Soha's point of view :

Fifteenth of February came at last. It was ten past eight in the evening. We were at the dining table as usual, having dinner. Everyone was cheerful, sharing how their day went or what they had planned for the next day except me. I kept eating as fast as I could without saying a word. I didn't know what to say other than I was fidgety and nervous all day long.

What if he doesn't like me? What if I get tongue tied and he thinks I'm not as friendly as before?

Silly questions clouded my mind thinking about the time when I was going to pick him up at the airport. Rahat said that he had already booked a hotel online. I asked him the name of the hotel. It was 'The Oriental'.

My father was one of the owners of this hotel. Rahat also informed me that he'd manage his way to the hotel, but I refused. I wanted to be there to welcome him. So, I told him that I'd pick him up.

When I walked into my closet, I freaked out because I couldn't decide what to wear in the evening. I asked Mahi to come over in the afternoon. She came over in half an hour, and scolded me.

"Don't over think and just be yourself."

I excused myself from the dining table, and went to the nearest washroom to wash my hands. Being a bengali family, we used our hands to eat rice and curry. Spoons and forks were used only in front of guests.

I came back to the dining hall, and found my family still conversing amicably.

"I'm going out. And I might be late." I said to no one particular. Four pairs of eyes stared at me.

"I'm going to the airport." I delivered the information specifically for grandma. Because abbu and khala didn't react when I said I was going out. But her eyes narrowed on me.

"Are you going out of city?" Khala seemed surprised.

"I'm not going anywhere. Just gonna pick one of my friends up from the airport."

"Rahat's coming to Bangladesh." Mihad replied before I could open my mouth. I told him about it yesterday. Now he decided to open his big mouth and make it harder for me.

"Who's Rahat?" Grandma asked.

"Soha's friend." This time khala took the turn to reply for me. I groaned and glared at both of them.

After asking a ton of stuff like his age, job and all that grandma didn't seem satisfied but kept silent. As I took this as a sign and turned to go upstairs, dadima said- "Asif, it's not safe for her to go out at this hour of night. Tell your bodyguards to go with her." Abbu nodded while khala seemed very pleased with the decision.

My mouth hung open in shock. "I'm not a child anymore. I can take care of myself."

With that said, I climbed up the stairs and came into my room. I changed into a gray zipper up hooded collar long sleeved coat, a random black T shirt underneath, with ripped skinny jeans, and sneakers. The temperature came down to fifteen degrees at some night. So I thought I should wear something warm.

I took the keys and headed to the garage.

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Twenty minutes later, I parked the car in front of Mahi's house. Picking up the cellphone, I called  and asked her to come out but she refused.

"I can't. I'm watching Ji Chang Wook's drama. It's called 'Healer'."

"You can watch it later. Come outside." I insisted.

"I don't want to."

"You'll be in need of a healer, if you don't come outside right now!"

"Okay okay. Coming."

She came out in two minutes. I gave her the keys and climbed into the passenger seat.

"I can't drive. My hands are shaking."

Mahi smiled as she buckled up her seat belt.

"Don't be nervous."

"I'm not. . ."

I truly wasn't feeling as nervous as before. I was a bit excited now.  It was almost nine o'clock. As we lived in the outskirts of Dhaka city, it was gonna take at least an hour to reach the airport.

     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As predicted, after an hour, we arrived at the airport.

"His flight will land in thirty minutes, right?"

"Yeah." I replied as I watched people come out of the departure area.

"I'm gonna finish watching Ji Chang Wook."

I rolled my eyes at her obsession with k dramas. As the clock hit thirty past ten, my heart beat started to accelerate. I felt like it was going to come out of my ribcage. My palms were sweaty.

I shouldn't have wore the hoodie. It's so hot tonight.

I unzipped the hoodie.

"Give it to me. It's so cold out here. You didn't even give me a chance to wear something warm." Mahi snatched it from me.

People started coming out once again. I kept staring at the gate without a blink.

"Do you see him?" Mahi asked as she stood beside me.

"N-no." I whispered. She took my hand in hers and gave it a press. I smiled a bit as my eyes looked for him.

Suddenly, I saw a familiar face among the others. Rahat came out, making me freeze for a nanosecond. He looked at his left and then right. A broad smile appeared on his lips as he saw me. He wore a olive military jacket, a green plaid long sleeved shirt with navy blue jeans, and brown plimsolls.

I walked towards him slowly at first, and then the pace increased. In a few seconds, I was standing in front of him.

"Hey." Rahat looked into my eyes as he smiled gently.

"Hi." I returned the smile.

I raised my hand to shake as he spread his arms wide open and went for a hug. Rahat stopped as soon as he saw my hand but in the meantime, I leaned forward and placed my hands around his neck. He chuckled and leaned down to hug me. We stayed like that only a couple of seconds, making it a short and perfect friendly hug.

He took the luggage and I motioned him to walk with me. Mahi stood by the car with a huge smile on her lips.

"This is Mahzabin aka Mahi, my best friend. And Mahi, as you can guess, this is Rahat."

I introduced my two friends to each other. They exchanged hi's and then Rahat helped me keeping the luggage in the boot. Mahi climbed into the backseat, leaving the passenger seat for Rahat. We drove to the hotel as Mahi and Rahat started talking.

Rahat's point of view :

"Uh. . Soha, I think someone is following us." I told her as I watched a black SUV following us for the last five minutes. Soha looked into the rear view mirror. I didn't want to tell her about it. But this is an unknown city for me. I had to tell her so that she could be careful.

"Not again!" Soha groaned while Mahi giggled from the backseat.

"Am I missing something?" I asked, being dumbfounded.

"Those are her bodyguards." Mahi provided the answer.

"No, they're not." Soha scoffed.

"Technically yes, they are. Because what's your father's, is yours too." Mahi pointed out.

"Dadima is too much!"

"You can't blame her for worrying about you." I said, knowing how the elders's minds worked.

Soha hummed but still seemed annoyed.

"Are you hungry? Do you want us to stop at a restaurant?" Soha asked slowing down a bit.

"No, I ate something on board. Are you guys hungry? You can stop and eat if you want to."

They said no and then we continued again.

Twenty minutes later, Soha parked the car and we climbed out. I took a good look at the hotel in front of me. It was a ten story building, with an underground parking. It looked much better than the photos on the website. Mahi opened the boot and I took my luggage out.

"Why don't you guys come in?" I asked, trying to be polite.

"Uh, not now. We'll let you settle in. See you tomorrow?" Soha gave me a small smile.

I nodded, shaking both of their hands. I waited for them to get in the car, and drive away.

I walked into the huge lobby, with my small luggage in hand. I saw the reception area in the left, near the elevators.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I came out of the adjacent bathroom, after washing up. I wanted to go check out the sauna, but felt too tired to ride the elevator once again.

This hotel had many facilities including free wifi. I took my tab out of the luggage and decided to talk to my Ammi. 

"Salam ammi, how are you?"

"Salam, I'm fine. How are you? Have you reached safely?"

"Yes ammi. I already miss you guys." I said with a sad smile.

"I miss you too. When will you be back?"

"In a week."

"Okay dear. Be safe."

We said byes and hanged up. When I told Soha that I'd be coming for a day or two. She requested me to make it a week. She wanted to take me to all of her favourite places and share her memories with me. I was pretty excited about meeting up with her and go see all those places she talked about when we chatted. So, I agreed to stay for a week.

She looks just as beautiful as on the laptop screen.

I thought as I closed my eyes. I couldn't wait for the morning to come. The last thing I remembered was her warm welcome hug.

A/n: I've got 450 followers today. So, an early update as a gift to you all.

Don't forget to let me know what you think about it. This chapter might have some grammatical errors. Please let me know if you find any. Thanks.

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