**Vote to Support!**

"Sara, are you okay?" asked Sid, in his most deep and sensual voice. "You look troubled!"

I looked at him, expecting what exactly? "I..." I muttered. I love you! "Nothing. Thanks for coming today, Sid."

He regarded me amusingly. "Where is your smart mouth? Sara, being nice. Wow!" He laughed and turned sharply towards the highway.

"Why do you always play on my nerves? And no, I am not a smart mouth. I am nice to everybody!"

"Whatever you say, sweetheart," he remarked and pushed his radio on.

I sighed inside, what if it was said, wholeheartedly like he meant it! I looked outside to the traffic at the exit of Mumbai, wondered how long we would ride. On one side was Kush, gentle and most caring friend, who would never break my heart. On another hand, was Sid, a person who made my heart skip a beat, a man who clouded my mind in such a way that, I couldn't see anybody except him. Just now, the realization hit me, his face was etched on my heart. And knowing perfectly well that he was somebody who could easily stomp on my heart if he wanted to.

I couldn't simply look at him, knowing my changed feelings towards him. My hand automatically touched my gold chain and the guilt drowned me. The chain and the pendant, both were pretty, so me! Such a thoughtful gift from Kush, which instantly had melted my heart. The enormity of his love encompassed me fully, making me believe for a while that it was enough for both of us. But no. I was deceiving him. I was deceiving myself. I loved him dearly as a friend. When Disha broke his heart, it broke me too. My heart lurched for him, because of his sadness. All I wanted was to comfort him, to ease his worries. And now with me, he was finally happy. Maybe I should be with him. I would eventually love him like he loves me. Our relationship deserves a chance to exist. I was going to give him that.

I looked at Sid, and I could feel my heart beat getting slowed. The thumping of my heart was all I could hear in the background of the radio. I wondered how different we were, in perhaps everything. And on top of that, he would leave India one day or the other. He would probably go back to DC. The city where I would never step my foot into! Then why was I going after the unattainable!

"Your eyes are dilated," he commented, holding my gaze for a second. I noticed that he turned off the radio.

Immediately I looked down, clearing my throat. "The evening is approaching," I replied and gazed through the window at the oddly shaped mountains stood one before the other, like the green maze kissing the sparsely clouded sky. The sun was dipping behind the giant rock, calming the warmed earth for another silent night.

The car zoomed on the winding highway without a sound, making the silence inside the car loud in my ears.

"Sara, are you happy with Kushal?" asked Sid, fixing his gaze straight ahead.

"He is a good person, Sid," I answered, curving my lips into a forced smile.

"That's not the answer to my question," he said.

I kept mute.

"Sara, do you love him?" he asked again, this time turning and locking my gaze.

"I love him," I replied. As a friend.

He looked away on the road again. And we were silent till we took an exit at our destination, Lonavala.

The beautiful hill station invited us in its scenic beauty. The retracting golden rays glittered the green leaves of the top of the trees. It looked like a crown of the ancient trees. The unruly climbers curled into boughs and the branches. The condensed water droplets covered every surface, glistened and shone there with seducing colours.

After few sharp turns and ups and downs, we reached the destination. Viraj had described the landscape clearly. It was on the slope of the hill with two tilted roofs and a typical look. The Audi was parked beside Viraj's Mercedes. As soon as we got out, Viraj's Parents came out on the porch and greeted us.

"Oh Mini, it's so good to see you, beta!" said Pooja Kaushik, opening her arms for me.

She pulled me into a warm hug, meanwhile, the men greeted formally.

"You are Siddharth Kashyap," Rajdeep Kaushik said and firmly shook Sid's hands. "Handsome man you got there, beta!"

I blushed, yes, blushed deeply. They all looked at me with different perceptive. Before the situation turns awkward, we went inside. I knew Viraj was giving a cold stare on my back. But I decided that he would never want to meet me after today. I was going to make sure of that.

Few inquiries later, we settled around a small fire outside the house, with a table set on a well-manicured lawn, lighted with warm orange lights from the side of the house and natural light flickering from glowing fire.

I was busy in helping Pooja in setting up the table and the guys chatted on. In between I could hear laughter and sometimes Rajdeep and Siddharth kept their heads together while Viraj looked bored, glancing at his cell phone.

As I carried the tandoori chicken in a tray to the table, Rajdeep turned to me and said, "Sara, your boyfriend is quite a catch. Such accomplishments at such a young age, simply marvellous!"

"Tell me Mini," he said, gesturing me to sit. "How did you guys meet?"

I was about to open my mouth for the answer, but stopped when Sid said, "I will tell the story."

"Ohkay."

He pulled me closer and it got a glare from Viraj, who looked detached from the conversation. "It was the charity banquet organized by Purple. She wore a simple sky blue gown, with silver hoops in her ears and her hair tied up in a careful bun. Picture this, she exhibited confidence, but her eyes looked around in wonder. I observed her from a corner of a bar; she fleeted in groups, talked eloquently to her partners. Soon she was bored and then sat on a chair beside my table, with her hand under her chin. She looked anxious and checked time once or twice, then called somebody, soon was joined by her good friends Kushal and Tanya. Then suddenly she was at ease. She laughed with them while tilting her head left. Like she is doing now," suddenly he pointed at me and I straightened, my ears stood in attention.

"When I approached her, her eyes lighted up, accessing me from head to toe. I said to her, 'you have a beautiful smile. It's just lighting up the whole evening.' And she blushed and like she has now. Against her light blue dress, her blush stood evidently. Somehow I was able to grab her attention and successfully convinced her to date me."

"That is very romantic indeed," said Pooja, dreamily, leaning on the table.

"Sounds like stalking to me!" interrupted Viraj, who leaned back, crossing his legs in a nonchalant gesture.

"Viru!" bellowed Rajdeep, "when you can't say something nice, don't talk."

I, on one hand, was shocked, completely and utterly shocked at what Sid said. Coz, it was true. I did all those things he remembered. So that meant only one thing. He had noticed me all through the night. Now my opinion of him became more complex and mysterious. His behaviour was contradictory. The way he had spoken on the Purple charity banquet and how he acted in our first date was opposite. Who was he? One time he pushed me and another time, he pulled me towards him. Be it arrogance and insensitivity or his considerate texts, his willingness to come here with me. I couldn't simply make him out. Did he like me? Or hate me? Or both?

Later, the dinner started. We talked about old memories, then Rajdeep's army stories and in between, catching up with the events of people, with which we had a common connection.

"Mini beta, you have to teach me how this damn thing works," he fiddled his new model of smartphone, carefully pressing the screen with a tip of his forefinger and looking at it from the rim of his brown framed glasses. "I wanted to connect with you on this messenger thing. What you guys say, yes. App."

I moved closer to him and feed my number in his mobile and showed him how to chat. Meanwhile, my battery was close to discharging, probably drained because of the low network. I asked Sid if he had any charging left, not wanting to be in trouble as we were going to drive after late hours. Sid gave his mobile and I plugged in to charge inside the house.

After we feasted on the tandoori, the topic of discussion again came back at me. "Mini, you still didn't learn to drive?" Rajdeep asked.

I shrugged, embarrassed as I couldn't ever get over my phobia of driving. This time, Sid took over again.

"Uncle, she is too humble to tell that she couldn't find any time to learn driving recently. She works as an intellectual assistant to head Purple. That practically made her unavailable to me or her friends."

"Oh, that's great. You must work a lot. No wonder you are thinner," agreed Pooja, concerned.

"Well, Mrs. Kaushik, she even had her article printed in the last issue of Purple. The article was taken very well by the readers. She is writing a new segment altogether. It is about street fashion trends. I loved how she described the market like it was a live thing. Actually, her blog helped her write it so intimately."

I looked unbelievingly at him. When I thought he forgotten about me after the Gala. Here he was surprising me with the details. My details. My heart swelled just by that. How did he come to know about my blog?

Not only that he pulled me together, pressing his hand on mine and went on. "She is a talented girl and I am very proud of her. Honey, you told them about kickboxing?"

I shrugged, still dazed.

Viraj looked sceptical. "Sara and Kickboxing?" he let out an amused laugh.

"Yeah. Why not?" Sid mocked. "I had a kick from her once, and I tell Mr. Kaushik, The pain in my leg didn't go away for days," he continued smiling and caressing my hand.

Rajdeep's booming laugh echoed through the cold surrounding. "I am proud of you Mini. Look where you came from and what you have become. Don't stop beating him, though. You have to keep your man, under your paws. Isn't that right, Pooja?" he arched his brow, chuckling.

Pooja blushed and slapped his hand in defence.

"Yeah. Just like that," Rajdeep again laughed. "Learn from her dear. And yes, kick Viru's ass too. I lost my chances to get such a sweet and cool daughter-in-law!"

There was an awkward minute, where all the laughter ceased. Through the periphery of my eyes, I saw Viraj getting up.

"I will be back," he muttered and went off striding towards the door.

Rajdeep gauged my reaction. "Mini, don't bother. I don't know what's gotten into him nowadays."

I smiled formally knowing fully well what had gotten into him. Though that was not the thing I was concerned about now. It is the vibrations I was getting from Sid. The man, today surprised me, beyond my expectations. Would that mean him having some feelings for me? And if it was true, then why did he acted like douche all along?

**Next one is better!**