I finished tying my hair into a fish braid and then let it rest on my back.

My eyes moved to my watch.

8.20 a.m.

I had to be in the office by nine. Which meant no breakfast time for me today.

I grabbed my belongings and quickly rushed out of my room.

The aroma of freshly made aloo parathas hit my nostrils and I internally drool.

[Aloo parathas : ( lit. "potato paratha") is a bread dish originating from the Indian subcontinent. ... Aloo parathas consist of unleavened dough rolled with a mixture of mashed potato and spices, which is cooked on a hot tawa with butter or ghee.]

So bad I wouldn't be able to get any of it! And all because of my stupid desire to stalk Arjun Mehrotra.

Ugh, Shravya, why do you act so stupid sometimes? I ask myself before moving towards the main door.

"Shravya, don't you dare leave without having breakfast!" Ma yells at me from behind.

"Ma, I'm super duper late today so I'll have to say goodbye to you and leave for the office at this very moment." I told her.

"Have one paratha and I'll let you leave. How will my daughter work hard with an empty stomach? You still want that promotion right?" She asks.

"Ma, please, I'm very late already." I told her.

"Shravya, have your breakfast before you leave. I'll drop you in the car on my way today." Papa says.

"But you'll have to go the opposite direction." I protest.

"I can do that for my child." He replies.

"Okay then, I'll have two instead of one now." I tell her and make my way to the table.

•

"Thank you so much Papa. I'll see you in the evening." I tell him as I exit his car.

"You're always welcome, Shravu." He replies. I then make my way inside and then look at him through the glass doors.

When he sees me inside only then does he start the engine and drive off.

Being an only child makes your parents over protective. I hope I'm not the only one. With this thought in mind I made my way to my floor.

When I reached my desk someone was already waiting for me there.

"You gave your imaginary boyfriend a tour of the office yesterday and you did not even tell me?" Sneha's voice boomed in the corner.

"Stop, don't even call him that." I tell her, irritation laced in my tone.

"Why do you want to make him your real boyfriend instead? He's that awesome?" She asks.

"The exact opposite of it. God knows what came into me and I told Ma, he out of the entire male population is my boyfriend. The damn man had the audacity to compare me to a standard five kid for keeping quirky stationery." I told her in one breath before slamming my bag on my desk and sitting on my chair.

"Calm down lady, and have some water." She says and I nod my head at her.

I take my water bottle out of my bag and take a few sips from it.

"Now listen to me carefully." She tells me.

"Go ahead." I say in response.

"I'm sending you to a blind date this weekend." She tells me.

"Okay." I replied. A few seconds later when I process what she's said my eyes widen in shock.

"What!?" I utter and then look up at her.

"See you do want a life partner at one point right?" She asks me.

"Well yes I do." I told her.

"And how do you plan on finding him? I hope you're not expecting some bollywood shit to happen where both of you meet and fall in love at first sight with each other and then, well you know the rest." She tells me.

"I am a practical person and I know life isn't a bed of roses neither is it a bollywood movie." I told her.

"Good, now act like a practical person does. Meet people, socialise more, go on dates, try to find out the one for you." She tells me.

"Not this weekend though, maybe the next. I have a lot of pending work to do." I told her.

"Shravya Arora, you'll get your ass to the address I give you this weekend and if you don't I'll tell your mother that Arjun Mehrotra isn't your boyfriend." She tells me.

"Hey, you're my best friend, you're supposed to keep my secrets safe, not expose them to my mother. Also you can't blackmail me, if you do, I'm going to post embarrassing photos of you on all my social media sites and tag you in them." I tell her with a wicked smile.

"You wouldn't really do that sweet Shravya, would you?" She asks me, her demeanor changing at once.

"Oh my sweeter Sneha, you won't tell Ma about Arjun Mehrotra not being my actual boyfriend, will you?" I ask her.

"I wasn't going to Shravya and you know that too, don't you? However if you keep bringing up work every time I arrange a date for you, YOU'RE GOING TO END UP A SINGLE WOMAN WITH NOTHING BUT CATS TO KEEP YOU COMPANY!" She says, her voice going a few octaves higher as she utters the last sentence.

"But that's so much better." I tell her with a pout.

"Shravya Arora!!!" She says my name with emphasis.

"Okay, okay I get your point. I'll go on this blind date." I finally say.

"Very good. You have four days in hand to complete all your pending work." She tells me.

"Alright, I better start working from this very moment then." I tell her and she nods immediately.

"Will meet you at lunch time." She says as leaves.

"Sure." I reply and get back to work.

During lunch break when Sneha and I meet I ask her to tell me atleast who the guy is but she doesn't reveal anything. At the end I give up and let it be a surprise.

When I'm alone at my desk I ponder over this blind date.

After a lot of thinking I decided that I should give it a shot. As it is I don't know till when I will be able to continue with this whole 'Arjun being my boyfriend' thing so it's better to start giving others a try. Maybe this way I could actually find my 'the one'.

In the evening when I return back home, Ma as usual welcomes me in. On reaching the hall I find Mrs. Sharma from the flat opposite ours sitting on the sofa having tea.

"Namaste Aunty." I greet her and am about to make way to my room when she stops me.

"Namaste beta, how are you?" She asks me.

[Beta : Son ;

in this context, a way of addressing a boy/girl who's your own kid or like your own kid to you] [a/n : this was the best translation I could come up with, if any of you would like to explain it in a simpler manner please do so in the comments]

"I'm doing well Aunty, how are you?" I ask back.

"I'm great." She replies.

"I'll just freshen up and join you guys." I tell her and she nods her head in response.

I enter my room and quickly take a shower after which I change into a t-shirt and pyjamas and come back to the hallroom.

"You've come at the perfect time, Shravya, I was just telling Mrs. Sharma about Arjun Mehrotra and you." Ma says and I internally want the ground to swallow Mrs. Sharma so that she doesn't listen to the whole story if it isn't too late already that is.

"Arjun Mehrotra and me? What about us?" I ask, trying to act as clueless as possible. I hoped Ma got the hint.

"About you two seeing each other, what else?" Ma said oblivious to my hints.

I internally groaned before faking a smile.

"Oh yes." I said, trying to act shy but I'm sure I failed terribly.

"That's good to know Shravya." Mrs. Sharma commented.

Obviously it'll be good to know, Aunty, now you'll get another topic to gossip about in the society party. I think to myself.

It seems like one by one everyone will come to know that I'm dating Arjun Mehrotra except for Arjun Mehrotra himself.

I've got myself into a big mess and now I am starting to regret it. Instead of easing my tension this lie has increased it all the more.

"Shravu, what are you thinking? Come and have tea with us." Ma says.

I'd rather not.

"Yes, sure." I mumble before taking a seat beside her.

"Have you met him, Mrs. Arora?" Mrs. Sharma asks.

"No not yet, he's a very private person." Ma replies.

"How long have you guys been seeing one another for? Mrs. Sharma asks me.

Never have, never will. I want to say but instead I say,

"It's been about a year. He really is a private person, Aunty and I'd be very grateful if you don't tell anyone about this news." I tell her as politely as possible.

"Oh, Shravya, don't worry at all. I won't tell a soul. Not even my husband." She says.

Lies. All lies.

I look at Ma and pass her a glare.

She looks back at me confused.

"I'll now take my leave." Mrs Sharma says and gets up from her seat.

"Do come by again soon." Ma says as she too stands up and walks her to the door.

They spend another ten minutes talking at the door. The talk would have been an hour long had I not called my from inside making the excuse of not being able to find a file of mine.

When Mrs. Sharma finally leaves, Ma shuts the door and walks over to me.

"Ma!!! Why did you tell Mrs Sharma about Arjun and me?" I practically yell.

Ma stares at me in a manner that says she's seen an alien.

"I don't see any reason as to why I should have not." She says a few seconds later.

"There are a whole list of reasons why you should have not!" I told her.

"Oh really, what reasons?" She asks.

"Firstly it's a matter of violating Arjun's privacy, MY privacy, you should have at least asked me before just announcing it to our neighbor, who I must mention loves gossiping. You don't know how much trouble will this cause me, Ma!" I told her.

"Shravya, you're dating him for almost a year as you said and you've not even introduced him to us. What kind of a boyfriend is he? Who doesn't want anyone to know about your relationship? Not even your own parents? May God bless Dhruv's mother through whom I got to know about my own daughter's relationship." She says in response.

"Ma, please for now give me some time." I plead.

Time to clear this mess.

"No Shravya, no more time. Raj and I were talking about Arjun and you last night and we have decided that we want to meet him." She tells me and I feel like someone just dropped a bomb on me.

"You want to m-meet him?" I ask hoping I heard her wrong.

"Yes, we want to meet him." She confirms.