Transduction
He glared at the girl who was steadily staring at his chest and was barely paying any heed to whatever he was saying. The girl here was some little pipsqueak who had joined his company because of the brand name which came with it and perhaps to ogle at him whenever; at least that's what his ego preached. He was currently walking around with top four buttons of his shirt gone and the sleeveless jacket barely managed to cover. He was getting irritated when women (to his chagrin few men) blatantly stared at his chest.
"My face is up here you know", he grumbled at the girl. She gave a non committal response and he had to finally shooed her away in pure annoyance. He only wished Geet to hurry up since she was the root cause of all this mess.
Whatever had happened was quite simple actually.
Geet had tripped and he had caught her and they stared at each other with obvious UST. Normally awkwardness followed such a situation but that morning, things had gone in a different direction. When he was pulling her up, she had slipped again and instead of holding on to his shoulders like a normal person would she had caught his shirt in her fist.
Pop-Pop-Pop-Pop the buttons went, one hit her in the eye which made her lose balance completely and she pulled him along with her. They ended up tangled in each other and instead of awkwardness, laughter had followed. He had whined about his predicament and she finally told him that she will run to the mall and buy him a new shirt.
She found him walking around his cabin reading something. She handed him the shirt and he noted that she had picked out a plain white for him.
"It's a full-arm shirt", he unnecessarily noted.
"Yes. I wanted you wear something other than your regular man blouse", she replied.
He had just put on the shirt and his actions were halted by her words.
"Excuse me? Man blouse?" He looked at her in awe, surprise and horror. She simply nodded.
And then he launched a full scale rant on high end men's fashion and she being a village dolt not understanding modern dressing sense and other blah.
It irked him more when she ignored his words, moved his hands away from his torso and started buttoning his shirt. The action was utterly casual yet extremely intimate. He wondered if she even understood how her actions showed the familiarity with his proximity - the one which is generally shared by couples.
"Why do you call my awesome fashionable half sleeved shirts as man blouse?" He grumbled, putting hands on his hips.
"Because that's exactly how it looks like. Look, your shirts generally fit your profile but the sleeve part kind of tapers at your biceps and it seems tight. I think it's a ploy to show off your biceps but the first time I saw, the design looked similar to a puffed sleeved blouse. Stand still", she said and also managed to add an order in the end as she buttoned him up.
He noticed that she was looking at him in pure nonchalance. It annoyed him when women stared at him but it kind of pricked when Geet didn't see him that way. He wondered why and before he could process the thought, his idiotic mouth uttered those words.
"Unlike most women in this office, you seem unaffected because of my bare chest", his pride needed some TLC, he consoled himself.
"You see one you seen 'em all", she grinned cheekily and smoothened the shoulders.
"Really? Sometimes I wonder if you preferred a woman's", he grinned wickedly at her. Unfortunately for him, the joke was lost on her.
"Why would I? " She asked him seriously.
"No Geet, I mean… it was just a… never mind", he didn't want to get into that conversation.
"Come on, tell me please", she asked him curiously buttoning the cuffs at his wrists.
"Good God no!"
"Whatever. See you look much better in this full sleeved shirt", she looked at him appreciatively. Of course she added in an undertone – "Better than that man blouse".
"It's not a man blouse", he replied hotly.
"If you say so", she airily replied and left him alone.
He was surprised that she didn't press him further for the insinuation he made. He thanked his lucky stars and pulled in a file and within five minutes door to his cabin opened with – "Ewwwwwww…. " followed by a shrilly voice ranting about how good guys don't make such sort of remarks.
Of course she hadn't let go and she had gone to her cabin and Googled it.
He promised himself that he would call his network engineer right after she finishes her rant and get the damn internet access revoked for her permanently.
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