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She smiled. “Fine.”
He positioned himself on his bicycle. For a moment, neither moved. Then Trisha looked at him.
“Ready?”
Krish looked back at her. “Always, baby.”
She tightened her grip around the handlebars. Their romantic getaway had suddenly turned into a cycling race.
“Try to keep up, Krish.”
He laughed. “Try not to fall, Trisha.”
And then they pushed off into the warm Maldivian night.
The bicycles shot forward almost simultaneously. Trisha laughed as the wind rushed through her hair, the pathway stretching ahead of them beneath the warm glow of the resort lights.
Krish glanced towards her. She was already ahead.
“Come on!” she called over her shoulder. “You said you were confident!”
“I am!”
“Doesn’t look like it!”
He pedalled harder. Trisha laughed again, speeding up. For the first few seconds, neither of them cared about winning. They were simply two people racing like kids in the middle of the night, laughing like they had forgotten how old they were.
Then Krish overtook her, and Trisha’s mouth fell open.
“Who is slow now?” he grinned.
“Don’t celebrate yet!” She immediately increased her speed.
He laughed and pushed harder. The lights of their cottage appeared ahead. Krish saw them first and pedalled with everything he had. A few seconds later, his bicycle crossed the invisible finish line outside their cottage.
He jumped off, breathing hard, and turned towards Trisha, who arrived moments later. She stopped, looked at him and then at the cottage door.
Krish folded his arms. “I won.” His grin turned victorious.
The moment he took a step towards her, Trisha suddenly smiled and abandoned her bicycle, leaving Krish confused.
“What are you doing?” he asked, but Trisha was already running straight towards the cottage.
Krish stared after her in disbelief. “Trisha!”
She reached the door first, grabbed the handle and turned around with the most innocent expression she could manage.
“The bet was to reach the cottage first.”
Krish’s jaw dropped. “But I never said it was to reach inside the cottage.”
She opened the door. “You should have been more specific then, Krish. You lose.”
“F*ck no! You cheated!”
As she disappeared inside, laughing, Krish ran after his wife to even the score. Because apparently, even after all these years, he should have known better than to think winning against Trisha would ever be that simple.
Ayaan and Meher
