Chapter 38
She was at the student services desk at the library to reserve a room when Rohan came by to the same desk and coincidentally for the same purpose. She was not surprised to see him there...he was always at the library after the Cafe closed. And since finals were upon them, they walked home together after the library closed...but neither of them knew the other studied in a reserved room...they only met at the entrance at the closing hour. He proposed for them to just share the room so a room could be saved which someone else could use. Keerti was skeptical about it but there was not a convincing enough reason she could come up with at that time...specially when he was standing right in front of her waiting for an answer. So she agreed...
They walked to the room which was at the far end of the floor. As they entered, the door closed behind them...he looked behind him at the closing door a little surprised - this was his first realization that it was, in fact, a bad idea to share the room with her. They went ahead and sat on the opposite sides of the table - second realization that it was a terrible idea. He chided himself for being so foolish...now not only will he not be able to concentrate, he will have to control himself real hard from looking at her every other second when she sat right in front of him. And her state was no different from his either...
Both of them managed to get on with their work with great difficulty, but in reality none of them were doing what they were supposed to do. Keerti had to type up her assignment that she had worked on and Rohan was to do some reading. A half hour passed before they got their 3rd indication...when the clock struck 1... that it was the worst idea...she had only been looking into her notes to read what she had to type but what came out on her screen was gibber...she had been pressing the keys on the keyboard randomly. And he too realized he had not read a word beyond the first line.
They both were so much aware of the others presence that that is all their mind could register...his ears concentrated on every hit of the key...and her feet could feel the rhythm of his leg movements through the air in the room. Even though they were not looking at one another, all their other senses had suddenly become ultra-sensitive. They were wide awake even at that hour of the night...but it was of no use since neither of them could really concentrate.
When he was convinced that he was not going to be able to read past that first sentence, he abandoned his notes and brought out his laptop. The moment she saw it she knew she was going to be in trouble...she closed her eyes so she would not see the pop-up message on her gtalk...the one that would cause her heart to flutter. As he turned on his laptop, she flicked her eyes open when it made a sound to indicate he had come online...and even though she had mentally prepared herself for its coming, she couldn't help the gulp that followed. He had been watching her since she closed her eyes...and even after she opened them he allowed himself to watch her a little longer...for her eyes were transfixed on the screen. He didn't realize that that little longer had become long enough for him to follow her throat movements during the swallow...and when he looked up she was already looking at him. Their unblinking gazes held the other's... their outsides were perfectly motionless but their insides were exploding in a rapid rhythm. It was long enough for them to not want to look away feeling awkward and each prayed something happened naturally that would allow them to break away... As if on cue, his phone rang just then and he stepped out of the room to take the call. As the door closed behind him, she slumped on her back with her eyes closed and clenched her shirt on her chest hoping it would somehow ease her fluttering heart before he stepped in again...Edited by dolphinUSA - 12 years ago
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