I looked out of the window of my cabin to find that dusk had passed, giving way to the darkness of night. I checked my watch, quarter to nine. I sighed and closed my files, hurriedly packing my belongings. The clouds rumbled ominously, making me wince. It had been raining all day. Unseasonal storms were the worst. I hadn't had a proper lunch, just a small wrap from the office canteen. There was some work left, but I decided to not wait in the office any later than now, and almost ran outside. It was dark and late, and my parents had been calling continuously, asking every five minutes if I had left the office or not.

As soon as the elevator opened at the ground floor, the howl of a powerful gust of wind hit my eardrums, and I groaned in dismay. I walked slowly to the glass gate, my mind working ways to reach home in one piece. You couldn't make out the extent of the storm from high above in our office. When my parents said it was a bad storm, I was convinced they were exaggerating just as every worried parents did to get their children home sooner. But from the looks of it, it didn't look like they had been exaggerating. Bits of hair came loose from my bun, hitting my face and neck. I clutched my bag close to my chest as I saw the rain pelting down the sky, forcefully hitting the pavement. I called my parents to assure them that I would soon be home.

There was no one in the office other than me. Natasha had gone home half an hour back, her parent's driver had come to pick her up. She had offered me a drive home, but I had declined, hoping to get as much work done as possible. Now I wished I had taken that ride home. It was getting increasingly difficult to stand outside, the wind getting stronger by the second. I stepped back a little, checking for cabs on the Ola app, when I heard a faint honk of a bike. I looked up from my phone to find a tall, lean figure sitting on a bike under the pelting rain. My heart beat loudly against my chest as the figure took off his helmet and dragged his bike closer to me under the pavement.

I caught Abeer's striking brown eyes for a moment before he unlocked his bike seat and retrieved a black raincoat from within. Neither of us said anything, the splattering of the rain and the howls of the wind keeping us company in the background. I didn't know what I should feel about Abeer on his bike waiting patiently for me outside my office to come take me home. My heart was melting, if it already hadn't looking at him standing in the midst of a storm, waiting for me. He didn't meet my eye again, placing the raincoat in my arm and sliding back onto his beast of a bike. I called it beast because it was humongous. And I liked it that way. I put my hands through the holes. He kick-started his bike, and waited momentarily for me to climb atop his bike. By the time I was settled on the back seat, I had forgotten all my grudges. He had taken a step forward even though both of us had been equally wrong. It was my responsibility to take one step forward too and meet him in the middle ground.

I threw my arms around his neck, and brought my lips close to his wet neck and placed a soft kiss at the back of his earlobe. I could feel him shiver slightly in my arms. Whether it was because of the cold or because of my kiss, I couldn't care less. I let my hands travel down his torso and grip his waist firmly.

"Thank you," I whispered in his ear and laid my head on his back, further tightening my hold on his waist. Even in the cold around us, I could feel warmth radiating from this person, his mien relaxing. I could feel him trying to twist on bike to face me, but I held my place, silently telling him it was fine, all was well. I could feel him smiling, making me grin against his back. Indeed, everything was fine.

As Abeer tried to swerve through the storm, I thought of that night when he was still new in the office and had offered me a lift, even though I had given him a cold shoulder ever since he had arrived. My smile deepened at that thought. But all wasn't fine, after all. The rains weren't any better than the last time, they were ten times worse. To top it the traffic had blocked the road and we were stuck in the same position for about an hour. There was honking from everywhere; cars, taxis, and two-wheelers alike, all frustrated with the traffic and the storm, awaiting their beds after a truly tiring day. I looked around to see the vendors had closed their shops early. The street lights flickered uncertainly, making the atmosphere queasy all around. Twigs and tree logs had fallen on the pavements and the roads, the trees swaying, trying to stand tall but unable to do so because of the mighty winds. I looked at the trees blankly, before a thought hit me.

"How did you know I was still in the office?" I asked Abeer.

"What?" Abeer shouted in the air, unable to catch my words due to the honking and the blowing wind.

I shouted back. "How did you know I was still in the office?" I repeated my question, coming closer to him.

"Oh, I had called Natasha to check if you had left or not around ten past eight. She said she had left, but you were still in the office, not planning to leave anytime soon. So I drove to pick you up," he said and blew his own horn to get the guy in front of us not reverse his car.

I raised my eyebrows. "You couldn't call me to get to know about what I was doing or when I would leave the office. No, you had to call to Natasha," I replied sardonically, teasing him. "What if I wasn't about to get out of the office anytime soon? Would you be standing in the storm for me for long?"

"First off, you weren't going to pick up my phone if I called. And I wasn't going to call. And you know why." I could feel him rolling his eyes at me. "And as for the second question, I am a romantic, but I'm not demented. I was going to come upstairs to get you if you hadn't come down when you had."

"And that wouldn't have hurt your pride, coming upstairs?" I couldn't help the cheek.

His shoulders sagged as he heaved a loud sigh. " I think I had forsaken the pride part when I drove to your office in the midst of a storm. And I'm glad I did. Pride might have costed me too much. And I wasn't ready to take that chance," he said and adjusted his rear view mirror. My heart warmed at his statement and I beamed at his back.

Just in time, a police jeep with a speaker on it's top stopped before the traffic and made an announcement. "All people to note that the road further has flooded because of the storm. Your vehicles won't be able to pass, and it isn't advised to go on foot. We are opening up the road on your left to take you to Hotel Star-inn. We advice you to spend the night there and leave once the water level recedes tomorrow morning."

I froze. The whole night? What will my parents say? My eyes widened with worry as I began to chew the skin of my nail. Abeer, sensing my fear leaned back and whispered, "Don't worry, we will figure it out." Then he swerved to the left and followed the vehicles down the road.

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