Besides being his bff and colleague, Tarun was also the owner of a chain of cafes, Cafe Frio.

Thanks to Zen’s mom constantly being worried about her ZeeZee’s eating habits and health, a branch of Tarun’s cafe was recently opened in the Érevna HQ premises.

As if Mrs.Lobo wasn’t enough, now Zen had to contend with Tarun nagging him about eating food as well.

Zen could at least understand Mrs.Lobo’s worry. She treated him as her own grandson and she was as dear to him as his own grandmom. But Tarun’s act of being the worrying wife was grating on his already threadbare nerves.

He didn’t know what medicine his mom had stuffed his friend with for him to act like this?

Although, he had an inkling that it was more a way of playing pranks on Zen while being under Zen’s mom’s protection. Tarun could be as audacious as he wished to be, without worrying about retaliation from Zen or Zen pulling rank on him!

So now besides Mrs.Lobo, Zen also had to deal with Tarun’s shrewish acts and that too in front of his staff.

It isn’t like Zen couldn’t take the joke, but Tarun’s acts were becoming outlandish and outrageous day-by-day.

And with Danny joining the company, Zen didn’t want him to get the wrong idea or misunderstand Zen and Tarun’s relationship.

Everyone in the Lab knew that Zen and Tarun were bosom friends and that Tarun was just acting, but Danny is new, if he got the wrong impression then what will Zen do?

If Danny...stopping mid-stride and mid-thought Zen pulled-up his brain for thinking so uselessly!

Why should he worry what Danny understood or not? His own thoughts were churning butter, where did he have the headspace to worry about someone else?

His heart was in enough of a turmoil without his brain also joining the party!

He was anyway heading to the cafe to look for Tarun who could probably help him get some answers and sort the confusion frothing inside him.

Unbeknownst to Zen, both his naggers, one young one old, were currently engaged in an enjoyable gossip session that starred him in the primary role and Danny coming in close second.

After running away from Zen’s cabin, Mrs.Lobo had sought refuge in Tarun’s cafe & cottened him on everything that happened between Zen & Danny in the conference hall and then Zen’s resulting behavior after returning to his own cabin.

She didn’t leave out a single detail, giving Tarun her sight and insights too.

Tarun listened to it all with audible interest and disbelief.

Tarun prided himself on being open-minded and being able to judge a person on the basis of his merits rather than his physical or sexual attributes. He also didn’t distinguish between his friends.

But even after listening to Mrs.Lobo’s unbiased narration of the incident, he couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that his friend was actually bent!

Tarun wondered if Zen’s snowhite purity till now was because he pursued other interests?

But what bugged him the most was that even after all these years of being together as friends and comrades, Zen had never confided in him!

What made him more mad was that neither had he been able to discern this fact in all these years!

But he also couldn’t be blamed. He had never seen Zen act differently with anyone, man or woman, so how would he know?

Is this the reason that Zen could convincingly act a lothario, because he had not even an iota of interest in those girls?

He had been full of reverence because of Zen’s self control, but apparently this was the truth?

Tarun felt a bit conciliated!

Zen had always been aloof and ice-cold with anyone unknown to him. It took a lot of persistence and the willing heart of the other person to get close to Zen.

Even when he was having fun, he was always in-control. Zen was always the ‘designated driver’, the one carrying them all home after a night-out.

That hadn’t changed even once in all the time that Tarun had known Zen. So hearing about an uncharacteristic loss of cool in the ‘King of Iciness’ exhilarated as well as confused Tarun, simulatenously.

He wanted to head to Zen’s cabin and demand answers, right now, but stopped himself. This wasn’t the time or the place to create a scene like this.

But he was sure of one thing, Zen owed him an explanation, and he will get it out of him, come hail or high-water!

Tarun was mentally devising a plan on how to make Zen confess his ‘secrets’, when the very man under discussion, came striding inside the cafe.

When Zen saw the two heads close together in super gossipy mode, his already bad mood fell 100 storeys further!

The entire way here he had felt like his co-workers were looking at him with judgemental eyes. He had felt so self-conscious he had been unable to reply properly to any greetings along the route.

It had taken a very hard 3 months for his dad’s employees to trust him with the lab and their jobs. But his dedication and work ethics had finally won them over.

They now actively seeked his opinions and displayed confidence in his decisions.

With guil

And just when he was beginning to feel happy with the visible change in their attitude towards him, in comes a perfect stranger and upsets the status quo spectacularly!

Zen felt like his 3 months of hard work went poof in a second!

So when he saw Mrs.Lobo and Tarun looking very much like children caught with their hands in the cookie jar, his last thread on his sanity imploded.

He flipped the ‘Open’ sign to ‘Closed’ and with a glare frosty enough to freeze even the ice caps on the North Pole, compelled everyone but Tarun to leave the cafe immediately!

Mrs.Lobo whispered a quick sorry and with an expression of acute pity on her face, along with the other patrons, left Tarun at the mercy of the prickly porcupine, currently moonlighting as their somewhat angry boss.