2 PROLOGUE

"Hey Emma, where are you? I have been trying to reach from past 10 minutes, where the heck are you?" booms the voice of my neighbor slash best friend Juliet from my answering machine.

I check the time on my phone 08:13 AM, shit, I am officially late. You see, I am trying my best to stay on time this year. It is one of my resolution, well kind of. But I guess I am not been able to fulfil my promises.

Without further procrastination, I yell a quick BYE to my boyfriend , who is shifting on couch, waiting for his Zoom meeting to end. He looks up, winks and waves mouthing BYE.

With the goofy smile on my face, I reach out to Apartment number 8, which apparently is 3 apartments next to mine. On weekends, like today, I volunteer to watch 3 awesome triplets of Juliet and Steve. They are 12, cute, but quite a handful kids. With Steve being away to Boston from few days, the kids are cranky from last week. They are at home for their summer vacation. Last two weeks are left for their school to reopen.

I knock on the door, before entering and see the mess of pillows and cushions on floor, couch and armchair. Megan and Josh are beating Drake up, with the blue heart cushion I gifted Juliet 3 years back.

Now their names are courtesy of Steve. That guy is obsessed with Nicklodeon. "Stop beating Drake!" I hear Juliet shouting from kitchen. The kids smile mischievously and ignore their mother like always.

I clear my throat and three sets of green eyes look up to me. Megan and Drake hug me tightly, while Josh trips over cushion and yells "Emmie". I pat their heads individually and ask them to follow me to the couch. They oblige and start clearing the mess they made, the instant I narrow my eyes at them.

After two minutes of absolute silence, Juliet pokes her head from the kitchen, relief shown in her eyes.

"How do they start acting like good, obedient kids in front of you? I mean, I am the one who kept them 9 months in my belly," she huffs by narrowing her eyes at triplets.

"Well they do this because they know that their Emmie, does not like mess, right kids?"

"Yeah," they all shout in unison and we both laugh at their childishness.

"So what do you want to do today?" I ask the kids while rummaging for my phone from my purse.

"How about we go out and build sandcastle?" asks Drake enthusiastically.

"Or play football in park?" suggests Josh with his mouth full of toblerone.

"What? No, we cannot go outside idiots, it's raining continuously . You guys are really stupid. Every weekend you suggest these dumb ideas. Can't we do something staying inside instead of playing stupid outdoor games? " Megan chips in while talking to both Josh and Drake.

"Well Megan, I am bored of watching cartoons and playing board games. And besides, even Josh is bored of playing Zombies VS Plants. For once let's do some other thing." Drake says and Josh nods, agreeing with his brother.

"Emmie, what should we do?" Megan asks me hopefully.

"Oh I know, how about Emma tell you a story. She is so good at it, and it will be a new different change for you guys." Juliet chips in while taking out popcorn from the oven.

"Umm, yeah, I can tell you the story of movie I watched last week."

"What no!",

"Nuh uh!",

"We can always watch the movie Emmie, we don't need to hear it from you,"Josh, Drake and Megan says simultaneously and look at each other grinning.

"Okay, then how about I tell you the stories of my school life?" I suggested while looking at triplets.

"If you want to do this, then how about you tell us the story of how you met your adorable boyfriend, huh?" Juliet says while giving each of us a bowl full of popcorns.

I grin at her and say enthusiastically, "I can do that, I can absolutely do that. But...," after eating few of popcorns, I continue, "how about I make it interesting? How about you guess who I ended up with?" I ask them and they look confuse for a moment.

"Okay, you see, I had three people in my life. And one of them is my current boyfriend whom I absolutely love more than anything in the world. Except for Shawn Mendes, his voice is forever etched to my heart", I sigh dreamily and kids giggle at this. "So, you guys can guess who was it. It would be like How I met your mother, but in a female's perspective. Or just like Ryan Reynolds' movie 'Definitely, Maybe.' I will tell you all the major stories I have of them, and you have to guess who is my lover." I look at them and they all share a look.

" Seeing that you all know the name of my fiancé, we will change the name of all the three guys I dated." After they hear this, they all started grinning and nod.

"Okay, as there are three people, you each get to decide the one name", I said looking at triplets. "You can decide and tell me in 2 minutes?"

"Yay, okay", they yell and bundle up at the corner of the room. Juliet and I laughed seeing their antics.

"So how is Steve? Still busy in hospital?"

"Yeah, he is working really hard. But we video call him a lot these days. He misses us like crazy. He will be back most probably next week. I hope he comes early though."

I nod and we catch up with our life. After exactly five minutes, Megan comes and stands in front of me, Josh and Drake returning to their seats hurriedly.

"Okay, to not have any confusion, we have decided to name them alphabetically, so that it would be easy to remember without any confusion. You have to use their full name in the story to make it more interesting."

I grin at their idea. "Wow, that is actually a good idea. You all are geniuses." I look at Juliet and she is smiling genuinely looking at them. They all giggle and Josh bows slightly in acknowledgement.

"So, have you come up with name yet?"

"Yeah, I came up with Chris Carter. And Drake came up with Bruce Banner." Megan says.

"Bruce Banner? Come on bro. No, I told you, Blake Bingley would be better." Josh says and looks at me.

"Bingley? It is not some British novel. Bruce Banner is a cool name. HULK SMASH!!!" Drake does the Hulk pose.

I laugh and while Drake and Josh bicker continuously. Juliet and Megan roll their eyes.

"Okay, okay, how about, we come up to an arrangement? We can call one him Bruce Bingley or Blake Banner?" I ask them.

They both thought for a second and yell simultaneously, "Blake Banner!"and then high fived each other. I will never get over how the triplets always say the same thing.

"Okay, and what about the third name? The name starting from A?"

"We didn't settle that name."

"Ooh, I know Amanediel." Josh says puffing his chest.

"No, how about Archer?" asks Drake.

"No, you will not get to decide any other name. And you guys will probably start fighting again. Mum, you should decide." Megan huffs and look towards Juliet.

"Haha, okay. How about Andrew?"

" No."

" Umm, Angelo?"

" Nuh uh"

"Oh, how about Adam?" Juliet says grinning.

"Yes, that's better. And what about his last name. Also, is it necessary to have last name in a story?" Josh ask.

"It is not, but it will be better to have a last name, rather than just 'Adam', don't you think?" I say, and he nods thoughtfully.

"So, we have the name. How about Adam.... Anderson as a last name?" I ask and all four pair of green eyes look at me and nod their heads enthusiastically.

"So, the three guys are: 'Adam Anderson', 'Blake Banner' and 'Chris Carter' . " Megan says and then joins her brothers at the end of the couch.

"Okay, let's start with the story. But wait, I forgot to add an important detail, this all happened within the span of 30 days." I take out my phone to silent it and look at my wallpaper. It was of him with our dog Loki. They both were lazily sprawled on the couch and I clicked their picture discreetly. They both are looking so cute, together. "It took me 30 days to confess my true feelings to him and vice versa. This all happened in my, or in our last year of high school when we participated in a play. The play on Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice."

"Let me guess, you were the lead?" Juliet asks wiggling her eyebrows.

"Far from it, I don't want to spoil further. Trust me, it was one amazing, most entertaining slash most weird month of my life. With all the ups and downs, smiles, heartbreaks, adventures, detentions and awkward conversations." I sigh dreamily.

"I am so excited, Emmie." Drake says, munching on Josh's popcorn bowl without the latter's knowledge.

I mock glare and he retrieves his hand sheepishly.

"So, are you ready?"

"YES,!" the triplets shout and Juliet nods.

"Okay, so without further ado, let's hear it. So, in the year 2016...."

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