Quantum Potente

28. Cycling to heart

Music Recommendation: 'My Dil Goes Mmmm', by Gayatri Iyer, Jaideep Shani, Shaan, Vishal-Shekhar, from 'Salaam Namaste.'

Life is too good if Rian gets to see the specific expression on Shakti's Bose's face that she was showcasing at that time. The look of utter speechlessness. He didn't know or care if it was from anger, disbelief, or nervousness. But the expression was worth picturing and being framed, so he could see it every day whenever all the pricks in his life started to get on his last nerves.

But alas. Good things are temporary. So was the cute expression on Shakti's face. Her face contorted into a huge frown, as she placed both hands on her hips in a defensive manner, as if trying to display her displeasure at his earlier words. But her hasty heartbeat was not exactly in her favor. It never did anyway as it always played his favorite rhythm, his customized harmony.

"What makes you think that I would oblige to your declarations? Are you the President of the US? Even if you were, I wouldn't have listened to you.", Shakti said with a snarky bite in her tone. Here was the feistiness that he slowly found himself getting interested in.

'Only interest?'

'Shut the fuck off and scram away.', he ordered the annoying whisperers in his head. The pesty voices died down and his focus returned to the woman in front of him; the woman who was infuriatingly fetching and he was having a tough time coping with the unnecessary thoughts that completely revolved around her.

It should stop as indulging deeper into these sentiments is always disastrous. He wouldn't ever forget the result he had to face just by allowing a little ball of sunshine into his life as his friend. The fate she had to suffer just by the ticket she got into his space as a friend. He didn't want to think about the worst things that could happen to the woman who would enter his life as something more than a friend.

As usual, he threw all his concerns out of the window, the moment his mind returned to the cause of all his distress, locking his eyes to the deepest browns of hers. He flashed his charming grin at her, and whispered, "Don't you think that you should listen to me and take these free classes you are getting? You are getting an opportunity to learn from the best. It would be your loss if you let this go."

Not that he would let her let this go. He can be persistent when he wants and has no ounce of shame or guilt for it. 'Take what you want. Or someone else will snatch it right under your nose.'

"If you think that your manipulation will work on me and I will succumb to your amusements, then I can't help but disappoint you. I am not interested in taking classes from you."

Smart shortie. Never disappoints, does she?

"Think with your brain and not your useless ego, Shakti. Cycling lessons from me. I get amusement from you. You get free lessons.", Rian tried to coax her into acceptance.

"To make fun of myself on the bicycle and fuel your kink for amusements from my discomfort? No thanks. No need to waste your time on this. I hope you need sleep as much as I need, as you spend extra calories on making other's lives miserable. Thanks for considering me to be a befitting disciple though." Her words were now trifling with the string of his patience.

Rian stepped closer to him as his eyes roamed over her short-sleeved top and three-quarter loose pants. She was back with her glasses, trying her best to use her dear glasses as a false sense of firmness and hide any of her vulnerabilities, which he saw whenever she was bare-faced. She must have worn it when she tip-toed out of her dorm like a sneaky little thing she was. Threats can do wonders.

"I want to waste my time on you. So, keep quiet and deal with it.", he said with a tone of finality. He reached the cycle, lifted its stand, and settled it in front of Shakti. "Get up."