Not You

Chapter 27

Murphy's law.

She had always hated the phrase. But today made her want to whack the damn thing as hard as she possibly could, if she could actually do something like that.

There sitting in the cab, she kept wondering how this had happened. And that's when her phone rang again.

10 hours ago...

"I'm going to tell him today."

Mads sighed with relief as she said into the phone, "Finally! I know why it took this long but seriously, way to push it."

Aditi laughed. She flung open the cupboard and looked inside. She then asked her friend, "What do you think I should wear?"

Mads responded, "Black."

Aditi nodded and pulled out a dress she had bought a couple of years back. It fit her snugly and had a slit up one side. Before she could say anything, Mads said, "How about the black one with the slit?"

Aditi giggled and replied, "I just pulled that out!"

"Well then it's meant to be!"

Aditi said, "Okay I'm going to call him now."

Mads said, "Well, hurry up! You know he's..."

Aditi cut her off and said, "Yeah yeah I know. I'm calling. Bye, love you!"

"Love you too!"

She smiled and looked at the screen again. She pulled up her contacts, scrolled down to Aditya's name and felt a big grin lighting up her face. Heart beating faster, she hit dial and pressed the phone to her ear, whilst pacing around the room.

Huh. Not picking up. Must be working again. She kept the phone down and went to take a shower. She came out a little while later, wore her usual work clothes, packed the black dress in a garment bag and checked her phone again. No response. Gah!

She opened up a message box instead and typed, "Hey! I wanted to talk to you."

A few minutes later, her phone buzzed. She read, "About?"

She smiled. Same old Adi trying to get the witty banter going again. She shook her head smilingly and wrote back, "Like I'd tell you that over a message."

"And how are we to fix this situation?"

She typed, "Meet me?"

"Um okay. Where?"

She frowned at the less than enthusiastic response but shrugged it off. She typed, "How about the restaurant next to my place? It's pretty nice."

"Alright. 6 is good?"

"Can't wait!" she typed. She really couldn't wait.

6 hours ago...

She was going to leave work really early today. She looked at herself in the bathroom mirror and took a deep breath. She looked good, she hoped. She dusted off the imaginary lint from the dress, leaned closer into the mirror and broke into a grin. Yes, she did look good. She walked out of the bathroom and hailed a cab to go to the restaurant.

5 hours ago...

Blink

Blink

Blink

Nope. No amount of blinking would change the scene in front of her. She watched, dumbstruck from a few feet away as Purab perused the menu while sitting at the table she had booked. She walked over slowly and stood in front of him. He looked up and smiled pleasantly. Then he took in her expression and asked concernedly, "Hey what's wrong? Is everything okay?"