October Heat: chapter 3

As the two of them walked towards the woman Angad noticed that he recognised her voice. It was a voice he had once spoken of at length. Rajni went ahead and placed her palm on the woman’s shoulder,she turned immediately. It hardly took Angad any time to recognise the face, it had changed a little, not that much puppy fat, the eyes had come out and the nose looked sharper now.
“Wow! Manali… you… you… is this really you?” Angad was struggling for words.
The look on her face said she wasn’t really pleased with this rendezvous. Manali knew he was here, but was making sure she did not bump into him. Things were still a little awkward for her, she just chose to smile silently.
Angad could read the situation and the awkwardness of it.
“So you work for Rajni now?”
“Umm…well I sort of work with her now. I have my own artist management agency and Rajni is one of my clients,” Manali was still a little uncomfortable.
“I can believe the three of us are meeting after such a long time. I mean Angad, you and Manali haven’t seen each other since what? Graduation? Man I’m so thrilled about having dinner tonight. So much to talk about. Manali you’re joining in too.”
“But I uh…,” Manali hesitated.
“No nothing doing… the three of us are going out for dinner tonight and thats my order,” Rajni asserted.
“But what about Shaalu and your mom,” Manali was trying her best to pull herself out of the dinner plans but Rajni wasn’t planning to let go.
“Mumma can take of herself for the night and Shaalu will sleep in a bit”
“Who’s Shaalu?” Angad was trying to hide his inquisitiveness, all in vain though.
“Oh…Shaalu is my daughter”