Is there any Nice Coffee-Shop nearby?

The following story is going to be narrated by Prashant, who himself is a character in the story:

It was a very hot afternoon and I was on the way back to my place after another rejection. On the way, a girl in a salwar suit with a mobile phone in her hand asked me, “Excuse me. Is there any nice coffee-shop nearby?”

Me (to the girl): Coffee? At this time? In this weather?

Girl (in a rush): Oh, come on, I didn’t ask you to judge me. Just give me the name of a coffee-shop.

Me: Okay. Walk 50 meters to your left, then 80 meters to your right and there would be ‘Sanjay’s Cafe’, your coffee-shop.

Girl (with a beautiful smile): Okay. Thanks.

Girl (to the phone): yeah, do you know ‘Sanjay’s Cafe’? In how much time can you reach there? 15 minutes? Okay, come soon.

When I reached my place and entered my room

I kept walking to my place. When I reached my place and entered my room, Rafiq said, “Oh, you are back. I thought I would be all alone this afternoon.”

Me: Alone? Why? Where did Sahil and Rupesh go?

Rafiq: Oh! You don’t know about Sahil. Sahil got that PR job for which he had applied for. So, he has gone to Natasha’s place to celebrate the same and said that he would not be back today.

Me: Okay. What about Rupesh?

Rafiq: Rupesh has gone to his parents’ place. He said that it’s getting difficult here for him and he needs a break, but I think he is stressed about Sahil getting the job before him & he will be back in a month.

Me: Hmm. So, what’s up with you? You seem very happy.

Rafiq: Happy? Yeah, I am trying to look happy and I think it’s working. Abbu (father) has said that he would not send him money from the next month and asked me to work in his shop from the next month.

Me: So, what are you going to do? Would you quit singing from the next month?

Rafiq: I don’t know. I have got some auditions this month, let’s see what happens. And what happened to your audition?

Me: They straight away said no to me after hearing the first line. I kept asking the reason and they kept saying that the role is not for me, we are looking for a different personality and my personality would not suit this role.

Rafiq: Oops. I don’t have any words for this. Okay, let’s have lunch, a piece of bread with……….. two more pieces of bread.

I laughed with Rafiq after hearing his words, had lunch with bread and went to sleep as I had not slept properly yesterday as I was preparing for the audition.

After I woke up at 8:00 PM. I went to Sanjay’s café to have something to eat or coffee. There were hardly 4-5 people there at that time.

Again, I saw the girl who was asking for ‘Coffee-Shop’

I was sitting at the café. There, I saw the girl who was asking for ‘Coffee-Shop’. She was crying, wiping her tears, was trying hard to not cry but she was failing to do the same. I thought I should talk to her. So, I went to her table, pulled a chair to sit and asked her, “Hey, are you alright?” The girl while wiping her tears asked me, “Who?”

Me: You had asked me for a coffee-shop nearby, remember?

Girl (sarcastically): Oh yeah. I remember, you have to get into everything, right?

Me: What?

Girl: Like, in the afternoon, you wanted to know why I want coffee at that time, and now you want to know why I am crying.

Me: I apologize if I have hurt you. I just could not stop myself when I saw you being sad, crying but trying not to cry and I thought you would feel better sharing your pain with me. If you want to be alone right now then it’s okay but try to not think about it much, focus on other nicer things and be positive.

She could not hold her tears any longer and started crying a little louder.

Girl (while crying): I thought I would have a great time with him after so long but after you told me about this stupid café, we came here and he broke up with me.

Me (while giving tissue papers for her tears): Calm down, don’t cry, don’t cry so loud, everyone is staring at us and they may be thinking me as the culprit.

The girl wipes her tears with the tissue papers and calms down a little.

Me (continued): Tell me what happened between both of you. Trust me, it would make you feel better and I know about it because I go through lots of things like this.

Girl: We were in a relationship for 3 years. Everything was good. I had thought that he is the perfect guy for me. After one and a half years, I caught him cheating me with her ‘so-called’ colleague. He begged me to stay in the relationship with him, for that he used to apologize to me almost like every hour. He said that he could not control himself as he had not met me for a long time, then only I agreed to stay in the relationship. Recently for work, I had gone to Bangkok for 6 months and after returning, we met today and he called it off.

Girl (continued while shouting): I should have called it off before he called it off, I should have broken up with him when I had caught him with that girl.

Girl (continued, being a little calm): You were right. I am feeling better.

Me: Told you.

I noticed the phone she was holding at that time. An image was open on the phone. While pointing at the image I asked her, “Is that him in that image on your phone?”

Girl: Yeah, that’s that idiot.

Me: I think I have seen him somewhere.

Me (continued, while trying to remember something): Yeah, I remember now, he was the guy who was taking my audition today. He was very rude. After hearing only the first line of the dialogues I was given, he told me that my personality doesn’t suit the character. Seriously, that guy has serious problems.

Girl: Yeah, he is an idiot. I should do what Kareena had done in ‘Jab We Met’.

Me: What? Burn his photos?

Girl: That would have been better but everything is digital today. I am talking about deleting his photos from my phone, it would make me feel good, oh no……. it would make me feel awesome.

Me: No-no-no. Rather than deleting his photos we should crop and edit his photos to make him look like an idiot which he is.

Girl: Great. Let’s do that.

After the fun stuff we did with the photos, she said, “So, you are a struggling actor, right?”

Me: Yeah, right. You must have figured it out from the story where the idiot was auditioning me.

The girl laughed after I mentioned the idiot.

Me (continued): I also work in theatre and has played some parts in short films and ads.

Girl: I am a creative director, mostly I assist directors and I think we can collaborate in something. If possible I can recommend you for some gigs. Now, quickly give your number and I will give you a missed-call right now. Oh, I forgot to ask your name. I am Ayesha Aggarwal and you?

Me: I am Prashant Mishra. Thanks for this. And, my number…………….

Girl: Thanks a lot to you for making me feel better. Then, we left the café to our respective places, she left in a cab and I went by walking.

After that day I connected with her through my social media profiles, I shared videos of my work and she also shared some of hers and our friendship started growing day by day. 

To be Continued……........ Check its next part, 'There was a Message from Ayesha'