Moms are indestructible. Why? Because no one, I repeat, no one can face the wrath of their mom once they get mad at you.

Italian moms are like that, too, because right now, as I sat in front of Elisabeth, my mom's friend's daughter, I could hear my mom's exact words right in my head she said hours before this dinner.

"Jake Romano!" I heard my mom yell at me, the moment I came back home to get some things back for me. "COME HERE THIS INSTANT!"

As I strode over to her room, I saw Anna smirking at me. 'YOU ARE DEAD!' She mouthed. I shrugged my shoulder, asking her silently. 'What did I do?'

Before she could reply. I turned my head toward my mom and saw the death glare she gave me. "What happened, Mom?" I asked her, still scared of what must have happened for her to get this furious over me.

"You are asking me what happened?" She retorts. "You have been dating my best friend's daughter and didn't even think to tell me about it?"

"I'm sorry, what?" I looked back at her with my eyes wide open. I am dating who?

"Aren't you dating Elizabeth? Mary's daughter?" She asks. "Because Maria just called me to tell me about this."

"What?" I yelled. I shouldn't have let the matter with Elisabeth slide on its own. I should have known her clinginess towards me. Doesn't she understand the meaning of no?

"Wait, you aren't dating her?" Mom looks at me quizzically. "Because if you were dating her, this wouldn't have been your reaction."

"I am not dating her," I stated to her. "She lied to her mom and lied to you as well."

"Oh, no!" She said. Her eyes were as wide as saucers. "Oh, Nooo!"

"Why are you so shocked at this?" I asked her. "Did you do something?"

"Well, after Maria told me that you are dating her, I booked a table for you guys in one of the restaurants." She says. "Elisabeth is a nice girl, so, even if you aren't dating her. Why don't you give her a chance?"

"But, Mom I have my heart for someone else," I told her, reminding her of the time when I first made a friend. "You know that!"

"It's been years, Jake!" She sighs. "What if that girl is already out there, married in the country she was from?"

"Nope, I have a feeling that she isn't married by now. And I am also sure that she will be back in my life soon." I told her. "Don't you have a little faith in me?"

"It's not about Faith, Jake. It's about being realistic." She was exasperated. "Think about it. If you are fated to meet her, then wouldn't you have met her by now?"

"I will find her soon, Mom!"

"You'll give Elisabeth a chance and that's final!" She yelled at me, but she had a calm expression on her face. "It's for your own, good!" She says as she puts her palm on my cheek.

"But-"

"If you don't do as I say, I will tell your father about your cooking escapades that you have been hiding from him." She threatens me. "You are the one who is making me do this!"

"You can't do this, Mom!" I yelled at her. "This is not fair!"

"I am your mother, and I will always think about your welfare first." She calmly says. "You are my son, and I think that Elisabeth will be the good girl suitable for you. Just give her a chance. Think of it as, If you can't find the girl you have been looking for for years, you must choose the one I like and if you find that girl, I will happily stop you pursuing Elisabeth."

Being the obedient son, I was. I accepted her offer, and Anna, who was there the whole time during the conversation, gave me a pitiful look. She knows why I can't pursue Elisabeth for so many reasons, mainly because Elisabeth is the girl my best friend likes, and second, because she is not my type. The moment, Mom left my room, Anna came to me, and she said. "I still think that the girl you are looking for is here and you will find her soon. It's my gut feeling that maybe we will meet her soon."

"You think so?" I asked her with a bit of hope. "Because even Aadvita couldn't find more information about her."

"You do know that the person's face changes as they grow up. You gave Aadvita the photo of her childhood, and perhaps that person's face had changed too. Heck, you don't even know her name except for the fact that her name starts with 'R'. You know that there are so many people on this earth whose name starts with the same alphabet." Anna says. "Just wait for a while and I am sure you will find her for sure."

I sigh at that last sentence. How long am I supposed to wait? Till I die of old age?

I just nod my head and then get ready.

Now that I am in front of Elisabeth, who wore somewhat a flashy dress, I wonder how she is Justin's type. I thought he liked girls who were sweet and simple, but maybe that's just me who is like that. Elisabeth kept talking to me while I ate the morsel of food silently. She is talking to me about something when my eyes catch a glance at a group who just arrived at the restaurant.

Being on the private side of the restaurant on the upper floor of the restaurant gave us a view of the others on the lower floor and we could see who was coming or not. I saw that the family was Indian and they were sitting at a table of six. The girl whose injured hand had an Antique watch from that group caught my attention, and she wore a red knee-length dress with a flare on the skirt. She was smiling throughout the whole time and I saw the way she kept avoiding talking to anyone. Huh, looks like they also forced her to be here like me.

"...And I thought that once we get married, I will start working in your office." I heard Elisabeth say. "Jake, are you listening?" She startled me by putting her hand on mine.

I turned my attention toward her and she glared at the girl I was looking at. "Do you have a liking for a girl like her?" She asks as she points her finger toward the Red Dress girl.

"I don't like her, I was just looking around the restaurant," I told her the truth, but not the whole truth, after all. I did look at that girl with piqued interest. "I was thinking about buying a dress like that for Anna. She said that she loves red-colored dresses too." I lied.

"Oh..." She says as her focus shifts to the girl I was looking at. "Is that so? I was thinking of asking our parents to fix a date for our wedding. If we got married soon, then-"

"Woah, wait!" I interjected her while she was talking. "What marriage? What wedding?"

"Aren't we supposed to get married? Like, I thought your mom told you about this." Elisabeth says innocently. "I love you and I think you will like me soon enough, so isn't it okay for us to get married soon?"

"I don't like you. You are not my type." I told her instantly. "I never liked you, and besides that, there is someone else who likes you."

"Who?" She asks as she inches closer to me. "Justin Anderson, perhaps."

"YES!" I almost yelled at her. "He likes you and as you both are familiar with each other already, why don't you date him?"

"I don't like him, but I like you. You are much more good-looking in person than he is." She says as she eyes me. "You are just my type."

"But you are not my type!" I remind her. What part of no she doesn't understand? "Justin is a nice guy and I have my heart for someone else."

"Who?" She asks mockingly. "That girl with the red dress?"

"I just saw her!" I stated. "I don't even know her!"

"Oh, then, why were you looking at her?"

"For nothing! I was just looking around!"

"Tell me, why do you not want to get married to me?"

"Because I don't like you, but Justin does," I replied to her as calmly as I could because she was getting on my last nerve. "And he is my best friend!"

She glares at me for a while and then keeps her mouth shut. Once the dinner arrived, she started eating her food and said nothing to me at all. It was like she was trying to manipulate me, but as I am not letting her do, that; she is mad at me.

As they took the plates back, my focus shifted to the group where I was looking before. The Indian group and I saw that the girl with the bandaged hand had raised her glass and congratulated the couple who were sitting together. The guy who she congratulated was familiar. I have seen that face before, but I couldn't pinpoint it.

Elisabeth cleared her throat to get my attention, and I gave her an 'I-didn't-look-at-her' look. She crosses her arms. "Look, if you say that you have your heart for someone else and yet you look at the girl who you don't even know like that, I don't know what to do about you." She says. "I am going to tell you one more time and listen to me very carefully. I like you, and I don't want to get married to Justin. That's the final decision."

"And I have no say in it?" I ask her, feeling a sense of Déjà vu as I had this conversation before, but it wasn't her‌. "Don't I have anything to say about this? I can make my own decision and I don't want to get married to you."

She abruptly gets up from her seat and strides downstairs towards the exit. As I tried to follow her, so that she doesn't make a scene here, I saw her bumping into the girl I was looking at. She talked to her something about that she wasn't looking while walking and said sorry too but Elisabeth yelled at her. That girl was calm as I saw her mumbling something to her when Elisabeth laughed at her. "Seriously. You want to cross me?" She says to the girl.

That girl was going to say something, but I saw the hesitation. She mumbled something and walked to the restroom. As she was gone, I approached Elisabeth. She pushed me away as she said. "Leave me alone, Jake!"

I glared at her; she was making it look like she was the victim. I grit my teeth. "I wasn't the one who lied to my mother that I was dating you! You were the one who kept pursuing me even after I told you I was not interested in you and yet here we are. Don't you understand the meaning of No?" I said to her, loud and clear.

She glared at me as she was taking heavy breaths, and then I saw her hand raising; she slapped me then. Why did she slap me? I didn't do anything wrong. I simply told her, I am not into her, yet she is making me look like a jerk. "You should know that I like you so much, but I don't deserve any of this. If you like someone else, tell your mom about her and then resolve the whole problem." She says to me with fake tears in her eyes and leaves the restaurant.

I stood there, acknowledging what had just happened now, but I realized that she had finally left. I chuckled a little, as I knew that now, she wouldn't force me to marry her. She can't do anything now because now I can finally tell my mom I don't like her. I chuckled as I realized that now this discussion would be closed once and for all. "Thank god she has left on her own," I mumbled, and then after paying for the food, I left the restaurant.

The moment I stepped outside, my phone started ringing. Without looking at the caller's name, I picked it up. "Hello?" I say.

"Jake, we have a big problem." I heard from the other side of the call and I knew instantly what Arnold was talking about. "Come to the office, right now!"

"I am coming!" I said and ran towards my car.

Once I reached the office, I saw the night guard open the door for me as I walked past him and started pressing the elevator button furiously. Once the elevator door opened, I got inside and started calling Anna. She, as usual, didn't pick it up, and it straight went to voicemail: "Anna, I won't be coming home today, something big came up in the office and please don't tell my mom about this. She would be furious at me. Bye!"

Once the elevator reached my floor, I went towards my cabin and saw Arnold along with our company's IT tech on my computer. I stood beside Arnold and looked at the screen of my computer.

"I can't believe that I left my fiance just after proposing to her," Arnold says to me. "If her friend got to know about this, she would kill me then. But knowing Reena, she would kill me even if I did something as small as eating in front of her."

"Can I ask who this Reena is? I have heard about her from you numerous times by now." I said to him while checking what the IT tech was doing on my computer. "She won't be as dangerous as you claim her to be."

"Every time, I meet Reena, even if it's for minuscule seconds, she glares at me as if I stole something precious from her." He says to me. "And then she gave me this judging look all the time."

"Well, for the record, you stole her friend from her," I say. "And if I am correct, girls get sensitive when someone gets close to their best friend. Childhood best friend at that. Is this Reena, your fiance's childhood best friend?"

"Yeah, she is," Arnold says to me as he types something on his phone. "They have been best friends since kindergarten."

"Well then now you know," I said and saw that my IT tech looked back at me. "Did you find out who hacked the system now?"

"I couldn't find that, because before I could do that the person stopped from their side. Which was quite strange." The IT tech said. "There is no doubt that the person trying to hack your system is just playing around to tease you, but I suggest finding someone more experienced than me to catch the culprit. I am having a gut feeling that the hacker would do something big next time."

"Do you have someone in mind, Jake?" Arnold asks. "Because I think he might be right on that matter."

"Isabella has someone in her mind who is great in this stuff. I will call her tonight for this." I told them. "I will ask Aadvita as well."

The IT tech nods his head and leaves. Arnold, who was walking towards one of the single couches, sat and looked at me. "A little bird told me that you went out on a date today. How was it?" He had his usual smirk on his face while saying.

"Weren't you sad just a few minutes ago that you left your fiance just because of someone hacking into my computer?" I said to him. "I can give your fiance a bouquet for getting you here on your anniversary."

"Oh, you know, how much of a fan she is of you. And if I am correct, the moment she sees you for the first time, she will freak out." Arnold said as he sat straight. "If you ever meet her in person, please, do not act like we both know each other. She has no idea that you are the friend that I came to help and when she gets to know that you are my best friend, she will not sleep for a week."

"Wow, I never knew your fiance was that big of a fan of mine," I said to him. "And what about her best friend? I hear every time that you are on her dislike list."

"Reena is someone who can't trust people easily. At least from what I was able to gather, She hates guys and hates those who lie," Arnold says. "I forgot about buying the gift for Jennifer once and when she asked me about her gift the day of her birthday, I realized that I would be dead meat. I simply lied to her that the gift was in our closet and she bought it. Then I asked Austin to help me with the gift and at the time of asking Austin for this, Reena was present there. The look she gave me is still fresh in my head."

"What was her reaction?"

"Her first reaction was disappointment but slowly it turned into betrayal and then she was furious at me," Arnold told me. "Austin who was with us that time, noticed her behaviour for the first time as well. And he told me afterward that Reena never reacted like that before."

"Maybe, she is a person like that," I told him. "That must be her usual behavior."

"But that's the thing," Arnold says as he gets up from the couch and sits in front of the chair at my table. "She is never like that. Everyone knows that Reena is down-to-earth, calm, and never jumps to conclusions ever but that day the way she acted out of her character."

"But maybe, she is like that. She must have kept her natural behavior under control."

"Maybe, or Maybe not."

"Well, enough about that, and should I tell you about how my date with Elisabeth went?"

"Yep, but make haste, or Jennifer would not just kill me, she would kill you too if I don't go home in the next fifteen minutes," Arnold told me as he read the time on his watch. "She will call me any moment now."

At the same time, he gets a phone call and it is indeed Jennifer. Once he talked things out with her and told her that he would leave in fifteen minutes, I started telling him the whole situation that happened at the dinner. Once I was done with telling him the rest, he had a curious look on his face.

"Can you describe the person Elisabeth was rude to?" He asks.

"Uh, she was Indian, Olive skin tone, and I guess she was of almost my age."

"Were they celebrating something today?"

"I think, it was something like her brother getting a big project or anything like that."

"You met Reena today! Or at least her family of sorts." Arnold exclaims. "Jennifer just told me that Reena had an encounter with the woman who was rude to her for some reason and she describes the same thing."

"So you mean to tell me that the person who despises you a lot is the same person I almost met today?" I asked him only for him to nod his head. "So, I met her already?"

"Yep, you have already met, Reena Kaur."

I tried to nod my head and something clicked in my head. "Wait, her name is Reena Kaur?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Did I tell you that tomorrow there is going to be an interview for Sales Manager in our office?" I ask him. "Anyway, I think I did, and guess who is the person interviewing for that post."

The moment he realized my hint, his eyes widened. "You kidding?"

"Nope. Before leaving for the date today, I got the information about the interview from my secretary and she even gave me the file about the candidate."

I stood up from my chair and searched the table where the files were lying. Once I found her file, I gave it to Arnold and he opened it. "Let's see her resume, shall we?"

"Why?"

"You know, Jake. You are such a party popper, I have the only chance to look at her Resume, and you think, I will give up the chance? Never."

"But it's against the—"

"Name: Reena Kaur, Age: 24, Qualification: graduated from NYU Stern School of Business with 750 GMAT, 3.9 GPA. She got a 3.9 GPA?!" Arnold read out loud. "She is that smart?!"

"Everyone is not like you, Arnold. You are lucky that your sports background and academic background gave you enough scores to be called a topper. Now give me the file back." I snatched the file from him and saw her photo again. "The photo seems like was taken a few years ago because now she looks somewhat different from her picture."

"She is 24, and she had an internship with another company as well. Yes, I just remembered Jennifer telling me something about Reena skipping a grade or two when they were young. Fun fact: they both have skipped the same grades but Reena was the one who was the topper." Arnold says. "My Jennifer is so cool, right?"

"Not interested," I told him and started reading everything from her resume.

Once reading the resume, I knew that I would love to meet her in person.