I rushed out of the shower quickly as my phone wouldn't stop ringing, once I was wrapped in my bathrobe, I walked towards the night stand next to my bed and looked at my phone, it had three missed calls, each from three of my friends, Kitty, Caroline and Bonnie.

I made a conference call to the three of them and the first thing they did was to shout at me because I dint pick any of their calls and I just ended up laughing at them.

After we all finished universities, we have to get jobs, build a career and all so we couldn't really stay in mystic falls together, I moved out to Paris, Bonnie and Caroline shifted to Los Angeles and Kitty just chose to stay in Mystic Falls, but we tried to maintain as much contact as possible.

And now after five years of all of us struggling and everything, we were finally settled in life and had actually planned to meet up, the three of them decided to come to Paris and I had to take them around and we'd just have a tiny girl's vacation, sounded great right?

"I was in the shower girls, can't I shower in peace?" I rolled my eyes.

"We don't care, you better be at the airport on time to pick us." Kitty said.

"I will, I'm always punctual." I boasted.

"God, we've missed you Khushi, at least the three of us were in the same country so we did have chances to meet once in a while, but we haven't seen you in like five years. You must have gray hair now." Caroline giggled.

"You wish, I'm still hot as ever." I laughed.

"Let's decide that when we meet, anyway we're just on our way to board the plane so see you in Paris." Bonnie said excitedly.

"See you." I said as we all disconnected the call, I was really excited to meet them all, a lot had changed in the past five years.

Kitty had got engaged to some new guy who moved to Mystic falls, Bonnie and Karthik too were planning to get engaged pretty soon, they did manage to make the long distance thing work, I wondered why they weren't married yet, but it seemed like they needed their own time to be prepared for this.

As for Caroline she was still in search for her perfect man, she had dated a few guys but nothing really worked out and as for me, I was single and happy, I had stopped looking for a relationship after everything that happened with Arnav and I.

"Ma'am we're ready for you." I heard a voice from downstairs.

"I'll be ready in ten minutes, just make sure everything is ready and we'll leave." I shouted back.

I quickly got dressed in my sweats and tied up my hair in a bun as I rushed downstairs, Audrey was standing there smiling at me brightly, she was such a cheerful person.

"All set?" I asked.

"Yes, we are just waiting for you." She smiled, I nodded as I helped her with the strolled, we took it out and then she locked the house, while I bent down and looked at my little angel smiling at me.

"Hello baby, ready for your morning walk?" I pulled her cheeks lightly and made cute faces at her.

Oh I completely forgot. Meet Pari, my little baby girl. Of course you're wondering how it happened if I'm still single, well there's something we call adoption.

Actually I dint even know if I ever wanted a baby or even adopt one, but six months back, when I went to India to visit mom and dad, that's where I met Pari. Mom and Dad had gone their for a holiday and they told me to join them so I thought why not and well I think I did the right thing, because if I wouldn't go, I wouldn't have met Pari.

She was this newborn baby who was left outside and orphanage that was just next to the house where I was living, I was the first one to discover her and it just broke my heart that someone could just leave a tiny baby like this.

I wasn't judging, I just felt bad for her, so I took her inside and handed her over to the orphanage, but for the next few days, I just couldn't be in peace knowing that she was out there with no family and that's when I decided that I was going to be her family.

So fast forward to today, I was her family, and her mom and she made me so happy, I dint think I really needed anyone else in my life to make me happy, we both found family in each other.

Pari giggled happily as I smiled and pushed the stroller while me, and Audrey, her nanny took her to a nearby park for a walk.

I had taken an off since my friends were coming so today the three of us decided to go for a walk together, otherwise, it was usually Audrey taking care of her while I was at work, but once I was back, I made sure to spend all my time with my little baby girl.

"You seem really happy today, is it because your friends are coming?" Audrey asked.

"Yeah, I haven't seen them in like five years so I am kind of excited, I can't wait to see them and spend time with them." I smiled.

"I'm sure Pari would be happy too with all the new company she's going to get."

"Yeah." I nodded as we continued with our walk around the park talking about random things and all.

We walked around for over an hour, there were a lot of people around here, it was some sort of a happy place, seeing happy people here in the morning, all smiling was my kind of a happy place.

"okay don't look but I think some creepy man is really staring at us." Audrey warned me, of course my first instinct was to turn around and look but I dint because she had told me not to.

"Don't worry, no creepy man can win a fight against me, I might have not fought in the past five years but I'm still strong." I laughed.

"Oh shit, he's coming towards us." Audrey said nervously.

"Don't be scared Audrey, I'm here." I assured her, she nodded but she still looked kind of scared so I turned and looked at whoever this creepy man was.

When I turned, I was left in surprise, I dint expect that I was ever going to meet him again, not like this at least.

"Khushi! I thought it was you." Arnav stopped in front of me and smiled.

"Arnav, what are you doing here?" I asked in surprise, Audrey calmed down realizing that we knew each other so he wasn't creepy, it was funny how Audrey thought he was creepy, there was nothing about him that looked creepy anyway.

With age, Arnav had just grown to be more handsome, otherwise he was still the same Arnav I knew five years ago.

"I thought I'd never see you again." She smiled as he greeted me with a hug.

"Same here, it's quite a surprise, so what brings you to Paris?"

"Work. Stefan and I came here for a meeting with clients, we were here for a morning jpg because we couldn't sleep in a new country." He laughed.

"Oh, so where is he?" I asked as I looked around trying to find Stefan.

"He went to get water, you tell me what are you doing here?"

"I live here Arnav, this is my home now." I said.

"Oh that's great... so you did get married huh?" he said as he looked at Pari who was just looking around happily giggling.

"Who is the lucky guy?" He asked, he dint look happy while he asked that.

"No, I dint get married Arnav." I laughed.

"Oh, I thought she was your baby." He shrugged.

"She is, I adopted her but she's still my baby." I smiled.

"Oh, that's great, it's good to see you and how well you're doing, I'm happy for you." He smiled, I nodded as I finally noticed Stefan walking towards us, he looked at me with a smile and as soon as he approached me, he pulled me into a hug.

"Khushi! What a pleasant surprise."

"I know right. I dint know I was going to meet you two, I'm surprised too." I smiled.

"And I see you have a tiny baby, aww how cute." Stefan said as he looked at Pari and smiled at her making cute faces.

"Yeah, I would have informed you if you hadn't changed your number and stopped calling me." I said.

"I lost my phone Khushi and I lost all the contacts." Stefan pouted.

"Oh, I thought you were tired of being my friend." I giggled.

"Nothing like that, you have no idea how glad I am to have met you, I was kind of hoping to meet you when I came here, looks like God listened to me." Stefan said.

"You knew she moved here?" Arnav looked at him in surprise.

"Yeah, we talked on phone a lot of times, I told him not to tell you where I was. I mean we both had decided to move on in life so I dint want him to mention me." I said.

"Oh okay, anyway it was really nice to meet you and I'm happy seeing that you are happy. Anyway we should get going, we'll be late for the meeting." Arnav said as he looked at Stefan who nodded.

Arnav walked away as Stefan still stood with me.

"Are you really okay Khushi?" He asked.

"Of course I am Stefan, happier than ever." I smiled genuinely. "Is Arnav okay or still dwelling in the past?"

"He is okay I think, there's this girl that really likes him but he seems skeptical about it, I guess with time he'll come around and find his own happiness like found yours. Anyway I'll get going, I'll contact you later yeah?" he said.

I nodded as he handed me his phone where I saved my number once again, he waved goodbye at me and then walked away while I sighed and sat down on the nearby bench.

Once I was seated, I saw Arnav walking back towards me, he stopped in front of me again and smiled.

"I'm sorry, I felt like I left in a rude manner which I dint, it was just awkward. But anyway I hope you are happy and you've found the happiness you were looking for." He said.

"I did. I hope you also did" I smiled as I looked at Pari and smiled. He nodded as he bent down on his knees and looked at Pari with a smile.

"I did too. He smiled.

"I hope you'll be just as amazing as your mother." He said to her, Pari just made her baby noises.

"So now that it's been five years, we are both happy wherever we are, can we at least be friends now? I promise that's all i'm asking for, friendship, just like you and Stefan are friends?" He asked.

"Sure." I nodded.

"Great. So hopefully, i'll run into you someday again." He smiled happily, i just nodded as he waved a goodbye at Pari and turned to leave.

"Arnav." I called out his name, he stopped immediately and turned to look at me.

"Would you like to have dinner with us, i mean my friends are coming to visit so maybe we can do a small get together, Stefan can also come."

"Sure, I'd love to, you can tell me when. I mean you have Stefan's number so you can call him and he will inform me." He shrugged.

"Okay, i'll let you know. And just to be clear, it's just friendship okay? I dont want to hold grudges or anything neither do i want to act like a stranger when at one time in life we both were important to each other." I sighed.

"I know Khushi, don't worry, all i'm looking for is friendship too, anyway i'm getting late i need to go."

"Okay, see you." I smiled and waved a goodbye at him as he walked away with a smile, it was different, when he walked away the first time, he wasn't happy but now he was, see how a small gesture could make someone really happy?

*****

I waited at the airport impatiently for the girls to arrive, their flight had already landed so once they got their luggage, they were going to be here, I was so excited to see them.

They walked out in a few minutes and I rushed to hug them as we all let out a scream of excitement, we were just too happy to see each other after so long.

"I missed you guys." I said as I continued hugging them.

"We missed you too Khushi." They said altogether, I broke the hug and led them to the parking lot where I had my car parked, we put their luggage in the booth and then I drove them home.

"Where is Pari?" Caroline asked.

"She was asleep so I left her with Audrey, she will be awake by the time we reach home most probably." I said.

"Great, I can't wait to play with her, she is so adorable, I keep on staring at her cute pictures every now and then." Kitty said excitedly.

"So what's new in life? How's Paris treating you?" Bonnie asked.

"Everything's great, I love this place and I'm happy. What's new is that it's strange actually, I met Arnav and Stefan at the park earlier today when I had taken Pari for a morning walk." I said.

"Oh My God. Was it awkward?" Kitty asked.

"Kind of, but not that much. I mean it's been five years now, I am happy where I am and I guess he is too, and he asked if we could be friends so i agreed, i also invited him and Stefan for dinner, so i guess all's well that ends well I guess." I shrugged.

"So the feelings are all gone or you still do feel something for him? Because if you feel something yet, I dont think friendship is a good idea." Bonnie said.

"Honestly I don't know what i feel, and maybe I don't want to know. I like how things are going on right now and I'd like them to go on this way, all I am thinking about right now is my future, how I'm going to bring Pari up and everything, that's all that matters for me anyway. Arnav and i might have become friends now but that's all it's ever going to be."

"Well yeah you are right, nothing bad in being friends." Caroline said.

"Anyway we are home, I can't wait for us to start our adventure already." I said excitedly.

"Neither can we, but first we need to see our little munchkin." The three of them said as the rushed inside the house excited to see Pari while I struggles with all their luggage.

When I walked in, I found Pari giggling happily with the three of them, and finally, my world felt complete.

"God, I missed you guys." I said as I rushed to hug them all once again.