It had been three days, Anvesha relished upon the salty cheesecake, however, the incident had been long forgotten. Though she had expected Mr. Haughty Shoes to apologize but she guessed that he lacked manners to do so. Now, she did not had any hard feelings against him except a bit of discomfort going to his restaurant again, despite the meal was awesome. She wished if she could wear an invisible cloak and relish upon the mouthwatering dishes cooked at the restaurants of Mr. Haughty Shoes without even paying for them! As much as this idea was scandalous yet, it excited her to her core.
Anvesha was juggling between the shoots of her talk show and her hectic lifestyle. The first episode of vlog on her YouTube channel received a massive response and she was enjoying the publicity. She had contacted the manager of another five star restaurant for her upcoming vlog. Her friends and colleagues were appreciating her and she was amazed at the unexpected success.
After completing the assigned work at the office, she walked towards the pantry section on the top floor of her office during the recess when her friend, Nikhil startled her with his sudden voice, "Hey, dear. Are you coming tomorrow?"
"Where?” Anvesha asked looking at Nikhil with questioning eyes as she stood on the stairs.
The baffled Nikhil looked at her irritatingly as he said, "Girl, how could you forget? It is my birthday tomorrow".
"Ah! I remember", Anvesha said smiling goofily as she huffed and Nikhil gave her a I-know-it-all look. In an apologetic tone, Anvesha said, "Rather, I am sorry that I forgot and yes, I will definitely come."
Nikhil smiled looking at her as his eyes shone with delight. Patting on her shoulder, he climbed upon the stairs ahead of her and said, "See you at Love=Food tomorrow at seven in the evening."
"What?” Anvesha screamed startling everyone as she stepped inside the pantry. Squinting her eyes, she stuttered as she tried to cover upon her expressions, "Ah! No."
Trying to mask her embarrassment, she said, "I mean I can't. Umm... Actually I am busy. I... I have work."
"Stop it, girl", Nikhil bombarded at her as he snatched her arm and took her on the corner table away from their friends as he continued, "And why are you stammering at the first place?” he asked calmly as he wondered what happened to her suddenly.
"Huh?” Anvesha exclaimed, as she swung her head sideways and she hissed, "No". She murmured, "Who is stammering?" trying not to acknowledge the fact that she was actually stuttering.
"What happened?” Nikhil asked calmly realizing the fact that Anvesha's charming face had lost its color. He asked her again, "Is everything fine?"
"Yeah, everything is fine. Why would something happen?” Anvesha said in a tone as if she was assuring herself that everything was fine. However, after the incident of relishing the so-called salty cheesecake in the name of delicious dessert, Anvesha lacked guts to enter the restaurant again. She regretted that she expected Mr. Haughty Shoes to prank her with the salty cheesecake because he was not interested in the vlog since when the celebrity chef Adhyayan Joshi had screamed over the staff for adding salt instead of sugar. She chuckled unknowingly as she remembered her unruly outburst and repentance of Mr. Haughty Shoes later on.
Her chain of thoughts was broken when she heard her friend Nikhil yelling loudly at her, "Anvesha, tell me".
"Nothing", Anvesha mumbled as she placed her order for the lunch gesturing the pantry staff to bring her regular meal, the cooked vegetables with chapattis. Nikhil, on the other hand, was watching her behavior. Realizing that his friend was hiding something from him, he spoke sternly, "I will call your mother and tell her that something is wrong with you". He knew this was the only way Anvesha would reveal everything since she avoided her mother to get worried about her.
"Stop this blackmail. Nikhil, you know she gets overboard at tiny, little issues." Anvesha said annoyed at her friend.
"Then, tell me", Nikhil asked for a final time realizing that Anvesha would finally open up.
"Okay, I will but then, you won't make fun of me", Anvesha said sheepishly as the staff brought their meals.
"Did I ever do that, dear?” Nikhil reverted back spontaneously patting on the shoulder of his friend.
Having heard this, bewildered Anvesha narrated how she was compelled to relish upon the salty cheesecake which contained salt instead of sugar. Amazed upon imagining the funny incident, Nikhil burst into laughter while Anvesha sulked at her funny friend who was laughing hard.
Annoyed at Nikhil who was making fun of her, Anvesha glanced at her fellow colleagues who were giving bewildered expressions looking at them. Anvesha sulked as she picked up the bottle of tomato sauce kept on the table and smirked realizing what she was going to do the next. She was going to pour the tomato sauce on innocent Nikhil who was chuckling unknown to her devious plans.
Nikhil squinted his eyes as he realized the situation, and in the nick of time, Nikhil ran to protect himself while Anvesha ran behind him.
People watched laughing at both of them while Neha's friend nudged her elbow in the crowd. Standing in the crowd and looking both of the friends running like jokers all over the pantry, Nikhil's girlfriend Neha Rana glanced at her friend Priya.
Giving an assuring glance to Priya, Neha said, "They are friends".
Priya said, "More than friends or friends with benefits", in an annoyed tone.
"They are best friends from their college days, Priya. They know their boundaries." Clad in a yellow colored tunic and white pants, simple, yet beautiful girl, Neha spoke in a reassuring tone to her friend. Controlling her anger, Neha said, "Anvesha is a good girl and Nikhil has earned my trust. So, please keep your pathetic mentality with yourself." Neha smiled as she glanced at Priya whose mouth was shut after this small conversation.
Neha laughed when she saw her boyfriend, the handsome Nikhil Khanna sweating and panting hard as he pleaded in front of the cheerful Anvesha Chatterjee to not pour the tomato sauce on him, after all, he had a meeting after the lunch.
Anvesha left the bottle of the red tomato sauce but not before Nikhil apologized for making fun of her. Neha giggled at the scene in front of her and winked towards Anvesha as she returned back to her table to finish her meal.
Neha joined Nikhil and Anvesha for the rest of the lunch-time where Nikhil narrated the cascade of incidents. The cute Neha pitied Anvesha realizing the pain of eating a salty dessert, as the trio shared a good laugh.