Not A Simple Engineer Boy!

Forty Two: Torsional Rigidity (Part 1)

Rathna Raja Rathore happened to be one of the cheerfully flirtatious guys that Krithika had encountered. After working for more than a year in the Xhasis it was nothing but a surprise to find a person other than her friends who could make her laugh with stupid jokes.

"Come again, why are you taking two weeks leave?", she enquired, "I never knew North Indians celebrated the Pongal like we do."

He gave her a challenging look, "Lady, you don't know.", he cocked his head to one side, "Gujjus would kill for flying their kite to soaring height."

"Oh?", she was interested.

"And, it's not Pongal for us, it's Uttarayan.", he added as he sipped coffee from his cup.

When he had dropped her in her P. G. she had invited him inside for a coffee- just a polite call. The guy hadn't cared much and had taken on her invitation, which kind of amused her. Her flatmate had shot her an exasperated look when he had entered their flat, fully clothed in a crisp suit while the poor soul of her flatmate had a clumsy t-shirt and pajamas on as an excuse of dress. She had excused herself, almost racing towards steps. Even if he had noticed, he hadn't commented anything.

Scanning around he asked, "How many girls live here?"

"Ten.", she waved her hand up and down, "It's two floors, two rooms in each- ground and first floor, and one on the second floor."

He nodded, "And two people in each room. Nice."

"What's nice about that?"

"The business plan, hostels, and P. G.s are good businesses."

Krithika shook her head, "I have heard that Gujaratis are business-minded, experiencing it first-hand feels quite enthralling.", she suppressed a grin, "Thanks."

"No problem, it's my pleasure.", he flashed her a grin, "How come you invited me inside, isn't the rule 'No man allowed' applicable here?"

Sipping her coffee she informed, "We don't have that, we have 'Men allowed till living area'."

"Oh, so the ladies still can't have a lover in their room, until they are lesbians.", his grin widened showing his pearly white teeth, "I take my word back, that's not nice."

Krithika choked, "Do you have to be this crass about it?"

"I speak my mind.", he replied taking a last sip of his coffee and placing the cup down, "Thanks for the coffee, even though I would have preferred tea."

She stood up still trying to overlook his earlier statement and clicked her tongue, "You could have turned down my invitation, it wasn't an obligation."

"And ruin my perfect opportunity to ask you out for a date?"

Her eyes widened at his continuous onslaught and she snapped, "What!?"

Rathna was a handsome man for sure, with his jet-black hair, fair complexion, and fit physique he could woo any woman with his flirting nature. But he didn't have those seducing golden brown eyes or near-perfect dimples that her mind craved.

Stop it!

She blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to erase any memory about that one person whom she wanted to avoid at any cost.

"I hope you are single, or else I will now die of embarrassment."

Rathna's voice cut through her thoughts. She stared at him for a while, "Pardon?"

"Are you single?"

Bewildered, she shot him a look, "Yes, why?"

"And hopefully ready to mingle?", he looked at her with a question in his eyes.

"I don't know.", she replied, her subconscious still waltzing with images of him.

"Well... If you decide on it, you can call me.", Rathna smiled, "I feel that I will like you, and... the feelings will be mutual."

She pursed her lips and bowed her head, avoiding to look at him. How could he be so comfortable about himself and his thoughts? Why couldn't she accept his request?

Fiddling her fingers she replied, "I will think about it."

Rathna without realising her hesitation, winked at her, "Sure."

Unabashed flirt- the Rathna bid his goodbye and left her to her thoughts.

The thoughts, the ones that were always about one human, the man who had a thick yellow tinted bandage around his left hand this morning which wasn't there last night- when he had held her.

And she hadn't missed watching how much it had hurt him, the way his brows had furrowed and lips had tightened, the way his arms jerked and winced whenever he tried to bring even the slightest movement to his injured hand.

Every time a string inside her heart had twisted, wanting to go to him and comfort him. But she couldn't do anything.

--

A/N

I am going to use all the songs of this album somewhere in this whole story XD

Just a big fan, plus I do have plot points to relate to.

Starting with "Apple Crumble", a fun song of all :)

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