At 5 ft 7 inches, Rhea was a dark-haired girl who never really considered herself pretty enough and ended up focusing all her attention on her work instead. On the other hand, the boys noticed the way she moved, her svelte body and did consider her quite pretty. And she was smarter than the average girls, so while the guys did some extra thinking, trying to figure out how to impress her, Rhea misinterpreted the lack of prospects as a sign that they just weren’t interested in her, causing her to stay off the dating scene for a long time. All that changed when she met John. He was good-looking, smart and a smooth talker- and that had her floored instantly. The real surprise however, was when John suggested they pair up for their annual project. “We’ll make a great team,” he had said, causing Rhea’s heart to skip a beat.
Don’t read too much into that sentence, Rhea reminded herself as she answered the door. The first thing she noticed about John was his strong, masculine smell. Wow, how am I to concentrate like this, she wondered as they hugged and John made himself at home.
“Quite a place you have here,” he said, settling down on her armchair. “Oh, and well stocked too,” he said as he helped himself to Rhea’s drink.
“Help yourself,” Rhea said, quite unnecessarily, as John was already pouring himself a second. He fixed another drink for Rhea and they both sat, drinking in silence for a bit.
This was the first time since she was staying alone that Rhea had male company over for the night. Not like that meant anything, He’s here for work, she reminded herself and she pushed a pile of books towards him.
“We’ve got to finish marking both these sets tonight, else we won’t have any proposal to submit tomorrow,” she said, trying her best to ignore John’s gaze lingering on her bare legs.
“I propose we first teach you to relax,” John said, sinking further into the chair. It was clear he had no intention to get started on work so soon.
“Shut up! We can relax once we’ve gotten some work done,” she scolded, laughing at John’s scowling expression. “At least can we try getting started,” she suggested.
“Alright, go ahead and tell me what has to be done,” John sighed. “But don’t try cramping it all together, we’ll just mess it up,” he said while he turned up the radio.
“What- why are you switching on the radio! How are we gonna concentrate!”
“Well, I can’t think straight without some music in the background, so you gotta live with it,” John replied. He tuned into a station which was playing the classics, and then pulled up a chair next to Rhea, sharing notes on what they’d dug out from the library so far.
Working with John was more difficult than she had expected, Rhea realized as she caught herself staring at John, lost halfway through John’s explanation of a particular problem. “Did you even hear what I said?” she heard him ask, with a peculiar look on his face. “I think I lost you somewhere halfway, didn’t I?” he laughed.
“Not really,” she tried to pull herself together. In reality, he had far from lost her. She was mentally undressing him, pulling him close to her, kissing him.
“Are you alright?” he asked her, a look of concern crossing his face.
“Yeah, sorry. Just a bit tired,” she replied, flustered.
“Tell me about it. All this permutations and combinations can be so mindboggling,” he replied. “How about taking a break for sometime,” he said, handing her a drink.