Thursday, Afternoon
‘I looked for the waiter who had told me about Bilal’s shift timings. However, he’s nowhere to be found,’ Aditya said as he joined Kabir and Akriti at their table in the café.
‘Can’t you ask anyone else?’ Akriti asked.
‘I tried. But since the hotel is almost full no one wants to waste time talking with me.’
‘Now what shall we do?’ Akriti wondered with a frown.
‘What shall you do about what?’ asked a voice from behind them. Lizzy had an uncanny knack of showing up unannounced.
The three of them had been so lost in their discussion that they hadn’t noticed that Lizzy had come and stood by their table with Bella peacefully snoozing in her arms. ‘Oh! Hello, Ma’am!’ Akriti said, jumping out of the chair. As soon as she saw Bella, she started fawning over her.
‘Hello!’ Lizzy smiled looking at Akriti and the others. ‘Why do you look as if I caught you in the middle of something?’
‘No, Ma’am! It is just that …’ Akriti began, unsure of what to say without arousing suspicion. ‘Ma’am, it’s just that Chief Walia’s birthday is coming up and Kabir’s mother wanted to gift him a nice watch.’
‘Ah, is it?’ Lizzy said, looking at Kabir. Even though Kabir had no idea where Akriti was going with this story, he nodded to Lizzy.
‘On our way in we saw the doorman wearing a great watch. Kabir thinks his Dad will love a watch like that. And we were wondering how we could ask him about it.’
Lizzy laughed at Akriti’s innocent problem. ‘Oh! Dear child, you could have simply asked him about it. He would have definitely told you. Not to worry. I shall ask him about it for you. Come with me,’ she said, heading towards the entrance.
As she led them towards the doorman, she turned towards Akriti and said, ‘I see that you are following all my Instagram stories.’
‘I just love the cat videos of Bella that you post. She is the most adorable cat I have ever seen,’ Akriti said with a smile. ‘It also helps me relax when school gets too much to handle.’ And she reached out to Bella to pat her head. Unfortunately, the cat did not react well. She lunged at Akriti’s hand and would have scratched her badly if she hadn’t pulled her hand away in time.
‘Naughty girl, Bella,’ Lizzy scolded her as Akriti looked at the cat, startled.
‘Is she OK?’
‘Oh yes, she’s fine. She doesn’t like being petted by strangers,’ Lizzy said, trying to explain Bella’s odd behaviour.
Akriti, though taken aback, recovered quickly and walked towards the door behind Lizzy, Aditya and Kabir.
