Halloween was just around the curb and my HR had this boisterous idea of celebrating the day. Why are HRs naturally behind all the weird competitions? The weirdest of all was the Rangoli competition from last year. All the lawyers in the firm were busy solving the mystery that was the winning piece instead of solving the cases. I still shudder thinking about it. Halloween party was not that bad if I didn't have to work my ass off in the day, go home, get dressed like Frankenstein probably, and take my scuffed ass back to the old grey building. On top of that, the Head suggested that five lucky people including me, as we were the jolly LLBs of the firm, work on decorations to show our festival spirit.
Talking about spirits, the other four lunatics have turned into them. In other words, they ghosted me. I only knew when they didn't show up even after half-hour of our decided time. Since all the things were at my house, I decided to do my part of the work. Grumbling and cursing them, I managed to do some of the work when the glue stick decided to not stick by my side. The empty tube had me let out a groan. As the sole occupant of my flat, I cannot bribe a roommate to bring me a glue stick from the stationary.
Sighing, I locked the door after leaving the flat. Only three days were left and the luck was not on my side. An exemplary example was how I collided with someone as I turned around the corner to take the stairs. My breath hitched as soon as I looked up at the person.
"Mihir," the person who tilted my world on its axis whispered, surprised. The person who has been my crush since he came to live in the flat right next to mine.
"Samarth," I breathed.
"Where are you going in such a hurry?"
"Oh, I had to buy some stuff."
"You have a neighbour and you are buying stuff? That is breaking the neighbour code of our country."
I chuckled at his joke. "I needed glue sticks."
"At 10 at night?"
"The firm I work at is having a Halloween party and a few people were tasked with making the props and decoration."
"Ah, so you have guests over. You go and join them while I get your glue sticks from my house."
"No, I don't..."
"I am not taking no for an answer."
"But..."
"No buts either."
Before I could say anything else, he hurried ahead of me, unlocked his door, and got inside.
Samarth was a tall man of 6'2" as compared to my 5'9". Our skin tones weren't very different, his tone was wheatish whilst mine was light wheatish. We both had black hair, the same colour as my eyes. He...
Two raps on my door had me lose my train of thoughts. As soon as I opened the door, Samarth handed me the glue stick and refused to come in, saying he didn't want to intrude as I had guests over.
"That's what I was saying back in the hallway, I do not have anyone over. It's just me." The last phrase came out breathy and husky without trying. Every time it was just the two of us, I have trouble breathing and my voice goes down a notch or two because of the tension in the air...and my pants.
"Sure!"
Samarth followed me to the living room where papers, glitter, and such were lying in a disarray. I laughed sheepishly at the mess, but he simply smiled and waved a dismissive hand.
"My colleagues bailed."
"Looks like it. Also looks like you need help with all this."
"I do."
Without another word, Samarth plopped onto the carpet and started fiddling with paper sheets.
God bless him as I managed to get a lot of work done. The cherry on top was that in-between making paper lanterns, fake candies, and painting everything orange, we talked, cracked jokes, and had a lot of fun. My heart was palpitating, I swear. The most fun was him trying to convince me to carve out a pumpkin. I made many excuses such as we don't have those orange pumpkins in India or I don't have a pumpkin, but he won at the end because: first, he was my crush and second, "If you are doing this, why not go all out?" Those were his argumentative words. You see, he was an outgoing person. Happy-go-lucky would be a better-suited word for him. Even I had a jovial persona, but his presence turned me tight-lipped and shy.
At one point, Samarth managed to distract himself with the skeleton that hung in the closet in the corner. The irony, right? I had opened the closet to take out a new pair of scissors because we lost the old one in the heap of papers.
"Ooh, what do we have here?"
"I needed an extra backbone to carry all this to the office by myself, so here it is."
"Oh my God!" he had whispered and laughed out loud. The way his hands were wound around his midriff, he was having a belly clutching laugh. When he tackled it to a minimum, he brought the skeleton out of the closet. Oh, I wish!
Mr BB - BackBone - as Samarth named the structure of bones, was getting used as a puppet by him. Deepening his voice, he mimicked the dialogues from The Scary Movie which were funnier than anything. I could safely say that I was having a good time. On giving my crush on him a second thought, I think I might fall in love with him easily.
"Mihir!"
"What?"
"You were staring into space. Lost somewhere?"
"No." When I uttered that single word, I could not bring myself to meet his eyes and he caught on to that pretty fast.
"What were you thinking about?" he questioned with a barely concealed grin.
"Nothing important."
"Come on, humour me." The grin on his face converted into an evil smirk. My face turned red at the mere prospect of him knowing that one specific thought of mine.
"Umm..." and that's when it happened - lights went out, and we were left doused in darkness. I never thought a day would come where I'd not curse the electricity department for a power cut.
"Give me a sec, I'll turn on the flashlight of my phone."
I let my hand give the floor around me a good rub in the search of my phone. Finally, after some efforts, I had it in my hands. The battery was down to five percent, unfortunately.
"Damn! Samarth, can you please turn on your flashlight. My phone is down to five."
"I left my phone at my flat."
Letting out an acknowledgement, I turned mine on and kept it screen down on the coffee table. "I better go and search for some candles."
Since mine was an open kitchen, he can see me shuffling around it. An unburnt candle and a half-burnt candle is what I found. As I put it on the candlestand, the room turned completely dark and suddenly cold. Something pointy poked me in the side, making me gasp. Shallow breaths warned me that it was my neighbour and the pointy thing that poked me was the boney finger of Mr BB probably.
Lighting the candle hastily, I turned around to give Samarth a scolding that died in my throat as soon as I noticed our proximity. My lungs left my body, making it hard to breathe. The chill that appeared before turned into scorching heat as my throat felt parched and I found it hard to swallow my own spit. Noticing the absence of Mr BB around us, I stuttered my way through forming words. "W-wh-what?"
"I make a great assistant."
That feels something out a fantasy, a roleplay fantasy, was the first thing my mind conjured up after the minor shutdown from moments ago.
Outstretching a hand, Samarth held the candlestand on his side. I almost dropped as the ends of his fingers were touching the ends of mine.
This is all a dream. I chanted the words repeatedly in my mind. A moment like this can only be a dream, right?
As I stared deep into his eyes, the only source of light the candle between us, I saw those orbs of molten honey get closer. My imagination was running overtime as I imagined his face getting close. Reality or not, I closed my eyes nonetheless. A shiver raked my body due to his hot breath fanning my neck. Can that happen in your imagination? I would have mulled over that question if the feel of Samarth's lips on my ear were not covering my thought process. However, that physical touch sent all my senses into overdrive and I realized this was neither a dream nor a part of my imagination. It was all real.
"Raat akeli hai, bujh gaye diye. Aake mere paas, kaano me mere, jo bhi chahe kahiye...jo bhi chahe kahiye." The lyrics sung directly into my ear with a low seductive voice had my eyes flew open. The desire to watch everything unfold was too strong to ignore.
Suddenly, he backed away. Before I could get my bearings together, he took the candlestand from my easy hold, moved to the living area, and placed it on the table smoothly. Too shocked to move, it took me a minute to budge from my spot and follow him. Eyes downcast, I took a seat on the floor and started rearranging the decors thrown around us meekly. Samarth started doing the same.
Inch by inch, the distance between us began to shorten. I was too embarrassed to check who did it though. Samarth did not like it, I guess. Because the next thing he did was catch my wrist midway, making me drop the hat - the witch hat.
"Mihir."
I kept my lips sealed.
"Mihir. Look at me, please." Reigning in my embarrassment, I glanced at him shyly. "I've been dropping hints all night. You have not pulled away indicates that you don't mind the touch and to bluntly put it, you are into guys. But what I want to know is whether you are into me?"
"Since the day you moved here."
"Good. That's because I am into you."
"Not yet."
The two words rolled off my tongue much to my horror. My eyes widened in size and my face took a crimson hue. Samarth was in the same boat, the only difference was that his face was red because of controlled laughter and not embarrassment. He gave in to his human nature and cackled.
"Sor...ry." My voice cracked in between, grabbing his attention.
Cupping my face with his free hand, he whispered, "Don't be sorry, love. I don't want you to overthink or be skittish, I only wish you to be yourself."
Gratitude filled me at his words and I let out a sigh of relief. What were the chances that my feelings will be reciprocated by this man and he would turn out to be magical?
In the next second, our lips were pressed softly to each other. I cannot tell who initiated the kiss, I can only tell that I was floating in heaven because of it. With deliberate slowness, we moved our lips in sync. The kiss only deepened seconds before we broke it. He lit up my world in the darkness. For a while, we sat with our foreheads touching.
Thoughts started running rampant in my mind palace.
Will he regret the kiss in the morning?
Will he regret me in the morning?
In the mornings, you open your eyes, after all. I did not want to overthink, so I let the one thought rule that would help me sleep peacefully.
"Kal dekhenge(We will see tomorrow)."
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Story word count: 2000
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~ Appy 💕