The Balcony

Chapter 16

Kajal looked ahead of her and said, "I do not lie."

She heard a smirk in his voice as he said, "You use verbal diversionary tactics."

She looked at him and said, "So do you!"

He replied easily, "I never said I disapproved. I was merely stating the obvious."

She picked up the box and stood up. She looked at him and went, "Shall we go back? It's getting late."

He obliged and slid off the bench. He took the empty coffee cup from her hand and walked up to the trash can to toss them. She looked at him and thought irritably to herself how he managed to get her so easily. She normally did that to others and they got angry with her for picking on their little traits. She finally understood how they felt. In her world, only Naina understood her that well. "Naina! Crap!" She thought to herself. She hadn't updated Naina about his so called "engagement." She decided to call her sister despite the late hour right after she went home and tell her about it. Something told her Naina would withdraw her promise of bugging her about him. Well she would think about that later. Vikramaditya walked back to her and smiled. She didn't know how to react to this smile. It was like it came out of nowhere and for no reason. Did that ever happen with this guy?

She just started walking in the direction of their building and he fell into step beside her. They played as safe as ever not giving anything extra away. She realized that they would only speak about things they already knew about each other. Which was very little. However they never seemed to run out of things to talk about and she was never bored with him. It was surprising to her to think like that about a guy she had known for a little over a week. She absently shrugged and he noticed it. He asked, "What are you thinking about?"

She replied, "Crick in the shoulders."

He rolled his eyes and said, "You're easy to read. You just don't know that yet."

She scowled at him and said crabbily, "I am not! You just think you can read me."

They rode the elevator up to her floor. She noticed that he didn't press the eleventh floor button. He answered, "In this case, I don't think. I know."

She gave up and stood quietly. She didn't like anyone apart from her being stubborn. She then laughed at the irony of that sentence. He leaned on the wall of the lift and gave her a side glance as though he knew exactly what she was thinking about. It was a funny meeting of the minds.

As they got out of the lift at her floor, she walked up to her door and he followed. She pulled the key from her pocket and opened the door. She turned around and looked up at him. He smiled and handed back the cake box. 

She felt the moment would somehow be incomplete if she just said bye to him. So she kept the cake box on the floor hurriedly. His eyes followed her movements. She straightened up and kept her hands on his shoulders, stood on her toes and kissed him lightly on the cheek.

Oh, the smile that followed the kiss was something she wished she could capture. It felt like she had just been let into the secret he had been holding onto in that smile. 

He pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and looked into her eyes for a moment. He then closed the distance between them and kissed her. The sort of kiss that she made her forget that she was standing outside her open door in the stairway. The sort of kiss that made her tighten her hold around him. The sort of kiss that erased pretty much all else for that one moment. Because that's all it was. A moment. Okay, maybe two. 

He pulled back and looked at her with a grin. He then slowly bent down to pick up the box from the floor and placed the box on her palm. He then said "Goodnight Kajal..." and climbed up the stairs.

She called out, "Wait!"

He stopped mid-step and turned back to look at her. She walked up the stairs and stood right at eye level with him, one step higher than the one he was standing on. She reached a hand out slowly and his eyes followed her hand. She quickly pulled the cap from his head and said, "This is mine. Goodnight Vikramaditya." And skipped back to her apartment.

Author's Note: Did ya like this chapter? :P I had quite a lot of fun writing it. :D Anyway, Chapter 17 is a little while away I'm afraid as I have a lot of work left for NaNoWriMo and I must work on that. I'll get back in a few days though. I hope you guys will still be here waiting to know what happens next. Okay? Thanks! :D Okay bye bye for now. - S