Chapter One #2
Goa had been…she gulped. Cathartic. Anil always said the best way to get over someone was to get under someone else.
Crass, but he had a point. Rooming with Tejas at the youth hostel had been pure chance—he’d actually called it fate before they shared their first kiss—and it was the opportunity she’d needed to stop wanting to be Mrs. Santhosh Naidu someday.
But she didn’t need catharsis now, and she probably wasn’t capable of romantic love anymore.
She needed to be on her A game. Her eyes went to the corner office next to Iqbal’s.
Ramesh Kumble, the other managing partner and founder of the firm, was taking early retirement six months from now.
Naina had heard through the office grapevine that Iqbal and Ramesh would promote one of the junior associates and mentor them on the partner track before Ramesh left.
And if everything went according to plan—and Naina would ensure it did—she would be the one landing the mentorship and eventually joining the three other partners at the firm.
She had been at the top of her law school class, she’d spent five years dominating at Akhtar, Kumble & Co.
, and she wanted this more than anything else in the world.
She had it in the bag, as long as she didn’t let any distractions get in the way. Distractions like…
A throat cleared. Speak of the devil. Naina didn’t have to look up to know it was Tejas. Despite a year and a half going by, she clearly still had his voice memorized. “Hi, do you need something?” she said, trying to keep her voice level.
“Can we talk?” Tejas asked, and she frowned at him. “Please?” he added, a softness to his words.
“Fine.” She slammed her hands on her desk, then dusted off her skirt and followed him to the watercooler a few feet away from the cubicles without looking back. Anil was probably spying on them. That was what best friends did, right?
Once they were at the watercooler, Naina folded her arms across her chest and stared Tejas down. “Are you stalking me?”
“What?” Tejas looked like he was at a loss for words. He raked a hand through his messy curly hair—which was shorter than she remembered—and shrugged. “I didn’t know you worked here. I didn’t even know you were a lawyer. Wrong answers only, remember?”
Naina shifted her gaze to his shoes. Shiny, dark mahogany leather, glinting with polish.
So unlike the slippers and sneakers he wore during the two weeks they spent together.
“Yeah,” she said, swallowing, “I remember.” That had been their deal that summer.
Save for first names, they’d shared almost no other personal information. Everything else had been a lie.
Except for the feelings she’d forced herself to push down.
“Hey, look at me.”
At that, she raised an eyebrow.
“This doesn’t have to be a bad thing, us meeting again.” Tejas gestured to the air between them, smiling with what looked like fondness. “Maybe this is—”
“Do not say fate,” Naina rushed to say. Oh shit, now the memory of their first kiss was running through her mind.
Their bodies pressed together at the loud, chaotic rave, the air heavy with anticipation, until he’d touched his mouth to hers, one hand fisting in her hair and the other cupping her jaw—
Tejas’s smile quirked, and his eyes fell to her lips as though he too was recollecting the memory. Then he dared to laugh. “Destiny,” he finished, shoving his hands into his pockets. He tilted his head the slightest bit and went on. “Join me for a beer after work? I bet you know a good place.”
Ignoring the strong sense of déjà vu, Naina shut her eyes, letting herself breathe fully like Appa did during his morning yoga sessions, then promptly opened them.
“No thanks,” she said, turning away. “I have to get back to work. Welcome to the office, Tejas. I’ll email you with an update on our caseload. ”
“Naina, don’t go,” he murmured, and she felt the soft grip of his fingers on her arm, tugging her back.
She ignored the tightening of her core and instead glared at him. “Why not?” she snapped. “I thought you were all for leaving.”
Tejas swallowed and looked away, his face paling. If Naina tried hard enough, she could almost smell the salty tang of the ocean air, hear the sound of violins, and taste the sweetness of Tejas’s champagne-stained lips from that final night. A perfect moment, until it wasn’t anymore.
Finally, he said, “I…I thought that was the right thing to do.”
“You thought wrong,” she replied, sighing.
With that, she left him there by the watercooler and raced back to the safety of her desk.
She set a trembling hand on her closed laptop, then wiped a line of dust from the framed photograph of her father.
Appa smiled his hundred-watt grin at her, and she ran her fingers over his face.
She wished she could run straight home and tell him about this drama—she knew he’d have words of wisdom to impart—but she doubted her dad would want to know anything about her summer fling. Anil would have to do, for now.
Lips pursed, Naina turned in her chair. “He asked me out,” she whispered.
Anil kept typing away on his laptop, but his shoulders straightened. “What did you say?” he mumbled from the corner of his mouth.
“That I had to get back to work.”
He side-eyed her. “You never say that to a hot guy.”
“No, Anil, you never say that to a hot guy. I say whatever I want.”
Anil chose not to respond.
Naina huffed and returned to the report she was working on. Tejas passed by again, probably searching for Iqbal or tech support, but she didn’t dare look away from her laptop.
How could this be happening? Tejas was here. Not in a fever haze, not in a daydream, not in her confusing fantasies—but here, in the office that had become her respite from every conflicting emotion she’d felt in Goa.
A beer with the best sex she’d ever had might sound appealing to some, but Naina’s life wasn’t about what she wanted anymore—her life was about what she needed. And that was to become partner at Akhtar, Kumble & Co. one day.
Nothing more, nothing less.