Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai- Part 2

Hmmm I know you will ask why Mujhe kuch kehna hai PART-2 ..when PART-1 was never written..Welll!!!!! part 1 was a Kareena Kapoor movie...and this title was suggested by one of my friends..so here goes MUJHE KUCH KEHNA HAI PART-2...
WARNING: Read it only if you are a fast reader or if you have ample amount of time
PLEAD: Plzzzzzzzz read it even if u do not belong to those two type..:P

It was a lovely September morning .Abhi was in the company bus on his way to work and as usual trying to catch up with sleep. A girl gets on the bus, comes to his seat "Good Morning!!!" . Abhi looks back at her through half closed eyes, replies "Good Night " and then proceeds to return to his half hour nap . Unfortunately, he is woken up by a punch in the arm.."Wake up, bozo!" She looks at him with a big smile on her face. "I'm not sitting next to you to listen to you snore."….Half-heartedly, Abhi opens his eyes and turns to her "What's up?"

Preeti was good-looking and slightly tomboyish. She was also his best buddy. "Come on" she says "Don't look so disappointed. You'd rather sleep than talk to me???"
" But I talk to you everyday, Preeti."
"But you also sleep everyday."
"It's not enough."
"So… you've had enough of talking to me, eh?"
You can never argue with a statement like that, so he gives up..smiles and says, "OK, sweetheart. What's on your mind?"
"I wanted to tell you what happened yesterday. Can you guess?"
"Hmmm lemme see..Anurag called you last night."
"Ohh my ghosh ..how did you know?"
"Oh, he asked me for your number yesterday."
"And you gave it to him?"
"What else could I do? And stop complaining. You've been drooling over him for weeks now. He must have thought he had a chance."
"You like putting me in these situations, don't you?" she says.
"No…. That's not true. I love putting you in these situations!"
That invites another punch in the arm.

Abhi and Preeti had known each other for a year now. They did tell each other about their joys and sorrows,victories and defeats. Abhi would tell her about all his crushes and she'd scold him for being silly. She'd drag him to classical music concerts and he would add them to the list of things she 'owed him' for.

It was 12:00 am and his phone was ringing. "Hello"
"Happy Birthday!" It was she.
"You're supposed to throw me a surprise party, sweetheart. Not just call to say Happy Birthday."
"Well then open your door, dumbo!"
So he does and finds her, cell-phone in hand, at his doorstep -- with what seems like half the population of his company. His roommates were supposed to be working late that night. Now he knew why...:)
That day he blew a lot of candles (seemed like much more than 25), cut his cake, gets painted with the cake's icing. If Preeti had had her way, she'd probably have preferred to use a paintbrush and a can of paint.
That day they chat for an hour after everyone has left.
"I think it's time I left," she said finally, trying to stifle a yawn. Abhi drops her home. As she is getting out of the car
"Hey, Preeti."
"What?"
"Thanks."
"Hey, don't get senti on me now!" she smiles and leaves..
Abhi sits there for some time, just thinking. Their conversations were
always like this - a little joking, a little teasing ..
But somehow, something had changed since the moment she had turned up at his door that night...It was special..very special ..and he wanted to do something special for her..he knew Preeti loved reading books..So finally he buys half-a-dozen omnibus collections of various authors.Slowly he starts spending a lot of time at her place .
“Hey let me take this novel home”
"I'm not as stupid as you, ape-man. I know you will lose them. Plus, you dog-ear your books. You're not doing that to these masterpieces. So if you want to read them, you read them here. And if you want to mark your place, use a bookmark."
"Need I remind you that it was me that bought you the books in the first place? "
"So? They're mine now."
"Well, then. I've been meaning to ask you this for a long time. Where exactly is my birthday gift?"
"It was in your tummy at one point of time. It's probably been washed into the sea by now."
"Huh?"
"Remember the cake I baked you on your birthday?"
"You what? You can't bake cakes!" That was a mistake. She looked hurt.
"You baked me a cake????" ..She didn't say a word. She just shrugged.
Abhi was stunned. "But you never told me."
"You didn't ask." That was typical of her.
"It was fantastic! And you wasted most of the icing on me!"
"The cake was for you, dumbo."
"How long did it take you to make the whole thing?"
"Well, the chocolate cake took an hour and fifteen minutes, and so did the vanilla. Then cutting them up and putting them together took another 15 minutes. Each flavor of icing took 20 minutes for preparation. On oven it took another half and hour.. Cleaning up the mess took an hour."
She seldom claimed the credit for anything, but once she started
bragging, there was no stopping her. However, Abhi wasn't thinking about that right then.
"You spent over five hours on that cake?"
"I forgot to mention," she continued, "the hours I spent the week before that, practicing… Even the birds wouldn't touch the first three cakes!"
He couldn't help but ask. "Why?"
"Because the first one got burnt, the second one was only half cooked ,and in the third one, I forgot to add sugar."
It was just like her, to try to divert the conversation.
"I mean why did you spend so much time on baking me a cake?"
She looked at me like I'd asked her why the sun rises in the east.
"For your birthday, stupid. Of course, I also wanted to beat every gift you've ever got me. Try beating this one." She was grinning like she'd won the world championship.
As far as he was concerned, she had. He'd never spent a week making her anything. Getting her a gift normally involved taking her to the store, letting her choose and use his credit card. Suddenly, he felt cheap. "Thanks.." was the only thing he could say. "Thanks a lot..."
"Hey. Are you getting senti on me again?"
And this time he was…

He was still mulling over his feelings for Preeti the next day at work when his boss tells him that the company wants to send him to New York for a couple of years. Normally, this wouldn't have made much of a difference ..but right then, the first thought that comes to his mind is that he'd be away from Preeti for two whole years. He had had crushes before…lots of them…but this was different.
"Do you have any problem in going?" boss asks
"Not really..When do I have to leave?"
He had a month.

"Wow! New York ! Great! I've heard it's a fantastic city! "
Preeti was obviously very excited about his going. She didn't seem to share any disappointment on what he now saw as 'separation'.
They had known each other for a little over a year, and were very close, but beyond some mild flirting, the relationship had never got even close to romantic. That was, of course, until he found out she had spent a week baking a cake for him. It's funny how small things seem to make such a big difference.
"What happened?" she asks. "You don't seem very happy."
"Oh..it's just that it's so sudden, that's all. And you know I was never all that interested in going to America ."
"What an idiot. Go see the place. I've heard the women there are
amazingly beautiful." She had a sly smile on her face. He wanted to tell her, he didn't care if he laid his eyes on another woman again, if she wasn't with him... But he didn't.
He realized that he only had another month with her. She'd rejected every guy who'd asked her out ever since he had known her. He didn't want the same to happen with him, and he didn't want to make it awkward between them. He didn't want to risk that month. He wanted it to be the best time he had ever spent with her.
They ate out almost every night. She'd call him up almost everyday to tell him to add 'one more item' in his list.
And with every passing day, he was falling more deeply in love with her.

The month swept by quickly. The day Abhi was supposed to leave, he asks her to come with him to the airport. They reach the airport four hours early to beat the rush. He finishes the formalities and comes to sit with her.
"Hey, Champ. Why so glum?" asks Preeti
"I don't want to go,"
"I don't want you to go either."
"No, you don't understand." He could not hold it in any longer. "I can't
stand the thought of living without you by my side."
She stares at him.

"I love you a lot yaar..."

At this, a sound escapes her lips that sounds like a cross between a
sob and a laugh. "Well, dumbo, you've picked an absolutely fabulous time to tell me about it!"
A tear escapes her eyes.
"How long have you felt this way?" …she was crying and smiling at the same time..he didn't know what to make of it.
"From the day I found out you had baked me a cake."
She laughs. "That's all it took? Well, bozo, I guess a way to a man's heart is certainly through his stomach! Hold it. A month? You waited a month? You were the one who kept saying that if you really liked a girl you wouldn't waste a day in telling her!" ..She was smiling widely now…it looked funny, with her eyes all wet.
"Well, I was confused. How did I know.. how you'd react? In fact, I
still don't understand your reaction. I thought it would change things between us. You've rejected every guy who ever proposed to you!"
"That's because even I'm in love with you, you overgrown idiot!"
"What?" …Somehow, He had never expected her to say that. She was in love with him?
"How long have you been in love with me?"
"Ever since the day you offered to carry my suitcase for me."
"But that was the first day I met you!"
"I guess I was always a sucker for chivalry."
"All this time you've been in love with me and you never said anything! Then you go and complain that I waited a month!"
"You guys are so bad at reading a girl's mind."
"You women are so good at keeping your thoughts a secret! Even Einstein couldn't figure you out."
"Einstein was a nerd."
"Hahahhah…but seriously…I really don't want to go." He had always maintained that love was a bucketful of emotions. He wasn't exactly delighted to be proved right.
"Don't worry. I'm coming there in a couple of months."
"How?"
She laughed. " Welllll…!!!!....I've got a project in New Jersey ."
" What? When did that happen? You never even told me!"
"Well, I wasn't sure you'd propose before you left. And I couldn't
exactly sacrifice you to those New York women, could I? I had to watch out for myself. So I went on a project-hunting spree. There is an opportunity coming up for a project in about two months. Someone is coming back to India , so I'll be taking his place. They want me there for a little less than two years." She was beaming. "I realized I had struck gold!"
”But How come you didn't lay a trap for me a year ago?"
"I tried giving you hints, dumbo, but you just wouldn't pay attention!" She was laughing. " You're the only guy I ever spent any time with…Wasn't that a big enough hint?"
"Oooops…yeah….ok…What if I had rejected you?" ..now extremely flattered that she'd been crazy about him for a year...his ego swelling..
"Rejected me…You must be kidding!" she was clearly amused. "I get proposed to every few days. You are the one who's been rejected more times in the last year than I can count on two pairs of hands!"
She really knew how to burst his bubble.
"Hey," she said softly, "don't look so dejected. I said 'Yes', didn't
I?"
"Yes, you did. And you've made me a very happy man. But you know what would make me even happier?"
"What?"
"If you learn to cook as good as you bake cakes."
A punch in the arm again…
Happy Ending…:)