MIRA

41. The Phone call📱

''Ehh...Hey.'' Mira said to Naren.

''What are you doing here?'' Naren asked.

''I work here...''

''Ohhh...right.''

''How come you're here?'' Mira asked.

''Came to see a friend who works here...''

''Ohhh...''

''Listen, if you're heading home, I can drop you!'' He said loudly over the traffic sounds.

''No, I've already booked a cab.''

''What?!'' he yelled unable to understand Mira's words over the noise. Mira repeated herself twice for him to get it. Just then, a bus honked behind Naren's car. When Naren insisted he drop her as the cab would take longer to arrive due to the traffic, Mira got in so they could finally make way for the bus behind them.

***

''God, the traffic in this city is chaotic!'' Mira said after she was seated in Naren's car and cancelled her cab booking.

''Yea man! How do you travel from here everyday? It must take you forever to reach home.'' Naren said.

''I take the bus back usually...''

''Oh...Hey! What the-!'' Naren yelled before honking again as a car overtook him unexpectedly. He swore under his breath which made Mira quite nervous. Naren realised the tension in the air and said,

''Sorry about that...some people just drive with their eyes closed...'' he said nervously. Mira gave an awkward smile as she noticed that he had a croaky voice, compared to Vikranth. Then she wondered why she suddenly thought of Vikranth.

It was when they approached the highway after the heavy traffic that Naren asked Mira,

''Is the air-con fine?'' Naren asked.

''Huh? Ya..it is...'' Mira glanced at him and said.

''Mira...listen I know we met under awkward circumstances the first time, so you think we can start over as friends?''

Mira turned to Naren. It was now she noticed he had a clean-shaved face and genuine smile. Mira chuckled before she answered,

''Sure, we can restart.''

''Fantastic! Feel free to not feel awkward then!'' he said smirking as he had observed Mira's slight discomfort by now.

''So how does it feel to be back from Boston?''

Mira explained to him her dilemma of missing Boston and how she felt glad to be back here. They remained silent for sometime until Mira asked,

''Don't you work in London or something?''

He gave a nervous laugh before he replied, ''Yea...I used until November last year. I decided to come back and establish a start-up company with a few of my batch-mates from college, so I've been here since then running around. In fact, the friend I came to see today near your office, it's related to that...''

''Ohh...wow...'' Mira said. Naren added that the start-up was related to some fin-tech idea which made sense as he specialized in the field back in London. She wondered how his parents would have reacted to this decision as switching from a stable job abroad to having a startup was a big deal and took a lot of guts.

''Go on...you can judge me..haha!'' he said as if having read Mira's mind.

''Oh, no...I wouldn't, in fact I think it's pretty cool!''