The Marriage Contract

26 - Camping Companions

"Abhimanyu? What are you doing here?" Akshara asked, dumbfounded.

"Can I come in at least? It's pouring out here!"

"Umm, yes, sure. Come in." Akshara moved to the side to give Abhimanyu shelter from the pouring rain.

Akshara watched, trying her hardest not to stare like a fangirl as Abhimanyu stepped inside the community center and shook his hair, letting the rain water from his hair slash all over the place, with some droplets hitting her in the face too. Yeah, this man was no less than a Greek God and he left no chance to let her know of the same!

"Okay, now tell me. What are you doing here? In this weather?" Akshara questioned, snapping herself back to reality.

"I umm...came here to give you this." Abhimanyu brought something out of his jean pocket and held it out in front of her eyes.

"My charger? You came all the way here in this stormy weather to give me my charger!"

"Yes! I just thought I'd bring you your charger in case you had an emergency." He replied innocently, trying his best to not gag over the lameness of his own excuse. Now that he was here, he was beginning to see how desperate he looked. Yeah, coming here was a mistake but he had never been one to back down from a mistake before. So he was going to see this through.

"What sort of emergency?" Akshara folded her arms around her chest.

"Emergency as in you phone ran out of battery and you needed to charge it! You know, in case you needed to contact someone?" What the fuck was he even saying? His words already sounded stupid in his head but sounded even stupider once he spoke them out loud.

"What on Earth are you even talking about?! How did you even know where I was?"

"I...called Richa. She told me where you were." Not to mention he had received an earful for interrupting Richa's date night booty call time and gotten blasted for it.

"At this time of the night and she didn't ask you why you wanted to know where I volunteered?"

"She was busy so she didn't ask any questions." Preoccupied getting her sexual needs fulfilled would not have been the appropriate thing to say in this scenario.

"So wait, let me get this straight: you called Richa in the middle of the night —whilst she was on a date nonetheless so you could ask her which community center I volunteered and drove all the way in this stormy weather just to return my phone charger? Did I cover all the bases?" Akshara questioned, not buying any single one of his excuses of why Abhimanyu bothered to show up at the community center this late at night.

"Yes, precisely." He nodded his head like a diligent, obedient child, hoping Akshara wouldn't dig too deep into his flawed reasoning.

"You know, your excuse just want from plain bad to worse. But I don't have time to deal with you right now. I have my mind preoccupied with other more important issues." She stifled a groan thinking of the kids waiting on her to tell them their next course of action. "So you nah leave now." She ushered Abhimanyu, moving to open the door for him.

Leave? He didn't come all the way here, risking his life for her charger only to be told to leave!

Akshara opened the door for Abhimanyu only to be greeted by the strong winds and pelting rain blocking their vision and pushing them back inside and forcing Akshara to close the door.

Hallelujah for small victories! "You can't send me out in weather like that! What if I get blown away by the wind?" Abhimanyu asked innocently, pushing her buttons.