In The Eyes Of The Beholder~1~ Link to New Thread - Page 38

In The Eyes Of The Beholder

Chapter 6

Maan smoothed his hand over the number 10 on the back of the T- Shirt. Tendulkar's number. Praneet Da had chosen the number for him. He no longer had the right to hold the bat, however wearing the number of his hero soothed a small corner of his heart. He pulled the T- shirt over his head and it moulded to his powerful chest and shoulders before covering the perfection of his abs.
He walked over to the espresso machine and the highly polished surface reflected back the image of his newly sprouted stubbled jaw. He decided that the new look went well together with his new lifestyle.

She breezed into the cafe and hurried over to the counter.

"Praneet Da, one usual chai please. I slept very late, last night and had to wake up early today and I am barely awake. I desperately need that cup of chai."
Oh wow da, Sachin Tendulkar's number. I thought you were reserving that for the man of the match when you found him. How come you are wearing it yourself? Da? Praneet Da? Oh hello!"

This was not happening he thought. Maan she is not behind you. You are hallucinating. You will turn around and it is going to be some hot chick who is going to stroke your masculine ego, by drooling over your evident perfection. He turned around with great difficulty and with a sheer force of will, as his legs seemed nailed to the floor and his body refused to budge from it's frozen position.
And there she was, and what a sight to behold. She looked like a chick alright, but there was nothing hot about her. Her hair looked like a bird's nest that had been put together with an egg beater and she was wearing a blue Superman T-shirt with the yellow and red 'S' logo marching across her chest. It had more creases then an elephant's hide.

She squinted her eyes and looked at his bearded face.

"Hey Geet. Good Morning." Praneet popped out from the side door that lead to the cafe's kitchen.

Geet's startled eyes moved from the guy in the glasses framed in the side doorway to the stubbled man in front of her. Her mouth turned into an O and her eyes took on a confused look; However she quickly covered her confusion and smiled at Praneet.

"Oh hey Praneet Da. There you are."

She pointed her thumb towards the bearded guy and raised her eyebrows.

"Oh Geet, meet Maa..."

"She knows damned well who I am, don't you?"

Maan interrupted Praneet before he could complete his sentence while glaring at her.

"I do? Where from? Have we met before?"

Maan noticed the blank look of non-recognition in her eyes.

What was she? After all the crazy things she had said and done to him, after all the turmoil she'd caused, how could she not recognize him?Was she pretending? Was this a game for her, wherein she was trying to be different from all the girls around him to draw his attention?

He looked at her with intense concentration to see if he could find any deception on her face, but the genuine look of confusion in her eyes defied the flawed logic he was trying to justify her behavior with.

Now that he thought back, he recalled that she had never looked at his face directly even once. She had either been too focused on his bike or on his body. Also he had been told by a few people that the whole dynamics of his face had changed after the designer stubble he'd sprouted.Women had complimented him time and over, about how the stubble brought a chiseled look to his face.

As he looked at her blank face with absolute no recognition in it, he decided it was a good idea that she had not recognized him after all. He did not want Praneet Da to know all the embarrassing things Geet Handa had done to him.

"Oh, I am sorry. I mistook you for somebody else. You are Geet? I am.. I am..I mean my name is Diez."

Praneet looked at him with startled eyes. Maan shook his head subtly at him warning him not to reveal his identity to her.

"You are Spanish? Diez means no 10 in Spanish doesn't it? "She asked him.

"No I am not Spanish, but I come from a big family. My mother ran out of names by the time her tenth and last child, that is me was born. She named me Diez, as she was learning Spanish numbers at the time."

He lied smoothly. Well at least the part about his mother learning Spanish had been true.

He heard a strangled sound from the corner and saw Praneet Da trying to choke back his laughter. His face was buried in the newspaper in his hand and his shoulders were shaking furiously.

"Oh what an interesting story. Is that why Praneet Da gave you Sachin Tendulkar's number 10. I know he was saving it to give it to the perfect person who was worthy of that number. You must be him then. Right Praneet Da?"

"Right Geet. Maa.. I mean Diez is the best candidate for that no 10."

"Now if only he realized it." Praneet muttered under his breath.

"Hey Mr. Perfect, I am Geet Handa by the way." She grinned while extending her hand to him.

He took her hand cautiously and shook it.

Tchh!! As if he needed an introduction to this weird female who'd handed her number to him left, right and center and at every meeting they'd had so far. But then Diez was an unknown commodity to her and he was happy to let it be that way. He forced a smile on his face.

"Well what can I get for you Miss Handa?

"Miss Handa?" She giggled.

"That does make me sound like a self-important, pompous little madam. Please just call me Geet."

"Right then Geet. I will take your order."

"Oh I will have chai with milk and lots of sugar please."

She leaned on the counter and chatted away while Maan prepared her tea. It was early and the rest of the cafe employees were not in yet.

Maan handed her the tea, she took a sip and wrinkled her nose.

"Umm I need more sugar."

"But I have already added 2 full spoons to it."

"Well I am sure you did but..." She shifted uncomfortably.

"Maan just hand her the sugar jar." Praneet called out.

Maan nodded and handed her the sugar jar; she grabbed it and unscrewed the lid. She dipped a spoon into the sugar and poured it into her cup and she poured it again and again and again, till Maan finally snatched the jar from her.

"Are you crazy? How can you drink that?" He shuddered as he looked at her cup.

"Oh when I drink tea the spoon has to stand in the sugar at the bottom of my cup or it is not sweet enough for me."

She pointed to the teaspoon standing straight in the middle of her teacup for a moment, before the sugar started dissolving and the spoon clinked against the side of the cup.

He gave her a long lecture on the disastrous effects of excess sugar on the body, while Geet sipped her tea and listened to his droning voice. He finally grabbed the half-drunk cup from her hand and dumped the remaining tea into the sink.

"My teaaa!!!!!" Geet wailed.

"That is not tea, that is poison. And I refuse to stand here and watch while you feed your body that." He glared at her, arms crossed over his chest.

She glared back at him for a moment and just as suddenly sighed and tears sprang to her eyes.

She grabbed his palm between her own and carried it to her cheek.

"Thank you for caring Diez. Nobody has ever cared what I drink or don't drink. You are the first person."

Man felt a shiver race down his spine as his hand was trapped between a rough palm and a soft warm cheek. A hot tear landed on the back of his hand and he snatched his hand away, trying to rub off the tear and the strange sensation it had evoked in his chest.

There she went again, doing things completely out of the norm. Who grabbed a stranger's hand and nuzzled it against their cheek and cried all over it.

He could still feel the imprint of her cheek and tear on his palm no matter how hard he tried to rub it off.

Her glance suddenly fell on the clock mounted on the wall and she gasped.

"OMG I am so, so late. I am so dead. It's all your fault Diez."But she said the last sentence with a soft smile.

"It was wonderful meeting you Diez. Bye Praneet Da."

As she backed away from the counter, Maan's gaze fell on her T-shirt. The words Superman were emblazoned across it's surface, below the 'S' Symbol. However he was startled when he realized that there was a P' missing from the Superman and he mentioned it to her absently.

"Umm, Geet do you realize P is missing from your superman."

She looked down at the T- shirt and laughed.

"That's coz I left the P' in the bathroom, last time I went in there to do my business."

With that statement and a wild laughter ringing behind her, she walked away.

Praneet was howling with laughter and it took a moment for Maan to realize why.

He was irritated with her for one moment, then a small smile cracked his lips and then he was bent over with laughter.

One thing he'd give her, he'd never had a dull moment since he'd met Geet Handa.

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Chapter 7