Back And Forth

~two~

"Yes." He replied guiltily.

"Nothing surprising." Meera sighed. "I ordered myself a coffee. I was uh..." she blushed again, "...I mean, I really like the coffee here I'm sorry."

"Please don't embarrass me by apologizing. I'm glad you made yourself comfortable."

She gazed at him steadily and offered a small smile.

"Your bag." Meera started again, placing Vedant's bag on the table.

"And here's yours." He too passed hers.

Silence ensued for a couple of moments as both looked through all the stuff in their bags.

"You washed my bag." Meera noted with shock.

Vedant scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I've been using your bag for a good three weeks now. And my maintenance is preposterous."

"How often do you wash your bag?" she posed curiously and from the way her brows rose alarmingly Vedant realized she must've blurted it without the intention.

"I don't remember the last time I washed mine honestly." He grinned awkwardly.

Vedant, are you flirting with her?

Are you OPENLY flirting with her?

Is she okay with me openly flirting with her?

She looked a touch uncomfortable though as he watched her place a stray chunk of hair behind her ear awkwardly. Her ears adorned coral earrings today; that made her white shirt and her doe shaped eyes look brighter and livelier.

"Um...thank you, then." She stated softly, and he watched as she finished the remains of her cold coffee at one go.

Vedant didn't say anything, simply because studying her seemed like one of the most interesting things to do. Very difficult, but very interesting at the same time.

She fidgeted with her phone, the Samsung model with the pink phone case she'd written about. Her eyes never met his.

When Vedant's phone rang; he was annoyed at the interruption first, but upon seeing his Mother's name excused himself and took her call. It had been a normal call, with her asking him to pick up some groceries and medical reports on the way home.

He'd just seated himself back when,

"Sir your ice tea." A waiter announced, as he bent to place the glass on the table.

Vedant's brows rose with confusion, "But I didn't order any-"

"-I did." Meera admitted softly.

"Oh. Thank you but you didn't have to-" The waiter nodded, placed the glass of ice tea and left.

"Vimal Uncle told me about you yesterday." She started gently, her eyes finally meeting his, "You've been trying to return my bag."

More like find YOU.

"You even went out of the way with washing my bag for me. So count this as my treat."

It was Vedant's turn to blush.

How could he let the girl pay on their first...whatever it was?

"Meera you really don't have to thank me and this isn't necessary."

"I want to; Vedant." She pursued, her eyes shining with earnestness.

How could he say no to that face?

"Thanks." He accepted, and sipped at his drink casually.

She grinned for the first time. Not the little smiles she'd been giving him so far but a full blown, teeth flashing smile that reached her eyes.

Right then, looking at Meera in a simple white T shirt and jeans, frizzed up hair and probably no makeup with nothing but her gorgeous smile to offer; Vedant realized he had never been more attracted to a girl as he did to her that instant.

"Can I ask you a question Meera?"

She nodded.

"How did you know I like ice tea more than coffee? Or was this just a coincidence?"

Meera looked a little alarmed for a second, but then after a while replied, "You like ice tea more than coffee? It was a coincidence actually."

She lied to him of course. After finding out Vedant had had her bag all along, she'd rushed home and studied each and every one of the contents of his bag with crazy concentration. Out of the numerous bills stuffed into it, about a ninety percent of them had been bills for ice tea.

But she was obviously not going to tell him that.

"Oh." He smiled. "Thank you anyway."

Then, her phone buzzed and instantly her mood changed.

"I'm sorry but I have to head home now. It was nice meeting you Vedant."

Vedant didn't understand where he'd gone wrong.

He'd paid attention to every sentence he'd spoken. And as far as his memory went, he'd not said anything inappropriate.

Why then did she suddenly look so uncomfortable? And why was she suddenly in the rush to go home?

"Same here. Can I drop you somewhere?" he asked.

Meera's gaze dropped to his scooty keys and in her calculating eyes he noted the discomfort she seemed to be feeling.

Am I rushing things?

Urgh. Where's Archit when I need him?

"Thank you. But I'll manage."

"Um, you're welcome."

"Bye, Vedant." In her eyes flashed turmoil, as though she were fighting an inner debate.

"Bye Meera." He sighed to himself, as he watched her leave the café, still quite clueless as to where he'd gone wrong.