Chapter 9

-doe-eyes-

@-doe-eyes-

I should be working, I really, really should, but I'm in this cafe charging my laptop and it's SO COLD in here and this is officially the worst excuse of the century :(

*goes sullenly back to work*

ArHi Drabble |Ulterior Motives|

Arnav did not really mind the cold.

He was indifferent to it, really.

Perhaps NK's dramatic accusations that he was really cold-blooded weren't actually so far from the truth.

"Are you sure, though?" Khushi inquired for the umpteenth time, the dubious little frown refusing to be smoothed off her forehead.

"Yes," Arnav returned to the book he had flipped open before him, reaching for his grande latte and rolling his eyes for effect, Now get back to work.'

There were a few dissenting mumbles from his left, but this was soon followed by the rustle of paper and rhythmic tap-tap-tap of Khushi's pen against the edge of their booth.

When the noise had fallen into a predictable tempo, Arnav risked a glance in her direction.

She was bent over the text laid before her, one cheek supported by a palm, her elbow propped on the table-top, while the other continued to drum away with her pen.

She seemed right at home in his jacket.

As though sensing his line of thought, Khushi's hand ceased its tapping, dropped the pen, and grasped the lapels of the jacket, drawing it about her as she snuggled into its depths.

Arnav quickly shifted his stare back to his book, open at the same page as it had been for the last fifteen minutes.

He did not want her to catch the fond smile tweaking about his mouth, trying its best to pull his lips out of their customary scowl.

Maybe NK was right. Maybe he was cold-blooded.

Because despite the windows misted up until they were almost an opaque wall of grey, and despite the air-conditioner turned down so low that Khushi had started shivering the moment they had stepped into the cafe, there was a large bubble of cosy, toasty warmth bulging and swelling ever more determinedly within him, heating everything it touched from the inside out.

And Arnav could not help it. He broke out into a grin, ducking his head in a show of concentration toward his textbook, the impending exams the farthest thing from his mind.

It was very hard to concentrate on something like that when his girlfriend was right beside him, wrapped up in his warmth and his scent, looking unfairly adorable in a jacket that was several sizes too big for her, the sleeves almost reaching her finger-tips, the hem almost reaching mid-thigh...

...and the delicious prospect that, when they stepped out into the balmy afternoon and she returned his jacket, he would be the one wearing her warmth...her scent.

Leave your thoughts please?

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