Not A Simple Engineer Boy!

Fifty Eight: Fatigue Strength Coefficient (Part 1)

Dated: 14th Feb 2024.

To all my lovely readers,

A very happy and beautiful Valentine's Day. I hope you all achieve whatever you desire and deserve.

-Suganthi Lakshminarayanan.

---

Things had been pretty smooth for a week. Krithika had a great interview and had completely dropped any expectations from Mr. Joseph- well, what was she expecting? - and made Rathna drop any expectations he had from her.

Rathna Raja Rathore was a Prince Charming but she knew better. It wasn't about Rashi being involved; it was mostly about her being not interested in him. She did start to like him and care for him, but it was a very platonic relationship. It wasn't the kind where she wanted his face to be the first thing to see as her eyes opened every morning.

It was the warmth of golden-brown eyes that her subconscious fed her every morning, but she shut it out. She wasn't able to decode what was happening to her, she could feel something but wanted to run away from it. She wasn't ready to be miserable and fail at her own life.

--

'I should have stayed back', Rathna's message popped on her phone.

It was too late to be working in the office. But time had been relative recently and she was just floating above, trying to breathe in between work.

Rathna had observed her that day, working alone like a maniac. He had stayed back for a while to take her to P. G., but she refused any help as she knew it would be too late before she completed her work. He had argued, trying to put sense inside her head that during late hours it gets hard to travel by any commute, but she had said, "I'll find something, please don't fret."

He had left her alone in the office with a remark, "You are impossible, Chakudi."

Impossible?

She had questioned herself.

Maybe she was impossibly stupid, as when she finished her work and went to find an Uber, she saw the cab drive prices were costing her a fortune.

"Fuck my luck.", she muttered under her breath as her fingers jumped between various apps- from Uber to Ola to Rapido- to find one good deal.

Suddenly, a shiny pitch-black Volvo S90 stopped in front of her. She knew about that particular car in detail as it was one of his favourites and he frequently drove it to the office.

Just book an Uber.

Glass windows rolled down and the fading moonlight caught his features in a very aesthetic way. Xavier looked exhausted; his hair was all over the place. Yet he held a strong masculine aura that made her mouth dry.

Book an Uber, you duffer!

She immediately looked at her phone and confirmed to book whatever cab was available. She was ready to waste money rather than risk being closer to him. Maybe, he could laugh all he wanted with his team and others, but the indifference with which he treated her did the best for her. Apathy worked better.

"Sit, I'll drop you to your home.", his deep husky voice made her shiver uncomfortably. Well for starters, tired Xavier sounded way sexier than normal Xavier.

"I am waiting for the cab...", she waved her phone lamely in front of him, "It will be here any minute."

"Sweetheart, it's late.", he switched on the dome lights of his car, revealing himself, "I don't know why you were working at this hour when it's mentioned in the HR policies that it's not allowed for anyone to work beyond nine, including overtime."

Yes, they did mention it. And she ignored it and just went overboard, to stay till eleven. Workaholic, check. Extremely stupid, check.

"I--I--", she stuttered discovering that she probably had ended up in a mess, "Sir, please don't call for another disciplinary action. Time just flew by and I didn't realize.", she pleaded.

Loudly sighing, "I won't, sweetheart. Now hop on, else I'll have to carry you inside and unfortunately, I am too tired to do that.", he rasped.

Her skin heated from his reply, "But there's a cab--"

"Why do you have to be so fucking adamant?", he glared at her pointedly, "It's not even booked."

She stared at her phone which- clearly- read 'Unable to find a cab for you'.

Argh, why are you such a dumbass? And you confidently showed him your phone.

Swallowing her embarrassment, she slowly walked around and tried to unlock the gate to the passenger seat. He leaned in and pushed it open, probably in an attempt to be courteous.

"Thanks."

"For?"

"Chivalry, I guess.", she retorted as she sat.

He smiled, "I never knew sarcasm was considered as a thankful act."

Yeah, whatever! She rolled her eyes.

Trying to fix her seat belt she reached behind her seat, adjusting it to her height. She wasn't used to being inside a luxurious car before and finding simple things weren't as easy as they would have been. Especially, when her Kama Deva was sitting next to her.

She squeaked in panic when his right hand touched hers and she turned to find his face a mere few inches away from hers, so near that she could smell the strong familiar musk on him- which was faintly available to her senses from the insides of his car. His full lips were very close to hers, "What are you--"

Something clicked behind her and he winked, "You don't need to thank me for that."

This. This was what she wanted to avoid. This was what she dreaded for days, to be closer to him and lose herself. Shivering like anything she knew it wasn't because of the chilling air conditioning inside the car, she tried to not indulge more in that thought.

He sat straight, completely unaffected, and started driving, "Enter your address here.", he tapped the screen next to the controls.

She did as he ordered and sat back in her seat, praying to her Muruga to give her enough strength. The strength to not be a brazen wild cat and start kissing him again- which might lead to the things that she had imagined every night.

Wait, What!?

Why was she even thinking about it? Her brain chose to think exactly what she had asked it not to. She wasn't a dumb idiot, so why did her brain always start to act funny around him? She turned her head to look outside the window. The night sky was the best distraction in the given situation.

Particularly, when from the corner of her eyes she could see the fancy metal wristwatch on his left arm seductively dance with every move of his hand.

You suck so bad, Krithika!

--

A/N

"Kavidhai Iravu" is related to a very specific memory in my life. I was probably ten or something when "Sullan" was released, and my oldest cousin used to sing it a lot. One time, one of my aunts raised her brow and asked her- "Kavidhai Iravaaa?", my poor cousin blushed furiously. Well, I didn't get the meaning back then, but omg now I know XD

Also, I have some level of eidetic memory, so I exactly remember how hard my cousin had squirmed and switched off the T.V. to run to her room. And the baby me was like- henhh, that was a good song why did she switch it off!? XD

Ah, btw I love metal wristwatches on men, absolute sucker. What about you guys?

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