Heartbeats And Halos

Chapter 17

• a u t h o r •

"It's too spicy and sour!" Roshan's face twisted involuntarily as the sourness had triggered his taste buds. From the outside, it looked like he was disgusted but he was just simply triggered by the incredible sourness of pani puri. After all the billionaire is not used to eating such things.

Palak being palak couldn't help but burst into laughter seeing his reaction. Once Roshan had composed himself he glared at his date who realized that he wasn't pleased to see her making fun of him. Palak immediately put a hand on her mouth and turned away.

Unaware of the thick tension in the air the shopkeeper kept serving them. Palak was eating it with utter delight and was even moaning at the delicious flavor which wasn't exactly helping Roshan to stay put. He was already struggling with the gol gappe and now she was also distracting him.

He decided to ignore her and give his whole attention to the tiny round balls in front of him. There were already three gol gappe in his leaf as he was extremely slow in eating them. He just couldn't handle the spice. After eating three it felt torcher for him to even consider eating another.

Then a stupid idea struck his brain and he thought it was an absolutely brilliant.

Stupid, stupid Roshan.

He smiled evilly as he turned to Palak who was too busy in munching on her gol gappe to even see him looking at her. He cleared his throat to get her attention but the girl didn't bulge.

"Uhum uhum..."

Ignored.

"Uhum uhum..." Our boy tried harder but to no avail.

Ignored again.

"Uhum!! Uhum uhum!!" He tried harder and ended up coughing in the process. A few curious faces including one of Palak's turned towards him. Palak furrowed her eyebrows in annoyance. It wasn't that she was unaware of him trying to get her attention but she wanted him to do it properly.

If he wants to say something shouldn't he call me by my name? What is this arrogant behavior? I certainly don't like it.

"If you wanna say something just say so." She tried to tell him politely but he didn't miss the annoyance in her voice. He looked around him to see the other people standing around the stall were still staring at him. Some in irritation, some in curiousness, and some cold, blank stares. He gave them an apologetic smile, never had he ever felt so insulted in his life.

Back in Bangalore wherever he went people knew who he was and they always respected him but here in Bhubaneswar nobody knew who he was, maybe some people did but mostly people were not interested in business. He really wasn't used to not being known but it felt nice for once to breathe freely without reporters and folks jogging around you.

"Palak" he whispered and she turned to him. Others have looked away then but he really didn't want to their attention again. "Say aaaaaa" he trailed off and she furrowed her eyebrows drawing them in a thin line with a pout on her lips.

"Have you lost it?" She whisper yelled and he rolled his eyes.

"Just say aaaaaaa. You know when someone calls someone they say 'edhar aaaa' (come here)." He rambled some nonsense and now Palak was really worried about his mental state.

"Are you mental? Why would I do that?" She questioned.

"Just do so." He insisted and she looked at him with a calculative gaze before sighing.

"Aaaaaaa----agolohhhhh" she began but was interrupted when he put a gol gappa in her mouth. She was taken by surprise, she struggled a little because it was but in her involuntarily but it didn't take her much time to swallow it. Roshan was grinning sheepishly and she glared at him.

"What the--" she began but stopped when she heard someone say.

"Aww they are so cute!!" Some lady squealed beside Palak and she diverted her gaze to look at her. The lady was probably in her mid-forties with chubby cheeks and a few strands of grey hair. There was a man beside her who looked almost the same age as her so no doubt he was her husband.

Palak looked down immediately at the lady's comment as her cheeks burned in embarrassment. Roshan too glanced here and there awkwardly to hide his humiliation.

This is all his fault. Idiot! Why would he do that?

Palak thought to herself. She literally cursed Roshan inside her head.

Bad bad idea Roshan! What in the world were you thinking!? Now they must be thinking you both are a lovey-dovey couple!! Ughh!

Roshan's subconscious mind said to him and he shook his head to get away from those thoughts only to find his date glaring at him. If looks could kill Roshan would have been Buried six feet underground.

"Remember when we were like that?" As if the situation wasn't bad enough the lady spoke again. She was asking that to her husband who was standing next to her.

"Yes, honey." He smiled and continued. "Young and in love!" Palak closed her eyes in annoyance not being able to take the comment. She had never felt so embarrassed in her life. Meanwhile, Roshan was looking at the man and his wife in astonishment.

How could they freely pass comments like that? And here I thought the people of Odisha were orthodox...

Well, he clearly thought wrong. He gave the gaily couple an awkward smile as he found it too rude to ignore them. Meanwhile, Palak's head was ninety degrees down.

So in love? Yeah right!

They both practically laughed from the inside at the Statement. Palak raised her head and didn't dare look at the couple. She glared at Roshan straight as if warning him 'Pull such stunt once more and you are done for.' Roshan mumbled a small sorry as if he understood what she was trying to say.

The rest of the gol gappe eating session was awkward and quiet as hell except for a bunch of notorious teenagers who were throwing a few comments here and there.

Roshan had to force himself to eat all the golgappe by himself as there was no other option. After eating a few he felt as though they weren't that bad. He had started to enjoy maybe just a little but that was something he would never admit it out loud.

***

When my brain is tired of studying!! Giving small updates to keep my readers up to date! And by the way, folks don't forget to vote and COMMENT! I would really appreciate it if you'd let me know your thoughts about the plot.

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