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

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

•

"Ma I have already told you he's a very busy person. He can't meet you guys." I tell her in an attempt to brush off the whole meeting idea from her mind.

She looks at me with suspicious eyes and then opens her mouth to speak again. I internally pray she agrees to my request because God knows if she remains persistent then I will have no other option other than telling her the truth.

"I want to meet him and that is final. If he's so busy all the time, does he even take out time to meet you?" She asks me.

I take a deep breath and try to come up with a better reason.

"Yes Ma, we do meet whenever we get time." I told her.

"Is that true? When do you even meet him? As it is you hardly go out. It's going to the office and coming back straight home after working hours are over for you on weekdays and you spend your weekends sleeping throughout the day. The only time you do go out is when Sneha forces you to." She replies.

Every bit of that was true. I hardly went out because firstly, I did not have the time to, and secondly I'd rather sleep than go out and have to socialize.

"I meet Arjun during those weekends when Sneha and I go out. Sneha's fiancé Mayank also goes out with us." I told her.

"Okay." She replies. The way she says the word tells me she isn't convinced at all.

"One thing that I'm still not able to comprehend is how you managed to keep Arjun a secret until I found out about you and him myself. You always blurt everything out." Ma says, looking at me curiously.

"Ma, this was a different matter altogether. Let's not talk about this. I want to have something now, my stomach is demanding to be fed." I told her.

"And my mind is demanding to meet my daughter's boyfriend and see for myself what kind of a person he is." She answers.

"You'll meet him when the time is right." I finally told her.

"No, we'll continue with this talk later tonight when Raj comes home." She tells me and walks off.

At the dinner table an hour later Ma brings up the talk of meeting Arjun again.

"I don't see the problem here, Shravya. Even I would like to meet Arjun." Papa says.

"Yes Papa, but try to understand. I'm not ready to introduce you guys to him yet." I told him.

"Okay, we'll wait then." Papa says and I'm about to do my happy dance when,

"One week." Ma announces.

"Huh?" I ask, confused.

"You have one week to convince that guy to meet us." She explains.

Oh no!

"Ma!.." I begin.

"Enough is enough Shravya. Let's continue with dinner." She says with finality in her tone.

•

"Aunty asked for what!?" Sneha yells, grabbing the attention of the people sitting at tables near ours in the office cafeteria.

"Hush, speak softly, we don't need anymore people knowing about this." I tell her in a hushed tone.

"Okay, aunty asked for what?" She repeats again this time bringing her face closer to mine and speaking in a whisper.

"She said she wants to meet Arjun." I told her.

"I knew this. I knew this would happen very soon." She says taking a sip of her lemonade.

"And you couldn't tell me?" I ask her.

"What was there to even tell, Shravya? You didn't for once have the thought that sooner or later your parents, especially your mom, would want to meet your pretend boyfriend?" She asks.

"Well, I obviously did not think that far. I thought once I tell Ma I have a boyfriend she'd leave him and me in peace." I told her.

"I love you, but I have to say that you can be really dumb at times." She says in response.

"Shut up and tell me what to do now. I have one week's time to convince Arjun Mehrotra to meet my parents." I told her.

"Then make use of the time and do exactly that." She tells me.

"Do what?" I ask, confused and take a sip of my lemonade.

"Convince Arjun Mehrotra to meet your parents and what else?" She comments in such a casual manner that makes it seem like Arjun is my actual boyfriend and all the excuses that I have made so far are real life situations.

"Are you even serious right now? You talk as if Arjun is my real boyfriend. It's not that easy, wait scratch that it's nowhere near easy. It's next to impossible." I told her.

"Nothing is impossible, babe." She comments.

"Easy for you to say. Now give me an actual suggestion." I told her.

"Tell your mother the truth." She says.

"What no, I can't do that. So many things will go wrong if I do." I told her.

"They'll be disheartened I know." She replies.

"It's not only about that. Once my mother gets to know that I lied to her, her heart's gonna break one thing. Then she's going to become more determined to find a match for me and will start working with double passion to find a suitable guy for me, as a result she might also just marry me off to the first suitable guy she finds and call him and me a perfect match. I'll be doomed." I told her.

"I know right. Therefore I told you it's either going and convincing Arjun Mehrotra to attend a single family dinner or getting married to an unknown guy for the rest of your life. Which option do you think is worse? " She asks me.

"The latter, yes." I replied.

"Then, what will you do now?" She asks me.

"I'll try to convince Arjun Mehrotra to become my pretend boyfriend for a few hours and get over it." I replied.

"That's right." She replies.

"How am I gonna do that though? He gave me his business card which has his email on it." I told her.

"Girl, he gave you his business card?" She whisper-yelled. I nodded my head in response.

"Is it that big of a deal?" I ask her.

"Shravya, this means he's interested in you." She tells me and a laugh escapes my lips.

"You seriously have to be kidding. Tell me it's a joke, tell me it's one." I manage to say in between my laugh.

She gives me a blank look and I stop at once.

"You seriously meant that?" I ask her.

"Yes, you fool. Lunch break gets over in five. Let me complete my lunch now." She tells me and resumes eating.

I look down at my plate and see half of my plate filled too and quickly begin eating.

•

Later that day when I'm done with my dinner I get inside my room and look for Arjun Mehrotra's business card inside my bag.

I don't find it instantly. Finding the card requires a lot of struggle too.

Five minutes later, after emptying my entire bag I find the card in a half crumpled state.

I place it on my bed and smoothen out the creases.

Once I am able to read the email address given on it, I quickly type it out on my laptop.

I finally begin typing an email to him but as soon as I place my fingers on the keyboard I pause. What am I even going to write?

Should I ask him for a casual meet-up?

What will he even think about it, we don't even know each other and have met only once, and that meeting too must I add wasn't exactly the best meeting that there is. I was so rude to him. Now if I text him saying I want to meet him he'll definitely figure out something is fishy and refuse. He might ignore my email altogether.

But I'll have to send in an email. There's no other option to reach him, is there?

He told me that his new restaurant is opening a few blocks away from our office, maybe I can find him there?

After a lot of thinking I decide I should go there tomorrow after work and if I am lucky I might as well spot him. Even if I do not I can at least ask someone about when I can meet him there.

I hope luck is on my side tomorrow.

With that thought in mind I retire to bed.

•

"Bhaiya stop here." I tell the auto rickshaw driver and he halts in front of a large building which looks like it's still work under progress.

[Bhaiya : used to address an elder brother / someone who is like an elder brother to you]

I pay him the fare and get out of the vehicle after which I walk towards the building.

There's a security guard at the gate who stops me.

"You cannot go inside ma'am, this building is still under construction." He tells me.

"Uh yes I do know that. This is where the new restaurant of Arjun Mehrotra is going to open right?" I ask him.

"Yes." He replies.

"Is he inside? Can I meet him please?" I ask him.

"No ma'am, Sir isn't here." He tells me.

"Does he come here to check how the progress is so far?" I ask.

"Yes, ma'am he comes every alternate day to check on the progress but he usually comes after nine, sometimes he comes earlier than that but that's rare. He is going to come here today." He says.

"Oh okay." I say and eye my watch.

7.30 p.m.

I should have been home by now but here I am instead, inquiring about my mother's supposed son in law to be.

Should I wait here for him? I have six days left and I have to start working on convincing him because I have no idea how long it will take. I am not even sure of whether I'll be able to convince or even meet him at all.

But it's getting late too. Ma will get worried if I don't go home now. She knows I don't hang out after work with Shravya on weekdays.

"Thank you so much for helping me." I tell the guard and he smiles at me in response.

I turn around and start walking off.

This is a one way road and I won't even get any auto until I walk back to my office building.

Internally groaning I begin my walk.

Half way through I'm mindlessly walking through the footpath when a car stops on the road beside me.

Not paying attention to it, I continued walking.

"Hey, Shravya! Shravya." I hear someone yell behind me and I immediately freeze on my spot as I recognise the voice calling out my name.

It cannot be him now, can it?