2 ARUSHI

She stood there in her state of the art balcony feeling...well that was a tricky spot, she had stopped feeling a long time ago...precisely when he had dropped their engagement ring on the floor and had stomped out of their house. But today she refused to be a victim of her raging emotions, instead she watched the sun rising like a ball full of hope and a smile broke on her face, a genuine one after a really long time. Just as she was savoring the feeling of watching the sun give life to each and everything around the beautiful landscape of the city of Amsterdam her phone rang and she picked up without glancing at the screen because she was very well aware who would it be at this hour, "Captain Dhanjani on duty , Commander." She shouted into the phone in the pure military fashion as she had seen her father do it a million times, she heard laughter on the other side and decided that there was no sweeter sound than that, it was her best friend Susan Grace Edwards A.K.A Gracy.

Today Gracy sounded overly excited not that she usually wasn't but today her laughter held a happy tinkle to it and Aarushi loved it. She held the phone and changed her stance and said into it, "what are you hiding? Sherlock?" silence answered her, there was silence on the other end of the receiver whenever she turned out right, she waited for a few moments but her curiosity got the better of her and she threw a wild guess, "You met someone. Didn't you?" silence again and just as she was about to move onto her another option she heard her best friend's quiet voice say, "Yes." Now there was no stopping unless she found out who was the jeweler who had finally seen the value of the gem called Gracy, she shouted in the receiver, "oh my god! You've got to tell me everything! I can't believe this!" she heard Gracy exhale and then she said, "Okay, okay, Watson calm your nerves. I will let the cat out of the bag soon but for the meantime just know that he is French." With that there was silence on the other end and she understood that her best friend's love for cliffhangers had won.

She always did this when something good or bad happened to her, she always left Aarushi to fend for herself, but nevertheless, her mind was working in overdrive- how come her best friend met a French guy, a French guy out of everything, she was determined to find out the whole story but for now it was enough for her to rejoice for the fact that finally her best friend was in love. By the time she decided to head back to her room, the sun was way over the horizon. Today was her day off, she taught English at a college in the city, this was not always her plan but she had decided to go with the flow.

She decided to do what she did on days off- read. Yesterday evening she had gone book hunting and she had found this new novel by a writer who obviously used pseudonym and the book was titled A Galaxy Far Away, though she had picked a lot more books but this one was a sci-fi and since she had never been much of a sci-fi reader she thought to change it and begin with the book. Once she started reading she immediately decided that science fiction was a good genre to explore, the book was based on the struggles and miseries of an astronaut in the late 2050s, though she always kept in mind to read the author's name before beginning the novel this time she hadn't, so she flipped the book around and found that the name of the author was T.H.Hunter, she obviously didn't know anything about the author but she liked the name.

She didn't let herself ponder over his name and decided to move ahead with the novel, she indeed loved it. While she was in the middle of the book her phone rang and she was quite shocked as to who would call her, her family was fast asleep on the other side of the world and the friends here knew not to disturb her on her days off. But nonetheless she went to answer the phone and glancing at the caller ID she smiled, it was Sara Weathers, she was a friend and colleague at the college but what she doing calling her? She wondered. She picked up the phone and was greeted with a sea of words and she laughed, Sara was a fast talker. "Where is the fire? Sara." She asked jokingly. "Sorry." Sara said. "It's okay. Now tell me why did you call me on my day off?" Sara didn't wait a moment and said, "The Dean wants to hold a meeting of all the HODs in half an hour!" well now if you wanted to ruin a good day off in 30 seconds this was the way you should head, ignoring the sick feeling she said, "But why? do you have any idea?" Sara was mum and she understood she was as clueless as her without second thoughts, she said into the receiver, "Okay. I'll meet you there." And she hung up.

The moment she kept the phone down, she kept the book that she was reading on the table with the solemn expression of a sad child and reluctantly went to her room to become presentable. Fifteen minutes later the English Professor of the Holy Saint college Miss Dhanjani was ready in her trademark white top and a denim jeans, she was a woman who didn't believe in dressing up too much, so she just wrapped a scarf around her neck, even though it was only mid-September, the air in Amsterdam was a bit chilly. On the way out she grabbed her purse and her mobile. When she was heading downstairs she bid greetings to all the fellow neighbors of her building. The college was only around the corner so for her and a few of her colleagues, it was an easy commute. She lived in city which was famous for its canals and she was looking and lived near one which indeed was a great advantage of living in the city of the Dutch. While she was walking in her usual brisk pace, she heard Sara's voice calling out to her and she stopped for Sara to catch up. Sara had been her first friend in the city and she considered herself lucky for having someone like her to look out for her. She was a great person to be around.

The moment Sara was near, she repeated her question got the same silence as the answer. On the way to college they were joined a few other professor HODs, for whom this meeting was being held, the moment she was entering the college a firm male hand prevented her entry and she knew who he was it was Logan a fellow professor who had huge crush on her but she didn't reciprocate the feeling, he was just a nice guy. "Hey, gorgeous, how are you?" he asked in the same cheerful manner and she decided to be nice to him as always.

"I'm, doing perfectly fine and you?" he answered everything was looking up and she was genuinely glad when he was called away. "Phew!" she said and headed to the Dean's office. The setting of the office resembled that of a peace talk with the Dean at the head of the table and Mrs. Braganza at the other end considering she was the senior coordinator and all the other HODs on their designated seats on the table. She quickly went and slipped in her seat next to Sara who was the HOD of the psychology department of the college.

The meeting they discovered in the next 12 minutes was the last one with the existing Dean Mr. Harvard and he had just called all them to give a little farewell speech but he made his thoughts clear that he wanted a farewell party as well, so they were all agreed and told the Dean that they would handle everything. When the meeting ended and the Dean went out of the room everyone was quite surprised by his request- how could a man ask for a farewell himself?

She decided it was enough for her and headed out the room, Sara followed her out and they both went out of the premises of the college together. Aarushi was about to turn toward her neighborhood when Sara said, "Since you've already done away with your day off, why not go out sight seeing?" Aarushi was skeptical about it but then her phone chimed and she knew who it was, she opened the SMS and found the daily reminder of Gracy's undying love for her, she smiled and sent her own confession of love. She turned to Sara and said, "Yes, why not?" She could see the shock on Sara's face but chose against commenting on it. "So it was yet another love note by your ceaseless admirer." She smiled and said "Yes but its obvious isn't it?" Sara only nodded her head, smiling. Since Aarushi had agreed, she didn't feel like going out in her work clothes, same went for Sara, so they both decided to meet near Aarushi's building. They parted ways and Aarushi headed to her apartment with a little bounce her step.

They met exactly after half an hour, Sara dressed in a blue tank top and shorts whereas Aarushi was dressed in a yellow halter dress that reached just below her knees, she had teamed it up with an outer that her mother had gifted her on her last visit home. The girls laughed a little at each other for a reason only they both knew and it was that they were heading out together after nearly 3 months. So indeed this was going to be an adventure, thought Aarushi.

They headed towards the Anne Frank house which had become their favorite place to visit together. Somehow how the charm of the world's most famous young girl from the ghetto was yet to fade for them. Once they reached there they didn't need any directions and headed straight away for the attic, which was their favorite part. They both stood at the window and looked out and tried to feel what Anne had when she wrote that she wanted to break free of the hiding place. Sara being the cultural enthusiast that she was always liked this part and she called it 'meeting the past'.

They stayed there another hour and after bidding good bye to Anne they went to say hello to the favorite restraunt, which they hadn't been to since May. Over the light supper of tacos and coke, Sara began telling her about her scandalous love life, she informed Aarushi that now she was seeing a cowboy who was from Charlotte North Carolina. The moment she heard North Carolina only one name came to her mind- Nicholas Sparks. She had always been a fan of his style of writing and now that her friend had found a North Carolina guy she suggested to never letting him go. Sara somehow looked wishful when she agreed. She said she was about to meet Luke, that was his name, and Aarushi was amazed with the coincidence, she was supposed meet Luke at this new ice-cream parlor near their college and Aarushi was excited to see who was this young man who had turned the never trusting Sara into a woman who believed in forever.

However she was surprised by the name of the parlor when Sara told her that it was called the 'The Ice'. She thought what a nice name as they got up to settle their bill. When they reached the aforementioned place Aarushi was happy to see that it was too crowded but above all she was really excited to meet Luke and by the looks of Sara she was over the moon. With a smile pasted on their faces they pushed through the doors to "the ice".