You are brave

Shweta was restlessly tapping her phone on her hand. She was afraid to step out of the glass door until her cab arrived. It was 1 AM and the availability of the cabs had dropped. Her hands were still trembling, all she wanted to do was to reach her room as soon as possible and maybe cry. The app still showed 15 mins ETA. Just then her phone rang, wherein she thought that it was a call from the driver, she saw a contact name flashing on the screen. She wasn't in a state to explain anything to anyone at that point of time but did not want to cause worry to anyone as well. Hence picked up the call and without even hearing anything from the other end stated in a soft monotone, ' I am still in the office, will talk to you later', and disconnected. She checked the app, still 11 mins ETA. Her restlessness grew with each passing minute. She almost skipped a beat when her phone rang for the second time as if she woke up from a nightmare. This time it was the driver, he enquired about the drop location and to Shweta's dismay cancelled the ride. On top of that, the app started showing 'NO CARS AVAILABLE'. She had already been through a lot today and this added to her misery. She tried to calm herself down and stepped out to look for an auto. An abandoned service lane welcomed her. While she was busy trying her luck again on the app, a car stopped right in front of her, she immediately took a u-turn and ran for the glass door in a panic, just when she heard her name in a familiar voice. She turned just to confirm and was relieved to see Kartik in the car. She first looked at the sky for a moment and sat down quickly in the car. 'You just thanked God for sending me, right?', asked Kartik in a cheerful voice. Shweta silently nodded in an agreement. 'By the way, how come you were still working in the office?', asked Kartik while starting the car. Just then he heard a sniff, and on having a close look at Shweta found out that she was crying and trembling at the same time. He stopped immediately. It was shocking for him to see Shweta like that and hence was unprepared to cope with the situation. He chose humour as his armour and said, 'I never knew that you were so desperate to go with the cab driver, you still have a chance'. With that said, he was expecting a slap on his shoulder from her and understood that something was wrong when that didn't happen. Now, he got worried and asked, 'Hey, what happened?'. Shweta had lost control of her tears, she couldn't hold them any longer. With gasping breathes she managed to say a broken sentence, ' I was stuck in the lift since 7 PM and then I could not find a cab, I thought I'll be stuck in office whole night'. Kartik understood the extent of her panic and hence did not probe her for further details. He let her cry and just handed over the tissue box to her. He had analyzed the situation in the best possible way and allowed anguish to flow from her eyes. He was the best person to know, that all she needs now was to reach home. He drove silently and stopped only at her place. Shweta was comparatively calm now, she had got her required 'me time'. But before Shweta left, he finally asked, ' Why didn't you call me earlier?'. 'Because I thought I was brave', Shweta sighed. 'How did you know that I needed help?', asked Shweta wiping her running nose. ' Because my brave lion did not roar', Kartik said with an underconfident smile, which soon brightened when Shweta reciprocated with a chuckle. That was Kartik's way of reinforcing her strength.