Avni awkwardly shifted on her feet, standing in front of counter of the restaurant, Neil was beside her his mouth was covered with a scarf and his head lowered so his face was under the shadow of the cap, she glanced at him to see him looking around the slightly darkened room, there were only five tables four of them parallel to each other, and one in the corner.
Two tables were occupied and they both were the fronts one luckily, "Um. . .we can seat at the corner one, thereafter serving of food you will be able to remove your scarf and eat peacefully," she whispered, Neil nodded, she walked ahead taking place against the wall so that he could sit in front of her and only his back profile will be visible to others.
There was a little amount of silence as they settled, Avni liked the silence but when it was between her and her idol, it made her unsure, did he want her to make conversation? Was he uncomfortable?
Neil lowered his scarf slightly, he smiled, "You brought change to today's performance," he said, his eyes bright, she could see curiosity lined in them, "I have seen the other performance you have never done that before,"
"Yeah, I never felt the need too," she replied.
"So what changed?"
Avni smiled, she made sure her voice was stable before speaking, "Nothing really, Ajab feels me with warmness when I used to sing along to it, I don't know why but I always in end repeated Ajab tha woh pyaar, it felt like reminiscing a epic romance, I wanted to show people what I heard and felt while listening to it I'm just glad it was not a disaster,"
"You really did manage to put your feelings in the performance, it was beautiful especially when you did the change that was a surprise for me too,"
It was hard for Avni to believe Neil was had complimented her performance and when she did, she could not help the smile on her face, "Thank you," she whispered.
Before they could speak further, a waiter arrived, they ordered the food they wanted. "So you are at the university right now?" Neil asked.
"Yes, last year,"
"You are the same age as my Ali and Karan," He commented, Avni smiled, "I'm February born, I'm older than them few months," she told him, proudly.
Neil smiled, "February? Same month as Vidhyut?"
"Yes! Sharing birthday month with Vidhyut is my biggest achievement as a Phenomenal fan," she gushed, her smiles widens when he smiles, his dimple visible.
"What are you studying at University?"
Avni bit her lips,"Business, I'm not really sure what I want to do but I'm leaning towards the Marketing/Promotional field," he looked surprised by her reply, "You are not studying Music?" He asked, she shook her head.
"No, I love music and playing the piano but I don't think I can't see myself working in that stream," she explained, "Originally Music Producer always sounded tempting to me but honestly I don't know now," she admitted, first time in her life, she had talked aloud about being a Music producer and that too in front of a guy who knew numbers of amazing music producers.
For heaven's sake, he was best friend with a best one. Vidhyut was a producer, one of the greatest one in Indian music industry.
She felt so embarrassed.
"I know that idea is ridiculous, therefore I took--"
"It's not ridiculous," he interrupted her, his face soft, "Avni I think that's a brilliant idea, the way you managed to maintain the change in today's performance, the way you have played earlier, I don't think it's ridiculous you have your way with music,"
Avni felt her heart soar, she felt her hand unknowingly make a pattern on the table as she looked at, she closed her eyes, snap out it Avni, she told herself and before she could thank him for being kind the waiter arrived with their food.
There were lot of things Avni had imagined herself talking to Neil about, through video, her friends who had met him, she knew he was a great listener but now sitting in front of there was nothing she could think of to talk with him.
She ate her food, her heart warmed up when Neil continued the conversation bringing out interesting questions about her, telling her about him, his schedule. Even talking about some of the jokes, he knew went around in fandom. She felt giddy as she looked at his dimpled smile.
He had the prettiest smile.
Dinner was over far more early than she could have anticipated, Avni had tried convincing him to pay for herself and him but he had denied it. She didn't like the idea of her idol paying for her, yes he could afford it but it was probably the only time she would meet him it would have been better if she had paid for the food.
"Thank you for coming to see my performance," she thanked him outside of the hotel, Neil gave her a sweet smile, "It was my pleasure, I'm sorry others could not come,"
"Having you there at the performance was enough," she told and closed her eyes in embarrassment as he laughed. She cursed herself.
Avni opened her eyes when she got reminded of something she had in her bag, it was her favourite book, giving book to Neil would be a great idea. She complemented slightly, it was her favourite book, she didn't want to give it away but giving it to Neil would it really be giving away? She was giving it to the person who inspired her.
She opened her back and pulled out the book with a light blue cover, she held it with both her hands before offering it to him, "It's my favourite book, I always wanted to gift you something but I never managed to get to please accept it," she muttered, her eyes lighted up when he took it from her, he unsurely looked at her.
"Are you sure? it's your favourite book."
Avni smiled, "I would not want anybody else to have it other than you," she confessed, her cheeks got red when she noticed his cheeks getting red, she knew it was something that happened to him, he would get extremely shy when complimented, she suppressed her smile.
"Thank you for thinking so highly of me."
"That's because you do things that makes us think highly of you, thank you." She felt happy when he smiled, slightly shyly.
Even if this was probably the last time she was meeting him, she cherished it with her whole existence.
"I'll be leaving then," he informed, Avni nodded, "How will you get home?" He inquired.
"There is a bus stop just a little way, a bus will be leaving from there to a bus stop near my place,"
He nodded, "Let me accompany you till there," he offered, Avni shook her head, "No. . . No please I can go,"
He looked at her softly, "I already feel bad about you traveling by bus, it's so late and you are late because of me I'll feel better if I at least dropped you till the bus stop," Avni sighed in defeat.
"Okay, you win,"
He grinned, it was same grin he always had whenever he won in any argument with other members, she smiled smitten and they started walking towards the bus stop, it was not faraway, they reached there in five minutes while discussing her University life since Neil himself didn't had the 'normal university' experience.
They all had completed graduation but the whole process didn't actually had the part of going to the university because that was time when they got famous, famous as in their songs were on all the short videos, radios, invitation to huge talk shows. Attending university at that time was not safe nor did they had time for it. Ali had told that in one of the interviews.
"Now you can leave," she told him when they reached the bus stop, Neil looked at her amused, "If I didn't knew better I would think you disliked me,"
Avni flushed, "It's not like that, it's not safe for you, what if someone saw you or took picture of you?" she defended herself.
Neil smiled warmly, "Thank you for worrying about me and yeah there is my car," he pointed at car parked just few meters away from them, Avni had not noticed when it arrived, "Just let your bus come, I will leave,"
Avni looked towards the right of the road, headlights of bus was on, she looked back at him, "Well bus is here too,"
He smiled and adjusted his scarf and cap as bus came to closer, "It was great to meet you," he told her and hugged her, Avni relaxed in his hold, she wrapped her hand around his waist, treasuring the hug.
"Thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule and meeting me, thank you so much," she expressed her gratitude as they broke apart, Neil patted her shoulder softly.
"Take care of yourself," he told her, "And never stop playing,"
"I will not," she promised, feeling pleased when he smiled, the bus came to halt in front of the stop, she waved at him for last time as she climbed up in the bus.
He waved not leaving the spot where they were standing, she got in the bus looking at him, there were very few people in bus, as she settled herself on the windon seat from which she could see him the bus started moving, she waved one last time. She looked back, from the window when the bus moved ahead. He got in the car after the bus was at little distance.
Avni sighed and closed her eyes, as she thought back to what just happened.
••
I'm so sorry I forgot to update this yesterday, I had the update written down but I forgot to post.
hehe this is considered date ig? don't tell Neil Avni okay?