Once Upon A Mr. Goody Two Shoes

Chapter 3

It was a shabby little stall, with makeshift benches that wobbled slightly as we took a seat. It was these places which made the rain storms not only bearable but even fun. These shabby little stalls with broken down benches serving boiling hot half cutting for five rupees felt more cozy than our posh two BHK apartments in an upscale neighborhood in this weather. As we sat there in a corner, with little wet patches on our clothes where the rain had soaked with steamy little plastic cups of tea in our cold-numb hands, the most unexpected question came from Abeer.

"Can we play twenty questions?"

I stared at him, dumbfounded. Is he serious? Is there something in this tea...? I looked down at the amber colored liquid in my hands, then shook my head. Like I said, living in Abeer Sen's vicinity made me bonkers. I noticed a faint blush rising up his cheeks. His right hand scratched the back of his neck while he blinked his eyes awkwardly. It felt like the cold rain seeped in my heart, froze around it and then melted and cascaded in my stomach to wake up the dormant butterflies.

Only Abeer Sen can blink like that, awkward and adorable at the same moment!

"Umm...just to pass time?" he asked nervously. Nervous? Mr. Abeer Sen? It was a truly strange day. He sounded so vulnerable at the silliest of things; it almost made me laugh.

I was tempted to give in that moment but I wasn't going to - I am a dish who had haughtiness as its garnishing. And garnishes are SO very important in a dish.

I didn't reply, choosing that moment to relish in the piping hot liquid. He was still looking at me. I was gazing ahead, which was stupid, but I didn't have anything else to do. Scrolling through my phone was a very good option, but something in me didn't want to break the spell that the nature had cast upon us. The light within the screen leaves us with no time to appreciate the light around us. Celebrating nature's beauty with a worthy company is a rarity one shouldn't miss.

And you just appreciated his company. Goddammit!

We sat in silence for some time. Then another question came as abruptly as the last one. "Seriously Aashi, do you have anything better to do right now?" I froze.

Aashi. My name rolled out of his mouth in a way I hadn't heard anybody say it. It made me wish I hadn't agreed on a first name basis.

Or maybe agreed on it sooner, so I could hear those two syllables of my name roll out in the sexiest way possi...

I pushed that thought in the farthest and darkest corner of my mind. Realizing how dangerous silence was, I turned to look at him.

"But twenty questions? Seriously, what are we....sixteen?" I questioned.

He rolled his eyes. "If anyone here is acting like a moody teenager, it's definitely not me. Sometimes you are sparing with me, other times you're ignoring me, then it's you being nice, and then suddenly you're back to being Ms. Grouchy."

Heat crept up my neck, but I didn't say anything. Wisely so. Abeer was on a rampage. And if he put it that way, a larger part of me did agree on the 'Ms. Grouchy' part. Ok, on all parts. But I wasn't gonna tell him that any soon. Perhaps never.

He continued his verbal assault on sweet little me. "Sometimes you are so excited in the office about the smallest thing it feels like going back to high school with all the screaming girls and now you are being all sophisticated. Do you have a chronic mood swing disorder?"

He had noticed. How was that even possible?

I fumed. Even if it was true, nobody told me that to my face ever. Even my parents didn't, who exercised (and still exercise) a lot of control over my life. He had gone too far, there was no coming back.