A loud buzz slashed through my dreamy slumber and I banged my side table in a desperate attempt to snooze off the alarm. It continued to screech mercilessly until I finally caught hold of that annoying invention called mobile phone. Smudging my eyes open, I faced the dead black screen of my phone ironic to the sound that still chose to shriek in the silence of my apartment. 

I rolled over to check the wall clock striking three in the morning as I realized that it was my doorbell ringing. Throwing the blanket over, I slipped my feet into the hello-kitty soft slippers and dragged myself to the drawing room. I tugged at the security chain to confirm it's place before opening the door half way. 

He stood there with his hands shoved in the denim jeans pockets and a familiar grin on his face. The white linen shirt did justice to his toned physique. Even my sleepy self couldn't miss out on his appealing mop of hair dishevelled just like the other day with a few strands falling over his forehead, adding to his charm.

"Kshitij?" I whispered in a sleepy, croaked voice fiddling with the chain to let him in.

Well, this was the first time I was talking to him since that day at the coffee shop. Of-course my mirror-practices to come up with the right words to justify my situation and my desperate choices with an imaginary him were not counted. But now that he was here, it was a difficult to recollect that poorly practised speech at three in the morning.

"You have nice pajama-suit there." He winked and walked past me to enter the house.

I looked down at my white pajama with blue polka dots and a full-sleeve blue tee that read~ Wanted- Prince Charming! by the picture of a frog-prince.

"Thanks?" I murmured pushing the hair-locks behind my ears, "What are you doing here?"

He plopped on the sofa and locked his arms behind his head giving a knowing smirk, "By the way, you should have used the peep-hole in your door before opening it at this hour in the night. Anyway, pack your bags. We are leaving for Ahemdabad. Now!"

"We have a train to catch in the evening today." I yawned secretly realizing how casual I could be about my safety when I'm sleepy.

The messages and technicalities were whole & sole managed by my beans, not giving me any chance to talk to him since they absolutely didn't want me to back out from this. Frankly speaking, I did have an itch to call this guy-in-my-apartment-at-three up and cancel on the thing but I was missing on something very essential- contact information! Yep, my beans are pretty smart that way.

"I know." He shrugged.

 I frowned at him, "So what happened?"

Of-course I expected this almost stranger to explain his arrival at my place at such an odd hour. This thing was getting scarier by every passing second. I was an alone woman in the apartment with this random guy. For all I know, he was a maniac who might just pull out a dagger to plunge it in my guts at any moment now. He agreed to such a weird idea without any hesitation- I might be repeating myself but there had to be something highly wrong with such a guy!

"I had to pee!" He broke my chain of thoughts.

"What?" I walked upto the bean-bag lying on the floor and dumped myself on it.

"I was sleeping and I got up to pee. I couldn't help but admire the beautiful dark sky lighted up with a moon and faded stars from the balcony. I had this unignorable urge to enjoy a less polluted and building-free version of this infinitely stretching grandeur." The excitement was pretty evident in his eyes. "And what could be better than a long drive to another state?!"

"The summary is that your problem of nocturia leads us to embark upon a spontaneous trip to Gujarat." I arched an eyebrow at him.

"If you try harder, I'm sure you can put that into better words." He got up from his comfortable position, "C'mon, I want to leave as soon as possible."

"Are you out of your mind?" I folded my arms, "We have our tickets booked for in the eveing today and I have no intentions of ditching a comfortable train journey for some hastily planned road trip in the middle of a night."

"See, I didn't wake Aryan up at two in the morning to get your address just so that I can come here and NOT go along with my suggestion. You have no idea of how unprofessional it looked on my part! So, how about you stop being a grumpy old lady and get packing?" He looked at me with his hopeful yet determined eyes.

"I'm not sure if I should let you talk myself into this." I murmured, "It's too hasty and my family isn't expecting us anytime before tomorrow after midnight."

He sighed, "Surprises and spontaneity are the basic necessities of life."

"The last time I checked, oxygen held that position tight." I rolled my eyes and got up on my feet.

In a few long strides, his tall, hard frame stood against me as his eyes bored into mine. My gaze immediately dropped to the kitty on my slippers as they stared back at me with their button eyes. It's weird how my confidence fluctuated with the proximity of a person. I held the potential of whipping people severely with my sarcastic tongue as long as they were at a good distance away from me. Going mum and looking anywhere but at the person in front were my traits after that good old distance vanishes.

They say that eyes are a give away on a person's soul. Every person is like a book that could be read just by looking deeply into their eyes. Some are romances to lived while some are mysteries to be solved. And then there are few of us like the 'Monster Book Of Monsters' from Harry Potter- A book that doesn't like being read and bites anyone who attempts to open it. A few gentle strokes on it's spine is the only way to ease into it's insides.

 "You are talking about mere survival while I was referring to something more significant than that- Living! " I could still feel his gaze on me.

I looked up to meet his stare and took a step back, "Just for the record, survival is important in order to live. Doesn't that shift the stamp of significance towards the former?"

"You're missing out on the whole point Omanah Thakkar. Living is what makes survival noteworthy. If not for that then you're just a gizmo which takes in oxygen and releases carbondioxide!" He smirked.

"Why do I feel that you barged into my apartment in the middle of the night just to question my way of life and mock me while at it?" I frowned at the insanity of the situation.

"First- I didn't barge in. I pressed the door-bell multiple times and patiently waited for you to wake up. Second- This isn't in the middle of the night. It's morning technically and you could have totally heared the birds chirping if we were in a garden. And, last- I had no intentions of questioning your ways or mocking you. All I'm saying is pack your bags and let's leave for the trip already! Why complicate such a simple thing?"  He smiled.

I sighed giving up on the argument. I didn't even know what was I being stubborn about. He might be right, I was indeed turning into an old, grumpy lady who couldn't stand a slightest change in plans. Exciting spontaneity was now an inconvenient haste to me and this realization was seriously creeping me out. There were a last few couple of years left to my youth and I should better get rid of my pre-mature rustiness, starting with this long drive to my native with a completely random (but handsome!) stranger.

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

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 "Omanah!" Kshitij's voice travelled in through the crack of the slightly open door of the bathroom I was in.

Well bathed and in my comfy large tee paired with jeans, I was packing my stuff at a super-speed (I swear I could almost beat the Superhero Flash at that!). Slipping my toothbrush and tongue-cleaner in the handy pouch, I pulled a fresh towel off the rack in one smooth move and walked out of the bathroom towards my open wheel-bag lying on the bed. Kshitij stood their near my wide-open wardrobe, inspecting my clothes hanging from the hanger.

"What happened?" I asked putting the pouch and towel in my bag.

"I think you forgot to replace your wardrobe after the liposuction you underwent." He turned to me with an amused smile.

"Waking up a person in the middle of the night to drag them to a road trip is bad enough. Topping it with one of such pathetic jokes on their size clothes is the worst." I gave him a stern stare.

Yes, I preferred humungous tees against those tight, 'won't-let-you-breathe' tops and the former always outnumbered the latter in my wardrobe- Sue me! They were oddly long, airily loose (ventilation is a must when you live in a hot-furnace like mumbai) and the shoulders drooped to my upper arms- they were absolutely perfect!

"Someone is all sunshine in the morning." He murmured rolling his eyes.

I walked past him and grabbed onto those heavenly clothes to dump in the bag. I had to cut on my tees to let the space-eating wedding clothes fit in. Last went Zalak's saree which she had insisted on I wearing. It would make your non-existing butt a little worth ogling over!- she had exclaimed while practically shoving the pretty fabric in my hands. 

Sure, that's what I wanted- Have my family and my cousin's to-be-in-laws ogling over my butt! Actually on a second thought, I wouldn't mind flaunting myself in a saree to a few handsome to-be-cousins-in-laws of Miral. But if I see them making that 'Am-checking-You-Out' face followed by a cheesy move, they might just register their names in the wrong column of my list. Since men now a days aren't evolved enough to figure out their rights & wrongs, disappointments are bound to bump hard into me. Why not tackle them with a brave smile and in a beautiful saree?

"Omanah, what are you doing?" Kshitij's weirded-out voice broke my trail of thoughts.

I found myself back-facing the full length mirror on the wall while twisting my head around to inspect my flat butt which lacked it's appropiate roundness. I had almost forgotten that he was in the room witnessing my butt-inspecting session. I turned to his freaked out face.

"Ahmm." clearing my throat awkwardly, "Well, you made it to the list of those few who have got themselves a glimpse of my low moments of self abasement . This is when I desperately wish to get a Neuralyzer for myself from those MIB people. "

He stood there with his hands shoved in the trouser pockets and an amused grin on his face. My grip tightened around the irregular glass bottle of perfume I had picked up from the dressing table as I noticed the slightest hints of dimples on his clean-shaven cheeks. I must be too knocked out by the situation at the cafe that day and too sleepy until now to miss out on those make-any-heart-flip craters.

"I'm glad they don't hand out those sticks to anyone and everyone. Memories makes a person smile through his loneliness and laugh through his sorrows. What would serve the purpose better than a memory flash-back of a girl lost inside a gigantic men's T-shirt standing in front of the mirror, checking out her own arse?" He explained biting back his laughter.

"I am going to pretend like this never happened." I huffed and made my way to the wheel-bag for the final zipping.

Dragging my bags to the ground-floor, I stood at the gates waiting for Kshitij to pull out his car from wherever he had parked. The glass door of our cafe was locked with a 'Closed' sign hanging at the handle. The insides were pitch dark and silent making it difficult to believe that the same place was going to light up with colours and chatterings in a few hours. The purple sky was slowly transitioning into the warm hues of red. Winter still had it's hold and the sun was nowhere in sight in the fadely starry sky.

I shivered as a white CRV brought along a sudden gush of cold wind with it. It screeched to halt and Kshitij stepped out of the car. Loading my bags in the rear of the car, we walked to the front. Pulling open the door to the back seat, I slid in smoothly with a scarf bunched up in my fingers.

"What are you doing Omanah?" Kshitij stood there holding the door.

"You have been asking me this question quite a lot." I stated shaking off the slippers under the seat and folding my legs up.

"Well, it says a lot about your doings, doesn't it?" He raised his eyebrow at me.

"It's cold. Can you please shut the door and start driving?" I locked myself in a hug.

"Did I mention that I love a company on the front seat when I drive?" He pointed at the empty seat next to the wheels.

"Wish me sweet dreams and learn to adjust because the world doesn't spin in the direction preferred by Kshitij Gulati!" I gave a clattering grin before pulling the door shut and dropping flat on the seat.