Under The Mango Trees

Chapter Forty-Seven : In Between The Kisses in the Rain

Outside the auditorium, the sky was mirroring my rage, thundering torrents like there was no tomorrow. I had forgotten my umbrella inside and I was too struck by grief to go back down the walk of shame. Within seconds, I was fully soaked and the flimsy dress clung to my body like a second skin. My Burj Khalifa heels weren't waterproof so I had to remove them and hold them in my hands as if I was on a beach. I waved my free arm in front of the speeding vehicles that splashed the muddy water all over my leftover pride. Despite the grimy water melting on my tongue, I shouted, "Taxi?! Taxi?!"

The rain showed no clemency, its drops like needles pierced my bones and left a lingering chill. Not one taxi stopped and there was not one sign of life in this stormy rain. It was as if humanity and nature had conspired to drown me in shame today. But I was a fighter and like a true fighter, I was focused on one goal- to escape. I couldn't stay here a moment longer and risk getting humiliated further. "Taxi?!"

"Tulsi?" A quiet voice like wind cut through the whipping rain. GOD, no. Please, please, please, don't be him! I spun around to find the devil drenched in the rain, proffering me my umbrella. "Here, you left your umbrella. You shouldn't have run out in the rain." He took a step forward and I staggered back in defence. His eyebrows furrowed then and his voice was thick with concern and confusion, "What happened? What went wrong?"

"Why do you care?" I snapped, snatching the umbrella from him and muttering under my breath, "Why are you even here? Don't you have a date?" I struggled to open it, the rods were lodged stubbornly and wouldn't move an inch. With an angry jerk, it opened, but it didn't thrust out in a nice, billowy shape. It was upturned like a boat. "Useless!"

I threw it aside and when I looked up, Dev was staring at me with that ironic, knowing look in his eyes, water streaming down his handsome face.

That amused look rose in me the depths of my passionate feelings that I couldn't just stand there to be made fun of. I was done playing the part of the love-struck fool. Just because he was more beautiful and intelligent than me, that didn't give him the right to play me. My voice quivered, but the words were fiercely demanding and non-nonsensical, "Why are you still here? Why don't you go on that date instead of coming here and watching my misery like it's some Star plus show?!  If you plan on just standing here and making fun of me because of how pitiful I look---"

In one sweeping second, he pulled me closer to him by my waist, so close that I was half-standing on his shoes. "I see what happened. You're jealous."

"J-Jealous?" I couldn't stop getting angrier at his smile, such a self-assured smile that knocked the words out of my mouth. And the audacity to continue playing me . . . To hold me like that! "What do you mean? And-and what are you doing?"

"There's no date with her. We had a team dinner and I'm not going to go. You must have misunderstood," he said, a fat raindrop hanging to one strand of his hair plummeted on my nose. Awakening me from my sleeping sanity. Opening my eyes to our closeness. Smiling, his eyes fastened to mine. "I'm glad you misunderstood. Now I'm sure that you have feelings for me, the way I do."

"You do?" I said, almost to myself in disbelief. "Are you still making fun of me? I-I can't believe you."

He laughed, a burst of laughter so boyish and pure that put me at ease. "What can I do to make you believe me?"

"I don't know . . ."

"I do," he said, firmly holding my chin and tipping it up. Fat raindrops like dew clung to his hair and eyebrows while the rain continued its assault on us. For a good minute, he held me like that, quietly watching me in the pitter-patter of the rain as if memorising how I looked.

What was he thinking? I shivered under his scrutiny, not liking it at all. Why couldn't he just kiss me? If it was Lila, we would have been rolling on the bed already. Why was he such a gentleman? Kiss, kiss, kiss!

I had already embarrassed myself today, so I said, "You can kiss me . . . Only if-if you want to."

"Good. I wanted you to tell me that," he said and when he bent down and his lips captured mine, I could feel him smiling. It was a small smile. A teasing smile. A smile that creased the corners of his lips ever so slightly.

The kiss began gently and it was only when I stood on my tip-toes over his shoes and parted my lips, showing him that I wanted this, that he pushed me against him. The sudden heat of his body burned mine, moulding us into one and I threw my arms over his broad shoulders, surrendering to the closeness. The wet strands of his hair fell over my forehead and I pushed them back, keeping my lips locked to his. I couldn't pull away even to breathe. He was that good. He kissed me in his self-assured manner- hard, confident and commanding. When I could no longer support my wobbly body on my toes, he held me upright.

The rain tried its best to soothe the fire within us, but it didn't know how I had dreamed of this, how I had stolen glances of him in the train and how I had yearned to see him. I was brimming with happiness that I could half-believe what was happening and to keep it from overflowing, I didn't let go of him. Neither did he. It was when a red light flashed at us, quickly followed by a loud, unpleasant honk that we pulled away.

"Is some film shooting going on?" A guy from a Maruti car shouted sarcastically at us in Hindi and Dev and I exchanged a look before bursting out laughing. He had to hold me to keep me from collapsing. I wasn't sure what made my body shake, the cold rain or the laughter. Whatever it was, I loved it. I loved him. But it was too soon to admit that, so I kept that delicious secret to myself, enjoying how my love for him was getting an answer back. I found peace in him like a traveller finding shade under the scorching heat of the sun. It made one want to stay there forever.

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