XXXIV. AJ

"Two friends get close on a journey where they ask questions about each other, making their bond strong. The friendship may blossom to many more things."

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"You and I are going to get along fine." I was unable to grasp the meaning behind his words.

Only, some people have the power in my life to make me shocked. The person in front of me shocked me by stating it.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked unable to control my curiosity and frustration.

He sighed and gave me a look that I was familiar with, "Little one, I meant that you and I are going to get along well after knowing each other better." He leaned back and watched me with lazy eyes.

I was mortified. "Y-you a-are calling m-me li-little one." I stuttered and started laughing loudly gaining the attention of other patrons.

I ignored the others and looked at the stranger's face, his face was set without moving a muscle. That expression made me stop laughing. My eyes widened in disbelief.

I moved my chair near the table and whispered in my threatening voice. "I am not a little one." He shrugged his shoulders in reply.

"Oh, I mean you are little than me and your brain is taking a long time to process information. So, I thought to give you a suitable title." The nerve of this jerk.

"Don't mind me, I think a girl should jump up and down in happy when a stranger tells her that they will get together," I whispered the words furiously.

"I didn't say that we will be together." I ignored him and continued my speech.

"If your eyes are working properly, I am a married woman," I said in a flat voice showing him the chain around me that tied me to my husband for eternity.

"Ah, how can a girl misinterpret a simple meaning behind a sentence? I thought you were different from your looks, you disappoint me little one." I felt bad for misjudging him. But, when I heard those words in a low voice, it broke my heart. "Your husband isn't here either." He mumbled those words under his breath making it hard for me to understand them, but I heard them and the words broke my heart because they were true. I don't know in which place I and my husband stand.

Just then, I got called for getting my order. I looked at the stranger in front of me. Even though it had been five minutes since we met, I felt like we had both know each other for a long time.

I stood up from my seat making the person in front of me startle. "It was lovely meeting you. But if you will excuse me I have to leave." With that said I walked out of the place carrying my lunch.

"Hey, wait." I heard him call me but I didn't listen to him and walked out of the restaurant.

"Geez, slow down woman." I heard him speak from beside me. I wanted to ignore him but I was unable to control my mouth.

"Oh, now I am a woman and not a little one," I said in a sassy voice.

I heard him chuckle but I kept my head down focusing on the road. "Ah, you are a sassy little thing." I ignored his last word. "And I can tell by just looking at you that we are going to get along fine." I tried to interrupt him but he didn't allow me to speak. "I wish you and your husband a good married life; I wish to be your friend only." I was processing the things he told me, I found it fair. A person can become friends with a stranger and then know about him later.

"Ok, fair enough. I am Avni." I stopped walking and faced him extending my hand for a handshake.

His big manly hands swallowed my hand; even though they were big, rough palms provided me comfort. We shook our hands as I waited to listen to his name.

"Are you going to introduce yourself or not?" I question him when he didn't leave my hand. He smirked in my direction before untangling his hand with mine.

"Guess, little one." I narrowed my eyes at him.

"I am not going to waste my time in guessing your name; I am going to call you Aj." He looked impressed by my name as I smirked secretly.

"It sounds good. May I know what Aj means?" He looked really curious.

"I can ask you to guess but I don't like wasting my time so I will tell you the meaning of it. Aj means annoying jerk." With that I left him there standing with his mouth open, he was a sight to see.

As I reached the building, I felt him creep up behind me. He whistled seeing the building. "Nice one, I am proud of you for working here little one." That statement shocked me, I thought that he might have seen me in news and wanted to be my friend and didn't was not open to him but knowing that he got close to me not because of my fame my respect towards him grew. I believed that he had no bad intentions towards me.

"You could have done better, this doesn't suit you." Or so I thought he was a person giving compliments.

I was about to retort when my mobile rang. I saw the caller id and a smile crept up on my lips seeing my best friend's name on it.

I lifted the call and answered it cheerfully. "Hello, bestie."

"Avni, don't tell anyone but come to the location I am sending you." I heard her panicked voice from the other side.

"Calm down." I heard her taking deep breaths from the other side when I heard her breath calm down then I continued to speak with her. "Now, tell me what you want to tell in detail."

"I have something important to tell you. But I don't want you to share this with anyone, I want you here as soon as possible, don't inform my brother about it. Come soon." With that, she cut the call leaving my brain to create many possibilities.

"What happened?" He asked me breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Nothing, my friend called me and asked me to come to a place," I mumbled waiting for her to send the location. When my mobile pinged with her message, I immediately opened it and read the location.

"Shit!" I exclaimed.

"Now what?" The person beside me sighed making me raise my head and look at him. I processed the information Akky gave me. It would be best if he doesn't know what is happening in my life.

"Nothing. My friend called me and informed me to come to a place. It is on the city outskirts. I don't have any transportation and I have to take a cab for that place." I replied to him hoping that he would buy it.

"Let me see the location." He stretched his hand to reach for my mobile, I handed it to him with little hesitation, he read it and thought for a moment.

With a smile on his face, he turned towards me. "I am going in that way, I can drop you." I don't want to take his offer, as it can provide some misconceptions. He saw the hesitation in my face.

"It's no bother for me. And if you are uncomfortable I will never force you. It's up to you." He shrugged his shoulders and waited for my reply. I thought for a moment and nodded my head agreeing to it.

"Give me ten, I need to inform my boss about it," I informed him.

"You do that, I will get my car around and wait in front of the building."

"See ya then." I wave at him and go back.

I entered the building and got into the lift without glancing at others, when I got into the elevator only then I realized how strange my life became.

I chuckled at the strangeness of that thought. I met a complete stranger and got close to him as a friend, I laughed aloud when I realized that I don't even know my name. I didn't even realize that I reached the top floor when the lift opened with a ping.

I got down the elevator and went to my boss's cabin. I knocked on the door and entered the cabin. I placed the take-out bags on his desk. He looked up at me. There was a true smile on my face from the morning it was a genuine one. I can feel his eyes soften a bit when he looked at my smile.

"What is this?" He indicated towards the bags I placed on his table.

"I got your favorite food. I don't want you to be hungry as you can be cranky at that time.

"I ate my lunch, I don't need this." My heart broke listening to him and all my happy mood sank down the drain. I tried to keep my smile still on my face but I knew it looked broken like my heart.

"Ok then, I will clear it up." I tried to remove the covers from the table but he stopped me.

"I will ask Karthik to take it away." I nodded my head agreeing to him. I turned my back towards him and reached the door. I stopped at the door and turned towards him.

"I would like to take leave for the day if it's ok. I completed all the work you gave me, and I can work at home if you have any other works for me." I said meekly looking at the ground and waited for his reply.

"Ok. You can take the day off."

"Thank you." I scurried out of the door mumbling the words. I went into my cabin and collected all my things before going down.

💔💔💔💔

It has been 15 minutes since I sat in the car with my stranger friend. My mind was occupied with the thoughts of my husband.

"Enough now. You have sulked enough, we have three hours journey. So, to divert your mind from depressing thoughts why don't we ask each other some questions so that we can know about each other?" I hummed at his suggestion.

"Fine, I will start it. I was curious, how can you own a costly car?" He chuckled at my question.

I smiled sheepishly in reply, "Sorry, that came out wrong. What I meant was, what do you do for a living?"

"Princess, you are going for a big fish. I don't want to tell you about it." He said in a stern voice making me pout at him.

"Please tell me. I will never tell a soul even if you are a serial killer or a bank robber I, promise." I pouted.

"Your imagination amuses me, little one. I am not a serial killer nor a bank robber, but I am someone famous. And I approached you because I felt like I saw you somewhere." He replied vaguely concentrating on driving.

"It's not fair, and here I thought you approach strangers and ask them to be friends with you," I replied with sarcasm.

"Mm, you might have a point there but I saw a beautiful girl sitting alone at a table and the most important thing is she has a bandage over her head. You were not trying to cover your wound like other girls, you are different and unique from them, Avni Goenka." My eyes widened in shock.

I was glad that he had that opinion on me but I was more shocked on knowing how you knew my name. "You know me." I accused him with my finger pointing at him.

"Oh, come on. As of the world was not speaking about you for the past days." I found his explanation reasonable.

"I agree to it, we can be friends if you don't get business into our friendship." He nodded his head agreeing to it, I felt relieved thinking that I got a new friend. I added that sentence because he was famous and I didn't want to do any favors to him.

"But if you want us to be friends, I want to know all about you," I demanded.

"Now where is the fun in that little one?" I pouted at his reply.

"No, you are not getting anything from me with that pout of yours. I will make a deal with you." I nodded and waited for him to continue. "I will allow you to take a photo of mine, if you find out who I am till next time we meet, I will grant you a wish."

I contemplated over the deal he made, I have nothing to lose in it, so like a good businessperson, and I sealed the deal. It made me curious, if he provided me with a photo then with a simple google search I can find him, as he was famous, so winning situation for me.

Moreover, the next two hours flew by with the light talk, after the deal was made we exchanged numbers and I took his photo.

We spoke about many different things and nothing. I felt as if I have known him all my life, our tastes matched in many things like our favorite colors, books, food, and many more.

Even though I had Akshaya and Nihal as my besties, they were different from me. One was interested in girly things where I wanted to do business instead of dating and the other one was interested in manly things like sports, where I preferred curing on the couch with a book. Our characters clashed a lot, sometimes it was difficult but it became easy with time.

But now with Aj, I felt like I was looking at myself in the mirror. It was nice to speak to a person who was similar to yours, and I tried to guess his profession by throwing some random names in between.

We reached the destination, I looked outside and found a single storehouse, the other houses were at a distance from the one, there was a large backyard, I found Nihal's car in the driveway.

"Ok, Aj. This is the house thank you for dropping me here, when we meet next time I will introduce my friend to you." I said looking at him.

He smiled at him. "Bye." He waved at me; I got down the car and waved at him until the car left my sight. I sighed and walked down the path where something or someone waited for me.

I knocked on the door and waited patiently for the reply; I checked my surroundings and didn't find a single soul in the vicinity.

I heard the door open and looked at my best friend who had a tense expression on her face; she returned my smile with a nod.

Now, I started getting worried. Akky always returns my smiles; she doesn't do it when the condition is serious. I got inside the house and Akky licked the door.

"What happened?" I asked her.

She didn't reply and kept staring at the ground. "I will tell you." I turned around and faced my other friend he too had a tense look on his face, which didn't sit well with me.

"There is a person here waiting for you. They have something to share with you." With that, they ushered me into another room where a man stood with his back to me.

I am familiar with that person.

"Vinay uncle."

Hello peeps,

Here is your update. I enjoyed writing their conversation. Any guesses on who AJ might be?

I wanted to write a very long chapter, and I don't want you guys to wait more. So, a short chapter for you guys.

And don't expect the next chapter to be early as it has many things to cover and my college started in offline, I have limited time for writing. So, I hope you guys understand.

See ya guys in next chapter.

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