight?" she asked, brining me out of my thoughts.

"I swear I tried to think of what could be best but nothing really seemed good enough... I have a place in my mind would you come there?" I asked a bit hesitating.

"As long as you know that my entire family along with Shakti knows that we are on a date today, and if I do not return back home in one piece I can't assure you your life."

We two guffawed as we made our way out, it seemed she was already ready to go, it was then I saw the small sling that was there on her shoulder.

"You were done for the day, than how come you were touring the people?" I asked.

"So there is finally something that you do not really know about me." She said with a laugh, but it somehow made me worried. Did me knowing each and every small detail about her seemed weird.

But then there were things about Mitali that weren't difficult to go unnoticed, and Naveen always talked about her likes, her dislikes, and somehow those weird things only made me get more interested in her. And now with her statement, it made me wonder if this only made me look weird in her eyes.

"I – I am sorry if it bothers you-"

"No Jai, it's not wrong." Mitali said as we came to an halt. She took hold of my hand and looked right into my eyes; her soft hands gave such warmth and comfort.

"It's not wrong to know a person in such a detail, yes if you would have stalked me and got this information, it would have creaped me out... but this, the fact that you tried to understand me into my brothers words and admiration makes me feel happy." She smiled at me and said,

"In fact happy wouldn't be the best word as well. Now come lets go I am a bit hungry."

The two of us walked towards my car, our steps matching each others as I realized, it wasn't just that I had to know about Mitali... there was just so much more to her that I was yet to understand, and somehow through these feelings which I felt I realized, we had our own fears and worries that we unknowingly had pondered about for a while now.

But as we walked, together, with me gazing at her once in a while, I realized, those would soon come to an end.

And the fact that we still comfortable held onto each other's hand was once great assurance.

********

Daksh Chauhan

"Kaka, I am hungry please set the table till the time I would go and get freshen up." With a smile on my face, I handed my bag to kaka and walked back to my room.

Though the house seemed a lot empty with just the two of, I still felt a bit happy. Today was the first day when Jai and Mitali were to come a bit closer to each other. And even if my heart, the Daksh who loved Mitali was silently crying, the friend in me couldn't wish anything but best for them.

Quickly getting ready I walked down the stairs only to be greeted with the room filled with mouthwatering aroma. It seemed Kaka was yet again at an experimenting spree.

"It smells so good kaka, what is it?" I asked, my eyes skimping through the closed lids of the bowls and then back to kaka.

"Daksh baba, I have made Tomato sev sabji, with roti, daal and rice... and there also some rasmalai, I know you like it." He smiled at me and began to fill in a plate for me.

And as if my stomach had to agree with the smell, it growled making the two of us chuckle. Kaka quickly set a plate in front of me and then began to fill one for him as well, as I waited for him.

For years he had been working for us and after my parents if there was anyone who was close to me than it was him. It took care of me as my mom, advised me as my dad and teased me as a sibling would.

He was the only family I now had.

"Baba, you are again skipping on your meals... don't do that, later on didi will scold me."

"Don't worry kaka, I am fine, and no she won't scold you. Now let eat I am hungry." With a huge smile on my face I tore a medium size of the roti and took a small amount of sabzi in it and put it into my mouth.

I waited for the taste of various spices, salt, and the crunchy sev to mellow in mouth as it would make my jaw burst with pain and delight, but nothing happened even as I chewed on it.

I looked suspiciously at my food, and once again took a bite and tried to taste the food.

But nothing happened. It was same, bald ... flavor less.

"|what happened baba?" kaka asked.

"Kaka does the food taste good to you?" I asked.

"Yes, it's perfect... is something wrong? Do you need some salt?" I nodded my head absentmindedly as kaka sprinkled some salt and stirred my food.

Once again I tried to taste it, yet it was same.

It was as if my taste buds had gone numb, none of tastes and flavor were working in my favor. I looked up at kaka that waited expectedly for me to say something.

And once again with a lot of difficulty I smiled at him and said,

"It's perfect."

Only, it wasn't, nothing was perfect... everything in my life now seemed amiss. 

A/N

Three three more chapters to go for the 3rd part of the story to began... so tell me how are you all doing? kicking some asses or getting bored in through the day? 

My schedules are packed up like hell, I was supposed to upload this chapter last friday, and it was at 11pm when i was retiring to bed I realized it was friday. But that just wasn't it, this week had been an amazing roller coaster, I am officially the Vice president of my college's Cultural Committee... it is such a huge achievement for me and I have been so happy since then. 

but again with that brings in responsibilities and more work load plus I am in my last year of college and thirdly I am struck with a huge writers block. 

its so difficult to write the story ahead, its stuck on the 21 chapter and hence there might be a bit of delays in further chapters. please pray for me, this is irritating the hell out of me, I just hope that I get out of this stuff as soon as possible. 

anyways coming back to the story, finally that the ultimate part which we all have been waiting for is here, what do you think will be the third part all about? 

Happy reading. 

I would really love if you all would vote these chapters and as well comment your views on them. 

Yadni Bagwe