Chapter 10
IRA
It was the day we were going on tour with my colleagues.
Aryan had casually offered me a spot to join him and his wife for the trip.
Normally, I would've refused because spending two days with Aryan and his overenthusiastic social circle sounded like voluntary torture.
But I had two days off, and the idea of being painfully lonely in my empty quarter was somehow worse.
So, I said yes. The group was a strange mix: me, Aryan, his wife Avni, Prashant, Saurav, Kavya, Rhea, and Karan.
I knew most of them already. Aryan, Prashant, Saurav, and Karan were my colleagues, officers I had worked with closely.
As for the others, let's just say I wasn't thrilled.
Avni and her annoying best friend Kavya were glued together like matching handbags.
They were loud, glossy, and impossible to ignore.
Then there was Rhea, Aryan's sweet little sister who, for reasons only known to her, hated my guts.
She looked like a cupcake and behaved like a mean girl in disguise.
I picked out a blue strappy dress for the trip, pairing it with my favorite heels.
Just because I spent most of my days in stiff uniforms didn't mean I didn't care about fashion.
I kept buying new dresses every week and waited for the right time to wear them, to feel like myself again, even if only for a few hours.
Flinging my bag over my shoulder, I stepped out onto the road where they were going to pick me up. The heels clicked confidently against the pavement until one caught on a rock. I stumbled forward, heart in my throat but before I could fall, an arm caught me, and pulled me back to my place.
I gasped, my body pressed against Prashant's rock-solid chest.
"Watch out, Warrior," he grinned, steadying me. Then, without missing a beat, he picked up my bag from the ground. "Otherwise you'll end up breaking your pretty little nose."
I shoved him lightly, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at him. "Why do you always search for excuses to touch me?"
He smiled sinisterly, two dimples appeared on either side of his cheeks and his hazel eyes were mysterious. "Because apparently, asking nicely is too boring."
I sighed in relief as a big car rolled toward us.
"Look at her," Prashant boomed theatrically, tossing my bag into the trunk. "Always graceful, but I'm just the unlucky person carrying her fancy bag."
I didn't blink. "You offered to."
He grinned wider. "I was scared you'd stare at me until I gave in if I didn't."
I walked past him, smooth and unbothered. "Back seat and be quiet because I am allergic to nosy people."
"Oh no," he gasped, placing a hand over his chest. "Already sent away? And I thought we were becoming friends."
"I don't become friends with loud people.
Obviously," I said, sliding into the back seat.
God, Prashant and his drama. Deep down, I knew that the smile he wore wasn't genuine, it was just another one of his masks, something he put on to make others believe he was okay but he was not.
And yet, for a fleeting moment, I chose to indulge in it.
I let myself believe in that facade, just to feel like we were back in those good old days again, when everything felt real and effortless between us.
"That's not what you said when I saved you from that lizard in the office break room," Prashant shot back, climbing in beside me.
"That was about saving myself. For me," I said flatly, turning my head toward the window.
Saurav laughed from the front seat. "How do you two even work together?"
"She ignores me," Prashant replied with mock pride. "I talk about her life like a TV show."
"And I pretend he's not there," I said, without turning away from the view outside.
Aryan glanced back at us, exhaling dramatically. "Two days of this and yes great."
They had no idea. I scoffed at the thought.
What they didn't know and what I sometimes forgot was that Prashant wasn't just that charming, goofy officer with the perfect timing and perfect smile.
That was the version everyone knew. The one that cracked jokes in the break room, and flirted harmlessly with anything that breathed.
But beneath it there was another side. A version he never showed unless he was alone with me.
I felt it. The quiet moments, after missions, when the world was asleep and his mask slipped just a little.
He would look at nothing in particular, his smile gone, his voice hollow, and had things no one else had the clearance to hear.
Not military secrets but personal ones. The wounds that hadn't healed, the shadows that clung to him no matter how brightly he laughed.
He was a storm in disguise, and I had learned to recognize the shift in air before it hit.
As he turned his attention to Avni, laughing about something in that easy, and careless tone of his, I clenched my jaw.
He was good at pretending. He easily became the guy everyone liked, the guy who didn't feel too much, or think too hard, or lie awake at night questioning the choices he had made in the uniform.
I slipped in my earbuds, pulled up Squid Game on my phone, and leaned against the door, determined to let the chaos around me fade into background noise.
Because the truth was, when it came to Prashant, I didn't know whether I was the one who saw him clearly or the one being pulled into the storm without even realizing it.
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We were sitting somewhere in the garden, enjoying Avni's handmade food.
She really did cook delicious aloo paratha and dal makhani.
I usually ate whatever I liked I wasn't the diet-conscious type.
Luckily, I had a cooperative body and a fast metabolism.
With the amount of calories I consumed, I should've looked like a baby elephant, but somehow, I didn't.
"Are you not hungry?" I asked Karan, who was sitting off in a corner, wearing his usual stone-hard expression. That man was the most tight-lipped and intense person I'd ever met. He thought less and did more. I didn't know much about him, except that he was the best medical officer we had.
"I'm not hungry," he said matter-of-factly.
"Are you even human?" I poked a finger at one of his ridiculously large biceps. God, this man wasn't just a doctor but he was one of the hottest doctors I'd ever seen. His biceps were the size of my thighs, and his chest looked like a damn fortress.
"What are you doing, Lieutenant?" he hissed, grabbing my wrist, his grip firm and surprisingly fast. "You planning to poke more things on my body, or just this?"
I glanced at Prashant and caught him watching us. "Only if you let me..." I said loud enough for him to hear. "Are you single?"
"Yes," Karan replied. "But I'm not looking for a date. I only do one-night stands."
"I don't do one-night stands..." I said, I could feel Prashant's eyes on us, who was still lingering nearby. "But you might be an exception." I winked at him.
"I like my fucks raw and rough," Karan said with a lopsided grin.
"That's the only thing I like in a man," I replied with a laugh.
"Done making him jealous?" Karan asked, glancing past me. "He's gone."
I looked over my shoulder and shrugged.
"Never thought you two...?" he started.
"Mind your own business, Officer," I cut him off and got to my feet, walking away without looking back.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Rhea hop into the spot I'd vacated and immediately start chatting with Karan, who already looked bored.
I scanned the garden and spotted Prashant with Avni and Kavya, laughing at something I couldn't hear.
Aryan and Saurav were talking nearby, so I made my way toward them instead.
______
I was watching a series on Netflix when Aryan took a seat beside me and started chatting. He was really sweet at least he cared about me, and I still trusted him.
"You okay?" Aryan asked.
I tore my eyes away from my phone and looked at him. "Yeah, why?"
"You seem a little... off. Disinterested."
"Not really my kind of thing," I shrugged, then turned off my phone and pulled out my earbuds.
"Then why did you come?" he asked.
"Because of you," I said with a sad smile, then looked away.
I knew Prashant was sitting in the back seat, and I was sure he could hear our conversation.
I wanted him to hear it. "To be honest, I'm not even sure why I came.
Maybe I just needed to clear my head or maybe I wanted to see how you're treating Avni. "
"Hmm..." Aryan gave me a tight smile and said nothing.
"I'm sleepy..." I yawned, covering my mouth. "Can I rest my head on your shoulder for a bit if that's okay?"
"Yeah, sure." Aryan smiled gently and shifted slightly so I could lean against him.
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