Dhruv was taken aback for a second, blinking at her in awe.
"Wow! You are packed with surprises!", he was charmed.
Riya's face flushed and she started biting her lips nervously. She didn't know why she blurted it out like that, although what she wanted to convey was different.
"I... I meant, you should touch me every day little, when I'm not expecting. I went to my psychiatrist today. She said it'll be like….. an experiment?… If it succeeds, that'll be my treatment!", she said awkwardly, embarrassed by her own slip-up.
Dhruv moved closer to her with a foxy smile when Riya retreated slightly. He gently picked a strand of hair caressing her face and twirled it with his finger. "So...…. When can we begin?", he murmured soft against her lips.
She could feel his warm breath and strong cologne prickling her nerves.
As she rightly decided, Dhruv was the right candidate for this experiment because whenever he touched, she had a different feeling. Not panic, not lust, but tingling feel inside herself which she couldn't fathom.
Her heart raced like crazy with a small breath escaping through her parted lips.
She was almost about to give up but suddenly realized her resolve and pulled herself back before he could proceed with the next action. She grabbed his hand and all of a sudden turned it sideways making him yell, "Arghhhhh!"
"Are you a delinquent?", he asked rotating his wrist to soothe the pain. She silently gave a devilish smile.
"How do you do this? Do you know martial arts?", he asked amused.
She chuckled. "I learnt self-defense…. You get haphephobia and you'll automatically learn it too….", she said coolly with a shrug of shoulders.
He sneered at her. Dhruv already devised hundred vicious plans in his mind which he would slowly execute as part of their little experiment.
"Why are you smiling like that?", Riya asked unaware of his devious methods.
It was his turn to shrug his shoulders in response.
She rolled her eyes thinking 'whatever' and said, "I'm going to annual meet tomorrow. You know about it right?"
"Yeah", Dhruv said still rotating his wrist.
"Stalker!", she chided but he ignored it.
It was a natural practice in the industry for business rivals to be always updated about each other. Riya had an internal spy in Dhruv's company too, which he was still unaware of.
"How long?", he asked again.
"I'll be back tomorrow evening. I don't attend fully."
"What? Why not? The fun activities are the best. You'll have treasure hunt, photo shoots, sports…..", he realized why she wouldn't be attending all those because it involves a lot of people. "But, I can understand why you won't attend."
"Hmm"
"And here I thought I could bring someone home when you were gone", he sighed getting an intense glower from Riya.
"Do you want a taste of me again?", she hissed at him.
"I do… But you're not letting me…", he said playfully trying to grab her hand, but she was quicker than him and got up.
"What's there for dinner?", she asked.
"Egg fried rice."
Looking at her frown, he asked, "What were you expecting?"
"I was craving some chicken today", she shrugged, "I'll change and be back!", she announced on the way to her room.
Dhruv picked up his phone and started placing an order for chicken.
~~*~~
Although it was some years before, Sam still couldn't shake the man from her memory. She loved him so much only for him to leave her alone at the end, like everyone else.
But he was now back in her life, which she never expected and more than that, he called up to meet. She warned herself not to fall in the same trap once again, but her stupid heart wouldn't stop reminiscing the good old days.
She reached the Café in which he asked her to meet, but was hesitating outside.
In the parking lot nearby, she quickly saw her reflection on a car window and straightened out her red knee length party dress. She thought she didn't care but after all, her heart was deceiving her.
She gulped hard and entered the café. Rohan was already there, waiting for her.
He was dressed in the same suit he wore to Riya's office. Handsome, confident and kind, he sat there scrolling through the messages in his phone. He casually turned to the entrance and noticed Sam, as slender and elegant as always standing there doubtfully.
"Hi", Sam said in a frail tone after walking to where he sat.
If he wasn't paying attention to the door, he wouldn't have known her arrival or heard her greeting.
"Hi"
Sam was fidgeting, reflecting it was a bad idea to have come. They both sat silently with only the light music on the background filling the gap.
"Um…. What would you like to have?", he asked politely passing over the menu card to her.
"Just…. Latte", she said still avoiding eye contact.
The waiter arrived and Rohan soon ordered two Latte's and turned over to Sam. She looked uneasy and nervous.
"Mm…. So, how was your day?", he tried to make conversation.
"Why did you call me?", she blurted out immediately not wanting to make small talk just for the sake of it.
"Sam….. I wanted to apologize to you…. For….. breaking up", he said quietly.
"You are too late….", she still looked down.
"Will you please look at me?", he asked almost pleading. It hurt him too, but she wouldn't understand his reason and he wasn't planning on telling her that either.
Rohan was the kindest, sweetest and the best person she met in her life. The hardest thing Sam ever had to do was moving on from him. This was killing her.
She peeped at him through her long eyelashes.
"Sam…. I'm so so sorry… Really sorry… I had my reasons which I can't reveal to you yet… That's why I did that… But I never forgot you and I really meant to patch up with you sooner…", he said sounding very sincere which broke her heart.
"Please.....please don't. I don't want to hear it. We broke up… Let's just stay that way…."
"We had the best time together… Won't you agree?", he asked softly.
"I do… and that's why it hurt me so much… I don't want to be hurt again….", she said again looking down.
"Sam….. I can't tell you, but I had a family situation because of which I had to break up with you… I had to leave... I wanted to contact you many times after that, but I was afraid you'll not talk. We never hated each other, and you know it…. Please…. All I ask is one chance….", he asked tenderly stroking the back of her hand resting on the table.
"Hmm….", she weakly murmured. She knew she was getting swayed, but it was inevitable.
"I at least request you to think about it before you say no", he sighed. She didn't stop him when he took her hand in his, which he considered as a good sign and continued.
He hoped she would accept or understand his circumstances. Even when they broke up, it was not ugly, so he believed it would be fine now.
The waiter came with their drinks, and they had it in complete silence pondering over a million thoughts.
~~*~~
Riya was ready in her formal purple dress and black heel, waiting for her driver. She carried only her laptop case, as it was a mere one-day trip and she'd be back by evening. She was skimming through her emails and morning news groaning on reading all the negative emails from board about a merger last year.
When she took the decision, the other company was doing perfectly fine but recently because of change in management, the employees were slacking off and Riya was getting the heat for it. If it were a decision taken by the board, they'd have been fine.
"Politics!", she thought out loud.
A sleek red Lamborghini slid in front of her with Dhruv in the driver seat wearing sunglasses. He was gesturing her to get in.
"What?", she asked surprised.
"I'll give you a lift", he replied.
He looked like a supermodel, driving a red sports car and wearing stylish brown trench coat. His hair was ruffled today, probably he didn't apply hair gel, she thought.
He was throwing a modest smile at Riya, but she had her doubts. Whenever he was too kind, she was afraid there was some ultimate hidden motive.
"Do you want something from me?", she asked after taking the passenger seat and strapping herself in.
"I can't drop my wife?", he asked in return, sarcastically.
"You scare me", she shook her head sighing.
He suddenly took her right hand in his and interlocked his fingers with hers. The gesture stopped Riya's heart for a moment.
She looked at him wide eyed, shocked, surprised and completely blushed.
"Part of our experiment", he smiled and held onto her hand firmly.
She couldn't help but smile, "you're a playboy", she chided.