Only Mine
Chapter 18: Officially Dating

“Would you like some honey on your toast?”

PB’s voice made Naina choke on her tea, and she quickly kept the cup down, amused at her own silliness. PB thumped her back lightly and asked, “what’s wrong?”

Naina wiped her mouth with a tissue and said, “uh… nothing… when you asked about honey it just reminded me of something.”

“Don’t tell me Sameer calls you honey in just a day of meeting you”, PB exclaimed astonished.

Naina gasped, “how… how did you…”

“Guess?” PB completed her question, sipping her own tea, “I am much more experienced than you when it comes to romance. Now tell me… What is the matter with Sameer? It seems a bit… unusual… that you are so happy to meet a boy whom you barely knew in school.”

Naina bit her lip, “umm… I knew him… maybe not so well, but I did… He isn’t a stranger. We met often when our schools hosted the yearly fest together. And… uhh… remember I had told you about going to the movies with Danny.”

PB nodded, and Naina continued, “well… he… he tried to misbehave with me. Luckily Sameer was in the same theatre that day, and spotted me. He saved me.”

Eyes narrowed, PB stabbed the fork in her bread, “please tell me Sameer beat up that slime.”

Naina smiled, “yes… punched his nose.”

“Good”, PB nodded, placing the fork aside taking pity on the bread, “I would like to meet Sameer whenever you are comfortable.”

“He would love that”, Naina grinned, “I am meeting him tomorrow for dinner. He works part-time so he would be free at 6pm. Let’s see where we go.”

PB approved of her plan, “sounds okay… will you take the car?”

Naina thought about it, wondering what she should do, but then decided against it, “no… not this time. Don’t worry, he will drop me home.”

The entire Monday was a restless one for Naina and she kept fidgeting with her clothes, worrying how she should do her hair for next day and where should they go eat. Definitely some place where it wasn’t a messy eating. Maybe they could do pizza… No no… she always ended up dropping some sauce or toppings on her cloth. She wanted to make a good impression, not a lousy one. She also thought that maybe she shouldn’t have mentioned about the salwar-kameez to him… Wouldn’t it have looked better if she wore something more trendy? Like a skirt or jeans… But then he wanted to see her in that color… Was he still searching for that school type Naina? Or would he find this new Naina equally appealing?

Sameer also had very limited concentration span in college that day as he kept thinking what should he wear next day… Should he bring his bike? And it was their first date… What gift should he take for her? Flowers, definitely… But what else? Also how would he progress on the path of sharing his feelings with her? Will she still like him when she would get to know about his current lifestyle? Or would she feel that he was no longer the eligible bachelor as he didn’t have the means to live lavishly? Would she mind that unlike school time, now he repeated his shirts within a week? Or that he cooked his own breakfast and sometime dinner as well? Would she feel it was inadequate that he had only one watch to go with all his outfits, and that he didn’t drive his bike regularly to save petrol money?

The night was also a strange one as both kept wondering if they should call or wait for the other person to call.            Finally, around 10pm Naina gave in and dialed his number, and was pleasantly surprised when he immediately picked up.

“Hi Sameer”, she greeted.

He sighed at the other end, “Naina… I am so glad you called.”

She frowned, “why? Couldn’t you call me if you were missing me?”

He immediately quipped, “does that mean you were missing me?”

“Uh…”, she stammered, “I… I… just wanted to ask what would you like to eat for tomorrow’s dinner… so I can plan which restaurant to go to.”

He chuckled, “lame excuse… but okay… we can talk about food for now… What did you eat?”

“Rice and Rajma”, she replied, “you?”

He hesitated a bit before saying, “bread omlette.”

“That’s an unusual dinner”, she observed, “I would categorize it as breakfast.”

He smiled, “it is… But I didn’t feel like cooking anything else.”

She gasped, “you cook?”

“Yes, I do”, he confessed, “remember… I had told you that I could cook my entire week’s dinner with the oil in your head.”

She laughed, “oh yes… How can I forget? And I had wanted to see you cooking.”

He immediately said, “you could do that anytime you come home. It’s not much… but better than hostel I guess.”

She sat down on the bed, “maybe we could do that someday… what would you feed me?”

“Eggs are my specialty”, he offered, and then paused for a moment before asking, “uh… I don’t know if you eat eggs or not… I hope you don’t mind that I do.”

She loved the nervousness in his voice; it showed that her opinion mattered to him, “No… I don’t mind at all… And yes, I eat eggs. Tried for the first time after shifting to Mumbai… No one eats at home, so that is usually something I eat outside.”

“I started eating eggs since I was a kid… it was common in hostel”, he informed.

She bit her lip, wondering if it was okay to probe. He had refused to talk about it last time when she had asked, but still she slowly asked, “Sameer… I don’t know if I can ask this to you or not… But, still want to… Why did you stay in hostel?”

He closed his eyes, the old pain still fresh in his heart. But at the same time he knew that if he wanted his relationship with Naina to progress he had to share about his life with her. He just hoped the pain he would bear in doing so would be worth it. Taking a deep breath, he said in a clipped tone, “After my father died, my mother got married again. And she didn’t want a complication from past ruining her newly married life or her brand new perfect family.”

Puzzled she asked, “what complication?”

“Me”, he informed tonelessly, “A one year old fussy overbearing son is the perfect complication… isn’t it?”

Her gasp of horror reached his ears and he clenched his fists. He didn’t want her pity; neither did he want her to cry on his past. This wasn’t why he had told her… He had just wanted to share… open up to her so that he can be close to her even if that meant dredging up his painful past. It was almost a minute before she spoke up, “I pity your mother.”

That wasn’t something he had expected to hear, and so he asked, “what?”

She slowly but confidently said, “I pity your mother… If she left you for a new life, and a new family then it was her loss… She missed out on a wonderful son that she could have had.”

Heart thudding he questioned, “you… you think I could be a wonderful son?”

“Yes”, she affirmed, “you are a wonderful person Sameer… kind, compassionate, brave, strong… I fail to understand what kind of mother wouldn’t be proud of such a son. Whenever I have met Nanaji, I have seen how proud he is of you. Do you know when I came to your home, Nanaji showed me your photograph and told me that you were the naughtiest kid ever and also the kindest. It was the first time I had heard someone introduce their children like that, with their characteristics instead of their academic achievements.”

He smiled, “ya… that’s Nanu… I don’t know what I would have done if he wasn’t there in my life.”

There was silence at both ends, and the she cleared her throat, “umm… enough of serious discussions… You still didn’t tell me what you would like to eat?”

The slightly burnt aloo parathas you used to make in school.

He wanted to demand, but didn’t. Rather he said, “there is a good restaurant near my office. We can go there.”

“Alright”, she agreed, “let’s see what we feel like tomorrow.”

He smirked, “ya… what if I don’t feel like food at all.”

She was confused, “what do you mean? We are meeting for dinner… what else would you want for dinner if not food?”

“You”, he promptly replied. She squeaked, “what?”

He fell on the bed, roaring with laughter. She blushed, not sure how she should react. After a moment, he calmed down enough to say, “Oh God Naina… I missed this so much… flirting with you and hearing the sudden sounds you make… I just wish I could see your eyes now… I am sure they would be wide like car headlights.”

She immediately blinked to make sure her eyes weren’t wide, and then frowned, “you are not going to make any progress in flirting by saying that my eyes resemble car headlights.”

He chuckled, “then… should I write a poem on them? Will that help?”

“As if you could”, she rolled her eyes. He smiled, not at all feeling bad on knowing that she thought he wasn’t capable of writing poems. Instead he reminded her, “remember what I had said earlier… Try not to form perceptions about people.”

Her eyes narrowed, “are you telling me that you can write poems?”

He shrugged, “maybe… or maybe not… you won’t get to know everything about me and my life in just one phone call. We still have a lot of phone calls and dates to go through.”

She blurted, “what’s the number you have thought of before you say no?”

He was caught off guard by this. Was she really waiting for him to say no? He probed, “I don’t know… what is your judgement of how many dates you can spare for me?”

“I… I didn’t…”, she stuttered mortified.

He sighed, “Naina… can we try to not think of when and if either one of us will say no? Let’s not pretend that we don’t enjoy with each other… I like spending time with you… I liked it in school and I like it now too. Can we give this relationship an honest chance?”

She closed her eyes, smiling in relief, “I would love that Sameer.”

“Great”, he exhaled, “now go to sleep… see you tomorrow honey… good night.”

She picked up the tiger soft toy to sleep, “good night Sameer.”

Next day Naina pulled out the deep-blue salwar kameez but then put in back in the cupboard and dressed in a simple jeans-shirt. She was going to meet Sameer in evening so she would have plenty of time to return from college and get dressed. On the other hand Sameer spent extra time to get ready and even packed in his perfume and facewash in the bag. He was in such an extremely good mood the whole day that even Nidhi’s unsavory comments on his lack of manliness didn’t bother him. During the break time he went to a nearby gift shop to see if he could find something for Naina. After much deliberation he decided that a showpiece would be the perfect thing to give… not very personal and neither something thoughtless. He rejected all the God sculptures; they weren’t something to gift his girlfriend. Girlfriend… Just that one word put a huge foolish smile on his face, which helped the gift shop owner to deduce who the gift was for, and so he pulled out a snow globe with a dancing couple dressed in wedding outfits. It was beautiful, but he was apprehensive that it was too couple-ish and it might put Naina on guard. After ten minutes he spotted a horse carriage carved out of wood with a coachman holding the reins of the horse that was captured in mid-trot with one it’s front leg bent, and a couple was sitting on the back seat their hands interlinked. It was perfect, he thought, and it also reminded him of the horse carts on marine drive. So he bought that for Naina, and got it gift wrapped in a red and gold paper.

After college ended Naina hurried back home, somehow nervous despite having all the time in the world to get ready. Sameer hurried to the railway station, grabbing a couple of vada-pavs on the way. He had ditched his idea to bring his bike because he was afraid that Naina might see it as a way of flirting and refuse to sit. He worked at super-fast speed that day wanting to finish off everything in time. In between he snuck out for some time to buy flowers from a lady that made rounds around the neighborhood at 5pm because there was a park nearby where lovers came to spend time. Meanwhile at the other end, Naina spent a considerable time in styling her hair in wavy curls, highlight her eyes with proper eye-shadow and liner, and also used a smudge-proof lipstick that PB had bought for her.

“Takes care of kissing on a date”, PB had teased.

Naina had blushed immediately recalling how Sameer always flirted with her. But there would be no kissing today of course. It was just their first date. Wait… Did that mean she was actually considering kissing him? Oh my God… When had that happened? Hadn’t she always thought that kissing him was gross? But now… she swallowed as she suddenly remembered his smile, his quick grin, the way he frowned… His mouth was so perfectly shaped. And that habit he had of biting his lips before he made some mischievous comment was so damn distracting. Good lord… she had been staring at his lips? The revelation about her own disturbing behavior made her shaky and she had to sit down on bed.

Just at the time PB wandered inside her room and dropped another bomb on her, as she asked, “what gift did you buy for him?”

Blinking in confusion, Naina looked up, “gift?”

PB nodded, “yes… usually boys give gift on first date, but I never understood why girls couldn’t give anything to their date. It is such a miserable behavior on their part. I hope you got a gift for him.”

Still in a daze, Naina queried, “you mean Sameer is going to buy something for me?”

“If he is a gentleman, he would”, PB informed, “so maybe you should also think of something. And please no keychains… they are tacky.”

Naina slipped on her sandals, and stood up, “ah… good… no keychains… I will remember that.”

To be honest she had no idea what to buy for him, and railway stations weren’t the best place to buy a gift for a date. However, maybe it was her lucky day because just as she got down at her destination she spotted a small pop-up art shop, which also had several curios on display. After debating between a pen holder made out of pencil shavings and a strange wall display of an extremely happy fat man, she spotted a small square thing with flowers made of shells stuck on it. Picking it up she realized it was a fridge magnet, and the lady at the stall guaranteed that it was made of handpicked shells from several beaches in Mumbai. Naina didn’t know if it was the truth or not, but it didn’t matter, because the magnet was pretty, and she was running out of time. Unfortunately for her the small pop-up shop didn’t do gift wrapping, but they did have colored papers on display, again apparently handmade. So she bought some of that, and wrapped the small magnet herself; however once again she was stumped on how to stick the wrapping together. Desperate times called for desperate measures; so she went to the ticketing window at the station and annoyed the man at the counter until he produced a grungy old blue bottle of gum that seemed like it had been lying there since the prehistoric era. It served the purpose however, and after some more thought she bought an apple from outside the station and then took a taxi for the short distance to his office.

It was 5:55pm by the time she reached the office building, and stood outside the gates trying to explain the overly cautious watchman that she wasn’t a reporter from some other magazine who had come to steal articles. Her patience was wearing out, and it was a particularly humid day which was making her sweat, she was ready to snap at the man, but just then Sameer came out of the building, jogging to reach quickly. He hailed the watchman, “Saleem bhai… She is here for me.”

The watchman scrutinized Naina once more, and then grumpily asked, “is she going to be here daily now?”

Sameer grinned, “if you like her so much I can ask her to… but trust me she can be extremely annoying sometimes.”

Naina gasped, but Saleem bhai laughed and said, “oh yes… she can be. Good luck on your date.”

Sameer nodded, and slipped his arm around Naina’s shoulders, guiding her away from the building, “this way honey…”

“Annoying?” She shrugged his hand off and glared at him, “what a brilliant way to begin our date? And why does the watchman know about the date?”

He grinned, “I told him… How else would I have justified a beautiful sexy girl suddenly coming to meet me? And also because he saw me buying these…”

Naina blinked at the half-dozen roses that he seemed to magically pull out from thin air. How had she not spotted them before? Where was he hiding them? Behind his back…? Or was it really magic? He snapped his fingers in-front of her face, “earth calling to Naina… come back to Sameer…”

She shook her head, “uhh… I am here.” Taking the roses from his hand, she smiled a bit, her annoyance disappeared, “thank you… They are beautiful.”

He smiled, and spread his arms out, “and what about me? Don’t I get a compliment? I called you beautiful and sexy.”

She put one hand on her hip, “you called me beautiful and sexy after tagging me as annoying in front of the watchman.”

He replied in a completely serious tone, “I couldn’t risk him being fascinated by you.” When she glared at him, he feigned disappointment, “What? I can’t even call you annoying now that you are my girlfriend? What happened to the times we used to have some healthy fights?”

She rolled her eyes, “Ass…”

He grinned, turned, and bent slightly, lifting his hips up so that she could see his back, and said, “minus the sparkles.”

Unable to resist she laughed out. He bowed dramatically, and then combed his fingers through his hair, “and that ladies and gentlemen is how you make your girlfriend laugh.”

She stared at him, an affectionate smile curving her lips, “you seem to be in an extremely good mood today.”

“Credit goes to my extremely beautiful girlfriend, who is looking absolutely gorgeous in blue”, he proffered, “and now… I am hungry.”

She immediately blurted, “for?”

The spark of mischief was instant in his eyes, and he came closer, towering over her, “for you honey… always for you.”

Her heart skipped beats as she looked up at him. What was she doing? He always flirted with her… but since when did she start doing that? Asking him what he was hungry for in the middle of nowhere? That wasn’t how Naina Agarwal functioned. Had Mumbai changed her so much? He lifted his hand, lightly brushing his fingers down her hair, “are you going to kiss me Ms. Agarwal?”

“In your dreams Mr. Maheshwari”, she whispered.

His fingers moved from her hair to her cheek, “it’s always a good dream… will soon need to see if the real deal is just as good.” Her eyes widened at his words, and her heart was beating in an extremely irregular rhythm. He continued rubbing his knuckles on her cheek, “I always thought you had really good eyes… love the color… and they are big, soft, deep, hypnotic… Your eyes are the window to your soul.”

She kept staring at him mesmerized. It was crazy. They were standing on the road, and he was so close… and he was complimenting her eyes. Just yesterday she had suggested that he couldn’t write poems, and here he was, saying words that seemed so much more poignant than any poem. No one had said such words to her ever… and yet… why did some of it seem familiar? A tiny frown knit her brows and her mind cleared enough to process the words. Disbelievingly she asked, “did you just quote Shakespeare to flirt with me?”

He smirked, “whatever works honey…”

“You…”, she reached out to stomp his foot, but he pulled back, laughed and escaped with her in hot pursuit. He ran till the end of the road, and she chased him, but then he stopped, catching her hand to bring her to a halt. He panted, “okay… time up… I can’t run anymore. I literally had two vada-pav for lunch. No energy left.”

She clutched a stitch on the side of her stomach, dragging in breath, and then pulled out the apple from her purse, “I got you this.”

He took the fruit from her hand, “oh great… one apple for six roses… not a bad deal.”

She hit him on his arm, “it’s not an exchange offer. I just thought it’s too early for dinner, so we could spend some time together, but also realized you might be hungry… and if you eat some heavy snacks then you won’t be able to enjoy dinner, so I brought this apple.”

He stared at her dumbfounded for some time, and then said, “oo…ohhkay… Now I know what you do on local trains every morning. Plan you meal for the whole day.”

She rolled her eyes, “enough teasing… let’s go now… I heard there is a park nearby, we can go there.”

He had just taken a bite out of the apple, and spoke around the mouthful, “uh uh… Naina we are not going to the park.”

“Stop speaking with your mouth full”, she admonished, holding his arm and guiding him to the park, “it’s bad manners… and yes we are going to the park. I want to know what is so special about it.”

He stopped speaking and focused on finishing the apple, wondering if she really knew what that park was for and still wanted to check it out.

When they reached the park everything seemed normal, but Sameer scanned around and could spot a few perfect spots for hidden couples. It really didn’t seem like a good idea to be with her here, especially when they just had a brief flirty conversation on kissing. He tried once more, “uh… Naina… I think we should go somewhere else. Maybe the beach…”

She dragged him further inside the park, towards a faraway empty bench, “are you mad? It is so humid today… we can’t enjoy beach in this weather. Park is better. At least it would be cooler with all the trees.”

“Trees are used here for something else too”, he mentioned.

She shrugged, “yes I know.”

They sat down on the bench, and it took him a minute more to gain his speech back and ask, “you know?”

She smiled, “ya… for sitting underneath… in the shade…” He bit his lip trying not to laugh at her innocence. She saw his action and commented, “are you thinking of some mischief?”

He queried, “no… why?”

“Because you always bite your lip when you are about to say something mischievous”, she blurted.

He blinked, spying a couple kissing beneath a tree nearby, and tried to keep her attention focused on him, “are you saying that you look at my lips?”

Even in the last light of the setting sun he could say that she was blushing, as she vehemently denied, “I don’t do any such thing.”

He chuckled, letting it slide, and again tried to get her out of the park, “it’s getting pretty dark… there could be mosquitoes here… let’s head out.”

She groaned, “why are you so antsy? Why can’t you just relax here for some time?”

“I… I am hungry”, he lied.

She was perplexed, “again? But you just ate that apple.”

He turned to her, sliding closer, and holding her arms, “look at me… do you think just one apple is enough for me?”

She glanced at him, distracted by his touch, “Sameer… I…” Her attention was captured by a movement behind him and her eyes widened in shock as she saw a couple come and sit on the bench next to them… and they… they had their arms around each other, and she couldn’t see from the angle but she was pretty sure they were kissing. He was looking at her face, and frowned on seeing her expressions. Oh no! Did she…? He quickly turned to check what she had seen and groaned…

Great… Now people can’t even stick to hiding behind trees.

He took her hand, pulling her up to stand, “Naina… let’s go from here.”

She tore her eyes away from the snogging couple, and looked around with wide eyes, and clear focus. Even in the darkness she could spot silhouettes of couples all over the park, some movements behind the trees, and if she was not mistaken some distance away a couple was lying on the grass. Oh my God… What was this place?

He cupped her face, forcing her to look at him, “honey… calm down… let’s go… okay?”

She followed his tug, still staring horrified at her surroundings. Finally, he just pulled her to him, wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and quickened their pace. She didn’t know what direction he was taking her, but in five minutes they were outside the park, in some lane with street lights that hadn’t been turned on yet. He stopped at a little distance away from a shop, and asked, “are you okay?”

She looked at him, still lost, “I didn’t know… Sameer… Honestly I had no idea.”

He was about to assure her that he knew she had no idea, but before he could do that she gasped in horror, coving her mouth with her hand, and tears sprung to her eyes, “oh my God… What if my family gets to know? They will think I have an affair… They will again…”

Nothing made sense to him, so he held her shoulders and shook her gently, “Naina… Naina calm down… Your family isn’t here… You are in Mumbai… with me… No one will get to know anything.”

She looked so distressed that he wanted to hug her, assure her that everything would be alright. But he didn’t know how she would take that kind of an advance from him, and so he just rubbed her arms, trying to calm her, “please don’t cry… it was nothing.”

She sniffed, her lips wobbling as she said, “I ruined our date… I am sorry.”

He smiled, “oh honey… you didn’t do anything like that. I know you didn’t know anything about the park… That’s why I kept saying no to come here, but you were stubborn… And so I just tried my best to not let you look around and keep your focus on me. I didn’t… didn’t anticipate… that someone would do that on bench actually.”

She slowly asked, “is it… is it normal?”

He shrugged, “who knows? I only came here once with a guy from our office to take some interviews. To be honest, I was a bit grossed out.”

She thought about it for a moment, and further queried, “you think they are wrong?”

“I am not saying that”, he explained, “couples don’t have a lot of places where… umm… where they can spend quality time without fear. It may be right for them, I can’t comment on that… But, if you are asking my opinion, I wouldn’t take my girlfriend at a public place to kiss.” She glanced away shyly, and he smiled, “you just stay here… I will get some water.”

While he was gone she quickly pulled out some tissues from her purse and wiped her face, and as she tried to zip her purse again, she spotted the gift she had bought for him. Damn… She had totally forgotten to give it to him. He came back with a bottle of water, and opened it, handing it over to her. She drank it, the cold water soothing her, and then frowned, “oh… sorry… I put my mouth on it, forgot you would drink too.”

He took the bottle from her, chuckling, “what are you even talking about? Is this the first time we are sharing a drink?” She watched him drink, fusing his lips to the very same spot where she had drunk from, and even though he was right about them having done this before, somehow this time it felt different… more intimate.

He capped the bottle, licked his lips, and then said, “if you don’t stop staring at my lips right now I will take it as a permission to kiss.”

She gasped, looking away immediately, “I wasn’t…”

“Stop lying”, he interrupted, “and tell me where you want to have dinner?”

“Maybe somewhere I won’t make a fool of myself”, she muttered.

He took her hand, and gestured her to walk, “you didn’t make a fool of yourself… it’s okay not to know things. I mean there are many things which I don’t know about.”

Intrigued, she asked, “like what?”

He pretended to think, and then said, “like how your lipstick didn’t smudge even when you drank water.”

She was taken aback for a moment, and then laughed, “what? Is that… How do you even know it didn’t smudge?”

He chuckled, “well… first… I drank from the same bottle, no lipstick marks… And second, I have been staring at your lips.”

“Stop flirting”, she admonished lightly.

He rubbed his thumb on the back of her palm, “c’mon honey… the whole point of having a girlfriend is flirting as much as I can… And I have a very big appetite.”

“I noticed”, she said wryly, “you were hungry even after the apple.”

His voice was low and deep as he said, “honey… I am not talking about food.”

She blushed at his comment, however couldn’t help but laugh at how wittily he had made her forget of the park fiasco. Still, she needed to change the topic urgently, and so she asked, “what about the restaurant you had mentioned?”

He nodded, “sure we can go there. It’s about ten minutes of walk. You okay with that, or want to get a taxi?”

She looked up at the sky, “no… let’s walk… the evening is good.”

They chatted lightly about college as they walked to the restaurant. Once they reached the main road, Sameer switched places with her, tugging her to the inside edge so that she was away from the traffic. She was surprised by this, and asked, “why did you do that?”

“Traffic”, he replied with a shrug.

She was still puzzled, “I know… but… I can take care of myself. I travel alone.”

“I know”, he acknowledged, “but when you are with me I want to take care of you.”

She looked at him for some time, trying to understand why it felt so special. After a moment she mused, “no one has ever done that.”

He glanced at her, “what do you mean? You have a father and an older brother… Agreed they are both je…” He trailed off as she glared at him, and corrected, “je…uh… just too occupied in their world, but when you were small, they must have done such things.”

She looked down at the road, avoiding meeting his eyes, “I… I grew up with my Chachaji and Chachiji. Preeti’s parents. My father and brother lived next door with my Taiji and Tauji. We never spent that much time together.”

It didn’t make any sense to him, “what? Why? You must have been an adorable baby girl…”

She sighed, “it’s a long story… maybe for some other day.”

He stopped and turned to her, “Naina… we should share things about our life with each other. Like I told you about the hostel thing when you asked.”

She smiled, “I know… but it’s our first date. I don’t want it to be marked with old hurtful memories.”

Thinking for a moment he decided to let it go for now. He pinched her nose, and said, “as you wish m’lady. Let’s eat and talk about how I can get my first kiss from you.”

She slapped his hand away, “ow! Don’t do that… And no one says m’lady unless you are dressed in a tuxedo with bowtie and your date is dressed in a super expensive evening gown.”

“Perceptions”, he promptly replied, “you still need to learn… And don’t think I didn’t notice you didn’t object to the kiss talk.”

She chuckled, “you really have a one track mind… don’t you? Well, talk as much as you want… I am not going to kiss you. We had talked about this.”

He clutched his heart with dramatic effect, “ouch… coming on a date and being told I am not ‘the one’ for Ms. Naina Perceptions Agarwal. I think I am going to need my roti with extra butter tonight, or maybe even a cheese paratha.”

She rolled her eyes, “okay… we do need to get to the restaurant first though.”

He pretended as if he was choking, “it…it’s… ri…right there.”

She looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a lighted up board with Punjab Delight written on it. It was a medium-sized place that seemed to be pretty popular with people, and the gates were done in old style with heavy wood and traditional hangings. She liked it. Suddenly he stumbled into her, and surprised she held him. He gasped, “he…help… need bu…butter.”

She chuckled, guiding him to the restaurant, “I got you Mr. Sameer Drama-King Maheshwari… Let’s get you that extra butter and cheese.”

They were seated on the far end near a window overlooking the street, and after browsing through the extensive menu they chose a butter paneer, dal makhni, and butter-roti to go along with it. As the waiter left with the order form, Naina smiled, “I hope all that butter will be enough for you.”

Sameer sighed, “ya… it’s the cure of my no-kiss situation.”

She laughed, “alright… tell me about your job. What do you do there? And how is it helping you in your end goal?”

He briefed her about his profile, and also the way he had learned to be more organized and planned, to utilize his money properly, and also taking orders from other. When she asked if it was all smooth all the time, he told her honestly of the several times in first when he had wanted to give up, but then put his act together and continued once again. He told her of how he missed spending time with Munna and Pandit, about how he realized that he had so much time in Ahmedabad to do so many things but always took it lightly.

The waiter came back with their food, and Naina queried, “when you wanted to give up what kept you going?”

He smiled, “someone had told me to take it up as a challenge. And I hope you haven’t forgotten my equation with challenges.”

“Sameer Maheshwari always wins”, she grinned, “and now we should eat.”

He agreed wholeheartedly to that since he was actually very hungry. He was eating here for the first time, so he hoped that whatever he had heard of this place was true. And it was… The food was amazing and it became even more so when they kept chit-chatting and she fed him a morsel just like she used to do in school. It was however a bit expensive that he had anticipated, but he figured it was worth the time he got to spend with Naina.

Later as they went outside, she asked, “ice-cream?”

“Sure”, he smiled, “I will get some.”

She pulled him back, “no… not the fancy ones… Let’s do that one, on the street… the plain vanilla cones.”

He was surprised, “really you want that?”

“Yes, and it’s my treat”, she quipped pulling him along.

He was honestly surprised with the choice she made, but it absolutely pleased him when she got just one cone to share. And she even let him finish the last bite from her hand. He hummed, “that was the best ice-cream ever.”

She laughed, and then opened her bag taking out the gift, “I… uh… I got this for you. It’s not much… but I hope you like it.”

He took the small package from her hand, astonished, “you got me a gift? Do girls do that?”

She shrugged, “there’s no rule against it. You also got me flowers…”

He tugged the zip on his bagpack, “actually… I also have a gift for you.”

Her eyes widened, “but you gave me flowers!”

Taking out the box, he offered it to her, “there’s no rule that states I cannot give flowers and gift too.”

They both stood there, slightly awkward with the packages in their hands. Neither of them tried to open theirs. He looked around and spied a small open garden like area where people were sitting on the grass eating street food or ice-creams. One bench was empty and he asked, “you want to go sit there?”

She nodded and they walked in silence up to the bench and sat down with the presents still in their hands, unopened. After a moment, Naina sighed, “we are really doing this seriously… aren’t we?”

He took a deep breath, “yes we are… officially dating.”

She kept her purse and the gift aside, pulling her legs up on the bench, and hid her face in her hands, mumbling, “oh my God… I never thought I would do this… I am dating you.”

“Whoa”, he turned to her, dumping his bag and gift on the bench too, “you think I thought of dating you when we first met?”

She peeked at him from between her fingers, “no… I guess you thought of me as a loser with horrible looks, oily pigtails and no fashion sense.”

“That’s harsh”, he replied. When she quirked her brow he sighed, “okay yes… I did… But… I also thought you kind of looked… um… fiery when you were threatening me to clean your cycle.”

She blinked, and then looked up with a smile, “you thought something nice about me on that meeting?”

He rolled his eyes, “unlike you. I know you thought of me as rich, spoiled, pampered brat.”

Her smiled widened, “yes… I did… but I also tagged in handsome with all those other adjectives.”

He grinned, “you found me handsome even after I soiled your cycle?”

She frowned, “well objectively your looks and mud on my cycle was totally unrelated.”

“Always the practical one”, he shook his head, “but… I am glad you are what you are… and I am happy that we are here now… like this…”

She nodded, and hesitantly asked, “what are the rules?”

“I don’t know”, he replied honestly, “how about we make them up as we go?”

She grinned, “sounds good… first one for today… I have always seen people being all crazy in dating… like weird presents, calling each other those extremely annoying overly-sweet nicknames. I don’t want to do that.”

He tilted his head, “agreed… no cupcake or cutie and please, no baby. Also, we will plan our dates, and if we can’t meet often we will still call each other.”

“That’s okay”, she smiled, “and now… what about these presents? Do we just say thank you?”

He chuckled, “that would be the usual thing… but let’s play a little game. We open up the presents and say the first thing that comes to our mind on seeing the gift, and then the other explains why we got that specific gift.”

She was surprised, “I… I actually like this idea. I never thought you could…”

“Perceptions Naina”, he interrupted, “now open up yours.”

She bit her lip, carefully the paper, and the box. She slowly pulled out the showpiece, and exclaimed, “oh wow… this is just like the carriages at Marine Drive.”

He gaped at her, “really? That’s exactly what I thought… You like Marine Drive?”

“I love that place”, she relayed excitedly, “I go there so often.”

He was stunned, “I do too! But I never saw you…”

She looked at the gift in her hand, “ya… not finding people in Mumbai is much more plausible than it seems to be.”

His mind flashed back to all those months of searching for her, and he quickly changed the topic, “okay… my turn now.”

She watched on excited as he made short work of the wrapping paper, and then turned the square this way and that to check. Frowning he asked, “is that… a fridge magnet?”

Her shoulders slumped, “it is… and you hate it… I should have got the pen holder made of pencil shavings.”

He shook his head, “okay… first of all… I didn’t know pencil shavings could be used for anything apart from creating a mess. And secondly, I love this gift… it is beautiful and thoughtful. I have lived here in my apartment for so long, yet haven’t ever given a thought to add some personal touch… I mean… home décor. But you thought of it… and it feels good that you did.”

She smiled, “really? You honestly like it.”

He grinned, “I am putting that on my fridge as soon as I get home. And the first thing that came to my mind on seeing this is home décor.”

She laughed, “I thought it would be beach… since its shells… But yes, I did get that for your apartment.”

He winked at her and put the gift inside the bag. She smiled keeping her own gift back in the box. He took it from her, “let me keep it in my bag since it obviously won’t fit in your purse… I will give it you when I drop you home.”

She checked his watch, “it’s already time… I didn’t realize.”

Chuckling he leaned forward, “want to do late night stuff?”

She gasped, blushing furiously, “ass…”

He tilted his head, frowning, “dirty mind… I meant late night movie and popcorn.”

“I know exactly what you meant”, she clucked her tongue and stood up. But he too stood up, caught her hand and pulled her back, making her hand land on his chest. She remembered the way they had been at the pond side all those years back. She was still just as mesmerized by his sight.

“Don’t go”, he whispered.

She gazed into his eyes, “It’s late… PB will worry.” He sighed, leaving her, and stepped back, but she kept holding his hand, and assured, “we will meet again… soon.”

He nodded, trying to keep himself in check and not pester her to meet immediate next day. He hadn’t thought he would want her so much.

Control Sameer… You can’t scare her off.

Ya… that was one thing he didn’t want. He might have already realized that he loved Naina, but for her all this was too new and too sudden. She would feel uneasy if he moved in too quickly. Somehow he needed to find a way to control his overwhelming emotions and desires, and at the same time make her understand that their relationship was meant to be for forever.

He took a taxi to drop her home, thinking if it would be okay to plan the next date within this week. Somewhere midway she asked, “why don’t you bring your bike to college and work? Won’t it be less of a hassle for you?”

He looked away from her, “it could be… but train is more convenient and faster.”

She frowned, understanding that he didn’t tell her the real reason else he wouldn’t have looked away. What was he hiding? And why? She thought to ask again, but then didn’t because she realized there were so many things she hadn’t told him yet. It was just the first day. They could take baby steps… They had time.

Suddenly she had an idea and queried, “Sameer… what time do you leave for college? I mean… which train?”

“I take the 6:30am local”, he informed.

She grinned, “perfect… look it’s not possible to meet for dates daily, and of course we won’t eat out every day. But since our college is in the same area, we can meet daily on train.”

His eyes lit up, “you take the same train…! wow… it’s a great idea… But how will I meet you?”

Thinking for a moment, she replied, “you know the book cart with the horrible yellow banners at your station.”

He laughed, “oh yes… That man never changes those banners.”

She chuckled, “yes… the ladies compartment usually falls right there when the train stops. I travel in ladies compartment but if you are with me from that station then…”

He linked his fingers with her, “I will be with you… every day.”

As he dropped her home, she hesitantly asked if he would like to come in, recalling his comment from last time. He laughed, and refused, saying he would meet PB someday later and it wouldn’t look good if he came inside so late. She smiled, and asked him to call her when he reached home.

He frowned, “why? We just met.”

She slapped her forehead, “so that I know you reached safely.”

He was surprised, but grinned, and said, “yes madam.” As the taxi drove back to his home, he had a constant smile on his face, his heart warmed by the fact that Naina cared so much about him.