Bon Appétit

«Fiery»

•Mᴀɴɪ's ᴛᴇᴀ•

May 21st, Sucrè D'orge, on the floor of the barista counter, 

Kathir was sitting opposite the exact place he had hugged her last night, sipping quitely on Mani's tea.  There was the usual murmur of a steadily busy cafe and heavenly the smell of roasted coffee beans. Mani had finished his tea and was minding the coffee machine, cleaning it, while Kathir was supposed to be at the billing counter 

But what he was doing was having his life flash before his very eyes. He had not had a wink of sleep from last night. What had he done?  What made him say it- Did he actually say 'Marry me' to a girl whose name he didn't know until then?

Never mind that he had been saying her name to himself, around five hundred times since she had  said it. And everytime he took her name in his head, it came with an uncontrollable smile. 

But that still did not justify the unexpected proposing? Unexpected for him too, because the words had rolled out of his tongue before he even had a chance to think twice Seriously?  Seriously,Kathir? 

He tried to think of her expression while he drove her home. The car ride had mostly been silent, but not the I-have-to-get-away-from-him kind of silent, but more of a comfortable but flushed silence. There were a lot of stolen glances and a lot of monologues at either end. 

He had dropped her and the gate and when he made to get out from the car, she stopped him saying "Illa paravala...", she had looked around the dark alleyway unsurely, "Romba late agiduchu yaara pathanga na theva illatha prachana..",  she frowned apologetically. Kathir gave her a long look and understanding nod before closing the door ... maybe his hesitancy had been so evident on his face that she smiled. A genuine one. And bent down on the window frame and said,

"Today was... unexpected. But unga kita pessunathu nala irunthuchu.. Thank you again for listening..",  she said, and he could tell she had meant it. There was something about her eyes.

He had nodded at her, with a small smile as she waved him bye, because he was sure if he had opened his mouth. he would have begged her not to go or asked her when she would see him again. Or worse, ask her to marry him-yet again. He couldn't trust himself around her, anymore

But the more he thought about it, the more he was sure that he didn't regret saying it. But he did think that a well thought out and planned proposal would have made his case stronger...

"Yen da ippidi sothapura...", he mentally slapped himself. 

"Mothalali..", Dheena called out then stepped back because he knew Kathir hated that word and would for sure throw something at him, 

But Kathir being in deep thought, he didn't hear it. Dheena looked at Mani, who gave him a grave look, 

"Avaru kalai lenthu ippidithan irukaru..", He said looking down at his boss as he cleaned the milk frother, "Sapudave illa... tea matum than kuducharu..", 

Dheena sat down in front of Kathir his face serious, "En nae...udambu seri illaya..", Kathir still sported a vacant expression as he counted the wooden floor boards, Dheena looked up to mani, who gave a 'I-told-you-so' shrug, 

"Annae!", he shook Kathir back to earth, 

"Huh! Enna da enna atchu..", he asked, coming back to life, albeit a bit sloth-ish. 

"Red chudi vara-",Dheena didn't even have a chance to finish his sentence, before Kathir had used Dheena to pull himself up and jumped up his head turning 360 degrees. "Enga da...", Kathir craned his neck hard standing on his tippy toes.