The people went back to their share of coffees and desserts completely unaware of the absurdity of something that had just happened. Yes, Drishti- my lunatic friend had gone ahead to yell out the name and by some miracle of the universe there was a reply that came to this random hullabaloo. 

"What happened Miss Thakkar?" Julie whispered to me confused.

"I think my life just turned into a famous sitcom from 90's." I murmured back horrified.

In grey pants with a loosen neck tie around his decently button-downed white shirt, he sat there behind his laptop screen while his one leg rested on other in a manly fashion. His caramel toned face had a clean shaven, sharp jawline while those wavy hair which were raked and sexily dishevelled added a boyish charm to his manly appearance. Those jet black eyes were still fixed on my friends, frowning in confusion. 

Pushing his laptop shut, he arched a perfect eyebrow at Drishti, Kavya, Zalak and Naina. 

"Yes?" He repeated himself running a hand through his already messy hair. 

The girls stood there silent like a fig exchanging looks with each other. Of-course nobody knew the next step that followed after randomly bellowing out a man's name in a cafe! Wiping my hands on the apron I was wearing, I hurried to take a side by my those three idiots whom I tagged as my besties for some reasons apparently! 

"Are you nuts?" I whisper-scowled at Drishti and turned to Naina, "Why didn't you stop her? You were against this whole idea until yesterday."

"I didn't really expect a response to her shout." Naina shrugged, "But as they say- Destiny strikes you when least expected."

"Make it right. Now!" I gritted my teeth nudging all of them towards his table.

As we dragged ourselves to the table still clueless on how to cover up this stupid blunder, Aryan poked his head out from behind the book-shelf and his eyes fell on the man in subject who was sitting at the table nearest to him.

"Mr. Gulati? Kshitij Gulati? What a pleasant surprise!" He came forward and shook hands with him.

All of us came to a halt at a few steps' distance from the table. If there were an award for surviving through a weirdest day ever, I bet I could have won it based on today's events. 'Absurd' was no more a word enough to describe whatever happened in the last ten minutes.

 

"Aryan Joisar, good to see you here." He smiled at Aryan.

All of us turned to Naina for an explanation but she met our curiosity with a blank and equally clueless look.

Taking a chair on the same table, Aryan said "I heard you dropped by at the office in the morning today. I apologize for being unavailable. What can 'Indian Wayfarer Tours & Travels' do for you?"

"Oh my God Naina!"  Kavya whisper-shrieked "He is Aryan's client. Can you imagine this tale taking any more of a twisted turn?!"

The Joisar family had been well established in the business of Tours and Travels since past many years. Right from exotic foreign holidays to every isolated corner in India- they had tours as well as customized trips for anywhere in this world. 

"I would like to discuss something with you if you have time now or I wouldn't mind coming by your office again tomorrow." Mr.Hot-Suits opened up his laptop again.

"Go ahead. I was anyway killing time with the books behind." Aryan pointed at the humongous shelf behind them.

"But before we start, I just have something to be taken care of." He smiled and turned towards us. "Ladies?"

"Well, you are our lucky customer of the day so we have a complimentary pastry to offer you. Which flavour would you prefer sir?" Zalak blurted out. "We are starting this new tradition of announcing a random name and the lucky person with the same name gets a pastry on the house. Can we have a look at your driving license or any identity proof for the confirmation, Sir?"

His eyebrows knitted together obviously not buying Zalak's crap completely. After a momentary pose, he reached for his wallet in his trouser pockets and pulled out his driving license to hand it over to us, "any chocolate pastry will do."

Of-course. Who says no to a free dessert irrespective of the fact that the policy does not make sense?

Zalak flashed a bright smile and made her way to the service counter to get the promised dessert. 

"Naina, meet Mr. Kshitij Gulati. Gulati family has been one of our very loyal clients though this is the first time we will be assisting the younger Gulati exclusively." Aryan tapped the vacant chair next to him, asking Naina to sit.

Mr. Hot-Suits gave a courteous nod to Naina as she gently settled down on the chair. Kavya flashed an excited grin to Naina and nudged me in the rib before hopping away to the service counter. I handed over the apron to her hopping-self and hid myself behind the book-shelf to take a short, peaceful break.

"I want a shortest possible trip to Gujarat." Mr. Hot-suits' voice penetrated through the wall of books to the other side where I sat with a historical romance.

"I don't understand. Can you be more specific on number of people, days, location and purpose. Is it a business, pleasure or business-with-pleasure trip?" Aryan asked in a business tone.

"well, the purpose is a bit unconventional." He sighed "As you know, my father is from Punjabi background so that is the culture I've grown up into. My parents had a love marriage. My mother is gujarati and she always wanted me to be familiar with as well as experience her origins and roots but higher studies in London never gave me a chance to act upon her wish. I've been postponing this since a long time even after I was back until she finally decided to eat my ear off on this yesterday night."

"Well, we have a few packages that might interest you. You can visit the prominent places in the state. If nothing suits then we can always arrange a customized tour for you. Come by at the office tomorrow and we will discuss it in detail." Aryan said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I just went through those packages at your website on my laptop here. None of them serve my purpose. I want to experience the true essence of the state which is not possible with a monument to monument tour guide. And I want it in a shortest possible span of time because work does not take a holiday with me." Desperation was obvious in his voice.

"I understand your requirements but I don't think we could manage what you're asking for. We can take you as a tourist who is a spectator of the culture but you are looking to be a part of it." Aryan sighed, "The maximum we can do is book your tickets and perhaps plan out the route after you decide on how you're going about with this trip."

"Well, I guess I'll have to find my way about it. Anyway, thanks a lot." Mr.Hot-Suits replied.

There was a sound of shuffling hinting that he was packing up to leave. The thick historical romance still lay closed and untouched in my hand as I was too busy eavesdropping on the conversation on the other side.

"How about a ten days stay in Gujarat with a Gujarati family and a big fat wedding?" Naina's voice broke in. I had almost forgotten that she was sitting there all the while.

"It would have been perfect if  people were okay with having a stranger hovering around their houses for such a long time." He laughed.

"What if I say that I can make that happen?" I could imagine Naina giving her trademark smirk.

"Then I would complement your husband on having such an influential wife." A smile was evident in his voice.

"But the price you'll be paying is as unconventional as your requirement." Naina's intentions were more than clear.

"Here's your pastry Sir." Zalak's voice interrupted this odd conversation.

***************************************

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"I still cannot get over the fact that he actually agreed to it." I shook my head, "Doesn't that hint that something is really wrong with this man?" 

"Irrespective of the fact that he is hot!" Kavya smiled giddily

We were hanging out at my flat above after a long, freakish day down at the cafe. The reality of the situation had still not seeped in and I insisted on going round-and-round about it, inspecting it form every possible angle.

"Stop over-analyzing, will you?" Drishti fumed at me, "That man is kind enough to help you. How is being kind wrong?"

"You know what I mean. There he was- having a coffee alone while planning a trip for himself to Gujarat. Suddenly everything changed and he found himself with a complementary pastry and landed a trip to a woman's home back in Gujarat pretending to be her boyfriend!" I wondered, "After everything he seemed so cool and undisturbed. He said yes!"

"That is your point of view." Naina justified, "See from his point of view. He was struggling on how to fit in sentimentally valued huge trip of Gujarat in his busy schedule which was forced on him by his culture-preserving mother over a coffee. Suddenly he got a complementary pastry and a short trip with a beautiful woman and her family which would be a through-n-through culture guide. Why wouldn't he agree to it?" 

"Well, it makes sense if you put it that way." I murmured. "Still, don't you feel that something is really unusual about the whole thing? Such things just don't happen at such an 'at doorstep' convenience!"

"Take it as a sign from universe." Zalak shrugged, "It was supposed to happen whether you approve of it or not. Go along with what is going on for once. Let loose."

Sometimes I wondered if universe was really a wise one. Maybe it's the stubborn one and this whole concept is about developing a plausible perception towards everything thrown in our way through this bumpy roller-coaster called life.

I reluctantly nodded and propped my face on the elbows. I was almost convinced on going home to Gujarat without any fake boyfriend or stories but this bizarre spur of events in just a day got me into double minds again. Just the other day I was cribbing about being too ideal to live to the fullest and now that I had an opportunity to break from the routine, I again found myself going spineless about it.

The confident support from my magic beans forced me to incline towards this preposterous idea even more. Maybe going along with something this irrational once wouldn't hurt. If nothing than I should at least be grateful to Universe for being considerate enough for being superficial when it came to looks. There was no denial that he had a charming appearance. If there is something that could even remotely match the place of chocolate as a turn on in my life, it's men in formals!

Mr.Hot-Suits must not even have noticed me when I was standing behind Kavya while we were shamelessly staring at him and Aryan exchanging pleasantries. I looked nothing less than a pathetic excuse for a woman in a chocolate stained apron over my extremely over-sized tee and my curly hair tamed in a careless bun. I wondered if he knew which friend of Naina's was he supposed to accompany.

If not for my appearance then he must have already formed a judgmental opinion about a woman who was contemptible enough to make boyfriends up out of thin air because of some lame differences she had with her cousin.

Anyway, now all I was going to do was, in Zalak's words- Let loose!