Dilkash

(ii) style

"No way!" She smiled at me and her voice sounded like she was excited. "I went to MMPS too. What batch were you in?" Before I could say anything, the waiter came along with the virgin Mojitos. She took it, mouthed a thanks and gave one to me.

"I was in the batch of 2013, what about you?" I said and took a sip from the Mojito.

"Oh, so that's where I thought I saw you yesterday." She said with that one look people have when they realize something and started laughing. "I'm from the same batch, if you didn't get it." She stopped laughing and took a sip of her mojito. I did get it.

"Oh," I smiled "Now that I can't really ask your name right now, why don't you tell me, what stream did you choose?" The waiter gave us the pizza by then. I put one slice onto my plate and gave her one.

"I took Group A. Tumne kya liya tha?" She put some oregano on her pizza and took a bite. I took a bite of mine too. I didn't know anyone from that class except— nevermind. She might know her. She might know what went down.

(What did you take?)

"Oh, a friend of mine was in Group A. I took commerce with math." I tried to hide to not think of that person as I spoke. She smiled, and I calmed down a little. Her smile is familiar.

"Oh, almost all my friends were in that class. Who's that friend of yours tho?" She spoke with an excited tone.

"Uh, was." I took another sip of my mojito, and the atmosphere became silent. We both became awkward and to avoid that, I started eating.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She frowned a little. She probably thinks that person is dead. "So, what did you study in Cambridge?" She rested her face on her left palm. Don't do that, that's too cute.

"I did my BBA and MBA there. What did you do in Mumbai?" My eyes weren't moving off of her. I took another piece of the pizza and started eating.

"I actually did a lot there," She chuckled a little and helped herself with another piece of pizza. "I did my B. Sc in Chemistry, and alongside it I did my B. Ed and then I did my M. Sc." She spoke out of interest.

"Accha, toh tum padhati ho? What grade do you teach?" My eyes saw her beautiful earrings.

(Oh, so you teach?)

"Mhm, actually funny thing, I teach at MMPS now." She chuckled a little and her earrings moved as she moved her head, in sync. Beautiful. "What about you, what do you do?" Her hair fell perfectly on her face.

"I kinda am the CFO of my family businesses and I do modeling gigs alongside that too." I smiled a little and our eyes met for a little moment. She blinked and looked outside the window for a bit.

"Daddy's little boy, huh?" She chuckled.

"No, I actually had to gain experience before I got that job. Not quite close to what you thought." I looked outside the window too for a second.

"That's good," She smiled. "Here comes the pasta." She had a huge smile on her face now. She probably likes it a lot.

"You really like pasta, huh?" I chuckled a little and she nodded. "There's actually 3 things I love the most in food: pasta, Dal Bati and anything related to strawberries." She smiled and took a sip of the mojito and ate some of that pasta.

"So, who did you use to hang out with back in school, huh?" I asked.

"Well, I used to hang out with just my brother, my best friend and his best friend really, I wasn't really around many popular kids. Who did you use to hang out with?"