The Haunted Fortress of Bhangarh: Book 1

7. The sweet date

Rudra was over the moon during his date with Shravani. He had taken her to Connaught Place for the evening, strolling along the curb while sipping milkshakes. The radial lanes and the circular layout entailed a pleasant walk around the circumference as they explored the popular eateries of the locality, munching on roasted peanuts and gobbling down chicken rolls.

They spent their time exchanging a lot of information about each other's lives. Though he was doing most of the talking and she was busy giggling from time to time, she also let him on a multitude of anecdotes about how profound her love for languages was and how she was adept in French, Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, and Bulgarian apart from Hindi and English. Meanwhile, he told her about his deep liking for history and how he always rushed off to the Qutb Minar complex whenever he felt overwhelmed with life.

"I find these historical places very alluring," he said, plopping himself on a bench in the park. "They hold so many secrets in their walls. Secrets from centuries ago. Tales of bloody battles, power politics, family drama. Yet they cannot let us on anything."

The smile vanished from her face and darkness took over her otherwise shimmering eyes. "Indeed they cannot."

He didn't seem to notice the shadow flitting across her face, the rage pooling in her eyes, the way her lips rolled inward, and the manner in which she breathed sharply. He was instead pondering over the familiarity emanating from her. It felt like he had known her forever, and hence colloquy flew easily between them. He wasn't fumbling with any topics. Neither were they quiet for an extended period of time for lack of one. He wished to let her know about every little detail of his life because he could tell this friendship or relationship or whatever it was going to be was meant for the keeps. So, he continued speaking at length about himself. His family. His likes and dislikes. His hobbies. Everything but the parts that would make her question his sanity.

He was also impressed because of the wide variety of topics she had knowledge about. Profundity was abundant in their discourse. History, world politics, entertainment, geography, science, arts, mathematics—she could establish a discourse on any topic, and that was something the UPSC aspirant found too attractive.

He surely didn't wish for the night to end, but it was past 8 pm, and he knew the date would need to culminate sooner rather than later. But despite his dwindling spirits, the slight innocuous brushes against her hand, the sweet smile she passed at him every once in a while, the way they stole glances at one another, and the manner in which her hair fluttered with each draft of wind had his heart beating at an enormous pace.

When the clock struck 8:30 after the lengthy discourse they had undertaken about the geopolitics of the Indian subcontinent, it was she who reminded him about the lateness of the evening.

He took a glance at his phone's screen. "Right! Let's go. I will drop you home."

He had already stood up from the bench when he experienced a tug on his shirt and he peered back to find the girl ill at ease as she gaped at her feet and licked her lips. "No, Rudra," she whispered. "My parents are extremely conservative. They will not like a boy dropping me home. Even Aman had dropped me a certain distance away the other night to evade them."

His brows furrowed in puzzlement. "I see. Uh... I can drop you at the same spot Aman did."

She looked up at him, beaming. "Yes, you can do that."

They began sauntering back to his bike parked by the curb of the park.

"Does that mean you are not going on the trip with us?" he said. His stomach dropped at the mere thought. There he was, contemplating how to ask his father to lift the numerous restrictions in place so that he could go on the trip, but it would be so meaningless if the girl wasn't going to accompany him.