Gehraiyaan.

Chapter 43

Somehow, the next morning, the café was crammed with customers; with people I'd never seen before, ever. It was undeniably one of the oddest happenings ever, because we never have more than ten customers until it's evening, and suddenly there were around fifty people squashed in a small space, with the room still filling in.

"What did we do so different today that the entire America decided to drop into our café?", Meenu questions, while making three Cappuccinos at once. "Did you - by any chance - announce a discount or something?", she furrows her eyebrows. "No, Meenu, and even if I did - our social media accounts have a maximum of twenty followers, maybe", I tell her, whilst multitasking with the coffees. "Call for more supplies, we're almost out", I order and rush back to the counter.

"ICE-COFFEE AND TWO CHOCOLATE DONUTS", I scream out the order and a teenage girl runs towards the counter, wearing one of the brightest smiles I've seen. "Will he visit the café?", she questions, out of nowhere, and I stare at her, perplexed. "W---who?", I furrow my eyebrows in confusion. "Darshan, obviously!", she exclaims, jumping on her feet and it only throws me into deeper confusion. "No, he's not coming", I blankly answer and she frowns. "I'll upload a picture of the coffee on my Instagram story, please repost it, okay? Please. Please. Please. It's the only way I can win!", she begs. Win what? Darshan's heart? What's going on?

"Please repost my story, ma'am!", yet another customer requests.

"Can yo---" -- "Repost your story? I'll do it", even before the next customer completes her sentence, I utter in a breath and smiles in delight.

I walk over to the kitchen and fish my phone out of my pocket, turning on mobile-data to receive a flood of notifications on Instagram. All from Darshan Raval's fans. I could tell by the username with ease. @darsh.lover @darshan.is.my.world @ritika_darsh and what not!

Without sparing a second to waste, I run through his Instagram stories to find a picture of my café with the caption : I'm performing in Ohio tonight and I know that the tickets are sold-out. But here's your golden chance of getting to see me perform live, and meet me backstage. Move on to the next story to find out more.

The next story is a picture of our menu and the caption reads : In Downtown Ohio, you'll find a café named - Bakes & Cakes. Buy anything from the café, upload a picture of your drink/snack on your Instagram handle, tag us and I'll pick 5 lucky winners, who'll win a VIP-pass and a chance to meet me backstage. Hurry up!

Effortlessly, he brings a smile on my face, without even having to be around. This man - and the way he thinks - is simply incredible. He means nothing but the best for the people around him, and honestly that is rare. That is so damn rare. Because in today's world, people have the greed to reach the top on their own. People don't understand the difference between independence and selfishness. But Darshan is built different and the world needs to protect such people, for they're nothing but scarce.

Leaning against the wall in a corner, I call him up and listen to the outgoing rings. On the ninth ring, silence echoes on the line and I can hear someone breathe, along with some noise in the background.

"Nivi?", he's breathless. "Uhm, you're busy?", I pause. "One minute", he keeps me on hold. "Bhai, I'll take a five minute break and be back?", he talks to someone and then, I can hear the sound of footsteps; as though he's jogging away from the jarring noise in the background and suddenly, it's pin-drop silent.

"I'm at a sound-check", he's still gasping for breath. "I have a concert tonight. I forgot to tell you about it", he goes on.

"Darsh, thank you", I utter with utmost gratitude. "Thank you is such a small thing in front of what you did to me, and my business, but that's all I have", I say. "That's nothing at all. You absolutely deserve it and I'm not going to lose anything if I watch you succeed", he calmly says and I smile.