Chapter 5: Affected

From across the track, she glared at him, a thousand questions in her eyes.  

He swallowed hard, struggling to hold her gaze.  

She fiddled with a wet shirt, unable to do anything other than attempting to discourage him with a hard, deadly stare. To say that she was petrified would be an understatement. The phone in his hand freaked her out. Clearly, he was shooting her; just like the many perverts she had seen and heard of. Eyes deadlocked on him; she wrapped her pallu around her bare waist.  

Gingerly, he turned off the cam and lowered his phone, feeling sheepish.

The battle of the stares was cut short when the local train slapped past from the opposite direction with a loud bellow of its horn.  

He fought to see through the blur, but he could see nothing.  

When the train passed, she was gone, and they were moving.  

Over his shoulder, he noticed a fellow passenger staring at him with a silly smirk on his face. The guy had seen everything, from the beginning to the end.  

Red-faced, Dev clutched the hand straps and looked away. 

***

When Dev finally made it to work, he was late. Very late! He felt awful. It simply wasn’t him to turn up late anywhere. He was always on the dot in everything that he did.  

***

That evening, Dev wasn’t in the best of spirits. He’d just got off the phone after a small chat with his mother. “Yep, your profile IS on several matrimonial sites,” she had admitted. “How else do you get proposals?”  

Dev hated it that he was being pressurized to get married. Not that he loathed the prospect of it, but there was a lot more he wanted to accomplish before getting bogged down with a task he wasn’t interested to shoulder at the moment. But something his mother disclosed troubled him very much. “The astrologer has foreseen turbulent times ahead, so, be wary on the job front and otherwise.” 

“It’s a clear sign that I shouldn’t get married anytime sooner,” Dev had refuted, to which his mother chuckled. “Don’t be silly, Dev. It has nothing to do with marriage. Just be careful while traveling, moving around, or dealing with people, especially with strangers.” 

Dealing with people. That reminded him of the mysterious girl he’d been watching over the past few days. He’d even gone to the extent of filming her. Somehow, that deed made him feel like a pervert. Why the hell did I even do that? He feared that this clip would get him into trouble, especially since she caught him filming her.  

***