Chapter 1

 Chole bhature wasn’t a good option!

It was a warm Wednesday, rather sunny with busy roads and too much traffic. I got really tired from that one-hour bus ride to Gurgaon. Me and my sister reached the metro station to meet her fiancée, who was waiting for us from last one hour with two big dairy milk silks and cold coffees at CCD. My sister greeted him with a kiss on his cheek to apologize for the delay because we were stuck in the traffic for almost half an hour. He told me to turn around, as if they didn’t want me to see them hugging, huh! It’s not like they were making out there. We had our coffees, we talked about the wedding planning, he teased me about meeting Sanchit for the first time, and then some more. We went out for shopping a bit. They both were holding hands and I was just wondering, “would I ever have what they have?” Little did I know; it would be so much more than what I expected. 

We went to Haldiram’s to eat chole bhature, obviously. While we were waiting for our order, my phone rang and a message appeared on the screen, “I am here”. I blushed and texted him back. 

“Do you want to come upstairs? Didi and jiju want to meet you” 

“I don’t know. I am kind of nervous.” 

“Okay, I will come downstairs. Then we can decide.” 

Meanwhile my jiju kept torturing me for inviting him for the lunch. Ahh, I literally begged them to stop asking me weird questions. And me blushing continuously wasn’t helping at all. I went downstairs, in front of the restaurant to see him nowhere. I called again. 

“Where are you? I can’t see you.” 

“Wait a minute, I am coming.” 

“Ahh, so you wanted to keep me waiting for you.” 

“Nothing’s like that. I am almost there and I am very nervous”

“Just come already. I can’t wait anymore” 

“Peeche dekh!”

I literally jumped on him to hug him. We stayed like that for, I don’t remember, how long. There he was, wearing his lavender sweatshirt, my favorite lavender sweatshirt. He pulled himself back and held my face in his hands. 

“Let me just see you properly for a minute.” 

I stood there, blushing, looking at him and realizing how much I like him already. He took out the rose from his bag to give it to me. 

“This is for you. I have other things as well but I’ll give them to you later.” 

After a few minutes, my phone rang. It was my jiju, asking me to bring him upstairs and reminding me that the food is getting colder. After discussing for a while, we decided to go upstairs. I was nervous. He was nervous, I guess. It was the first time I told my sister about some guy. It was really important for me to know what they would think of him. Would they like him? Would they like me with him? So many questions going over in my head when we entered the room. They all greeted each other. We all sat down to eat. They all talked a little, it was a little weird for everyone, including myself. Of course, it had to be. After a while, we were done eating. And I really wanted to just spend time with him and talk to him alone. We said goodbye to didi and jiju as they left the restaurant. We both stayed back and sat there for a while. I leaned on his left arm, while taking deep breaths. At that very moment, my mind was really numb. There was no thought. We talked a little, I don’t really remember, about what, to be honest. 

After a while, we decided to take off. We walked around a little in CP, he bought me a new phone cover. He got hungry and wanted to eat dosa. That day I realized his love for Dosa. We went to a restaurant and ordered one masala dosa. I wasn’t really hungry and was feeling very tired because of the heat and the bus and those chole bhature did something bad to my gut. I just had water and watched him eating dosa with so much love. He took a bite and asked me to eat. How could I say no! I ate that bite from his hand. It was just the tiredness that made my face pale, otherwise I was still blushing from inside, I swear. 

“Where do you wanna go now?” he asked. 

“Maybe directly to the room so that I can just lay down for a while” I muttered. 

He then called his friends who were going to stay with us that night. We took off from the restaurant to go meet them. We took a metro to Karol bagh, where we were planning to stay for the night. While standing in the metro, he asked me to give him the handbag if it’s getting too heavy for me. I simply denied. After a few minutes, he asked again. I laughed and smiled at the same time. Obviously, I wanted him to take my bag, like every other girl. But it was just too soon. Wasn’t it? I mean, we just met! I was still feeling a bit nervous about everything.

We met his friends, went to the hotel, booked our rooms and went to our rooms. I took off my bag and he came into the room. It was silence inside. We could hear the noise of traffic horn from outside. He opened his arms to hug me. We hugged. Again. But this time it was much more comfortable. I felt that warmth in his arms. We stayed like that for a while before he started to lift me. He took me into his arms and lifted me, just as I used to tell him on the calls. He remembered that! I was smiling, laughing, blushing and what not just before we were interrupted by Mayank, who came into our room, apparently without knocking. He suddenly landed me on my feet and Mayank suddenly closed the door. Wait a minute! What just happened? 

We laughed so hard. I called Mayank inside. He had something to ask him so they went outside. I took off my boots, laid down on the bed and closed my eyes. He came back inside and sat on the bed next to me. 

“I am sorry for that. I should have locked the door.” 

“He could have knocked as well” I laughed. “But its fine.” 

“Are you feeling better now” he leaned a bit towards me. 

“Not very well” I said. 

He came close to me and placed a soft kiss on my forehead. 

“And now?” he asked. 

“Maybe a little.” I nodded. Little did he know; I was literally craving for that. His kiss on my forehead literally took away my headache. I was smiling all along so he knew that I was comfortable with that. He started kissing on my face. My cheeks. My nose. My eyes. And I was just lying there, smiling. His kisses were making me smile even more.

“Can I kiss on your lips?” he whispered. 

I didn’t do anything because all I wanted in that moment was for him to kiss me. He asked me first which made me more comfortable with everything happening. I closed my eyes and swallowed softly. He looked at me and knew what I wanted. He leaned forward slowly, placing one hand on my face and sliding my hairs to the back of my ear with another. He took a moment and placed his lips softly on mine. 

There it was. My first kiss. Our first kiss