Becoming Sweethearts [✓]

Part Thirty Nine

Gauri heard him clearing his throat and looked up from her phone. She had been going through recipes to make something special for lunch since she was relatively free through the day. For some reason, cooking for the two of them somehow made her happy and content. Her mother had once told her that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Gauri was willing to test this theory, deliberately not wanting to dwell on why she wanted to make her way to his heart. Right now, he was looking at her, chewing the last piece of his toast, as if he was wanting to talk to her.

Omkara slightly frowned looking at the phone in her hand, asking, "Were you doing something important? Did I interrupt?" She shook her head, placing the phone aside, saying, "That can wait. What happened? You wanted to say something?" He nodded, making her furrow her brows as if asking what he wanted to talk about. "About yesterday evening." He watched her closely and noted how her eyes slightly widened and her pupils dilated at the reminder. Oh, the attraction was simmering on fire now. His gaze dropped to her mouth, noticing she had a few crumbs of toast on her chin.

Gauri was confused when he looked at her and pointed at his own lips, twice. Was he asking for another kiss? She was flustered; it was one thing to be in an emotional moment in the dark of the evening that had led to a kiss. But now, in broad daylight, out of the blue, Gauri found it slightly awkward. He must have sensed her thoughts because his eyes widened and he reached out towards her face. Gauri felt like someone poured ice water on her head when he dusted her chin, letting her know that she had crumbs on her mouth. She thought his fingers lingered a few seconds longer on her face, on her chin, and on her lips, before he pulled away with a long sigh. "What about yesterday?" she asked him, bringing the focus back on the conversation that he almost side-tracked.

Looking at her mouth, and brushing his fingers across her chin and her lips had disoriented Omkara, and for a moment, when she spoke, he took more than a couple of seconds to process the words she had uttered. Yesterday, oh yes, the kiss, he recalled. Clearing his throat, Omkara intertwined his fingers as he clasped his hands. Gauri looked at his hands, slightly amused, when she sat upright in his chair, oddly comparing his stance to that of a corporate boss who was about to start a team meeting.

"Yesterday, erm, we kissed." He said, for the lack of anything. She looked at him with a nod, asking him to go on. He looked at her face for any sign of hesitation, and except for the pinkening of her cheeks, there was no awkwardness. Good sign, he thought. Looking at him stare at her, Gauri said while still blushing but not shying away, "I know, Oberoi. I was very much conscious when that happened. Aage bolo?"

He nodded, not knowing how and why his mouth turned dry as his heart started quickening its pace. Now, he was starting to get even more visibly nervous than her as he broached the topic. Oh, how the tables had turned! When he did not say anything, she said with a long sigh, "Yes, Oberoi, we both kissed, we both liked it, we both wanted more, but we both paused before going ahead because we decided to give each other some time before we took it to the next level."

Omkara was gobsmacked at the way she structured her sentence with so much ease. He used to be able to portray intense, deep thoughts in the form of poems, at one point in time. Who would've thought that a budding shayar would have difficulty in framing his thoughts properly about a kiss?

Nodding, he said, "Yea, we both paused." Looking into her eyes, he asked her in a cautious tone, "You do understand the reason why we paused, right?" Gauri saw the hesitation and vulnerability in his eyes. In a way, she thought, it was good that they were having this conversation so that they could speak their minds and hearts out. Both of them were adults and there was nothing to be shameful about a moment of intimacy they shared. To her, it was more of an emotional act, even if she recalled the way she had ached for his physical touch. Looking at him, she knew it meant the same to him too. The worry in his eyes was so evident, Gauri simply wanted to hug it out.