The terrace - 2

"What do you mean Vikram?", Akira asked him with her puppy eyes.

"Let's go out of the lobby, you will know", he said and led her out.

The moment she stepped outside, she was stunned. The entire terrace was decorated with a fairytale-like setting. Strings of LED lights illuminated the whole terrace. The center of the terrace was adorned with a small makeshift wooden gazebo with sheer white muslin fabric hanging from its canopy till the floor, giving it a dreamy and surreal look. Inside the gazebo, there was a table, set for two and fragrant candles were lined all around.

There was a violinist ready at a corner and a couple of hotel staff at their beck and call. On the other side of the terrace in front of the gazebo was a projector screen with the words written,

"THANK-YOU AKIRA"

She stood there all speechless for in her entire life she had never been welcomed like this before. She felt like she was in her dream watching some Cinderella movie.

"Do you like it?", he asked when he saw her standing rooted to the floor all spellbound.

She turned towards him and said,

"Like it ??? I love it Vikram. But why you did all this? There was really no need. I mean you could have just stopped at the flowers".

"There is !!! For you don't know what importance you hold in my life. For you don't know how much I care about you Akira", he said and came forward and held both her hands and said,

"Just give me a chance to show you how much you mean to me. Will you?".

He then slowly took her towards the gazebo and pulled the chair for her to sit. Her eyes wandering and scanning the whole place out of excitement. Once they were seated, the violinist started playing soft romantic music in the background.

Once he saw her all settled he raised his hand a bit sending an indication and soon after the anchor who was anchoring in the ground floor came in front of them and said,

"A warm good evening to Mr. Shah and the beautiful lady to his next, Miss. Akira. Today ...

"So you do know my name", Akira smiled and asked, interrupting the anchor.

"Yes, ma'am but sir had asked us not to take it in front of the crowd. He did everything possible to keep your identity safe ma'am".

Akira looked at Vikram and smiled.

"You want to keep me safe all for yourself is it?", she asked him all teasingly.

"Trust me when I say YES".

She giggled and looked back at the anchor who then resumed from where he was interrupted.

"Tonight is the night to celebrate love, care, friendship and above all the blind trust that you guys have for each other. So today we present before you a short story of "Akira and Vikram" being enacted by our drama group KatShaw".

"You arranged for a play !!!", Akira beamed up.

"Well I tried", Vikram said and smiled. He was really happy to see her excited for every single thing.

Then slowly two people walked up close to them.

One was wearing a t-shirt with the name AKIRA on it and the other wore a t-shirt with VIKRAM written on it. The moment Akira saw their face clearly, her mouth opened wide in surprise.

But before she could even say anything or react, the lady raised her index finger and placed it on her own lips and said,

"Shhhh..... pin drop silence please, for our play is about to start".

And if you have guessed it right then the lady was none other than Katherine, our own drama queen.

"What the hell are you doing here Katherine?", Akira mumbled in her head but kept her thoughts to herself.

Katherine looked at Shawn who looked totally perplexed for there was no script given to him. All that Katherine had told him was to follow his heart. But he was not sure if that was the right thing to do.

Katherine picked up the mic and started speaking,

"Names, characters, business, events, and incidents are NOT the products of our imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events are NOT coincidental for this is a real story that we are going to present from the bottom of our heart", Katherine said and smiled looking at the two seated in the Gazebo.

Then in the background dramatic music started.

"This is not just any story, it's a story of the life of two people, Akira, and Vikram who were virtually inseparable since the school days", saying that Katherine looked deep into Shawn's eyes and whispered,

"Follow your heart".

Then she bent down and tried fixing the opened laces of her shoe for a while and then looked up at Shawn and said,

"Vikram my laces aren't working !!!"

Shawn bent down and tied the laces of her shoes and became all nostalgic for he used to do the same for her in the uni days. Not only him but Akira also went back into the memory lane where Vikram used to come to her class to check on her during lunch break and used to tie her laces when undone. She smiled and tightened her grip on Vikram's hand for those beautiful memories were making her all emotional.

Then Katherine got up and hugged Shawn tight and started crying slowly.

The lights had been dimmed and a tone of melancholy had spread.

"What I am going to do without mom?"

"I don't want to live like this Vikram".

Shawn hugged her back and said,

"You can't say that. You need to live for me. You need to live for your brother. You will always have my back".

Saying that he placed a small kiss on her head while he was hugging her. They were enacting a play for Vikram and Akira but whatever they enacted was actually a copy of the fragments of their own life too. He realized that Katherine had very cleverly molded the whole story making it look like theirs when she was actually telling her own story.

Now he understood what she meant by - "Follow your heart".