Chapter Twenty-Three #2
God, love was such a lie. And life? It was a colossal letdown. This time two years ago, Naina thought she’d be married by now, that she would make partner well before turning thirty. What a disappointment she was to her own younger self.
Heavy knocks rammed on her stall door, making her jump. “Occupied!” she exclaimed, wiping her semi-damp cheeks with the back of her hand.
“It’s me,” came Tejas’s voice, laced with anxiety. “Are you okay?”
Why did those three words said by someone who cared always bring on the waterworks? Naina broke into sobs. “No,” she blurted out.
Tejas let out a loud sigh. “Open the door.”
Head hung, she unlatched the door and walked past Tejas to the mirror over the sink.
Her eyes were red-rimmed, her so-called waterproof mascara clumping on her lashes, and her nose was redder than Santhosh’s wife’s lehenga.
The thought of him married, successful, happy, everything she wasn’t, made her double over in sobs again.
“Hey, hey, hey.” Tejas nudged her away from the sink and pulled her into a hug, holding tight like he was scared she’d run away if he let go.
Naina nestled into his embrace, burying her face into his neck.
A year and a half had gone by since he’d held her, but his woodsy scent and sturdy, reliable arms were familiar as ever.
As she cried, she dimly heard someone else’s off-tune voice in the distance.
“Wait.” She straightened, her eyes widening.
“What happened to your song? You were singing when I…”
He smiled at her sheepishly. “I saw you run away from the bar looking miserable, so I followed you.”
“I—” Naina gasped. “Mid-song? Tejas! Our colleagues are here!”
“So?” His hand curled around her cheek protectively.
“We’re in the women’s restroom, Naina, where anyone could walk in on us and make their assumptions about what we’re doing.
You think I give a shit about that when there are far more pressing matters on hand, like what that guy at the bar did to hurt you? ”
Naina closed her eyes and sank into his hold, letting the tears fall.
How was this man real? She’d had this thought countless times in Goa too—when he’d gotten her breakfast in bed, the time he set up a mini-concert in their room, or the way he had been as attentive when she trauma-dumped as when he’d worshipped her body each night—but the thought was overwhelmingly real now more than ever, as the heat of his skin warmed her down to the tips of her toes.
“My ex got married,” she blurted out. “And all our mutual friends from law school who no longer talk to me were at the wedding. I saw one of them at the bar and he told me about it.”
Tejas’s face fell. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “They all picked his side over yours, then?”
“Yes. Did—did you have any mutual friends with your ex?” she asked softly. “Rahul, right?”
“Uh, yeah.” He tugged on his collar. “But I don’t talk to them anymore. It’s easier this way. Plus,” he said, smiling, “I’ve made new connections here.”
“Besides Anil, I don’t really have friends anymore. But maybe that’s for the best,” she admitted, sniffling.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because!” She laughed sarcastically. “If you let people in, they get a free pass to walk right out.”
“Hmm.” He cocked his head at her. “But they also get a free pass to stay.”
Naina opened her mouth to argue, then closed it when his words sank in. He might have had a point, though it most definitely didn’t apply to her. “Well, yeah,” she said. “They stay in an ideal world. Unfortunately, that’s not how reality works.”
“It does,” he insisted, his other hand playing with a lock of hair on her shoulder, sending goosebumps along her neck. “Look, your ex was an asswipe”—he grinned when she laughed—“and you deserve someone who fights for you as hard as you fight for your clients.”
Seriously, how is he real? Naina put her hand on his cheek, grazing the scruff of his stubble with her knuckles.
Tejas let out a shaky breath. “Naina, I…”
“Where did you come from, Prince Charming?” she whispered, leaning into him as applause burst from somewhere outside the door.
Tejas tilted his head closer to hers, a smile widening on his face. “Maybe this time, you’ll let me tell you all about it, Naina Stark.”
Their lips had nearly met when the karaoke emcee’s voice rang out from the speaker in the corner of the bathroom. “That was Jennifer, ladies and gentlemen! Next up, we have a regular in the house—Naina! Naina, where are you?”
She gasped, springing away from Tejas’s arms in alarm. What was she doing, or rather, what had she been about to do? No. She couldn’t kiss him; she couldn’t risk falling into him again.
“I—I gotta go,” she said, hoping her shaky legs would move. “They’re waiting for me.”
“Naina…” he started with pained eyes.
“I’m really sorry,” she whispered, backing out of the bathroom. As the neon lights of the bar came into focus, Naina forced a fake smile and walked onto the stage, where the spotlight was ready and waiting to shine over her.