Drenched

seriouslyfunny: I was thinking

raginionline: That’s encouraging. You also think!

seriouslyfunny: Yes Ms smarty two-shoes, I do. Stop teasing me or I won’t tell you what I thought.

raginionline: Blackmailer! Alright, tell me!

seriouslyfunny: When we meet, it’ll be June-end. Monsoon will have arrived by then. We’ll go for a walk in the rain.

raginionline: You like walking in the rain?

seriouslyfunny: I have only been out in the rain when I haven’t had a choice like when I forget to carry an umbrella or am not commuting by car. Never deliberately. But I want to walk in the rain with you.

She forgot her bantering for a moment. She could sense a kind of stubbornness behind his words, the chin thrust out, the set cast to the mouth, the heels dug in. She was at once intrigued and daring, wondering why she couldn’t breathe.

raginionline: Why is that?

seriouslyfunny: The rainwater will run down your face.

raginionline: I am sure it would… it would run down yours also. That’s what rain does. So?

She tried desperately to recapture her bantering tone. She felt herself slide irresistibly down a dangerously exhilarating tunnel.

seriouslyfunny: A drop will stop for a moment at the tip of your nose.

raginionline: So what?

She thanked God they weren’t talking on the phone!

seriouslyfunny: I will flick that drop off

raginionline: And then?

seriouslyfunny: Then? Then nothing. I will look into your eyes and smile.

raginionline: For that, I will have to look up at you and the rain will get into my eyes. I won’t be able to see you at all!

She complained petulantly, frantically trying to break the spell. It didn’t work; she had known it wouldn’t.

seriouslyfunny: I will shield your eyes from the rain with my hands as you look up at me. We will stop walking. And I will smile into your eyes. I have dreamt of that moment.

He didn’t know it, but she gasped. She was drenched… all the way to her core. She had to run before she blurted something unsuitable.

raginionline: I have to go now. It is very late. I sleep early, remember?

seriouslyfunny: I remember.

raginionline: Good night.

seriouslyfunny: Good night Raag. Sleep well.

raginionline: logging out

seriouslyfunny: Me too

She logged out, her breath coming in short gasps. Raag! He called her Raag!

She had fallen in love with a man she had never met!