"Noooooooooooooooo!!!!!", a shrill echoes through the café, "My coat! No. You TWAT! Come back here. It was my white coat ceremony coat from last year. HOW DARE YOU RUIN IT!"

When Aariz comes back to his senses, recovering from the trauma of falling face-first on the floor, he finds his muffin squished. But then his eyes trail to his hand. His right hand is burning and heavy.

After a complete 30 seconds of screaming when Selena finally calms down she realizes her hand is still heavy. She follows her left shoulder down to the wrist.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!", both scream in unison.
"GET HIM AWAY FROM ME."
"YOU GET AWAY FROM ME. FIND THE KEYS!"
"THE KEYS? HE FUCKING THREW THEM IN THE BIN WHERE SHE PUCKED. GO GET THEM YOURSELF."

Aariz gets off the floor and moves to the bin. But since Selena is still struggling to get up as he walks across the floor she mops the place sliding across the tiles.

"YOU PIECE OF SHIT IT HURTS!", she winces giving in to his dragging because it feels like her wrist will snap drop dead on the floor with the place over-pouring with pools of blood, "IF YOU DAMAGE MY NERVE AND I GET WRIST INJURY I AM GONNA MAKE SURE YOU AIN'T HAVING BABIES."

The barista fed up with all the commotion, walks up to her and helps her get up, "Thank you, gurl.", Selena is short of breath with her throat scratchy, "I need tissues."

The barista stares at her with folded arms, "get out of this place. NOW."

Selena's left hand is steady, outstretched as Aariz opens the lid of the dustbin to stare at the pool of offensive smelling gastric acids mixed with green bile. His heart sinks as he sees the small key sink into it slowly and steadily.

Selena walks up to him. Her restraint hand almost flies on her nose but recoiled back in pain, "God! Never in a million years am I putting my hand down there."

"And never in a million years I am willing to die like this.", he pulls up his restraint hand.

"Sir, I am asking you very gently to leave, otherwise serious action will be taken.", the barista walks up to them.

"It's all YOUR fault.", Aariz points his finger in Selena's face ignoring the barista standing. Shocked by the accusation Selena gasps and snaps her fingers in his face.

"And how so?", Selena's fingers working effortlessly peeling the muffin out of the black baking paper.

"Had you picked up your parents' calls! We could have been at the ex-"

"I didn't want to go there.", she rolls her eyes and stomps her feet, "I had made it quite clear."

"And had you informed your mother at the right time?", the question silences her, "That's what I thought.", he folds his arms satisfied with winning the argument. It is her fault. She finally sees it.

The barista has rolled her shoulder-length hair into a bun. Her pulled-back hair makes her seem even angrier and her cute winged brown eyeliner doesn't help in lightening the mood. She is dead serious.

"Do something. Get the key out!", he turns to the barista. His eyes plead to free him from the torturous shackles binding him to his enemy. The frown on the barista's face makes him lose hope.

"Leave. Please.", she motions to a brawny young waiter who walks up to them. Aariz gulps seeing the man and raises his hands.

"Man we just want to find-"

"With all due respect. We also have people who study here. And we want them to have a peaceful productive time. You will surely find a good locksmith.", he places his strong hand on Aariz's shoulder.

Selena stares at him sinking her teeth in the remainder of the muffin, "Damn! Establishing dominance. You can't fight him. Come on Mr. Doctor let's go.", she slaps Aariz on his arm.

Aariz's jaw tightens as she says that. He curls his hand into a fist. She stares at his fist and yanks the handcuffs, "You DO have a death wish. Huh?"

He gives her a side look and exhales heavily, "Also like-", Selena finally finishes eating, "I need a tissue."

"Let's go.", he gives the waiter one last look before he walks out of the café. Selena is dragged out with her wrist burning.

"Hey, jackass. I need tissues."

"I don't have any tissue. Get in the car.", he walks up to the driver's seat dragging Selena behind him.

"Why are you following me? JUST GET IN THE-", Selena shoves the handcuffs in his face which shuts him up.

"Also we need to go to the library to get my things."

"Lead the way.", he motions for her to move ahead.

Selena's footsteps pick up the pace as she dashes into the building. A swift unconscious brush of his knuckles against her forearm heightens her senses. She pulls her arm away from his wrist. Her eyes scan around just in case people notice too. But they are busy working with their head buried in their work. As she approaches her table, the guy who always sits beside her acknowledges her presence with a glance in her direction. His eyes catch hold of handcuffs. He fakes a cough and gets back to work.

When Selena tries to remove her backpack to get her laptop into it a sudden realization strikes her. She can't remove her backpack off her shoulders. She picks up her laptop and removes the strap from her right shoulder. Aariz stands there busy typing something on his phone. She cannot reach her backpack zip. The confusion on her face is masked by the black mask she is wearing. For a good five minutes, she stands there trying to comprehend how to open the zipper without starting another gruesome fight with Mr. Arrogant. She gives up and crashes into the chair.

"What are you doing?", she hisses.

Getting ignored she pulls her phone out to scroll on her poetry Instagram account. Her followers haven't been increasing. Frown finds her way onto her face for it has been a few days and yet no one has liked her recent post.

Aariz snaps a picture of the handcuff sending his dad the picture who sends him the locksmith's number. The instant tap on the locksmith's number makes a small screen pop up. He chooses to message him to ask about the handcuffs keys. The locksmith is online and the blue ticks appear. The message pings. The location of some club. He is in that area but could not have chosen any cafeteria for this work.

When Aariz finally gets his head out of his mobile his eyes fall on her Instagram profile. He stares at her masked face. Her eyebrows knitted. The blue glare of the mobile against the blue cut glasses. Her fingers scroll a mile only pausing to read some aesthetic prose and poetry.

"lemme help you guys.", the guy's voice makes Selena stand up.

"Omgaaad thank you so much. It means so much to me." she hands him her laptop.
Aariz snatches it out of his hand, "we can manage please don't bother yourself with your work."

"You clearly don't want to help her. You are wasting her time.", he whispers, placing a hand on her notebook. The words slash his ego into minute pieces that can't be glued back together.

Aariz places a hand over his hand.

"If you guys are done wasting my time can you please HELP me in here?", she hisses.

Aariz slips the bag off her shoulder and moves forward to place it on the table. He neatly places the laptop in its place with the handouts in front of it. The zip silently moves to close the bag. Picking the bag from the grab handle, he allows her to slip her hands into the straps.

"Let's go.", he hands her the pens.

She looks behind at the guy mouthing thank you by removing her mask. He gives his imaginary hat a dip and nods with a smile daring to pull Selena's grounds from beneath her. He digs through the pocket and walks up to her to hand her a bunch of tissue pointing to the coat. She instantly places her mask back on her face to prevent him from discovering her blushing under her mask.

"If you both are done flirting!", Aariz yanks the handcuff making her snatch the tissues out of the guy's hand. Her body topples as she turns around. The untied shoelace makes her trip over her feet, crashing into Aariz.

She squeezes her eyes shut feeling the warmth of embarrassment flushing through her. Her hands grip Aariz's arms to steady herself. When she flashes her eyes open she finds his hands digging into her bicep steadying her. She jumps away acknowledging her face an inch away from his chest.

His lips brush against her hijab as he leans closer to her ear, "Easy Miss. Doctor. Didn't know you can fall for me that easily."

"Please. No one is falling for you," she looks away suffocating in his freshness of pine and spiciness of cardmons. He feels like cup of warm milky cardmon tea in the balcony enveloping in the freshness of mountain pine whispering.

---

Me at expo shamelessly staring at imported snacks.