I witnessed the breathtaking sunrise from my balcony, with a mug of coffee, and when the cold in the air turned warm, I ironed my formal office-wear, with a mind that was disturbed with tangled thoughts. When it was time to face that biker, I didn't have the strength to do it; my heart banged against my ribcage, and the jitters I felt within made me feel nauseous. As knots twisted in my stomach, I felt sick and unstable; my lips uncontrollably quivered, throat turned dry, palms were drenched in sweat and my legs were wobbly. I stood in the living room with my belongings, and cracked my knuckles, as I wondered if I had what it took to walk out of the building, and into the streets, where I was guaranteed to bump into the predator who was hungry for my attention.

"Good morning!", Kavya's sudden and cheerful voice bullied me to shudder hard that the files I dropped the files I grasped between my hands, and watched how the sheets of printed paper scattered the tiled-floor. Blankly, I stared at the papers, which were thrown in different directions of the living room, and felt the shallowness in my breath, without moving an inch. "Oh God", Kavya breathed out and knelt down, collecting the papers, while I still stood as unmovable as a rock. "Oh, these papers are related to the upcoming client meeting, right? Karan Sir told me about it. He's so confident that you'll hammer the meeting to perfection, and convince the clients!", Kavya blabbered, as she swept the papers off the floor, and I simply listened in quietness. While clearing the chaos, Kavya covered uncountable topics that bounced straight over my head, because my mind was wholly occupied with the obstacle I was forced to overcome in the form of a greedy biker. "Dityaa!", Kavya called out in an exclaim, vigourously shaking me out of my thoughts, and I turned in her direction with a lost look smudging my face. "Why do you look so lost today? Is everything okay? Oh, it must be the fever. Anyways, I was asking – where are the clients from?", she interrogated, handing my file back to me. "S—Singapore", I answered and chewed my lower lip, taking the file from her hand. "Thank you", I forced a smile at her and rushed back inside my bedroom, banging the bedroom door shut. I slumped against the door with my eyes shut and took a shaky breath in; I wasn't prepared to face him, for I was convinced I'd run away...and I didn't want to run away from him.

I dialed Darshan's number, and called him up, as I paced around the room in impatience. "Pick up the damn call", I whispered, moments before he answered the call on the fourth ring. "Dityaa?", he mumbled in his sleep. "I need you right now", I said, straightaway. "Is—is everything okay?", he sounded bemused. "I need to go to my office. Can you drop me? Please. Just today. Don't say you cannot", I said in one, uninterrupted, breath. "Okay---but—", he stretched his words. "Just come. Don't question!", I told, between a pause he took. "Okay, I'll be there in thirty minutes", he informed in confusion, and hung up.

His car halted right in front of my building and I hopped in, briskly, after hurriedly looking around to double-check that the biker wasn't anywhere around the corner. In silence, I fastened my seatbelt and rigidly sat on the seat with my fingers fidgeting with my files, as I waited for him to pull the car away, but it didn't move. "Drive", I ordered, and turned to look at him. My sleepless eyes crashed with his beautiful brown ones, and for the first time in over seventy-two hours, I felt a surge of genuine calmness empty into my heart; I gazed straight into his eyes – which were a reflection of a night full of stars – and smiled at him. "What's wrong?", he questioned in a hush and cupped my right cheek, running his thumb over it, slowly. "Nothing", I whispered a lie, and dragged my eyes away from his. "Don't lie. Something's out of place, for sure, and how did you get hurt?", his voice was tinged with worry, as he traced his thumb over the corner of my lips. "I scratched myself, and I'm okay, Darshan. I called you because I was missing you, that's it. Now, drive away, I'm running late", I said at once, and moved his away from my face. "If you were okay, you would have worn the other earring, too", Darshan vaguely stated, and raced away, while I shot a puzzled look at him, wondering what he talked about. "You're wearing just one earring. Where's the other one? Did you forget because of tension, or is this fashion?", Darshan smiled, taking a turn, and my hand touched my ear-lobes, only to find out that I wasn't wearing an earring on my left ear. "I f—forgot...in the rush", I mumbled, removing the earring from my right ear, and shoved it inside my handbag, while he smiled, shaking his head to the sides. We coexisted in silence, as he drove on the bustling streets of Mumbai, and slowly, he grasped my hand, interlacing his fingers with mine and tugged it towards him, dropping our hands on his lap; with time, his hold tightened and it had nothing more than the comfort I starved for, after three torturously long days, where I suffered in silence. The moment we shared, together, overwhelmed me, for some reason I couldn't understand, and I felt an undeniably strong urge to breakdown; probably because, I was holding too much in and pretended to be strong for too long. But I didn't want to have an emotional explosion before him; he wouldn't stop panicking, and he'd take the blame on him for stranding me in the middle of the night. I wasn't wholly his responsibility, yet, and I didn't want to burden him with my problems; he was faced with enough from all directions!

"What's with the silence? It doesn't suit you", Darshan shook my hand and I licked my lower lip, as I shook my head to the sides, slowly. "Just tired and frustrated. I don't know. If I can be happy without a reason, I can be frustrated without a reason, too, right?", I fibbed and he listened on. "What can I do to make you feel better?", he asked, turning the steering wheel to the right. "You're doing that by just being here with me", I smiled, tilting my head to the side, and he turned his head in my direction, wrinkling his nose with a smile. "Such deep and emotional talks, eh? What tragedy is going on in your life that you're not mocking me today?", Darshan teased, and I smiled, weakly. "You can pull the life out of my cheeks today, and I won't say anything. In fact, pester me with your Gu-chi-ku, and I'll tolerate it", he said and I laughed, softly, without uttering a word.

Once we stopped the car in front of a red stoplight, Darshan rolled his window down and honked twice, grabbing the attention of a young boy, who staggered from car-to-car, attempting to sell roses. The young boy's eyes gleamed with happiness when Darshan called him, and he sprinted towards our car, with a broad beam stretched on his dried lips. "Bhaiya, will you buy roses? I don't have money for breakfast. Please buy...two roses. Two roses for ten rupees, please?", he served his offer, at once, and in desperation. "What will you buy for ten rupees?", I raised my brow. "A tea-bun in the next signal", he answered, and the hunger I read in his eyes shattered my heart. "No one's buying roses because they're almost dead. But I don't have money for food. Please buy two, Didi", his pleads twisted my heart. "Do one thing – get inside", I told the little boy, once something struck me, and Darshan looked at me in bewilderedness. "You're late for work, and what are we doing?", he questioned, muddled. "I'll talk to Karan. And, we're going to feed him", I answered and focused on the little boy. "Get inside. Quick. Quick!", I said in a hastened manner, and the little boy hopped inside, sitting on the edge of the backseat. Shifting his gaze between the road and me, Darshan drove away in sheer confusion. "Dityaa, are you okay? Why did you do this?", Darshan questioned. "Chill, your diamond-like car won't become dirty if he sits with us. He's a human being, too, Darshan!", I told him. "We could have lent him money, instead", Darshan stated. "We could have, but the most he'd eat is a tea-bun. Or two tea-buns. Or, at its worst, someone will steal his money. Darshan, you and I cannot eat the same thing for too many days; we need a change, right? Think about him; he's a little kid, who hasn't even looked at the world yet and he's selling roses on the streets, with an empty stomach. Doesn't that break your heart?", I paused, staring at him in disdain. "Where do we feed him?", Darshan asked, calmly, and I broke out into a wide grin. "We'll go to McDonalds. I'm hungry, too", I breathed out in relief, and slumped back on the seat, happily.

"What's your name, darling?", I questioned the little boy, who studied the car with an astonished look smudging his face, and he shrugged his shoulders, looking clueless. "You don't have a name?", I furrowed my eyebrows. "I don't know my name, but everyone calls me Chotu", he answered, sounding blank. "That's still a wonderful name. Tell me about yourself", I initiated a conversation with Chotu, while Darshan jostled through the Mumbai traffic. It wasn't surprising when I heard that Chotu was homeless, and slept in the Mumbai Railway Station at night; he was an orphan, who sold roses for a living. Apparently, he'd sell whatever he found on the streets, while aimlessly wandering around, hunting for good. While Darshan's eyes were glued to the road, the moistness in his small eyes were glaring, and when Chotu revealed that on days, when his hands were empty, his stomach would find contentment with the leftovers from the garbage, a stream of tears rolled out from the corner of Darshan's eye. I smiled, sympathetically, staring at Darshan and swept off the river of tears from the side of his face; he was such a fragile, sensitive and soft-hearted person, and I always loved that about him. He was a human being with a beating heart that had absolutely no idea about the art of being strong; he was someone who'd get overwhelmed and emotional, with ease. However he was, I loved him; his softness made him the beautiful human being he was. He owned a beautiful soul, and I was beyond blessed to have known someone as raw and unpolluted as him. "You good?", I whispered softly, looking at him, and he sniffed in, answering me with a brief nod and wore his usual smile.