Shanaiya Bose was lost in thought. Her friend, asha shook her out of reverie.
"Helloooo, Is anyone in there? You look dazed.", she said waving her hands dramatically in front of her.
She had to blink twice, looked at Asha with deliberate concentration and said, "Yea, you were saying Mini was unfair to you." Asha seemed satisfied and carried on talking about her boss, whilst shanaiya drifted away again.
One of the things on her mind these days was a face, not just any, but a completely flawless, Adonis-like face with features chiseled from stone, if you may.
When Asha had pointed him out to her in the company bus as her friend who had just returned from an on-site trip and had later introduced them, she didn’t think much of him.
Reason 1; he was wearing huge glares, in effect covering up mesmerizing eyes and 2 ; The clothes weren’t a saving grace either, he had worn a loose checked formal shirt with loose cargoes, she would never have guessed the big, beautiful body that lay within.
Instead 1 & 2 combined gave the impression of someone who was trying too hard, ‘a total wannabe’; she judged and smiled politely when introduced.
The following day, as the bus halted at his stop, she saw a stunner standing there, without the glares this time & in crisp formals. She couldn’t help drooling. As realization dawned of who it was, she mentally kicked herself for being so dismissive of him.
As she stared at him disbelievingly from under the protection of her glares, she checked herself. Yes, she was immaculately dressed, accessorized well and wore subtle make-up which enhanced her features perfectly.
She wasn't sure about many thing, but one thing she was that she knew was that they would have some story together. It could be a chapter, a section, a page or even two lines long, but it would be there.
According to the subsequent inquiries, he was of a different religion. But then again, she thought, there was no harm in making him lose sleep over her.
To induce the first stir of desire, she looked right into his eyes every time their paths crossed. He almost nodded his head once, clearly to induce some sense of sanity...
Clearly she thought, this was completely new to him, he knew nothing of eye-games.
She was anyway without intention of striking up a conversation.
Soon it just became just this thing they did, her eyes automatically sought him out when he entered the bus and his did the same.
It was electric, no one saw what they were doing, it was like a common secret, a game no one else was privy to. They felt like the two of them were alone in the whole wide world for those two seconds.
It was cutting edge seduction.
It didn’t help though that he thought of himself as a ‘lovegod’ of sorts, so she knew she had to keep him off-balance, change the rules of the game and step back to heighten the intrigue. She was just delaying that phase as she was enjoying this too much in her otherwise boring life or lack of it, but what she never imagined was that circumstance will play spoilsport and interfere, so as to make her change course.
One afternoon after a solitary walk and with a much clearer head, she got into the lift to get to the destination floor (6th). When on the way, it halted on the 5th, where to her absolute surprise, he was waiting with friend in tow, the friend stepped in, but he didn’t, as you guessed it, she was at it again, looking him in the eye, but this time, with reckless abandon, without bother of who’s watching, he had never looked that good!
She was caught off-guard by the proximity of this encounter, also because they were on hallowed ground. She had never played eye games within office premises, so was shaken at this absolute invasion of private space.
Her eyes were almost begging him not to take the lift, displaying a lot of emotion in the bargain, he came up with his own vulnerable look too, which was 'oh-so-irresistible', She saw a softness in his otherwise hot & tough Adonis-like face, which made her melt, that was when she realized that this guy is more than a just a piece of meat, he is a man she could fall in love with!
That realization made her eyes intensify the pleading, asking him to go away, to not take the lift, he looked almost helpless now.
He actually would have let it go, if it was not for his friend asking him ‘What’s wrong?’ and prodding him in.
Once he was in, she could feel his eyes on her, observing curiously the bundle of nerves in front of him. She, on the other hand was half-pleased with herself for creating the supremely romantic moment (which she knew she would treasure until something better came up) and half-mad at herself for letting her face mirror her thoughts so clearly, she clenched her fist and waited with bated breath for the destination floor and rushed out, once there.
Later, She replayed the moment in her mind over and over again, trying to decipher just how much she might have emoted/ what he was thinking at that time/ how dashing he looked that time/ how beautiful he made her feel and also something completely new, now he was more than meat, he was a person, She had seen him vulnerable and so had he, now she was thinking of the person (let’s call it level 2), alarm bells were ringing in her head, but she tried and ignored the noise.
The warm fuzzy feeling that you feel, when you know you are desired, enveloped her and she was reveling in it, even when she met her Asha, in the evening.
She was reliving the eye-lock and enjoying it immensely, only half-listening to what Asha was saying. Actually, she was not even pretending to listen.
Shanaiya was clearly in another world and Asha wanted all the gory details.
She hesitated a bit, wondering if Asha, the realist, would break the bubble, but finally took the risk, as she was dying to talk about it.
Asha soon started teasing her with him, which she did not take to kindly, she feared that either it would trivialize the awesomeness of the moment or would build it up too much, so while trying bravely to control the blushing, she told her firmly to stop it.
Asha wanted to say something but hesitated and now it was Shanaiya who egged her on. Asha finally relented and said that ‘when such things happen, she prefers to laugh it out, so that it doesn’t play on the mind too much’
Damn! She knew Asha was right.
Asha asked her if she could see a future with him, she replied in the negative.
She didn’t want a ‘lovegod’ for a husband; why you ask? Well, for one she would get a complex and would live in constant fear of him straying. She was sure he would because the temptation for him would be too great, & the best part of temptation is the giving-in to it.
She loved the forbidden, but was getting the feeling that she had played with fire enough...
So, the voice of reason and the alarm bells in her head had made their point very clear.
The bubble broke and she was back in the real world with a clear mind et al.
So next day on, she gave him the royal ignore. (It irritated and amused her for a while that this stepping back was initially a part of her plan and that it would only pique his interest in her)
That very day, an article came in the paper which reverberated with her, she could identify with the quote:
When both speech and desire tremble on the threshold of silence…”We looked at each other without speaking, we spoke to each other, not knowing what we were saying”
- Giancomo Casanova
He doesn’t take the company bus anymore, travels by his new bike.
Once when she was out with her office buddies at D-mart after lunch to pick up some essentials (read chocolates, cookies), while they were looking for the least crowded counter to pay at, she spotted him at the farthest one, from where he was watching her, vulnerable look in place.
She gulped...
(warm, fuzzy feeling)
... and looked away.
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