Dedicated to @thewipeout & @SandhyaKeluskar 

                          Thank you sooo much for reading!

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A few months passed quickly in her new job. Work and her new friends were keeping her busy. Being in a new place was working out for her. It was almost as if her wedding disaster never happened. She thought her world had settled back into a normal orbit. After the first month, Vijay had called her to his cabin and congratulated both Dhruv and her for a smooth transition and effortless handling of closing.

During the month end closing, Neel had dropped her every time. After a hectic day she enjoyed chatting with him. They would always find a topic to talk about. Whenever the topic about office would crop up, Neel would always have a funny story to share. He once told her about Greg, global audit director, visiting from US. Greg wanted to visit a local market. Vijay had to leave office due to personal emergency and Raj took Greg on his bike to show him around Bangalore. When Vijay came back to office 4 hours later and found out what Raj had done, he almost fainted. Vijay called Raj to his office and asked him why he had not taken Greg in his BMW that was at his service the entire time?

 Raj replied clulessly, "I thought Greg could sit on my bike. It was just the two of us, why use such a big car."

Vijay stared at him for a few minutes with his mouth wide open. He did not know how to scold a person with such child like innocence. He only said, "Raj he is the global audit head. If he is hurt by your childish behavior remember that your head is on the chopping block."

But apparently Greg had enjoyed his outing and so Raj was left unscathed.

Neel told her this tale soon after they left office and Surabhi laughed all the way till they reached home. She laughed so hard that she had tears flowing down her cheek and could barely speak.

 She was at ease speaking to him. There was always a mischievous twinkle in his eyes when he told her such stories. Whenever they spoke about other things she had observed he would look straight into her eyes. His eyes held sincerity and kindness. His eye lashes were long and he would flash a perfect smile. But his smile was not very frequent. In the office he maintained cordial relation with everyone, but was not a person to sit around and have a friendly chat every day. He maintained a professional distance and would be immersed in his work. He was known for his calm nature and sincerity. Surabhi thought that Neel was much more talkative and friendly whenever they were out of office. Vijay often praised Neel but was careful not to show favoritism. But Surabhi was sure Vijay was fond of him as an employee and also as a friend.

The other thing that was going on in her life that was taking an interesting turn was that Dhruv continued calling her even after their training ended. He would also pop up in her chats frequently. In the beginning their chat consisted of work and office. But slowly it transited to general topics. From his talks she had known that he had a very large group of friends with whom he would spend a lot of his time. He was a very friendly person and Surabhi thought that he would do this to anyone with whom he had come in contact with so she did not pay much heed. But one incident made her sit up.

One day they had a casual chat and at the end of their conversation he said, "I'll be visiting Bangalore for a couple of days next month and I'm eager to meet you."

Surabhi held on to her phone tightly as he said that. Whenever they spoke, it was mostly about Dhruv. She talked about general topics but did not venture into her personal life. She wasn't ready to let her guard down. She didn't know what to expect when she met him.

While she was lost in thoughts, he spoke, "Since I have heard such lovely things about you from a lot of people, I'm really eager to met you in person. Your voice is so sweet that it makes me wonder how beautiful you must be."

Surabhi was speechless. This was unexpected flirtation and flattery. And what was he saying about her sweet voice? That was exactly what she was thinking about him. She wondered if it would be right to flirt back? What was holding her back? She was not married, nor engaged and even far from being involved romantically with anyone. What if he was the right guy for her and she pushed him away by being cold she wondered.

After silence from the other end he continued, "Are you going to say something?"

Surabhi swallowed a big gulp and said, "Umm...I... don't know what to say."

"Well, I would like if you can say that you are looking forward to meeting me too. I looked you up online and man... I've never seen someone who doesn't have any online presence."

Surabhi never had a big presence online but after the wedding debacle she deleted all her social networking accounts. She was tired of people who had no idea what had happened in real life, wishing her a happy married life and of people trying to reach out to her to console her after hearing about it from somewhere. Only thing that was left of her online footprint was her professional account but it did not have her picture.

"About that...It's a long story. But why were you looking me up?" She asked surprised.

"What do you mean?" he paused and slowly asked, "Didn't you look me up?"

"No," she answered quicker than she wanted to and sounded more enthusiastic than she wanted to.

"Oh man! You are killing me right now."

She gave a small smile.

"The truth is, I've heard about you. I mean when I couldn't find anything about the sweet person I've been talking to, I asked around. I heard wonderful things and am really looking forward to meet you. And I've heard that you are beautiful."

Surabhi suppressed a smile. He was extremely straight forward.

"In addition to that, I know that you are intelligent, articulate and something tells me very understanding."

"Now you are just bluffing. We'll meet when you come down here. Don't guess anything about me until then," she replied with her usual levelheadedness.

"See, that's what I am talking about. You are smartly putting off flirting with me. Any way, I can wait for one more month. Until then, can I at least talk to you over the phone?" he asked again with a hint of expected flirtation.

"Yes, but no flirting. At this stage I am uneasy with flirtation," She replied firmly.

After she hung up, she was immersed in thoughts of what had just happened. Did she just start or trigger a start of a romantic relation? Was she right about getting over her broken engagement so quickly she wondered. After a lot of postulation she finally decided that she had done nothing wrong. She was flirting innocently. She had the right to find her perfect match as much as Rohan had right to marry his. But had he run away to marry the love of his life or had he just run away from her? Was there something wrong with her that made him dump her at their wedding? She did not have an answer. Three months had passed but every-time she received a call from an unknown number her heart raced wondering if it was Rohan calling her. He had disconnected his previous number. She had tried writing him a mail but discarded it mid way considering it inappropriate.

Why am I even thinking about someone who did not want to marry me, when someone else is so eager to meet me she thought dragging her mind out of past.

"Did you RSVP for the family event this weekend?" Raj asked staring at her lost in thoughts.

"Huh.. what?" she asked with furrowed brows?

"The family day outing which we have this Saturday, did you RSVP?"

Surabhi shrugged, "I don't have a family so, no."

"What do you mean no." Megha chimed in. "Hello! I'm single. Don't have my family here. Doesn't mean I'm not going. Free entertainment, good food and games why would you miss?"

"Ah okay. I... I just thought ... well never mind." Surabhi did not complete her sentence. She thought that everyone was going to be there with their spouse, partner or their family and it would be odd turning up alone. But hearing Megha's argument, she decided on attending the event.

"So, are you coming?" Raj asked.

"Yeah...sure...why not." Surabhi pressed on the yes option on the email and Raj and Megha gave each other a high five.