"Hey! Look at you. Haven't heard from you in days. I didn't expect you to meet in a concert!" Abhay chuckled, his hands flying in different directions.

"Well, I didn't expect you to see in Delhi, in the first place!" I exclaimed in shock.

"It's a free country Aashi, people can travel from Mumbai to Delhi without having to state reasons for it," Abhay answered, and I was reminded of how much of an ass he was. Ah! Some things were beyond a normal person's capabilities. Abhay Raut was beyond mine.

"Let's do this again. What are you doing here?"

"If you didn't know, this is a concert, Aashi. People come here to listen to artists."

"Alone?" I raised my eyebrows, giving him my best shut-up-and-speak-the-right-thing expression.

"As much as I don't mind that, I'm here with my cousins tonight. And...we're being completely rude," Abhay drawled, looking up in Abeer's direction. In the shock that followed seeing Abhay, I had forgotten about Abeer.

"Who's this guy, huh?" Abhay went the extra mile and wiggled his eyebrows at me. I internally groaned. I glared at him, but replied nonetheless.

"This is my...colleague, Abeer and Abeer this is Abhay, my best friend from school," I motioned towards Abhay while introducing him. Abeer flashed him an acknowledging smile, the one he had professionally perfected.

All was going well, the customary hi's and hello's done, it was my cue to take leave. And just then, Abhay felt the need to make things awkward. As always.

"Seriously Aashi, best friends, huh? That is what we were?" His gaze shifted from me to Abeer. " I was actually this lady's first boyfriend."

"Twelve years ago when we were fifteen," I ground out, not quite happy with how things had suddenly turned against me.

"...and also her first kiss." Because Abhay couldn't stop at the boyfriend part. I closed my eyes in exasperation, and embarrassment.

"We have spent so much time together and made so many memories and yet this is what she introduces me by," he said, just as he pulled me towards him to wrap a hand around my shoulders. If I could get away with one murder, a single one, I knew just the perfect candidate for it.

As inexperienced as I was, even I knew that this wasn't quite what a guy liked to hear on his first date. And for that, Abeer was taking this rather quite well. I looked up to his face, and my stomach dropped.

Ahem, perhaps not.

His lips, which were generally curved into a smile, were pressed into a thin line, all his face muscles tense. It wasn't a good sign. Good God, it wasn't. And then he spoke, his hand entwined in mine.

"As far as introductions go, I do say she doesn't quite fare well with them. Or else she wouldn't have introduced her date as a mere colleague. Its not over yet. Our date I mean, and we should get going. Enjoy your night, Abhay," Abeer put deliberate emphasis on date and his name, and by the time he was finished, I was pulled away from Abhay's hold and we were out of the ground in no time.

With our hands entwined.

-----------------------

It was close to midnight but the restaurants around the ground were still open. We went in one of them and placed our orders. Things went pretty downhill from there. Abeer had lapsed into absolute silence since we had left Abhay in the concert. I had placed the orders and was desperately trying to fill in the silence by chattering at length about nothing in particular.

His only responses were well-timed nods, the kind that husbands did when they were indulging their wives of many years in conversation only to placate them. I had seen that a million times back at home. The realisation didn't settle well with me. The actual dinner was worse. I quietly ate my food, the chewing sounds the only voice on our table. Abeer didn't attempt to change that either.

My anger simmered.

After half an hour of a no-conversation-dinner, we were walking to the parking lot to find his bike. The situation hadn't improved since then, and I was at the end of my patience. I grabbed Abeer's hand to stop him from walking away and spun around to face him.

"Abeer what the hell's wrong with you? Why are you sulking?"

He stared at me for a moment, before he averted his eyes. "It's nothing," he said in a tone that screamed 'something's up, I'm not okay'. My temper flared. He wasn't talking, he wasn't looking at me, and that made me positively livid.

"I'm not a patient woman, Abeer. I have never been patient with anything. Don't do this. Tell me," I gritted out, my patience snapping.

"What are we doing?" He muttered slowly.

I stared at him as if he had grown two heads. "What do you mean by that? We went to a concert and now we are going home!" I exclaimed incredulously.

"Why did we go together? Why do we always go together? To Natasha's party, back home after office...this concert?"

I chose to ignore that former part of his speech. "Are you serious? Are you...you called this a date, Abeer! Isn't it?" I practically screamed. This was not happening.

"And why did you agree for it? What was the reason why we did this?" He raised his voice, levelling his stare with mine. Abeer was pushing the limits. Anything, anything but this.

"I...I..."

He hadn't asked anything wrong. Why had I agreed to this? Why had I come here, danced with Abeer, done everything I swear I hadn't thought I would, even after knowing all the risks that were attached to it? There was the thrill of it, testing the limits, but why now, after all this time? The whys were too many, and they made my head spin.

Why, why...why?

"Aashi..." Abeer murmured my name while slowly walking towards me until my back hit the wall. Startled, I looked where we were - I didn't even know we were near a wall. My heart thudded against my chest, as I forced myself to breathe. Good God, why did this feel like a cliche Bollywood film scene?

"Is the never scared, bold, sharp-tongued Aashi suddenly frightened?" He teased as he leaned in, his face dangerously close to mine, though his eyes looked anything but amused. Frightened? Ha! What did he think he was other than the hottest disarming colleague anyone had ever had in the history of office relations?

"No," I let out, wincing when it came out barely above a squeak. I cleared my throat. "No...no, why would I be?" I could make any conversation sound like a perfectly normal dinner-table-conversation, even though this conversation was anything but normal. It wasn't everyday that you were pushed against the wall, with your office colleague invading your personal space in a parking lot.

Abeer didn't say anything. But it wasn't needed. His eyes spoke everything. His hazel eyes had darkened, grown intense, but they showed what he understood. It frightened me how well he understood. I had refused to acknowledge, refused to accept, refused to...speak.

Funny how a minute ago I was forcing him to talk. Stupid, stupid me.

A minute passed by, and just when I thought he was gonna retreat, I heard his voice.

"Aashi, if you don't like what is going on, push me away. I don't understand the flirting, this date...you. But I will forget everything. It's..." he swallowed, his voice breaking. "It's not that easy, but I can't go about like this. Hanging on a thread, never knowing when you would snap out. Tell me. Just one word...anything!" His voice was so soft, it felt like velvet to my ears. His breath fanned my face, his face glowing in the dim moonlight. It was mesmerizing...this, him.

He was wrong. Gosh, he was wrong. So, so wrong. He understood me far more than anyone else did.

He waited, patient. The moment was heartbreaking to me. He sought answers, and God, I didn't have them. I felt my eyes water, and I saw it in his eyes. His beautiful, hazel orbs looked stricken, pained, vulnerable. I watched his Adam's apple bob up and down as he swallowed, and I felt him move away. I blinked my eyes as I returned to reality.

Abeer was moving away...away from me. He was leaving. If I knew anything well other than my books, it was that I couldn't let him go. I didn't know why, I didn't know how, but I couldn't let him leave us. I grabbed his shirt, halting his movements.

He closed his eyes, his expression pained.

"Don't..." I muttered, my voice so low I was afraid he didn't catch it. But he did.

"Why?" He asked, leaving me stumped for the second time that evening.

"Abeer..." I was reduced to monosyllables. His name felt the only right thing on my tongue. He felt right.

"You neither want me close, nor want me to leave. I'm only human, Aashi. I have to know what you feel. I'm lost...and I don't like that feeling."

"Has this something to do with Abhay?" I asked, speaking coherently after what felt like ages. Yes, I could do this! My voice grew animated and I began rambling. "Listen, if it has anything to do with it, we don't even talk nowadays and like it's been ages since..."

"Yes! It perhaps is. I don't want to be in his shoes. Ever. Waiting...hanging on a thread, uncertain about you...us! I like you, Aashi, I really do. You have me at my wit's end all the time, and yet...I show up with my bike every night to give you a ride home. Heck, I live a five minute drive away from the office but..."

"You live five minutes away from our office?" I asked, bewildered.

He looked at me as if I had just declared earth to be flat. "Out of all I just said, you could catch just that!" He raised his voice.

Oh boy.

"I like you, if its not already crystal clear to you! I like you, for God's sake!"

I was angry. It wasn't as if I hadn't understood earlier. "I like you too, but that doesn't make it any easier," I shouted as I reached my limit.

He paused, his hands mid air as he stared at me. "You like me?" He asked slowly, softly, his eyes cautious.

"Of course, I do! Why do you think I came, after knowing all that could go wrong? All that was..."

I couldn't complete as my lips were caught by another as my back dug further into the wall of that empty parking lot.

Abeer had crashed his lips on me, the sheer force of it leaving me numb. Abeer was kissing me!

Me!

And I had said I liked him. It wasn't wrong, because it didn't feel wrong. I did like him, perhaps even more. The realization woke me and a ball of desire I didn't know was buried within me. Abeer's lips were soft, God, so soft. Insistent, and urgent. They did wicked things to me. I didn't know how he was doing it, but I felt alive. I had been kissed 12 years ago, if a kiss from an inexperienced fifteen-year-old even counted.

But that didn't cull the desire within me. It grew urgent, more dominant, more fiery. I moaned as he bit my lip, my legs turning into jelly. He was tall, far taller than me. But it didn't seem to be a problem with him.

"Aashi..." he groaned against my mouth as his hands came to touch my cheeks in a feather-light caress. I felt like a goddess, his touch almost reverential. My hands free from his hold, I pressed my hand against the back of his neck, my other hand travelling to touch and caress his soft, velvety curls. I felt myself melting as his hands found other regions of my body, leaving a trail of goosebumps wherever he touched.

I pulled at his hair as his lips found my neck, a moan escaping my mouth. I let my hand roam around his shoulders, my other hand caressing his neck. He groaned against my neck, liking my sweet torture. His lip found my again, and they weren't soft this time. They were possessive, urgent, fast. It wasn't until the last of the air had escaped our lungs that we parted away, breathless because of the kiss.

He stared at me, his eyes intense. "We have forever to find a solution to each 'but' that follows you 'I like you', Aashi" he said, panting as I took in his face. His swollen lips, the tousled, unkempt curls, his breath that came in short gasps flared the ball of desire within me. I licked my drying lips, which elicited a groan from him.

He tightened his hold on my waist and leaned in, his eyes hooded, when I turned us around and pushed him against the wall, crashing my lips against him with renewed fervour. His arms quickly came around me and he pressed me further into him, closing any gaps between our bodies. I continued to kiss him with all I had in me until a flash of light fell on us.

We broke apart to look at the source of light. "Kya ho raha hai yahan? Kon ho tum log, ha?( What is happening here? Who are you both?)" I looked at the security guard, my eyes blinking.

I was still dazed from the kiss, but Abeer didn't miss a beat. He took hold of my hand and pulled me as he ran towards the corner where all the two-wheelers were parked, away from the guard. The guard followed close by. I forced my legs to run faster.

"Arre, ruk...kahan bhaag raha hai? ( Hey, wait...where do you think you are running?)" We heard the guard call after us. We parted ways to look for his bike amidst the many. The guard was heavy and unable to run too fast, but we didn't have much time. After passing a few others, I finally spotted Abeer's blue and red bike.

"Abeer!" I called for him, gesturing towards the bike. He looked up to find the guard very near to me. He tossed me the keys, and I hurried to start the bike. I fumbled clumsily with the stand, but managed to get the bike started before the guard could catch up. I swerved it towards Abeer, stopping only for him to hop in, then sped up away from the parking lot to the main road before the guard could call others.

"You know how to ride a bike," Abeer bellowed against the wind. It was a statement.

I laughed. "Yes. I threatened a guy in college to teach me. Definitely worth it!"

My body warmed as I felt his chest rumble with quiet laughter. He wrapped his hands around my waist, sending shivers down my body as his hands touched my exposed stomach.

"What is it that you don't know to do?" He asked, his voice unbelievably deep and husky, resting his chin on my bare shoulders, his mouth very close to my ears. I shifted, a quiet moan spilling from my tongue, the warmth of his touch too much to handle. I didn't know wearing the off-shoulder crop top was a blessing or a curse.

Definitely both.

"This," I chuckled nervously, as I looked down to his arms that held me.

He smiled warmly in response and tightened his hold against my waist, promising to never let go.

I believed him.

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PS: Ahem, quite steamy, wasn't that? Comment how steamy was that!

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