His Dusk, Her Dawn

Chapter 14. My monkey

Her hands were soft unlike how she behaved with me - at least, she had gained some weight. Not to forget how she devoured everything on the menu; I felt like she had starved for months. But, it was good to see her eating healthily. She was so busy gobbling down the food that she didn't notice me staring at her.

I had been observing her a lot these days, and because of that, I learned a lot more things about her: apart from our shared interests like red colour and butterscotch ice-cream, I learnt that she had started eating bitter guard, which she despised when we were in school, and butter chicken was one of her favourite dishes. Other than that, she liked drinking all kind of fruit juices and salads.

And that wasn't all. I learnt that she was a heavy sleeper. The proof was her still sleeping on my back while I yelled her name for almost ten minutes, but still she didn't wake up. After we finished our meals at the dhaba, we were back on the track. I focused on driving, while my passenger was trying to keep herself awake by torturing my ears.

Shreyas was right; Sandy Pandy was the worst singer I had ever heard.

I didn't disturb her though. I was also feeling drowsy, so her voice was a good distraction minus her singing ability. I mentally thanked her for keeping me awake, but when I felt her body against mine, all of my sleep was out of the window.

For a minute, I froze. Thankfully, I didn't land ourselves in a ditch. She had to do that when I was trying to keep my focus; her hands slowly encircled my waist and head lay peacefully on the back. I could feel the skin of my back heating up rapidly, reaching to my face. Fortunately, my face was covered with the helmet, or anyone would have thought that I had a fever.

To check whether she had actually fallen asleep, I called her name and shook myself, but she didn't wake up. After trying that for n number of times, I gave up - I wasn't complaining as it is.

Wasted, I know.

So, when our destination came, I parked my bike outside the resort and waited for Miss Sandhya Rai to wake up. She didn't. Instead, she increased her grip around my waist and snuggled closer. I took a long breath, realising our close proximity, and glanced at her hands; they were comparably smaller than mine. I took her right palm in mine and traced the long fingers. Her pink nailpolish had chipped off at some places, but it still looked cute.

Cute... I never knew I would call her that or think like that about her nailpolish. Though red would have looked the best on her nails.

I placed my pinky finger against hers and continued measuring the others too. After playing with her hands for some time, I thought of waking her up, but she refused to do that. She mumbled to let her sleep for five more minutes, and I didn't miss when she said that the bed was too warm.

Yes, yes, I know. I should not make any other meaning out of it, but I can't help it. All kinds of images are dancing in front of my eyes.

Seeing no other choice and to save ourselves from getting a scolding from Mayank bhaiyya, I mentally apologized to Sandy Pandy and picked up one of her hands. Slowly, I bought it close to my mouth and bit her fingers.

That worked!

She jerked up from her sleep and checked her hand, her fingers turning bright red. I pursed my lips on seeing her squint her eyes as she shouted at me, asking for why I bit her. By the way she was talking, it seemed like she was still in sleep. I told her that we had reached, and her eyes slowly widened in realisation.

As an engine heats up to work, her mind finally grasped what I was saying, and she got embarrassed on seeing our position. She removed her hands quickly and adjusted her clothes, trying to avoid my eyes. Her cheeks had a nice tint of pink - I wondered if it was because of me or the weather.