15:30

Four

Jay sat on a bus bench at 5:45pm, waiting for Tara to come. His mind raced back to the conversation they had before. When he asked her for coffee , she said no. He realized it was because he had messed up the one opportunity he had to take Tara out. He hadn't said it with the confidence, the charm he should have, that makes a girl want to go out with you. After over-analysing it in his head in for ten seconds, Tara explained that she liked hot chocolate better.

Jay couldn't explain in words, how relieved he felt, how enthralled he was , about going out on a date after ages. Tara said she knew this place with amazing hot chocolate , and they decided to meet.

The weather was getting chilly and grey. A wind blew at the perfect speed, neither too windy , nor too still. And then the grey atmosphere got all the color it needed to brighten up, as a beautiful lady wearing a light blue  trenchcoat that gave a peek of a gorgeous white dress underneath waited to cross the street.

Jay saw her from across the street, and for a minute or two, he couldn't help but not look away. It was as though all the dullness had mysteriously vanished.

When Tara crossed the street, her green eyes met his blue eyes and she began to beam as she waved enthusiastically to him. He waved back. And he kept looking a little longer, as though just appreciating that she was there. Her presence made him comfortable. He couldn't explain why, either, he just knew that he was happy to have her.

"Hey there," he said.

"Hey," she responded.

"Wow, you know, you look enchanting," he said, looking at her and blinked just once.

"You don't look so bad yourself, Jay. Did I mention how different you look without your beard?"

A little compliment from her made him feel elated.

"Thank you. Can't wait to go to this hot chocolate place you were talking about."

"Yeah come on." She grabbed his hand and led him. He walked behind her. Her heels clanked on the sidewalk. They walked for another ten minutes before she stopped outside an isolated travel book shop at the end of the street. Wanderlust was its name.

"We're here."

Jay was confused. "When you said hot chocolate place I assumed it would be a cafe or a shack or something..."

"You'll see," she beamed.

They walked in. It was a breath-taking place. It had travel -related books lined on the shelves and kept in stacks, literally everywhere. Jay had never seen that many travel books in his life. The walls had different maps hanging. Some shelves were decorated with souvenirs and traditional stuff from around the world. There were things that were believed to bring good luck, in different countries. As Jay walked around the place, he also saw a section of maps showing older territories and borders hanging near the window.

This reminded Jay of his own, long lost hobby of taking new maps and marking ancient geographical locations on them. He loved doing it and also feeling like a genius afterwards. Geography was his favorite subject for many reasons, but he had to give up his love so he could study financial stuff and work for multi -national like his father.

The bookshop was indeed every more-than-normal travel lover's paradise. It had everything they'd want to know about travel. There were a few people sitting on bean bags and reading. There was also a staircase at the end of the last book-case that ,Jay assumed, led to a room upstairs.

Jay and Tara put hung coats and Tara revealed her gorgeous dress atlast. It was a halter dress with a lacy design at the bottom and it was a couple inches above her knee. Seeing the dress and seeing Tara in that dress made Jay feel warm and fuzzy inside.