The Phone Call

Usne baat ki kuch aise dhang se, Sapne de gaya wo hazaro rang ke. Reh jau jaise main haar ke,Aur choome wo mujhe pyaar se ...

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Sandhya and Pooja sat huddled up in front of their laptop looking through the pictures clicked during the tour. They were picking out a few of them to post on their social media handle. Anamika sat aside trying to come up with a caption for the same.

"How about we take up these 4 pictures? They have two clicked on the stairs and two clicked while the tour." Pooja asked.

"Pick two more, these won't be enough..... Anyways, Anu have you seen them. Come here." Sandhya shifted her chair making place for Anamika to settle with them.

Anamika smiled looking at those pictures.

"Sandhya ma'am, have you noticed, someone has their eyes constantly glued to Anamika in all these pictures. " Pooja teased.

"I was the speaker, where would anyone's eyes be?" Anamika said rolling her eyes.

"No but Anu, she is right. Even I have noticed Shubhman having eyes only for you." Sandhya said siding with her.

"You guys are just being delulu!" She replied knowing how much Sandhya hated that word.

"Anyways, Sandhya I've added you in the group and have dropped a text asking them for their email ids for our record."

"You can say anything you want Anamika, this picture proves us right." Pooja said making Anamika rush towards the screen to see the picture. It was taken when she was taking Shubhman's number and he was leaning against the case of an object, looking at her. "Pooja, that's so creepy of you!" She exclaimed. "Delete-"

Sandhya interrupted them, "Look it's almost 8, finish up with this fast, girls. You don't want to go home?"

As the post was uploaded by tagging each one of the cricketers, the women started packing up. "Where is my-", "Here!" Pooja said handing Anamika her phone as they hurriedly locked up and left.

Shubhman and Ishan had been sitting in his car, silently for almost the entire journey right now.

"You really aren't going to say anything?" Shubhman asked finally breaking the silence.

"What do I say? You bought that apartment at Malabar hills and now I don't get to share a room with you, when we are in Mumbai." Ishan said folding his arms and pouting like a child.

"See, you act like this and then complain when people ship us together." Shubhman replied teasingly and Ishan moved to smack the back of his head as he dodged it. "Not when I am driving, yaar!"

They sat quietly for some more time, when Ishan finally asked what was going on in his mind.

"You liked her na?"

"Who?" Shubhman said distracted.

"Anamika."

"And what gives you this idea?" He said as he stopped the car at a red signal.

"Excuse me miss, I'm an athlete. I've a lot of stamina!" Ishan said imitating him.

"Stop eavesdropping people's conversations dude!" Shubhman said smacking his head.

"It's not my fault that you guys didn't pay attention to me standing right in front of you!"

Ishan said smirking.

"Shut up!" the taller man replied starting the car. Ishan was right, Shubhman did find Anamika attractive. She was pretty, smart and seemed passionate about what she did. But he wasn't going to admit it, was he?

As they reached closer to the hotel where Ishan and everyone else was staying, Shubhman finally voiced his thoughts.

"Ishan, do you want to come over tonight?"

"Okay, now who's acting all couple-y?" He said mirthfully.

"Fine..... Forget it!" Shubhman said pouting.

"Okay, I'll come. Tilak snores a lot anyway." The shorter one said as they finally reached the hotel and got down from the car.

"We should ask him if he wants to join us on the walk too."

The duo finally walked inside and had dinner with their teammates. As Ishan packed up his necessities in a shoulder bag for the night, Shubhman asked Tilak if he would like to join them on the walk, to which the latter had gladly agreed. Shubhman sent Anamika a quick text informing about the addition and left with Ishan to his new apartment.

The only reason Anamika didn't mind working past 7:30 was she got to board an almost empty train back home. She sat with her legs stretched, feet on the seat opposite to her and a book in her lap. For the first time, she wasn't interested in the brand new Ana Huang novel but had a certain tall, dimpled guy on her mind. If she were to be truthful, she had the guy on her mind since she had seen his picture in the newspaper back in 2018.

She had a friend in her junior college who was incredibly interested in cricket and would tell her everything about a match the next day. She had brought the entire newspaper to college when the Indian team had won the U-19 world cup, just to show Anamika.

Her eyes had stilled on the said tall guy's picture that read 'Shubhman Gill, Vice Captain'. That was the moment her interest in cricket had started, to her father and brother's utter surprise. She had actively followed IPL that year and had sneakily supported KKR instead of MI. As the years passed by her interest in cricket and her crush had both dimmed, but seeing him today  and his little wink had done something to her.

Anamika was brought out of her reverie when she heard her phone ring through her bag. She fished it out to read the caller ID, Shubhman Gill. Did I just manifest it? She cleared her throat and picked up the call.

"Hello?" She said cautiously. Maybe he had called by mistake.

"Hi, Anamika." God, her name sounded like honey in his voice. Stop it, Anu! "Sorry to disturb you after your work hours. But I texted you an hour ago and this was kind of urgent."

"Oh, sorry. My phone was in my bag and I was reading. " She said apologetically. "What's wrong?"

"Umm, do you know Tilak?" He asked.

"Tilak Verma? Yeah I do"

"Umm, he wanted to join us for the walk. I know Sandhya said that it was kind of difficult to make changes at the last moment, so I thought of informing you now. So you know, you can pre-" He was rambling and he sounded cute while doing so.

"It's fine, I'll inform Sandhya and you can forward him the link." She said, interrupting him.

Agla station: Ram Mandir 

"Wait, are you still traveling?" He asked through the line. Why are these announcements so loud???

"Uh yeah. I live kinda far."

"It's past 9!"

"I'll be at home before 10, Dad!" Anamika said, immediately regretting it. How many times would you talk like that to him, today!?

She heard him chuckle and felt a little relieved.

"Okay, can you still drop me a text when you reach home?" She heard him say and turned speechless. She simply nodded in disbelief. "Anamika? Are you there?" She heard him say.

"Yes?" She said clearing her throat.

"You didn't reply" He was worried he had crossed a line. She may not be comfortable.

"I nodded!" She said.

"We are not on a video call, Anamika!" He sounded amused now.

"Yeah right!" She facepalmed, "My station is almost here." She saw Goregaon passing by from the window. "I'll text you when I get home. You don't have anything else to discuss, do you?" She said stuffing her book in her bag and slipping on her shoes.

"Nope! Bye, get home safe." She heard him say.

"Bye!" She said smiling.

As she got down the train, the only thing she desired at the moment was dinner and a good night's sleep. She felt the phone vibrate in her hand and checked the notifications. It was from her best friends in their WhatsApp group. 

Teen Tigdi 

Utkarsha: Anamikaaaa!!!! You bitch!!!

Divya: Did you just meet ISHAN KISHAN today????

It's going to be a long night…..

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