The One She Was Warned About. Shoma Narayanan
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early. We’ve not actually...’ Her voice trailed off as he began to smile. She must be sounding like an utter idiot to him. He’d already made it pretty clear that he didn’t have a very high opinion of Siddhant, and her dithering was probably amusing him no end. Rapidly she moved the battle into enemy territory. ‘What about you?’ she asked. ‘Are you in love with...well, whoever people might think you’re in love with?’
‘No, I’m not,’ he said, his lips twitching.
A valet brought his black SUV around and Nikhil helped her in before heading around to the driver’s side. The powerful engine purred to life as he turned the key in the ignition, but to her surprise he didn’t start driving right away. Instead he was looking at her, his expression unfathomable.
‘How keen are you on this spice-buying thing?’
‘It’s one of the must-dos if you’re in Kerala, isn’t it? Why? Is there a problem?’
‘Well, the proper spice gardens are up in the hills,’ he said. ‘It’s just that we had a good time yesterday—or at least I did—and I thought it would be good to hang out for a while without the rest of your group.’
Shweta took a few seconds to digest this. On the one hand there was something incredibly flattering about Nikhil wanting to spend more time with her. On the other the thought of slipping away for a clandestine rendezvous was a little unsettling. She hadn’t got over her crush on Nikhil. If anything it was worse today—her stomach was going quivery just from her looking at him. Telling her stomach firmly to behave itself, she frowned at Nikhil.
‘So there isn’t a spice garden here at all?’
‘There is.’ Nikhil’s smile was self-deprecatory. ‘We can go there if you really want. Or we can go directly to the backwaters.’
‘But we’ll get there a lot earlier than the others,’ Shweta pointed out. ‘They haven’t even started getting into the buses, and you drive like a maniac—you’ll take half the time they will.’
‘We’ll take one of the small houseboats out,’ he said. ‘Just the two of us. It’ll be more peaceful than joining a hundred accountants.’
‘You really don’t like accountants, do you?’
‘I like some.’
His smile deepened as he looked right into her eyes, and Shweta said hurriedly, ‘OK, we’ll take the boat,’ before she could start blushing again.
Only later did she realise that he hadn’t asked her if she wanted to come with him—he’d just assumed she would.
Once they reached the pier Shweta was glad Nikhil had made the choice for her. The small boat he was pointing out was a hundred times more charming than the double-decker monstrosities that were lined up for the rest of the group. And the backwaters were lovely—a network of canals opening into a huge, still expanse of water flanked by rows and rows of coconut trees. Little houseboats were moored by the banks, and there were water birds all around, gracefully swooping through the air to land on the water.
‘Time slows down here,’ Shweta said wonderingly as their boat was cast off and negotiated through one of the narrow channels into a wider stretch. ‘It seems so far away from Mumbai.’
‘It is pretty far from Mumbai.’ There was a smile twitching at Nikhil’s lips. ‘Almost two thousand kilometres. But I know what you mean.’
‘And people actually live in these boats?’
‘These ones are mainly for the use of tourists,’ he said. ‘Take a look at the inside, if you want.’
The inside wasn’t really all that impressive—it was just a small room with cane furniture, and in spite of the slow speed they had to be careful not to rock the boat by moving around it too much. And the bed in the centre was all too suggestive.
Suddenly very conscious that she was alone with Nikhil, Shweta said, ‘It was nicer outside, wasn’t it?’
‘This isn’t bad either,’ Nikhil said. He was sprawled lazily on a cane chair, with a beer in one hand. ‘Stop hopping around like a jittery kitten and sit down. I don’t bite.’
‘I should have brought my work phone,’ Shweta said. ‘There’s an e-mail that’s supposed to come in this morning from a client and I totally forgot.’ She looked fretfully at her little yellow clutch purse. ‘It wouldn’t fit properly into this.’ But the purse had perfectly matched her outfit, and she’d decided to leave her phone behind.
‘You work very hard, don’t you?’
It didn’t sound as if he meant it as a compliment, and Shweta immediately went on the defensive. ‘I don’t work any harder than my colleagues do.’
‘Nothing wrong with working hard,’ he said. ‘It’s just that you don’t seem to take any time out to have fun.’
He stretched out the word a little, and it was quite evident what kind of fun he had in mind. Despite herself, Shweta felt her cheeks growing warm.
‘Don’t make assumptions,’ she snapped. ‘I have enough fun, thank you very much. I needed to reply to this e-mail as soon as it comes in—that’s why I’m worried.’
Nikhil got up and came to stand behind her. ‘Do you want to go back?’ he asked. ‘We can if it’s really urgent.’
For a second Shweta almost said yes. Not because the e-mail was all that urgent, but because Nikhil’s proximity was throwing her nicely ordered world into turmoil. Then the ridiculousness of it all struck her and she shook her head.
‘I’ll phone him,’ she said. ‘It’s just that this particular client is a bit picky—he calls up my boss for the smallest thing.’
As it turned out, though, the client was on a camping trip in Alibagh and had completely forgotten to send the e-mail before he left. He even had the grace to apologise for the delay.
‘So that’s OK, then,’ she said after she rang off. ‘I hate having work stuff hanging over me like that.’
‘Stop thinking about work now,’ Nikhil said, putting his hands on her shoulders.
Shweta went completely still as he started massaging her neck and shoulders gently. She could feel the tension seep out, but it was replaced by a set of entirely different sensations. She was acutely conscious of the strength in his lean hands. The temptation to turn into his arms was intense, and she felt positively bereft when he removed his hands after a few minutes.
‘Why were you asking me about Siddhant?’
There was a little pause, then Nikhil said, ‘I have a theory about the two of you. Look, I’m sorry—it’s none of my business really.’
Of course as soon as he said that she had to know more.
‘A theory about us?’ she asked, trying to sound casual and unconcerned. Somehow, she had a feeling she wasn’t fooling Nikhil one bit.
‘You don’t give a damn for him,’ Nikhil said bluntly. ‘But for some reason you’ve led him on to think that you’re interested.’
Shweta flushed. Nikhil was only saying something Priya had been telling her for months, and there was no earthly reason she should feel the need to justify herself. She still found herself explaining, though.
‘We’ve been dating for a while,’ she said. ‘I was planning to say yes if he asked me to marry him. It’s only for the last month or so that I’ve not been so sure.’
‘Why not?’ he asked, his voice quiet.
Shweta felt that a lot depended on her answer. ‘He’s a little...’ She’d been about to say judgemental, but it felt disloyal to be talking about Siddhant with Nikhil. ‘I don’t know what it is, really, but I don’t think we’d suit.’
‘You wouldn’t.’