He sat on an empty table on the terrace of the greek themed restaurant . Shweta had gone all the way to pre-book as many tables as it was possible on a short notice to buy some privacy and make it a bigger deal than Neil wished it to be. The rows of sky blue chairs with off-white tables gave the whole place an alluring ocean like appearance. Avni would have loved it .......was the first thing that popped up in his head. What he was doing was wrong and he knew it but it would buy his mother's silence for a few days atleast and that's what he needed ; time to think things through without Shweta's constant nagging and interventions ; time to find out what Avni wanted . He looked at his watch impatiently ; the sooner it started , the sooner he could get it over with . But there was still time for the façade to start. He looked at the empty chairs around him ; even on such short notice Shweta had managed to pre-book the entire terrace seats except a few tables on the far end. "Atleast it will be less awkward this way ." he sighed loudly.

A few more minutes passed with no-one is near sight except the one waiter who kept pestering him to no end. He kept fixating on his watch as if that would make the time fly faster . Since constant time keeping wasn't helping much , he turned his attention to his phone to answer some official mails which had been long pending now. This seemed to work as work was the only thing that could keep his mind away from Avni. As he busied himself in work he could hear footsteps , not approaching him but the empty table on the far end. From the corner of his eyes he could see the ocean blue dupatta flowing on its own accord. Had it not been for his mom telling him that the girl would be in red , he would have assumed it to be her. Shaking his head to the silliness of the situation he turned his focus back to his phone , that's when he heard those footsteps again, echoing in the quietness and this time it was approaching him only. And just like that he felt his heart synchronizing with it , going slow and low , like it was the moment he had been waiting for.

" Neil !!!!"

He had turned just in time to see Avni uttering his name . The shock of seeing her at this time and place, outbalanced the happiness of finally being able to see her after so long .His eyes couldn't believe the sight before him and his mind couldn't process the events happening but his body sprung up and encased her in an embrace so tight , as if she was a fleeting dream and the moment he let loose , she would disappear into his memories again. A myriad of emotions engulfed his heart as he felt anger , frustration , joy and in love all together. It wasn't until he had convinced his inner self that this wasn't his imagination that he let her out of his arm-hold and faced her . Her face beaming with similar joy looked as shocked as his was.

"You are here, for real. How ?" he shook his head in disbelief as he held Avni by her arms , not letting her disappear from his sight this time . " Why didn't you tell me Avni ? why didn't you tell me you were coming back ? You disappear from this city , from my life, without so much as a goodbye ; after everything that happened you leave me without even a word. Did our friendship mean nothing to you ? Do I mean nothing to you Avni ?" All his suppressed emotions resurfaced as Avni's presence transcended from a dream to a reality. " Do you have any idea how I have been since you left ? Do you realize how many sleepless nights I have spent wondering how have you been and why have you been avoiding me ? Am I not even that important to you that you couldn't even spare five minutes of your time to just let me know you are fine .....that we are fine ?"

" I did. I tried Neil" she spoke with audible hurt in her voice and visible astonishment in her eyes ; still not trying to break apart from his hold . " Its true I left without saying anything but my mom was sick Neil, she needed me. But as soon as everything was under control , the first person I tried to reach was you. I swear. I called you God knows how many times but you wouldn't pick up"

" I didn't pick up your calls ?" He couldn't believe she would lie to him " Are you joking ? I wouldn't part with my phone even when I slept because I didn't want to miss your call . I had started checking my phone so often that I couldn't concentrate on my work or meetings or even food. And what about the calls I made Avni ? If you are claiming that you made so many calls to me then why wouldn't you pick any of my calls. I must have called you hundred of times and left you uncountable number of messages like some crazy obsessed person. What about those ?"

" What are you talking about ? I never got any calls from you neither did I get any messages ." Avni grabbed her phone from her bag before Neil could through in any more accusations her way . "See" she opened her call log and scrolled through it infront of Neil's eyes for him to check for himself that she wasn't lying .

" That's not possible. How ? I don't ... what about the messages I left you ?" he asked still confused about how none of his calls had gone through.

" You can check them too. See there isn't any , only the messages that I have sent" Avni flashed her screen for him to see. Neil could see none of his long or short messages that he had sent to her on her chat screen. Unable to figure out what was going on he pulled out his phone and showed her the numerous messages he had left her since the day she left up until this very day. Avni was equally confused seeing the messages that somehow never reached her. She kept scrolling through the messages trying to find what was wrong , when something caught her eye " wait !!!!!! this isn't my number ."

" What ? That's impossible. Did you change your number ?"

" No Neil this was never my number. That's why I never got any of your calls or messages . You must have saved the wrong number somehow."

" How ? I have called you before on the same number. Okay fine I made a mistake but then how come I never got your calls or messages? It would have still reached me even if it was from a different number. Give me your phone ." Avni handed over her phone to Neil who immediately checked for his number on Avni's phone and as he suspected it wasn't his number either. " Someone has tampered with our phones."

" But who would do that ?"

" I know who . Mom !!!"

"Why would she do that ? and how ?"

"Because you two were behaving like idiots !!" came Shweta's voice from behind. Neil and Avni turned to find Shweta smirking and to their utter astonishment she wasn't alone. Neela was standing besides her smiling as well.

"What's happening ?" Avni and Neil looked confusingly at each other seeing their mothers together. Two people who have never met each other in person had somehow conspired against them together.

" Confused ?" asked Shweta still with a humongous smile plastered across her face.

" Shocked ? Surprised ?" asked smiling meekly.

" What is happening ? How do you two even know each other ?"Neil and Avni spoke unanimously.

" I think we all need to sit down for this ." Neela made everyone sit before relieving their kids of this confusion.

" Maa why are you here ? You are not well. Your health is still.."

" I am completely healthy bacha. Just sit down." Neela lovingly touched Avni's face before she went and sat next to Shweta . They both looked at each other before Neela took the lead with an approving nod from Shweta . " Remember Avni before you decided to leave home for your dream job I wanted you to meet a guy but you turned him down without even meeting him. I conveyed it to Shweta , that my Avni was not interested in the proposal and told her the reason as well."

" But when I heard you were coming to our city , I couldn't resist trying to get you to meet the boy; my Neil, for once. But then my over smart lawyer son tried to outsmart his mother by telling me that he had a girlfriend named Avni. When I heard the name I couldn't believe my ears but then I wasn't sure if he was just making stuff up. So I went ahead to see it for myself and to my amazement there you were Avni, pretending to be in love with my boy. We had made so many efforts to get you two to just meet once and failed but somehow the universe had conspired it to happen."

" When Shweta informed me about you I couldn't believe it either." Neela continued " Shweta had many plans to become the cupid for you two , but as fate would have it we didn't have to do anything to get you two closer to each other. Without any meddling and interference you two kept getting drawn to each other like fated stars. You two were like meant to be . You were in each other's paths everytime. You kept choosing one another . We didn't have to create situations , but situations kept bringing you two together like celestial magic."

" But like the idiots you were you couldn't just accept and admit your feelings to each other . Even though we could clearly see how you felt , you two dumbheads couldn't." Shweta put down her disappointment in words.

" So Shweta came up with this filmy masterplan to get you two to confess." Neela added.

" By creating misunderstandings between us? By creating distance between us ?" Neil looked angrily at his mother who turned to Neela for assistance.

" Well she only had good intentions at heart. Sometimes distance makes you see things which you fail to see otherwise." Neela tried to defend her friend.

" You do realise that your timing couldn't have been worse , right ? You created the whole drama just when I was about to....'' Avni stopped midway realising that everyone including Neil was waiting for her to say it .

" I don't know. Shweta just couldn't back out after having planned this so meticulously." Neela looked angrily at Shweta knowing very well they had executed the plan at the wrong time.

" I couldn't control the actress in me after having rehearsed the dialogues so many times." Shweta looked down knowing her mistake very well.

" And Maa you lied to me about your health ? How could you ? Do you know how shaken I felt when I heard that you had fainted ?" Avni now shifted her fierceness on her mother.

"Sorry bacha. I didn't want to but Shweta convinced me a little lie won't hurt anyone and that it was necessary to execute the plan. Sorry my baccha." Neela looked pleadingly at a pissed Avni.

" That's enough ! You both have already done a lot of damage . I cannot believe you two schemed against us . I am not surprised that my mom was a part of this but Neela Maa I expected better from you." Neela and Shweta hung their heads as Neil went to on to show how disappointed he was in the two of them. " You even went on and manhandled our phones."

" You have to admit that was some smart work ." Shweta buzzed in making Neela and Avni smile .

" Enough of your meddling Mom. Now both of you leave . I need to talk to Avni......alone."

Like two obedient kids , Neela and Shweta got up from their seats and walked away from their kids giving them their much needed space. But they couldn't bear being too far away and hid behind the stairs to see it happening with their own eyes.

With Shweta and Neela getting out of sight, Neil turned his focus on the girl in blue. Clearing his throat he spoke in deep smoldering voice " So you were saying something before you stopped abruptly. You were saying you were going to tell me something that day." He walked a step closer to Avni who had gotten up from her chair and was trying to back out . " what did you want to say to me Avni ?"

" Nothing" she said firmly .

" Nothing ?" he knew this wasn't going to be an easy task but he wasn't giving up this time.

" Yes nothing. I almost said it twice . I am not saying it again." She folded her arms against her chest looking away from Neil.

" Then I did it too. I almost said it too. Why should I say it again ? You have made me go through a lot , so you will be the one confessing it first."

" No way. Its like you don't know me at all Mr Neil Khanna. Either you do it or we are done here ." As much as her heart was aching to say it to him , the dreamer inside her was dying to hear it from him as well . It wasn't going to be an easy task to get Mr Khanna to confess but then Avni didn't like it easy.

" Fine then. We are done here. Mom ,come out of hiding we are leaving ." Neil started walking away towards his mom and away from Avni with a smirk in his face and glint in his eyes.

Avni was left speechless as she watched Neil walking away with Shweta begging him to stop. Fuming with anger and stubbornness in her heart she walked out too .

To be continued........